How to get surveyor vaults in Arc Raiders

You could have tens of hours in the game and not know what an Arc Raiders surveyor vault is, because the enemy you need to kill to get your hands on one is one of the rarest in the game. Surveyors are large metal balls that patrol various maps, scanning the environment… but they're not hostile. Not to begin with, anyway. When you shoot one, it'll charge at you, before fleeing to try and scan elsewhere in peace.

This means defeating a surveyor is less of a risk to yourself, and more of a frustrating cat-and-mouse chase where it'll constantly try and get away from you. Here's where you can find surveyors in Arc Raiders and how to get a surveyor vault, either to upgrade your workshop or complete the Trophy Display project.

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Where to find surveyors in Arc Raiders

In our experience, the most common place to find surveyors in Arc Raiders is on Buried City. We found — and killed — one by the Grandioso Apartments, north of the Abandoned Highway Camp. However, they can spawn on any map, and there's no guarantee there'll be one in your match, so there's a lot of luck involved.

If there is a surveyor in your game, you can find it very easily by looking for an enormous blue beam shooting into the sky. Surveyors emit this when they're scanning, so hightail it in that direction as soon as you see one, as the beam can be seen from anywhere on the map.

To increase your chances of finding one, consider running night raids, because the blue beam is much easier to spot against the sky.

They're often found in more remote areas of each map too: other players have reported finding them at the Adorned Wreckage on Blue Gate, Scrap Yard on Dam Battlegrounds, and Staff Parking on Spaceport. We don't recommend going to Stella Montis to find them, because you won't be able to spot the blue beam from afar.

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How to get surveyor vaults in Arc Raiders

To get surveyor vaults, you don't actually need to kill the surveyor, you just need to damage it enough that it drops some of its armor plating. Each of these parts can be looted, and has a chance of spawning a surveyor vault. Here are some tips for taking them down:

• Use a showstopper grenade to stop it in its tracks, followed by an explosive such as a trigger nade or heavy fuse grenade.
• Heavy ammo is much more effective at taking down its armor, so an anvil is the best weapon to use.
• If you don't mind using the resources, a hullcracker and/or wolfpack will do significant damage.
• Don't worry or panic when it charges at you, because it doesn't deal much damage at all.

The Trophy Display project requires five surveyor vaults, so chances are you may need to find multiple to get enough. You get the light gun parts blueprint for your troubles though, which isn't too shabby.

Looking for more resources in Arc Raiders? Check out our guides on how to get power rods, candle holders, and rusted gears.