ARC Raiders Fallen Emperor Dungeon Guide: Key, Rooms and Loot
ARC Raiders Fallen Emperor dungeon guide: craft the Gateway Conduit, clear the random rooms, farm Amplification Modules and find the Emperor Modulator.
In this guide 10 sections
The ARC Raiders Fallen Emperor dungeon is a giant downed ARC walker on Pendola Pass that you open with a crafted key and climb through room by room. It arrived with the Frozen Trail 2.0 update (ARC Raiders Wiki), and the ARC Raiders Wiki calls it one of the only areas holding parts for crafting Amplified Weapons, naming the ARC Frigate and the Harvester Payload as the others. This guide covers the key, the recipe, a loadout, every known room type, the rewards and the tips that save the most runs, checked against Embark's patch notes up to Live Update 2.3.0.
Quick summary
- Location: Pendola Pass, a map that unlocks after 25 rounds (ARC Raiders Wiki). The Emperor is the giant downed ARC you can see from most of the map.
- Key: the Legendary Emperor Gateway Conduit, crafted at Workbench 1 from one ARC Conductive, one ARC Insulated and one ARC Plated Coupler once you know its Blueprint (ARC Raiders Wiki).
- Layout: the entrance and elevator come first and the loot hangar comes last; the trial rooms between them shuffle from run to run (ARC Raiders Wiki; Arc Raiders Hub).
- Gear: a Snap Hook or Grappling Hook, a Hullcracker, healing, stamina items and free backpack space.
- Rewards: Amplification Modules plus the Emperor Modulator, one of the materials for Gunsmith Level 4 (ARC Raiders Wiki).
ARC Raiders Fallen Emperor explained
Think of the Emperor as a vertical obstacle course more than a boss fight. Most rooms ask you to shoot a set of nodes, get past a hazard, or find a way up to the next door. There are ARC inside, Hydras in particular, but the real pressure is the raid clock. The dungeon is part of the Pendola Pass map itself, so you can run it in any Pendola Pass raid once you hold a key; the key materials are the part tied to a map condition.
Here is the whole loop in order:
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| Get access | Collect three Couplers and the Blueprint, then craft the Conduit |
| Open the door | Use the Conduit on the socket at the Emperor's base to open the round hatch |
| Entrance and elevator | Pass the electrified boxes and the Hydra, then shoot the nodes to start the lift |
| Trial rooms | Clear the randomized puzzle and traversal rooms; this is most of the run |
| Loot hangar | Break six nodes, deal with the ARC that arrive, open the wall containers |
| Rewards | Amplification Modules, Emperor Modulators and Epic ARC parts |
| Leave | Exit the hull and extract from Pendola Pass by Ballistic Gondola |
This table is a planning aid; room order and the enemies in each room vary. The Gunsmith reason matters most for many players: the ARC Raiders Wiki lists Gunsmith Level 4 as 3 Radial Press, 3 Magnetic Accelerator and 1 Emperor Modulator, with the Outpost unlocked, and that level unlocks Weapon Amplification. The wiki's Amplification page adds that the Research Station also has to reach Level 4.
How to get the Emperor Gateway Conduit
You can't walk into the Emperor. The round hatch at its base needs an Emperor Gateway Conduit, a Legendary key that the ARC Raiders Wiki lists as crafted at Workbench 1. Arc Raiders Hub adds that you can't craft it mid-raid or pool Couplers with other Raiders, and that a single Conduit opens the hatch.
| Ingredient | Needed |
|---|---|
| ARC Conductive Coupler | 1 |
| ARC Insulated Coupler | 1 |
| ARC Plated Coupler | 1 |
| Emperor Gateway Conduit Blueprint | Learned once |
All three Couplers are Epic materials. The wiki lists the Harvester Payload as the shared source for all three, and also lists a Rocketeer as a source of the Conductive Coupler and a Matriarch as a source of the Insulated one. The Conductive Coupler is also required for the quest "Sizing Things Up," so keep that in mind before you spend your only one.
How to farm the Couplers during Redirection
Redirection is a map condition exclusive to Pendola Pass, and it is where the Couplers come from most reliably (ARC Raiders Wiki). Destructoid's walkthrough and the wiki describe the same loop:
- Queue Pendola Pass while Redirection is active. It isn't always running, so check the map condition before you deploy.
- Find a Damaged Emperor Relay. Active ones show on the map and send up a red beam (Destructoid). Arc Raiders Hub reports that relays start activating with about 25 minutes left on the raid clock.
- Take the Emperor Beacon. It's an Epic Quick Use item scavenged from the relay.
