Sheet Metal is a common crafting material in ARC Raiders that your Outpost consumes in large amounts, from the project that unlocks the base to the furniture you place inside it and the Research Station upgrades that let you install weapon amplifications. It arrived with the Frozen Trail update and weighs 0.1 each, so you can keep picking it up for an entire raid without slowing down. The catch is that it mostly lies out in the open rather than inside dedicated containers, which makes it easy to walk past.
Quick answer: Sheet Metal spawns mainly as loose loot on shelves, tables, seats and in cars. On Pendola Pass, sweep the Commissary Supermarket shelves first, then Old Town and Almatera Station; on Riven Tides, clear the Port Authority Building and Stacking Yard.
Where Sheet Metal spawns in ARC Raiders
Most Sheet Metal is loose loot, meaning it sits directly on a surface instead of inside a drawer or cabinet. Because it is a flat metallic object, it blends into the environment and is easy to miss, so scan shelves and seats rather than only opening containers. A smaller share comes from specific industrial containers.
| Source type | Spots that can hold Sheet Metal |
|---|---|
| Loose loot | Shelves, tables, desks, chairs and sofas, train seats and tables, cars, trolleys |
| Industrial containers | Crate top lids, research-facility lockers, shipping-container drawers, tool-trolley trays |
| Never holds it | Nature loot spots, research-facility machines |
Industrial and Residential points of interest hold the most, and Security zones can also turn up pieces as surface loot. When it rolls from the loot pool, Sheet Metal comes in stacks of 1 to 3, so a single container shelf can hand you several at once.
Every loot spot can roll roughly a hundred different items, so no single shelf is guaranteed to be Sheet Metal. Check the item name when you arrive rather than assuming a spot will contain it.
Best Pendola Pass spots for Sheet Metal
Pendola Pass has by far the densest clusters of possible Sheet Metal spawns, concentrated in a handful of buildings. The numbers below count how many spots in each area can roll the material, so the high-count buildings give you the most chances per raid.
Pendola Pass. Image: Embark Studios
| Area | Possible spots | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Commissary Supermarket | 960 | Shelf loot (828 spots), back-room lockers |
| Old Town | 525 | Shelves, tables, sofas, kitchen units |
| Almatera Station | 361 | Shelves, train tables and seats |
| Northern Tracks | 230 | Train tables and seats in parked carriages |
| Researcher Lodgings | 223 | Train seats, sofas, cars |
| Piazza della Rupe | 220 | Shelves and train interiors |
The Commissary Supermarket is the clear priority, holding the single largest concentration on the map thanks to its aisle shelving. Walk each aisle and scan the rows before you touch the lockers in the back rooms. Old Town is the second stop, where Sheet Metal sits on shelves, tables, sofas and kitchen surfaces throughout the houses south of the Fallen Emperor.
If you spawn near the railway instead, Almatera Station and Northern Tracks are convenient, with Sheet Metal spread across the tables and seats inside the parked train carriages. Old Town and the supermarket are also two of the top Planks locations, so a route through both covers both Outpost materials in one run.
Farming Sheet Metal in Riven Tides
Riven Tides is the other reliable run, built around dense clusters of shipping containers. The Port Authority Building is the first priority. Its Dockmaster’s Office packs the most loot per area in the region, with containers and equipment to search throughout.
From there, move to the Stacking Yard. The green cabinets in the field are a strong source, and the crane control rooms on the upper level hold plenty of surface loot. Many of the damaged shipping containers have shelving units mounted inside, and Sheet Metal spawns on those shelves singly or in stacks of three. Some rusted carts need a Breach and Search action with a melee tool before you can loot them.
Work the Railyard as well, searching open containers on the flatbed railcars. A single route through the Stacking Yard and Railyard, extracting at a nearby elevator such as the Customs Elevator, typically returns around 7 to 10 Sheet Metal in a few minutes, along with incidental components and furniture designs.
Buying Sheet Metal from Celeste
Celeste in Speranza sells Sheet Metal for 3 Assorted Seeds per piece. That rate makes buying expensive if you need large quantities, since your expansion projects will call for dozens of pieces, but it is handy when you are only one or two short of finishing a craft. Combine occasional purchases with raid farming rather than relying on the shop alone.
What Sheet Metal is used for
In your inventory, Sheet Metal is a plain crafting material tagged as an Outpost material, the resource pool that feeds the Outpost extension of your Raider Den. You will spend it on three things: unlocking and expanding the Outpost, crafting furniture, and improving the Research Station.
- For its second phase, the Sheltered Retreat Project calls for 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, a total of 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components.
- An Archive Floor Lamp takes 15 Sheet Metal along with 3 Light Bulbs to craft.
- Each piece weighs 0.1 kg, so the stage-two batch of materials weighs under 1 kg combined.
Work out how much a project or recipe demands before you set a collection target. Larger quantities still add weight over time, but at 0.1 each you can stockpile freely during normal raids. After extracting, deliver what you gathered to your current Sheltered Retreat stage. The project tracker and unlocked recipes will update to confirm the materials counted, which tells you the delivery registered before you plan your next run.
