Something is stirring deep within the Arc Deforester-an anomaly marked as A Prime Specimen. This mission sends you chasing traces of twisted tech and corrupted nature, revealing hints about what the Raiders are truly facing beneath the metallic canopy.
‘A Prime Specimen’ quest walkthrough in Arc Raiders
Head to the marked zone in the wilderness to track the rogue deforester. Scan for tracks and clues scattered around the area, then follow the trail through dense undergrowth. Engage the target in combat, dodging its heavy melee swings while targeting weak joints on limbs and chassis. Collect the core fragment after defeating it to complete the objective and claim your rewards.
“A Prime Specimen” has you searching for an Arc Deforester, which is essentially a huge, dilapidated machine that isn’t hostile to humans, and instead used for cutting down trees. As Shani says when you go topside on Blue Gate though, that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt you. Here’s what you need to do to complete the quest.
Where to find an Arc Deforester on Blue Gate
There are three Arc Deforesters on Blue Gate and chances are, you’ve seen them before. They’re huge, overturned machines that are almost cylindrical, which you can enter. However, before you set out to Blue Gate, make sure you bring at least two Arc Powercells with you. These are required for the objective, but in case you run into the aforementioned bug, we’d recommend bringing four.
The three Arc Deforester can be found in these locations:
- Between Broken Earth and Ridgeline
- In the middle of the Adorned Wreckage
- In Barren Clearing, west of Village and Raider’s Refuge
In the Deforester, you’ll see an open panel sparking with electricity on the left-hand side. Spend one Arc Powercell to interact with it.
This will commence flames on your right that fire intermittently. Run past them when there’s a gap, then use the next Arc Powercell on the panel behind them. This will cause the flames to rotate in a circle, so again, run back out of the gap. Make sure you time both of these correctly though, because fire in Arc Raiders does some serious damage.
Now you’ll want to climb up to the bridge above and walk to the far end of the Deforester, again, dodging the flames. You should be able to interact with the panel at the back, then search it, to complete the quest. However, this is where it bugged out for us, as the prompt to search didn’t appear.
If that happens to you, you can either try again with more Arc Powercells on the same Deforester, head to one of the other Deforesters on the map, or in our case, get lucky as another friendly player came along to complete the quest. Once they’d finished the final step, we could then search the Deforester.
Where are the exact locations of all three Arc Deforesters on Blue Gate map
There are three Arc Deforesters on Blue Gate, each tied to a named area on the map.
All three Deforester locations
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Adorned Wreckage
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One Deforester sits roughly in the middle of the Adorned Wreckage landmark, in the western half of Blue Gate.
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On your map, look for the Adorned Wreckage label; the husk is the large horizontal cylinder icon near the center of that zone.
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Barren Clearing (west of Village/Raider’s Refuge)
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A second Deforester is in Barren Clearing, which is just west of Village and Raider’s Refuge on the western side of the map.
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From Raider’s Refuge, move west into the open clearing; the cylinder is visible on the map and in-world once you crest the small rise.
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Between Broken Earth and Ridgeline (east side)
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The third Deforester is on the eastern side of Blue Gate, between Broken Earth and Ridgeline.
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On the map, it sits slightly west of the Ridgeline label, in the open ground that connects those two areas.
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In all three spots, you’re looking for a huge, fallen cylindrical ARC husk that shows a sparking circuit panel just inside the opening when it’s available for the quest.
How to complete A Prime Specimen quest at Arc Deforesters
To complete A Prime Specimen at any Arc Deforester, you just need 2 ARC Powercells and to successfully “solve” one Deforester interior.
1. Before you enter Blue Gate
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Make sure you have at least 2 ARC Powercells in your inventory; these drop from small ARC enemies like Hornets, Wasps, Ticks, Pops, and Fireballs, or you may already have some from earlier runs.
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Optional but safer: bring 3-4 Powercells in case of bugs or misclicks.
2. Find and enter an Arc Deforester
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Go to any of the three Deforesters on Blue Gate (Adorned Wreckage center, Barren Clearing west of Village/Raider’s Refuge, or between Broken Earth and Ridgeline).
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Climb into the big cylindrical husk from the open end until you’re inside the main chamber.
3. Use the two Powercells (fire puzzle)
Inside the Deforester, do this sequence:
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First panel (starts the flames)
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On the left wall just inside, interact with the exposed/sparking panel and spend 1 ARC Powercell.
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This turns on flame jets along the tunnel to your right that pulse on and off.
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Reach the back panel
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Watch the flame timing, then sprint/slide through when they pause and reach the end of the interior.
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Interact with the second panel at the back and spend your second Powercell; this changes the flame pattern and progresses the quest objective.
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4. Climb to the upper platform and loot
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Exit toward the front or side of the husk and climb up onto the higher beam/bridge that leads back over the Deforester’s interior.
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Move along this upper path, again timing the remaining flames so you don’t get burned.
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At the far end, look at the rear wall/floor panel prompt and interact to “search” or loot the Deforester; this completes the “interact with/loot Arc Deforester” step of A Prime Specimen.
Once you’ve done this and still have the 2 ARC Powercells objective satisfied, the quest is effectively done and you can extract.
5. Extract and turn in
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Head to an extraction point on Blue Gate and leave the raid.
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Back in Speranza, talk to Shani to turn in A Prime Specimen; you’ll receive rewards including the Patrol Car Key and Door Blocker.
6. If the Deforester is bugged
There is a known issue where you can’t interact with the panel or final loot spot even when standing in the right place.
Try these workarounds:
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Go to another Deforester location in the same run and attempt the puzzle there.
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If none of them work, leave and start a fresh Blue Gate run; many players report it working after a reset.
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In co-op, sometimes one party member can trigger the interactions and everyone gets credit.
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A more drastic workaround some players used: remove all ARC Cells from inventory and stash, enter Blue Gate, loot 4 fresh ARC Cells there, then do the Deforester and extract; this can “reset” the quest tracking.
If you tell me which Deforester you prefer (Adorned Wreckage, Barren Clearing, or Ridgeline side), I can give you a very short, route-focused checklist for that exact spot.