- Place the Beacon on open ground and back away. Debris falls right after activation and can hit hard (ARC Raiders Wiki). A flat roof or a clearing gives the payload room to land.
- Breach the Harvester Payload. Each drop holds one, and its ARC containers can give the three Couplers and the Blueprint. The smaller containers that land with it carry ordinary ARC loot and never Couplers.
Use the Beacon in the raid where you found it. If you extract with it, it turns into a Ruined Emperor Beacon that can't call anything down, which the wiki says is meant to stop players from stockpiling them. A payload also draws attention, since every squad on the map can see debris coming down.
Where the Blueprint comes from
The Blueprint is a random drop. The ARC Raiders Wiki lists the Harvester Payload and ARC Surveyors as its sources. Embark's Live Update 2.3.0 notes (October 27) reduced the drop chance of the Emperor Key Blueprint from Redirection pods and added a small chance of ARC parts and high-tier ARC loot to make up for it, so expect to open several payloads before it shows up. The wiki also lists the finished Conduit as the final reward of the Frozen Trail Premium Reward Pass.
ARC Raiders best Fallen Emperor loadout
The Emperor holds far fewer ARC than a Frigate, but it isn't a place for a free kit. Hydras guard many rooms, Pops and Fireballs chase you through the maze, and the hangar ends with a Vaporizer and a group of small flyers (Arc Raiders Hub; Gamer Guides). Climbing and jumping fill the rest of the run, so mobility matters more than firepower.
| Slot | Pick | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Anti-ARC weapon | Hullcracker | Embark's Frozen Trail notes say explosive weapons like it deal over 50% more damage to armor plates |
| Second weapon | Anvil, Renegade or Bettina | You shoot many yellow nodes, and Arc Raiders Hub reports the Anvil kills Pops in one shot; the wiki lists the Renegade as a Medium Ammo lever-action rifle and the Bettina as a Heavy Ammo assault rifle |
| Traversal | Snap Hook or Grappling Hook | The single most useful item for the climbing rooms |
| Augment | Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor), or another three-pocket augment | The wiki lists three Safe Pockets on that Looting Mk. 3; they keep a Modulator or Module if the run goes wrong |
| Support | Bandages, shield recharges, stims, a defibrillator | Stamina drains in the gas room, and long drops can down you |
This table is a starting point built from community reports, not a fixed meta. On the hooks: the Grappling Hook is an Uncommon gadget with a 20 m range, crafted at Utility Station 1 from 2 Rope, 1 Cable Stripper and 1 Mechanical Components (ARC Raiders Wiki). The Frozen Trail notes cut the Snap Hook to 18 m and doubled its durability use to 4% per use, and Store Update 2.1.0 made it easier to vault onto ledges with the Grappling Hook. Arc Raiders Hub reports that a Hydra takes about eight Hullcracker shots, so bring enough heavy ammo for two or three of them.
ARC Raiders Fallen Emperor dungeon walkthrough
Only the opening and closing sections stay fixed; the middle rooms change order between runs. The wiki describes "randomly alternating puzzle rooms," and Arc Raiders Hub counts six possible trial layouts. Learn the rule for each room rather than one route.
Read the door lights as you go. A white light over a sealed door marks the way onward, while a yellow light marks a door that drops you back to the base elevator or outside the Emperor (Gamer Guides; Arc Raiders Hub).
| Room | How to clear it |
|---|---|
| Entrance tunnel | Shoot the electrified boxes so they discharge, walk past while they are inert, then kill the Hydra at the end |
| Engine elevator | Break the yellow nodes on the central piston and the walls, then ride it up |
| Maze | Follow the white-lit doorway and hold your starting direction while Pops and Fireballs chase you |
| Platform climb | Shoot each electrified container before you land on it, or hook past the whole section |
| Crusher room (gas and compactor) | Gas drains stamina while the walls close in; reach the dip in the middle where gaps open |
| Upper Machinery Room | Wait for the walls to part, then hook across and up to the far door |
| Container hangar | Ride a container along a track over the walls under Hydra fire; falling is usually fatal |
| Chasm drop | Drop down the shaft openings one level at a time, discharging boxes on the way |
| Laser room | Use containers that block the rotating beams, or sprint a timed route |
| Moving container shaft | Ride the container, hop to the ledges, take the ladder down |
| Loot hangar | Break six nodes, handle the ARC wave, open the containers in the walls |
Room behavior is from Arc Raiders Hub and Gamer Guides, two community walkthroughs written on patches 2.0 and 2.1, so compare them with what you see after later patches.
