Damage ARC With One Trailblazer: 3-Star Trial Guide

ARC Raiders Trials guide nobody asked for but everyone needs, because apparently reading a wiki is too much to ask. The weekly card wants you to damage ARC enemies. You could spray an entire backpack of ammunition into a Bastion like a headless mule, or you could throw one grenade and walk away smug. This guide picks the second option, because dignity matters even in a raid.

What You're Actually Throwing

The item in question is the Trailblazer grenade, a Rare throwable that lays down a trail of flammable gas and detonates it a moment later in a chain reaction. It is not subtle. It is not meant to be. One well-placed throw against a large ARC's hull does more damage than most players manage with a full magazine and several apologies to their squad.

Crafting One, Since Buying Three a Day Insults Your Patience

If you'd rather not beg Apollo daily, craft it at the Explosives Station. You'll need a Firefly Burner, Synthesized Fuel, and two Crude Explosives. None of these require a personality, just time in the topside looting things that aren't nailed down.

1. Kill a Firefly, loot the Burner.
2. Grab Synthesized Fuel from Warehouses or Tech Hotspots.
3. Collect two Crude Explosives, or refine them if you're feeling industrious.
4. Combine at the Explosives Station. Congratulations, you made a small bomb.

The blueprint itself only drops during Night Raids at Stella Montis, The Blue Gate, or Spaceport. Getting the Trailblazer blueprint is a one-time inconvenience; after that you can churn out grenades until your inventory begs for mercy.

Why One Grenade Is Enough

Before the nerf, one Trailblazer could delete almost any large ARC outright. Post-patch, damage was reduced somewhere in the 60-70% range, and yet a single grenade placed against the right target still contributes enormous score toward a Damage ARC trial. The trick isn't quantity. It's aim, proximity, and not flinching.

Reality check: if you're standing far away hoping the gas trail magically reaches the target, it won't. Get close. The grenade needs contact with the hull, not a vague gesture in its direction.

Size determines your score, and some targets are cooperative in a way that borders on suspicious. A Trailblazer vs Bastion matchup is the gold standard: it's slow, it's huge, and it stands in predictable tunnels waiting to be punished. Blue Gate specifically funnels one directly into a corridor, which is either brilliant level design or a mistake the developers haven't noticed yet.

If you're feeling ambitious, a Trailblazer vs Matriarch attempt is possible but not efficient for this particular trial. She has an indestructible shield and a habit of calling for backup. Save that fight for people trying to prove a point on a forum.

The Fastest Route to Three Stars

• Load into Buried City or Blue Gate with 3-5 Trailblazers packed.
• Locate a Bastion. It is not hiding, it does not care about subtlety.
• Get close enough to touch it, then throw.
• Watch the chain reaction do the arithmetic you couldn't be bothered to do.
• Extract. Alive. This part is not optional.

That last step matters more than anything above it. Trial progress in ARC Raiders is only banked on a successful extraction. Die walking back to the Metro admiring your own genius, and every star you earned evaporates, which is the game's way of laughing at you specifically.

Common Ways to Fail Anyway

• Throwing from too far away and watching the gas trail fizzle uselessly.
• Standing inside your own blast radius, because gravity and fire don't negotiate.
• Engaging a Matriarch solo for a trial that only needed a Bastion.
• Dying two meters from extraction after surviving the entire raid.

None of these are exotic mistakes. They're the default outcome for anyone who treats a 3 stars ARC Raiders objective as an afterthought instead of a five-minute errand. Respect the grenade, respect the extraction, and the card fills itself.

Why Bother With Just One

Carrying a full stack and detonating all of it is the best grenade ARC Raiders strategy for people who don't trust their own aim. Carrying one and using it correctly is the strategy for people who'd rather not carry dead weight through an entire raid. Inventory space is currency. Spend it wisely, or don't complain when a Wolfpack corners you with no room left for meds.

Closing Thoughts, Such As They Are

This particular objective sits comfortably among the easier entries in your ARC Raiders weekly trials rotation, right up there with tasks that require you to simply exist near an ARC and press a button. Treat it as a warm-up before the trials that actually demand effort, and you'll clear this ARC Raiders three star trial before your coffee gets cold.