ARC Raiders: Damage ARC Using a Single Deadline

Season 5 brought a new weekly trial, and Embark named it with the subtlety of a brick: Damage ARC using a single Deadline. The ARC Raiders Deadline trial looks trivial until you actually read the fine print, which apparently nobody does, given how many players fail it in the first ten minutes.

Here's the trap. The trial does not want you throwing five Deadlines at a Shredder and calling it a day. It wants exactly one Deadline mine, and it scores 1 point per 1 damage that single mine deals. Stack more mines, waste more Deadlines, and the extras contribute nothing. Congratulations, you've been farming for free.

Know Your Weapon Before You Waste It

The Deadline is an Epic quick-use item, stack size 1, weighing 1 kg, sitting at Apollo vendor level 18,000 coins. It plants, counts down, and detonates for real damage in a real radius. Memorize the numbers below before you go plant it on something that outruns you.

Six seconds is either an eternity or nothing at all, depending on whether your target has legs. Which brings us to targeting, the part of this guide where your choices actually matter.

For maximum ARC Raiders trial score, ignore anything fast. The math is simple: a stationary ARC eats the full 1000 damage, a mobile one wanders off mid-timer and eats maybe half. Large ground ARCs with poor mobility are the entire point.

• Bastion. slow, armored, has a Bastion weak point on each leg joint. Shoot a joint, the leg detonates, the Bastion staggers for roughly 8 seconds. Plant your Deadline during that window and walk away like an adult.

• Bombardier. the lazy option, and lazy is good. Less demanding on placement, one Deadline usually ends it outright. Ideal Bombardier Deadline strategy for people who don't enjoy dying.

• Queen / Matriarch. hitting the Queen and Matriarch core counts toward the trial too, if you enjoy extra risk for the same one point per damage. Nobody is stopping you from suffering.

The entire trial hinges on one detail most players skip past: it must be a SINGLE Deadline mine. Bring two, use two, and only one counts. Read the objective text twice before you queue in and feel clever.

If you'd rather not gamble on a stagger window, there's a slower method: shoot every leg joint sequentially until the Bastion has no legs left to stand on. It stops moving entirely. Then plant the Deadline at your leisure, take a screenshot, feel superior.

Loadout, Because You'll Ask Anyway

Bring a Photoelectric Cloak if you're nervous around Bombardiers — it buys you a clean setup window while it charges its pulse attack. For the shooting-not-planting half of the job, Anvil, Renegade, or Jupiter are dependable enough that you won't need a eulogy. None of this matters if you forget the single-mine rule, so don't forget it.

This trial slots into the broader rhythm of ARC Raiders weekly trials, which refresh constantly and reward the same handful of large ARCs every rotation. If you've been doing ARC Raiders Season 5 content at all, you already know Bastions and Bombardiers are the reliable meal ticket, Deadline trial or not.

Quick Reference

None of this requires genius, just patience and the willingness to read an objective description slower than usual. That's the whole guide. Go plant your one mine and stop overthinking a trial designed for people in a hurry.