Fallen Emperor entrance and elevator
Your first tunnel teaches the dungeon's main trick. Electrified boxes shock you on contact, but a shot makes them discharge and stay harmless for a short time, so shoot and walk through quickly. A Hydra covers the far end of the hall (Gamer Guides).
Next is the engine room. Yellow canisters sit on top of the central cylinder and around the walls, and shooting all of them stops the engine so the moving cylinder becomes a lift through several floors (Gamer Guides). The stops along the way hold breachable containers. Embark's 2.3.0 notes moved lower-tier loot to the containers near the entrance and higher-tier loot deeper inside, so these first boxes matter less than they did in October.
Maze and platform rooms
Arc Raiders Hub describes the maze as a room where you keep heading the way you faced on entry, with Pops and Fireballs giving chase, and Gamer Guides adds that the exit is the doorway with the white light. The platform climb is a set of ladders and stacked containers, some of them electrified. Shoot each one before you jump to it, because a shock mid-jump usually means a fall. The second stage needs a strafe jump or a hook, and a hook lets you skip most of that climb.
Fallen Emperor crusher room and Upper Machinery Room
This is the room most first runs fail, and players call it by several names: the crusher room, the compactor or the gas room. Gas drains your stamina, and the walls begin to close once the first player steps onto the floor (Arc Raiders Hub). The fix that guide gives is to drop into the dip in the middle of the floor and wait, because the walls leave gaps there as they meet. A stim covers a short sprint if you need one. Embark has tuned this room twice: Store Update 2.2.0 fixed the coverage of the compaction killboxes, and Live Update 2.3.0 tweaked the killboxes at the top of the compactor to remove some unfair deaths.
The room above it, often called the Upper Machinery Room, uses those same moving walls as its floor. Wait for them to part, hook onto the top, run across, drop, then hook up to the far door (Arc Raiders Hub). Hydras guard many rooms in the Emperor. The ARC Raiders Wiki notes that the interior has spots to duck behind while a Hydra fires, that its rear section is unarmored, and that a Hydra inside the Emperor never respawns once destroyed. Store Update 2.2.0 also fixed moving platforms inside the Emperor falling out of sync, which used to break timing here.
Fallen Emperor laser rooms
Rotating beams sweep this room, and Arc Raiders Hub calls them lethal. Some containers in the room block the beams, so move from one to the next as the pattern passes, or learn the sprint route through a gap. Your target is the far end of the room. Gamer Guides adds that a pitch-black room below the laser corridor wakes more Hydras.
If you carry a Barricade Kit, it's worth testing as a screen here. The ARC Raiders Wiki describes it as deployable cover that blocks incoming damage until it breaks, with 500 health, so it buys you a few seconds rather than a permanent wall.
You also don't have to finish every run. A door with a yellow light drops you back to the base elevator or outside the Emperor (Arc Raiders Hub), so a squad short on time or health can walk out with what it has looted so far instead of pushing on to the hangar.
Fallen Emperor final loot room
This hangar is always last. When you drop in, red lights come on, and Arc Raiders Hub tells you to enter through the huge opening and not the yellow-light door. The floor is far below: ride the giant piece that swings toward you, then jump down beside the collapsed container on the other side (Arc Raiders Hub). Shoot the six nodes, three on each side. As they break, the roof opens and small ARC arrive with a Vaporizer, and Gamer Guides reports waves of Wasps, Hornets and Fireflies every few nodes. A shot from under the collapsed container keeps you out of the Vaporizer's sight lines (Arc Raiders Hub). Don't read the open roof as a free way out: breaking the nodes is what brings the flyers in, so a squad that runs for the first exit it sees meets them in the open.
When the last node goes down, canisters slide out of the walls. Wait for the Vaporizer to leave before you open them. Orange and red canisters beep when opened and explode a few seconds later, so open them with full shields and step back when the beeping speeds up (Gamer Guides).
Gamer Guides lists two ways out: a side door with a ladder down the hull, which is the gentler option, or the big circular opening, which drops you to the front of the Emperor and costs health on landing.
Example: a duo reaches the hangar with eight minutes left. One player breaks the nodes on the left side while the other covers the roof with the Hullcracker. They wait out the Vaporizer under the collapsed container, open the wall canisters, move the Modulator into a Safe Pocket, and take the ladder exit with time left to call a Gondola.
ARC Raiders Fallen Emperor rewards
Everything the Emperor drops feeds Weapon Amplification directly. Per the ARC Raiders Wiki, amplifying merges a module into the weapon frame, can't be undone, and raises the weapon's maximum durability.
- Emperor Modulator: Legendary, worth 7,000 Coins, and one is needed for Gunsmith Level 4 (ARC Raiders Wiki). It can't be recycled.
