Barter Up is one of the seven side missions scattered across Providence Island, the map added with the FL4K and the Last Resort story pack. It looks like a fetch quest at first, but it turns into a four-stop trading chain that drags you from a lava field to a pawn shop, a radio station, and a biology lab before dumping you back where you started for an ambush. The payoff is a legendary Tediore sniper rifle.
Quick answer: Accept Barter Up from the Truly Outrageous Scientist in Pyroclast Field, clear the Tediore mining camp and shoot open the geode for the Shitty Rock, then trade it in order for the Limited Edition ECHO-3, a caged critter, and the Experimental Digi-Core — bring that back to the gemologist, survive the Tediore ambush, and the mission pays out the Hurled Floor-Model Paperclip sniper rifle.
Barter Up mission details and quest giver location
The mission is rated hard, so it is worth turning up geared rather than treating it as a quick detour. The quest giver stands outside a wooden shack in the Pyroclast Field sub-region, and the marker only appears once the area is unfogged and the DLC story has progressed far enough.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Side mission (hard difficulty) |
| Map | Providence Island |
| Start location | Pyroclast Field |
| Quest giver | Truly Outrageous Scientist (the gemologist) |
| Regions visited | Pyroclast Field, The Upper Crust, Bagheera Range, Vinchoked Canopy |
| Reward | Hurled Floor-Model Paperclip (legendary Tediore sniper rifle) |
Clear the Tediore mining camp and break the geode
The first half of the mission is straight combat. The gemologist walks you through a canyon to a vantage point overlooking a Tediore mining camp on the far side of a lava field, and the geode he wants is sitting inside it.
The Barter Up trade chain in order
From here the mission becomes a delivery run across three sub-regions. The order is fixed — each trade unlocks the next waypoint, so there is nothing to collect ahead of time.
| Item you carry | Where to take it | What you get back |
|---|---|---|
| Shitty Rock | Electi Merchant, The Upper Crust (FL4K’s Sanctum) | Limited Edition ECHO-3 |
| Limited Edition ECHO-3 | Radio station console, Bagheera Range | Caged critter |
| Caged critter | Tediore Biologist, Vinchoked Canopy | Experimental Digi-Core |
Note: each handover is an interaction prompt on a specific object or NPC, not a vendor menu. If nothing happens, you are standing at the wrong spot — follow the waypoint the trade just updated rather than the last one you remember.
Survive the Tediore ambush and claim the Hurled Floor-Model Paperclip
Carrying the Digi-Core back to Pyroclast Field triggers the last fight. Tediore sends a Loss Prevention team to the shack, and the gemologist is the target, so do not wander off to loot mid-fight.
You will know it worked when the mission-complete prompt fires and the Hurled Floor-Model Paperclip drops into your reward slot. It is a legendary Tediore sniper rifle, shown at level 70 with a sell value of $981,884 when the mission is finished at that level.
If Barter Up is not showing on your map
Side missions on Providence Island are gated behind map discovery and story progress. If the marker is missing in Pyroclast Field, the two things worth checking are simple.
- You have not reached Providence Island yet — the map only exists once the FL4K and the Last Resort story pack is unlocked and loaded.
- The DLC’s main story is not far enough along. Pushing the story forward makes the remaining side mission markers appear.
The whole run takes well under half an hour if you know the route, and the bulk of that is the mining camp fight rather than the driving. Barter Up sits alongside the island’s other side missions — Old Friend, Fandomination, Pay to Play, The Relieving of the Guard, The Rusty Butler, and The Tainted Truth — but it is the one that ends with a legendary in your hands, which makes it an easy first pick on Providence Island.
