ARC Raiders Search First Wave Husks Trial Guide

The ARC Raiders Search First Wave Husks Trial guide you are reading covers exactly that: find the ancient, half-buried corpses of ARC units from the original invasion, interact with them, and score points. It sounds humiliatingly easy. It is humiliatingly easy. And yet, a shocking number of players still manage to fumble it, either by going to the wrong map, ignoring the best map modifier in the game, or shooting things instead of searching things. This guide exists to stop you from being one of those players.

First Wave Husks are not enemies you shoot down mid-raid. They are static, rusted wrecks from the earliest ARC landings, permanently lodged in the dirt and waiting for someone with functional legs to walk over and interact with them. They come in three sizes: Baron (massive), Rocketeer (medium), and Wasp (small). All three count the same for Trial scoring. None of them fight back. The bar could not be lower, and yet here we are.

Critical Rule Nobody Reads You do not need to be the one who breaches a husk. If another raider already cracked it open like a tin of sardines, you can walk up, search it, and claim full points. Entire strategies are built around letting other players do the violent part while you collect the reward. Work smarter, not harder.

Scoring: How Points Actually Work

The scoring model for this Trial is refreshingly simple, which is good because it means there are fewer ways to misunderstand it, and yet people still do.

A few rules that will save you a great deal of frustration if you read them now rather than learning them through rage-quitting later. All points come from a single deployment. This is not a cumulative tally across sessions. Die without extracting, and that entire run evaporates. The Trial only records successful extractions. Additionally, ARC Couriers and Probes do not count. If you have been mashing the interact button on those, now you know why the score counter stayed silent.

Do Not Ignore This Looting a husk beyond the initial search is entirely optional and actively wastes your time. Search it, collect the points, sprint to the next one. The loot inside is not the objective.

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To maximize score in the First Wave Husks ARC Raiders Trials, map selection is the single most important decision you will make before dropping in. Choose wrong and you will spend twenty minutes jogging across a barren landscape looking for husks that were never going to be there. Here is the honest breakdown.

The Dam Battleground Electromagnetic Storm ARC Raiders combination is the bread and butter of this Trial. Electromagnetic Storm is the best 2x modifier available on Dam Battleground. It doubles point values and increases husk spawn rates across the map, meaning more targets in less time. When you see this condition active in the lobby, you stop what you are doing, you equip a loadout, and you queue. That is the entire decision-making process.

If you are chasing leaderboard numbers rather than just the weekly 3-star reward, Spaceport during Hidden Bunker offers a 40-minute session timer and similarly boosted values. Players have reported pushing well past 14,000 points on Spaceport night raids by sticking to the outskirts where other raiders rarely bother going. The absence of competition for husks out there is almost insulting.

Stella Montis has one Wasp remnant. One. Save yourself the indignity and do not go there for this Trial.

The First Wave Husks locations Dam Battleground ARC Raiders layout is organized around three static Baron husks that appear in the same spots every single raid, supplemented by smaller Rocketeer and Wasp wrecks that populate the surrounding area. If you can memorize three anchor points, you have a functional route before you even load in.

• Old Battleground (West) — One guaranteed Baron husk in the ruins. Multiple smaller wrecks scattered in the immediate vicinity. This is your first stop. Always.
• South Swamp Outpost / Water Treatment — A cluster of Rocketeer and Wasp husks half-buried in swamp terrain and industrial debris between these two POIs. The mud hides some of them. Slow down.
• The Breach (North) — The third static Baron husk. A solid endpoint for a sweep before heading to extraction. Smaller husks populate the surrounding area if the spawn conditions were generous.
• Red Lakes / Electrical Tower — Frequently overlooked. Hills and low ground around Red Lakes regularly produce clusters of Wasp and Rocketeer husks. Add this to your route if you have time and stamina shots left.

Swamp Note The swamp and low-lying terrain near the South Swamp Outpost hides husks in reeds and debris with considerable effectiveness. Sprinting through without looking is how you miss three husks worth 2,400 combined points. Take two seconds to scan. You can afford two seconds.

Route optimization is what separates players who barely scrape the 3-star threshold from players who are actively embarrassing the people sharing their lobby. The best route for Search First Wave Husks ARC Raiders depends on your squad size and how much of the map you intend to cover before extracting.

