Arc Raiders Trials: Damage Turbines 3-Star Guide

The ARC Turbine is the new flying machine introduced in the Riven Tides update. It is not a typical ARC enemy you casually shoot while looting. It is a flying fortress with dense armor that absorbs most damage while airborne: including Wolfpack grenades, which have retired from relevance here. Shooting it mid-air is a tribute to wasted ammo, nothing more.

The good news for your weekly Arc Raiders Trials damage turbines challenge: you only need to damage the Turbine, not necessarily destroy it. The bad news: it only becomes a viable target during a very brief ground phase, so you will be running this loop multiple times per raid whether you like it or not.

Trials Season 4 change: Major map conditions no longer award double points. Night Raid bonuses are gone. You earn what you earn, full stop. Adjust expectations accordingly.

Where & When the Turbine Spawns

Load into Riven Tides. That's the only map where the ARC Turbine spawns consistently as part of normal raids, no special condition required. Check near Hotel Panorama Azzuro: that area is its preferred drop zone. Two Turbines can occasionally spawn simultaneously near the Port Authority Building and Customs House, which is either a blessing or a disaster depending on your loadout.

The spawn is time-locked. Turbines enter from orbit: yes, literally: at the 13–16 minute remaining mark in a raid. You will hear a sonic boom and see something tearing through the atmosphere. That is your cue. If 15 minutes pass and the sky is empty, accept the session as a wash and extract with your loot intact.

Drop into Riven Tides, loot normally for the first 15 minutes, then position yourself near Hotel Panorama Azzuro before the spawn window. Arriving at the fight already depleted is a classic mistake.

The Turbine telegraphs its state through its lighting. This is not decoration. The Arc Raiders Turbine weak point is only exposed during the ground phase, and the lights tell you exactly when that window opens and closes.

Airborne: Armor Active

Do not fire. Mines scatter across a wide perimeter. Lightning strikes rain from above. It also launches a spike that splits into three projectiles, creating lightning arcs that penetrate cover and walls. Stay behind solid structure. Wait.

Landed: Weak Point Exposed

The Turbine sets down on three legs. Heavy armor retracts from the core. Three yellow spinning canisters become visible through the slits at its base. These are the only thing that matters. Dump every round you have into them. You have approximately 4–5 shots worth of time before it lifts off again. Make them land.

Lightning Barrage: Back Behind Cover

After taking off, the Turbine launches grenades that split into multiple lightning bolts on descent. The spread is erratic. Open ground is a death sentence. Find cover, survive, then repeat the cycle on the next landing.

Weapons That Actually Work

The fight demands high burst damage delivered in a very short window. Slow-firing weapons, reload-heavy setups, and anything that requires setup time are wrong answers. The best weapons for ARC Turbine are those that let you dump damage immediately on demand.

Pre-placing Deadline Mines near the Turbine's preferred landing spot is the most efficient free damage available. Combine with Hullcracker fire on the canisters and you can score 2000–3000 Trials points in a single landing cycle: provided you actually hit the target, which the game will not do for you.

3-Star Completion: The Numbers

The Arc Raiders Trials 3-star completion threshold is 4000 points on this challenge. Under Season 4 rules, there are no double point multipliers from map conditions. You earn points from raw damage dealt to the Turbine's weak point during each landing phase. Multiple landing cycles across multiple raids stack toward the total.

Squad play remains efficient. If you have three players all landing shots on the canisters simultaneously, the damage window produces significantly more points per landing cycle than solo runs. The challenge does not penalize shared targets: all participating Raiders earn score.

Point Accumulation Strategy

1. Survive to the spawn window. Dead Raiders earn nothing.
2. Position near Hotel Panorama Azzuro before the 15-minute mark.
3. Pre-plant Deadline Mines at the Turbine's likely landing zone.
4. On each ground phase, unload Hullcracker into the yellow canisters immediately: no hesitation.
5. Retreat to cover before the lightning barrage. Do not try to be clever about this.
6. Repeat across 2–3 landing cycles to accumulate meaningful points per raid.
7. Extract. Points only count if you extract alive.

How Everyone Fails This Challenge

• Shooting while airborne. The armor absorbs it. The mines detonate on you. This is a donation to the ARC, not damage.
• Arriving unprepared. The Turbine spawns when you're already depleted from 15 minutes of combat. Manage your ammo and health accordingly before the window opens.
• Standing in the open during lightning phase. The spread is wide and walls don't reliably stop it indoors, but solid external structure does. Move before the barrage begins.
• Not extracting to lock in points. Dying during the Turbine fight means losing your accumulated score for the session. Extract the moment you have meaningful points on the board.
• Expecting it to spawn every raid. In approximately 8 out of every 10 Riven Tides sessions tested, the Turbine does not appear. Budget multiple sessions to complete this challenge.