ARC Raiders: How to Expand Your Outpost and Build New Rooms

Once your Outpost is unlocked in ARC Raiders, it starts as a single base room. Expanding it adds new rooms to the structure and raises the level your Research Station can reach, which is what eventually opens the door to amplified weapons. The process runs entirely through the Outpost menu, so you never leave Speranza to do it.

Quick answer: Open the OUTPOST tab, click the + EXPAND OUTPOST slot, pick a room, choose a slot with Z or E, then spend 3 Steel Cable, 20 SheetMetal, and 3 Cable Strippers and press INSTALL.

What you need before expanding the Outpost

You can expand only once the Outpost has been established. At Raider Level 18, begin the three-stage Sheltered Retreat Project from the Outpost tab at the menu’s top. Its objectives are to photograph a farmland house near the Ruined Homestead on The Blue Gate, turn in building materials, and damage flying ARC and a Bully.

Game menu with Outpost Project description over a forested cliff scene with a wrecked wooden structure. — The Outpost tab shows the Outpost Project, which unlocks at level 18, over a view of a ruined structure among pine trees.

With the Outpost built, each new room for the first expansion step costs the same three items regardless of which design you pick.

3 Steel Cable — a raw, recyclable item also used to craft the Zipline.
20 SheetMetal — a common basic crafting material.
3 Cable Stripper — an uncommon Outpost material found in Mechanical and Industrial loot.

If you are short on any of them, use TRACK RESOURCES in the expansion screen to flag them so the game highlights them while you raid. The INSTALL button stays greyed out and reads NOT ENOUGH RESOURCES until all three stacks are filled.

How to expand your Outpost

From the top navigation bar in Speranza, open the OUTPOST tab. This brings up your current base view with the base room already in place.

Find the plus (+) icon among the building slots and select EXPAND OUTPOST. This opens the Outpost Expansion interface, which shows the LEVEL 1 > 2 stage and what it unlocks.

Accessing Expansion Menu — The plus slot on the Outpost screen is where expansion begins. Shown at 00:06 in JA Guides Gaming’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Choose a room design from the options list. At this tier you can pick the Panoramic Room, Timeless Room, or Chalet Room. A ghost outline of the room appears on the Outpost tower so you can preview how it sits.

Cycle the building slot with Z or E to decide where the room attaches to the structure. Use A to change the camera angle while you line things up.

Chalet Room Details & Slot Cycling — The expansion screen with the Chalet Room selected, its resource list, and the Z/E slot controls at the bottom. Shown at 00:14 in JA Guides Gaming’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Confirm you hold the required 3 Steel Cable, 20 SheetMetal, and 3 Cable Strippers. The REQUIRED RESOURCES panel shows each item as a 0/X counter that fills as you bring the materials home.

Press INSTALL. The room is added permanently and the expansion stage completes, raising your Research Station cap to Level II.

Installed rooms are permanent in their slots: you can neither relocate nor exchange them. Choose both the slot and design carefully before confirming.

Outpost room options

Count your base as room one. You may add as many as three rooms, choosing from four designs, for a maximum of four rooms altogether. Each addition’s material price is set by its position in the sequence—second, third, or fourth—so your design choice affects only layout and decoration.

Room	Type	Notes
Base Room	Starting room	Unlocks with the Outpost at Level 18
Panoramic Room	Optional module	Available at first expansion
Timeless Room	Optional module	Available at first expansion
Chalet Room	Optional module	Available at first expansion
Studious Room	Optional module	Added with the Frozen Trail update

How rooms raise your Research Station level

Each room installed lifts the ceiling on your Research Station, and reaching the fourth room is what lets you take the Gunsmith to Level 4 for amplified weapons. Installing a room raises the cap only. It does not pay for the Research Station upgrade itself, which needs its own materials.

Total rooms	Research Station access
1 (Base Room)	Level 1
2 rooms	Level 2
3 rooms	Level 3
4 rooms	Level 4 and Gunsmith Level 4

The upgrade materials get steadily rarer as the station climbs. These are the costs for each Research Station level once the matching room count is in place.

Level	Upgrade materials
1	3 Mini Pumps, 35 Planks, 5 Battered Paperbacks
2	3 Calculators, 3 Raider Logbooks, 5 Skulker Targeters
3	3 Differential Microphones, 3 Exodus Technical Handbooks, 6 Bully Fragmenters
4	3 Thermal Shakers, 3 ARC Data Modules, 1 Frigate Inductor

Workshop station install costs

A bigger Outpost gives you more room for the crafting stations that live in the Workshop. If you are planning what to build alongside your new rooms, these are the one-time install costs for each station.

Station	Install cost	What it makes
Gunsmith	20 Metal Parts, 30 Rubber Parts	Weapon upgrades
Gear Bench	25 Plastic Parts, 30 Fabric	Shields and Augments
Medical Lab	50 Fabric, 6 ARC Alloy	Stimulants
Explosives Station	50 Chemicals, 6 ARC Alloy	Grenades and mines
Utility Station	50 Plastic Parts, 6 ARC Alloy	Lures, grenades, barricades
Refiner	60 Metal Parts, 5 ARC Powercell	Custom parts

You can confirm the expansion worked by returning to the Outpost view after you press INSTALL. The new room appears on the tower in the slot you chose, the LEVEL 1 > 2 stage clears, and the Research Station becomes eligible for its Level II upgrade in the Workshop. From there, the next plus slot opens the way to your third and fourth rooms.