Upgrading the Research Station to Level 4 can be a big hurdle in ARC Raiders’ mid-game progression. Without it, you cannot unlock Amplified weapon upgrades, locking your Bettinas and Hullcrackers out of their best performance tiers, and the bottleneck is almost always one hard-to-get gold drop: the Frigate Inductor.
Players think that you need to complete the Frigate event, crack the main power cores, and survive the vault puzzle to get one. You don’t. The Frigate Inductor drops from ordinary breachable loot containers on the ship’s exterior wings and service compartments. Knowing where to search and how to get aboard ARC Frigate before the entire lobby strips the hull bare makes all the difference.
What the Frigate Inductor Does (and Upgrade Costs)
Frigate Inductor is a Legendary crafting material introduced in the ARC Raiders Frozen Trail update and is required for Workbench progression. Even though you can sell a Frigate Inductor for 7,000 Coins or salvage it for 2 Advanced ARC Powercells and 2 ARC Circuitry, doing so is a big waste of time given its rare drop rate unless you already leveled up the Research Station.
To upgrade the Research Station from Level 3 to Level 4, you need:
- 1x Frigate Inductor
- 3x ARC Data Modules
- 3x Thermal Shakers
The Inductor has no guaranteed spawn and can be found in the global loot table of breachable container hatches mounted across the exterior hull, wing passages, and ventilation chambers of the ARC Frigate.
Because RNG plays its part, you might get two Frigate Inductors in back-to-back containers on a lucky run, or loot fifty containers in a dozen raids and return with empty stock. To increase the odds, you should search as many unbreached pods as possible and pry open topside every raid, for which you’ll have to reach the upper decks ahead of the competition.
Gear Choice: Heavy Kit vs. Rat Run
High-tier gear lets you contest the ship’s defensive installations and open sealed container zones that unarmed players probably won’t reach.
- Primary Weapon: Amplified Bettina IV with 4-8 stacks of Heavy Ammo to deal with Wasps, Hornets, and flying scouts.
- Secondary Weapon: Hullcracker IV with 2-3 stacks of Launcher Ammo to dispatch Hydras and melt turbine power cores.
- Mobility & Defense: Grappling Hook or Snaphook (the grapple gives unmatched recovery if you slip off the hull), Photoelectric Cloak, and 2-3 Deployable Barricade Kits.
- Meds: 1-2 stocks of Stims and cheap Shield Rechargers.
If you’re like me tired of losing expensive kits to third-party snipers or Hydra volleys, try this budget setup, as it worked really well for me:
- Loadout: Light Shield, 4-5 Adrenaline Shots, 1 Lure Grenade, and an Augment with at least one Safe Pocket slot.
- Strategy: Sprint to the wing containers, breach pods before kitted teams finish climbing, shove the Frigate Inductor into your Safe Pocket right after you find it, and either exfil or take the fast ride back to Speranza.
How to Board and Explore Frigate in ARC Raiders
Deploy into any map with the ARC Frigate map condition. Head toward the center of the map to establish line of sight on the skybox and watch the Frigate’s flight path. As it stabilizes, the ship periodically deploys elevator discs known as ARC Reclaimers to the ground. To reach the ARC machine flying in the sky, check out our Boarding the Frigate quest walkthrough.
Wing Ledge
Once on the Frigate, follow the curved access tube outward until you reach the open-air wing cutouts. Right along the transition lip between the tunnel and the exterior wing is the first breachable container. Check the flat wing surface just beyond this opening. Rat runners mostly loot through this hatch, so breach it immediately if it’s still sealed.
Instead of descending into the interior core where heavy ground ARC spawn, turn back toward the outer part of the wing where you’ll want to look for the exposed piping, horizontal structural struts, and clamp joints. By chain-vaulting along these conduits, you can climb up the side flanks of the Frigate without entering the ship’s interior. Use your Snaphook or Grappling Hook if the situation calls for it to survive a difficult mantle, and keep eyes peeled on your stamina meter to avoid plunging into the canyon below.
Wing Hydra
Reaching the wide upper deck will expose you to the Frigate’s automated defensive sentries, particularly the Hydras on the rooftop. Each Hydra guards a deck alcove with 2-4 containers to breach. If you have a Hullcracker, drop a deployable Barricade to block its missile barrage, lean out, and crack the turret in a few direct hits. If you are lightweight or under-geared, equip Photoelectric Cloak, sprint past the Hydra’s line of sight, and get into the low recesses along the deck trench where its angle of fire cannot reach you.
Fire Vents
Along the upper centerline of the hull, you’ll find the large lateral turbine vents that blast periodic bursts of flame and wind across the walkway. Inside and adjacent to the vent housings are 2 to 4 high-value breachable pods.
By default, the fire operates on a set timer. If you are lightly geared, wait for the flame to die down, sprint in to breach and loot one container, and roll back out before the next pulse cooks you. Greed in the fire vents will kill you faster than ARC drones. If you brought heavy weapons, you can permanently disable the hazard: breach the side turbine’s three power cores and blow up the exposed coils inside. Destroying all three will stop the flames on that side, giving you safe, unrestricted access to every pod in the room.
Ventilation Shafts
There are three parallel floor hatches near the midsection of the upper deck that lead down into a secondary ventilation shaft. Drop down into this maintenance duct to find another secluded pod. This enclosed hallway can become a natural graveyard for under-prepared raiders who got cornered by flying Wasps. Loot the player crates and bodies down here, as you can often get your hands on high-tier Frigate loot in their backpacks.
How to Extract Safely from ARC Frigate
After you have found one Frigate Inductor or more (by luck)—or after you have swept every container along the wings and roof—do not stick around to watch other squads contest the main cargo hold. Drop the Inductor into the Safe Pocket slot. Retrace your way along the exterior wing conduits back to the underbelly Reclaimer bays. Alternatively, you can grapple down through the floor openings to avoid moving back through the inner halls.
Disrupt an idle ARC Reclaimer to ride it down, or use the Hook to control a vertical drop off the tail fin onto the ground below. As you disembark, the Frigate’s underside automated turrets will likely draw fire. Activate Photoelectric Cloak to break target lock, sprint out of the open basin, and head to the nearest extraction point to get back to Sprenaza.
