Antiseptic is one of the most important medical materials in Arc Raiders. You need eight bottles to upgrade the Medical Lab from level 2 to 3, and it also sits at the center of several healing recipes. Running out of it can stall both your crafting and your progression.
There are three consistent ways to get Antiseptic: looting medical locations, crafting it in the Refiner, and recycling certain medical items. Using all three keeps your stash topped up without wasting runs.
What Antiseptic is used for
Antiseptic is a rare Refined Material tagged as Medical loot. Each bottle weighs 1.0, stacks up to five, and sells for 1,000 coins, but selling it is usually a bad trade compared to what it enables.
| Use | Workshop level | Recipe | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sterilized Bandage | Medical Lab 2 | 2× Durable Cloth, 1× Antiseptic | 1× Sterilized Bandage |
| Vita Shot | Medical Lab 3 | 1× Antiseptic, 1× Syringe | 1× Vita Shot |
| Vita Spray (craft) | Medical Lab 3 | 3× Antiseptic, 1× Canister | 1× Vita Spray |
| Vita Spray (repair) | — | 1× Antiseptic, 2× Canister | Repairs 1× damaged Vita Spray |
| Medical Lab 3 upgrade | — | 3× Rusted Shut Medical Kit, 8× Antiseptic, 5× Surveyor Vault | Medical Lab 2 → 3 |
Antiseptic can also be recycled or salvaged back into Chemicals, which feeds directly into crafting more Antiseptic if you are running a tight loop:
| Action | Result from 1× Antiseptic |
|---|---|
| Recycle | 10× Chemicals |
| Salvage | 5× Chemicals |
How to loot Antiseptic in the world (best locations)
Antiseptic appears in any container or area flagged for Medical loot. On the map, these are the locations marked with a cross/plus symbol. In practice, a few named points of interest make the farming much smoother than wandering between random clinics.
Best Antiseptic locations in Buried City
Buried City is the most efficient map early on if you are purely looting for Antiseptic, with several dense Medical buildings close to each other.
Hospital (Buried City)
The Hospital in the northern part of Buried City is the single strongest farming spot for raw Antiseptic:
- Large interior with three floors and high Medical loot density.
- Second and third floors contain most of the bins, cabinets, and drawers that can roll Antiseptic.
- Frequently spawns Rusted Shut Medical Kits, which can then be recycled into Antiseptic.
The trade-off is that Hospital is a very popular destination. Expect other players, plus ARC Turrets and Fireballs, in and around the building. Go in prepared for PvE and PvP pressure rather than treating it as a safe loot run.
Research and Plaza Rosa (Buried City)
Research and Plaza Rosa are smaller but reliable backups when Hospital has already been picked clean:
- Both count as Medical-focused or mixed Commercial / Medical interiors, so Antiseptic can spawn in drawers, cabinets, and on surfaces.
- Research sits just southeast of Hospital, which makes it an easy follow-up when you route south after clearing the main building.
- These locations are slightly less contested, so they are better for lower-risk runs even if the loot tier is not as high.
Piazza Arbusto pharmacy (Buried City)
The Piazza Arbusto pharmacy is a compact alternative when you want focused Medical loot plus quest progress. The front door usually needs to be breached. Inside, you can find:
- Loose Antiseptic and other medical bottles along the shelves.
- Syringes and Durable Cloth, which are required alongside Antiseptic for the Doctor's Orders quest.
- A quest item on the counter used later in A Reveal In Ruins.
Best Antiseptic location in Dam Battlegrounds
Testing Annex (Dam Battlegrounds)
Testing Annex on the Dam Battlegrounds map is one of the most efficient medical farming hubs in the game. It offers:
- A quieter location than Hospital, which lowers the chance of running into other squads immediately.
- A second floor lined with containers, bins, and drawers that frequently roll Antiseptic.
- Spawns of Great Mullein on the lower, water-covered floor, which you need to craft Antiseptic, and for Lance’s quests.
- Nearby extraction via a fast lift so you can grab what you need and leave without crossing the whole map.
When you want to combine Great Mullein, Syringes, Durable Cloth, and Antiseptic for early Lance quests like Doctor's Orders, Testing Annex, plus one Buried City medical stop is usually enough.
How to craft Antiseptic in the Refiner
Once the Refiner is running in Speranza, you can stop relying entirely on RNG for Antiseptic. The crafting recipe converts base Chemicals and Great Mullein into one bottle.
| Ingredients | Workshop requirement | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 10× Chemicals, 2× Great Mullein | Refiner 2 | 1× Antiseptic |
Step 1: Build and upgrade the Refiner in your Speranza workshop to level 2. Until it reaches level 2, the Antiseptic recipe will not be available.
Step 2: Gather Chemicals from general scavenging and recycling, and farm Great Mullein from water-heavy areas such as the flooded floor in Dam Battlegrounds' Testing Annex.
Step 3: At the Refiner, select the Antiseptic recipe, load 10 Chemicals and 2 Great Mullein per bottle you want, then start the refinement process.
This route shines when you are consistently looting Chemicals and plants in your normal runs anyway. It converts low-value base materials into one of the most impactful healing components in the game.
How to get Antiseptic by recycling medical items
Recycling lets you turn finished medical items back into Antiseptic. It is especially useful when you loot more bandages or sprays than you currently need, or when you are trying to reclaim materials after upgrading your healing setup.
| Recycled item | Antiseptic gained |
|---|---|
| Rusted Shut Medical Kit | 1× Antiseptic |
| Sterilized Bandage | 1× Antiseptic |
| Vita Spray | 1× Antiseptic |
In addition, some bandage-type items can return multiple units of Antiseptic and Fabric when recycled, making them a strong fallback when you are short on raw bottles.
Step 1: Open the recycling interface at the appropriate workshop bench in Speranza.
Step 2: Select surplus medical items such as Rusted Shut Medical Kits, Sterilized Bandages, or Vita Sprays that you are willing to break down.
Step 3: Confirm the recycle action and check the preview to see how many Antiseptic and other materials you will receive.
Recycling high-tier heals is a trade-off: you lose ready-to-use healing in exchange for raw materials that can be reshaped into the exact mix of sprays, shots, and bandages you prefer.
Tracking Antiseptic for the Medical Lab upgrade
To reach Medical Lab 3, you need eight bottles of Antiseptic alongside Rusted Shut Medical Kits and Surveyor Vaults. Treat those eight bottles as reserved and avoid burning them on crafting until the upgrade is done.
A simple loop that works well early on is:
- Queue the Medical Lab 3 upgrade so Antiseptic is tracked in your UI.
- Run Dam Battlegrounds and clear Testing Annex for Great Mullein, Antiseptic, and other medical items.
- Rotate to Buried City, hit Hospital first, then Research and Plaza Rosa or Piazza Arbusto pharmacy if time allows.
- Recycle any duplicate medical items you do not intend to use immediately to top off your Antiseptic count.
- When back in Speranza, craft extra Antiseptic in the Refiner if you have a surplus of Chemicals and Great Mullein.
Once the lab is upgraded, keep a baseline stash of Antiseptic in your storage rather than spending it all on one type of heal. It feeds Sterilized Bandages, Vita Shots, Vita Sprays, and future repairs, and running dry will hurt every time a fight goes wrong.
Looting the right buildings, turning plants and Chemicals into refined medicine, and recycling older heals all feed into the same outcome: a Medical Lab that is always stocked and ready. With Hospital, Testing Annex, the Refiner, and recycling working together, Antiseptic stops being a bottleneck and becomes a resource you can plan around.
