ARC Raiders: How to Destroy Shredders With the Raider Tool for Burst Assembly Recovery

Burst Assembly Recovery is a research task in ARC Raiders that asks you to destroy three Shredders with a Raider Tool. Taken literally, that sounds like a slow, dangerous melee grind against a flying drone that fires rapid explosive volleys. It is not. The game only checks what lands the final hit, so you can do the heavy lifting with a normal gun and keep the crowbar for the last blow.

Quick answer: Shoot each Shredder with a firearm until it catches fire and drops to critical health, then switch to the Raider Tool and land the killing strike. Only the final hit has to come from the Raider Tool. Do this three times.

What Burst Assembly Recovery requires

Burst Assembly Recovery is tied to the Research Station. You unlock it after building the station to level 4, then finish the task by destroying three Shredders with a Raider Tool. Once that condition is met, you can research it at the station for 5,000 Research Points plus 20 Pop Trigger.

Completing the research feeds into amplified weapon crafting. It unlocks the Burst Fire path for the Amplified Burletta, with each upgrade step also needing 2 Queen Reactor. In short, the melee kills are the gate, and the research is the reward.

Research Station built to level 4
Destroy 3 Shredders with a Raider Tool
5,000 Research Points and 20 Pop Trigger to research afterward

Why pure melee does not work

A Shredder carries a lot of health and hits back hard. Its head and eye each sit at 2000 health, and its blast weapon deals 25 damage per hit at close range. The armor plating is the only soft point, with a medium plate at 38.4 and a heavy plate at 50. Standing in the open swinging a crowbar at a drone that fires with almost no downtime is how you die, not how you finish the task.

The fix is to split the work. Guns remove almost all of the health, and the Raider Tool only has to touch the drone once at the end.

Shredder part	Health
Head	2000
Eye	2000
Medium armor plate	38.4
Heavy armor plate	50
Blast weapon damage	25

How to destroy a Shredder with the Raider Tool

Find an airborne Shredder, ideally inside a facility corridor or room where walls and doorways give you cover. Tight interiors let you break line of sight between its attacks.

Take cover behind something solid and attack with a regular ranged weapon; the Rattler is a good option. Keep shooting until flames appear on the drone, showing it has reached critical health. Whenever it shoots back, duck behind a partition.

Softening with Firearm — Chipping the Shredder down from cover with the Rattler before swapping to melee. Shown at 00:16 in Christian Konopatzki’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Once the drone is burning and nearly dead, switch to the Raider Tool. Do not keep shooting, or the gun will finish the kill and waste the attempt.

Setting on Fire and Switching to Melee — The Shredder catches fire at critical health, the cue to equip the Raider Tool. Shown at 00:30 in Christian Konopatzki’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Bait the drone close to a corner, doorway, or electrical locker so its projectiles are blocked. Step out between its attack bursts, land a melee hit, and pull back into cover.

Striking with Raider Tool — Stepping out between volleys to hit the burning drone with the Raider Tool. Shown at 00:41 in Christian Konopatzki’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Keep alternating between cover and melee swings until the Shredder detonates. The final strike destroys it and credits the task.

Alternating Cover and Melee Attacks — Timing each swing around the drone's bursts keeps you safe while it dies. Shown at 01:05 in Christian Konopatzki’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Carry enough medium ammo for the gun phase. Softening a Shredder eats a full magazine or more, so top up before you go hunting.

How to confirm the kill counted

When the Raider Tool lands the killing blow, you get a “Destroyed ARC” XP notification and the Burst Assembly Recovery tracker ticks up, for example from 1/3 to 2/3. If the counter does not move, a gun hit most likely finished the drone instead of the crowbar. Watch the top-left quest tracker after each destruction and repeat until it reads 3/3.

Gear reference for the Shredder hunt

The Rattler is a strong choice for the softening phase. It is a fully automatic assault rifle that uses Medium Ammo, carries moderate ARC armor penetration, and is cheap enough to risk on a drone fight. Magazine size scales with its upgrade level, so a higher-level Rattler means fewer reloads mid-fight.

Item	Role	Key figures
Rattler	Softening gun	Medium Ammo, 20-round mag at Level III, 3 mod slots
Raider Tool	Finisher	Melee, Common rarity

Any weapon that can bring a Shredder to critical health will do, but the Raider Tool itself is non-negotiable for the last hit. With cover discipline and a loaded magazine, each of the three kills becomes a short, repeatable routine rather than a risky melee duel.