- Amplification Modules: the wiki describes Mk. I as the module that unlocks Amplification for common weapons, sourced from the Fallen Emperor and the ARC Frigate. Gamer Guides lists Mk. I to Mk. V, one for each weapon rarity up to Legendary.
- Epic ARC parts: Fluted Rotor Core, Pneumatic Actuator, Pressure Regulator and Propellant Valve Assembly (Gamer Guides).
- ARC Data Modules: reported in the end room; they break down into research points (Gamer Guides).
- ARC parts and materials: from containers and wall panels throughout the dungeon.
Arc Raiders Hub lists the round wall panels as well as the hangar canisters as sources of Modules and Modulators, so a run pays off before the last room. Destructoid's guide says there's no fixed spot for the Modulator and suggests searching every container. You need only one Modulator for the upgrade, so if one drops early, move it to a Safe Pocket straight away.
ARC Raiders Fallen Emperor tips
Once you've seen each room once, the Emperor is mostly about time and footing. The puzzles are simple; runs usually end on the clock or after a fall.
- Take a hook: either hook gadget shortens almost every climbing room.
- Start early: Gamer Guides reports that experienced players reach the hangar in about 10 minutes and need about 5 more to loot it, and first runs take far longer. By that estimate, starting the dungeon with less than about 20 minutes on the clock leaves little room for the hangar and the trip out, and Arc Raiders Hub notes a broadcast warning that "the safe window is closing" with 10 minutes left. Some spawns on the east side also need a few minutes just to reach the door.
- Push to the hangar when time is short: since 2.3.0 the best containers sit deeper inside, so skipping early boxes is often the better trade.
- Carry stamina: the gas room drains it, and the jumping rooms punish an empty bar.
- Skip fights you don't need: most ARC inside can be passed, and Arc Raiders Hub reports Hydras there drop only light ammo.
- Expect company: Gamer Guides reports the opened door stays open for the lobby, so other squads can follow you in.
- Pack Safe Pockets: an augment with three Safe Pocket slots, such as Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor), protects a Modulator and a Module or two if you go down.
- Watch the extraction: Arc Raiders Hub names the Reckless Transceiver, right by the Emperor, as the closest Gondola extraction and the most exposed one. Some squads stay under cover until only a couple of minutes remain before they call a Gondola, which gives campers less time to set up but leaves no margin if the call goes wrong. Our ARC Raiders beginner extraction guide covers planning an exit before you loot.
Early on, some players reached the hangar without clearing the trials. Embark's Store Update 2.1.0 notes fixed "unintended interactions between throwables and certain doors on the Emperor," and 2.3.0 expanded the exploit prevention used in locked rooms and fixed a missing ceiling collision in the Fallen Emperor. Plan on clearing the full dungeon.
The ARC Raiders hub lists the other ARC Raiders guides and service categories.
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FAQ
How to enter the Fallen Emperor in ARC Raiders? Craft an Emperor Gateway Conduit at Workbench 1 from one ARC Conductive, one ARC Insulated and one ARC Plated Coupler once you know its Blueprint (ARC Raiders Wiki). Take it into a Pendola Pass raid and use it on the socket at the Emperor's base to open the round hatch.
Where to get the Emperor Gateway Conduit Blueprint? Two sources appear on the ARC Raiders Wiki: the Harvester Payload called in during Redirection, and ARC Surveyors. Live Update 2.3.0 lowered its drop chance from Redirection pods, so it can take several payloads.
Is the Fallen Emperor dungeon randomized in ARC Raiders? Partly. The entrance, elevator and loot hangar stay fixed, while the trial rooms between them change order from run to run (ARC Raiders Wiki; Arc Raiders Hub). Learn each room's rule instead of one route.
Can you solo the Fallen Emperor dungeon in ARC Raiders? It can be done alone: Arc Raiders Hub lists a solo run by the creator Diggy among the sources for its walkthrough. Going down with no teammate ends the run, so bring a hook, extra healing, stamina items and a Hullcracker (Arc Raiders Hub).
Where to find the Emperor Modulator in ARC Raiders? It drops from containers inside the Fallen Emperor, with the most chances in the final hangar's wall canisters once all six nodes are down. Destructoid reports no fixed spawn, so search every container on the way.
What loot drops in the Fallen Emperor dungeon in ARC Raiders? Emperor Modulators, Amplification Modules, Epic ARC parts, ARC Data Modules and other ARC materials (ARC Raiders Wiki; Gamer Guides). Since 2.3.0 the higher-tier containers sit deeper in the dungeon.
