When ARC Raiders progress grinds to a halt, it's usually because you're missing Surveyor Vaults, not because you're "underleveled." You'll feel it the moment your upgrades stall and quests start asking for parts you just can't seem to pull. Before you start burning kits out of frustration, it helps to go in with a plan, the right mindset, and even basics like ARC Raiders Coins sorted so you're not scraping by after every bad run.

Tracking ARC Surveyors

The cleanest farm is still the ARC Surveyor. Big floating sphere, slow patrol, and that bright blue scan beam that gives it away from way too far out. On open zones like Blue Gate or Dam Battlegrounds, you don't even need perfect sightlines—just keep sweeping the skyline and you'll catch it. The catch is timing. If you mess around, it drifts off and you're left chasing empty space while other players rotate in. I usually open with something that hits hard and fast—grenades, high-impact bursts, whatever you're confident with—because the quicker you stagger it, the less messy the fight gets.

Looting Without Getting Robbed

This part trips people up. You blow the Surveyor, you check the "main" loot, and you assume you got unlucky. Then you extract and wonder why nothing's moving. Don't do that. The vault can sit in the armor chunks and scrap pieces that scatter around the kill site. Walk the debris field. Check each piece like you're looking for a dropped keycard. It feels slow, yeah, but it's better than running three perfect fights and coming out empty because you skipped the boring bit.

When Surveyors Won't Show Up

Some raids just won't give you a Surveyor spawn, or someone else nukes it before you get there. That's when I pivot to ARC Couriers—the smaller smoky black drones. They're not as dramatic, but they're more common, and they can still pay out. World events help a lot here, especially Electromagnetic Storms. If one kicks off, I head for busy spots like the Scrapyard on the Dam map and hunt movement and audio cues. It's riskier, but it's also steady, and you're not sitting around waiting for the "perfect" target to appear.

Keeping Your Vault After You Find It

The second a Surveyor Vault shows up in the loot window, move it into your Safe Pocket right away. Not after you finish looting, not after you "clear one more angle." Immediately. The game has a nasty sense of humor—three dead Surveyors with nothing, then one vault drop and you get tagged on the way out. Night raids can help too, since that blue scan beam is basically a lighthouse in the dark, and you can plan your approach from distance. If you're trying to keep your runs consistent, topping up supplies through a shop like RSVSR can also take the edge off those streaky nights, so you're not forced into sloppy fights just to afford the next attempt.