1. Drop into Dam Battleground during Electromagnetic Storm. The modifier is not optional. Without it, you are working twice as hard for the same reward.
2. Head directly to Old Battleground. Search the Baron husk and every smaller wreck in the immediate area. Do not loot. Do not stop. Search and move.
3. Move south toward South Swamp Outpost to Water Treatment. Scan the swamp edges carefully. Husks blend into debris here with a commitment most players would find impressive.
4. Cut through Red Lakes if time and Adrenaline Shots permit. The clusters here are a meaningful bonus, not an afterthought.
5. Sweep north to The Breach for the third Baron husk. At this point, 4,000+ score is already secured on a storm modifier. Extract with time to spare.

The ARC Raiders duo trio map split First Wave Husks strategy is the most efficient way to inflate scores well beyond the 3-star threshold. The scoring system in ARC Raiders works in your favor here: all score contributions from every teammate are added to every team member's total. Which means husks you did not personally search still count for you if your teammate did. This is not a bug. This is the intended mechanic, and it is generous to the point of being slightly embarrassing.

1. All players spawn together. The moment you are loaded in, split immediately. Do not cluster together and search the same husks. That is a waste of legs.
2. Player A: sweep Old Battleground and the western side of the dam.
3. Player B: take the eastern route through Raider Outpost, Pale Apartments, Water Towers.
4. Player C (trio): cover the center of the dam during Electromagnetic Storm to catch bonus storm spawns that do not appear on standard conditions.
5. Call out pre-breached husks over voice. Every teammate can search an already-opened husk for full score. Do not skip them. Do not walk past them. This is free points with zero effort, and ignoring them is an act of self-sabotage.
6. Organized squads push past 50,000 total score on long raids with clean rotations. That is not a typo.

This section covers the ARC Raiders best loadout First Wave Husks Trial setup, which, to be clear, is not a combat loadout. You are not here to fight. You are here to interact with stationary objects. Plan your kit accordingly and resist the temptation to bring your most prized gear into a Trial where losing it to a lightning strike would be genuinely tragic.

On the topic of the ARC Raiders free loadout Dam Battleground approach: yes, this Trial is entirely viable on a free loadout. You do not need to stake anything meaningful to hit 3-star. Queue into Dam Battleground on Electromagnetic Storm with a free kit, load up on Adrenaline Shots if you can manage it, and follow the route above. The Trial does not care how expensive your rifle is. The husks certainly do not.

Adrenaline Shots Are Not Optional This Trial is a stamina management exercise disguised as a scavenger hunt. Stack Adrenaline Shots. Craft them at the Medical Lab if your workshop supports it, or buy them from Lance in Descent. Running out mid-route and watching your character walk between husk clusters is a uniquely miserable experience you can avoid with basic preparation.

One additional word on the ARC Raiders Swamp spawn Dam Battleground situation: if the game places you near the South Swamp Outpost on spawn, consider yourself lucky. You are already adjacent to one of the denser mid-map husk clusters. Begin your sweep immediately from there, push toward Water Treatment, and let the rest of the route unfold naturally. Players who spawn near the Swamp and still miss the 3-star threshold need to read this guide a second time.

Every Trial has its signature ways to fail. This one has several, and they are all preventable.

• Queuing without a map modifier. Running the Search First Wave Husks Trial on a standard, unmodified Dam Battleground when no bonus conditions are active takes roughly twice as long for the same outcome. Wait for Electromagnetic Storm unless you enjoy inefficiency as a lifestyle choice.
• Going to Stella Montis. There is one Wasp remnant on that entire map. If you loaded in specifically for this Trial, you have made a serious error in judgment.
• Dying before extracting. Trial score is only recorded on successful extraction. You can search 30 husks in one run and lose every single point to a careless death at extraction. Extract with time remaining. Do not get greedy.
• Skipping pre-breached husks. The single most common and most forgivable mistake. Other players opening a husk before you is not a loss. It is a gift. Walk up and search it. Full points. No effort required.
• Looting instead of searching. The loot inside First Wave Husks is secondary to your Trial objective. Search it, score the points, leave the contents. You can loot on your own time during a non-Trial run.
• Ignoring Adrenaline Shots. Covered above. Covered again here because it keeps happening.