The Shrouded Sky update (1.17.0) for ARC Raiders added a brand-new interior space to Dam Battlegrounds called the Controlled Access Zone. It sits underneath the dam structure itself — an area that previously had no accessible interior. The zone is a high-value loot location built around a cooperative puzzle mechanic and a locked key room, making it one of the more involved points of interest on any ARC Raiders map.
Quick answer: The Controlled Access Zone is located inside the dam on Dam Battlegrounds. To open the main vault room, you need at least three or four players to press buttons simultaneously, then deposit a randomized set of crafting materials into a terminal.
Where to find the Controlled Access Zone
The Controlled Access Zone is not a renamed section of existing terrain. It is an entirely new room built into the dam's structure, accessible after the Shrouded Sky patch went live. Previously, this part of the dam was just solid geometry with no way inside. Now it opens into a large interior space. A notable environmental landmark helps confirm you're in the right place — a suspended Rocketeer enemy repurposed as a makeshift chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
Puzzle room requirements and how to open the vault
The Controlled Access Zone contains two distinct secured areas. The first is a locked key room that requires a specific key item to enter (similar to the Dam Staff Room Key and Dam Testing Annex Key that already exist on the map). The second — and more interesting — is a cooperative vault room with a multi-step unlock process.
Step 1: Locate four buttons spread around the Controlled Access Zone interior. All four buttons must be pressed at roughly the same time. This is designed as a cooperation check, requiring multiple raiders to coordinate.
Step 2: After the buttons are activated, a deposit terminal becomes available. You need to insert a specific combination of crafting materials to unlock the vault door. The required materials are randomized per raid instance, so the exact recipe changes each time.
Reported material combinations include:
- 1× ARC Performance Steel and 3× Batteries
- 3× Batteries and 1× Leaper Pulse Unit
- 3× Batteries and 1× Motor
- 1× ARC Performance Steel and 12× Metal Parts
- 3× Wires and 1× Leaper Pulse Unit
Because the deposit cost rotates, it's worth bringing a variety of common crafting materials into Dam Battlegrounds if you plan to attempt the vault. Batteries appear frequently across most reported combinations, so prioritizing those is a reasonable bet.
Can a three-player squad open the vault?
The puzzle is built around four buttons, which initially suggests you need four separate players. However, early player testing indicates it may be possible to complete the button sequence with only three people, likely by having one player sprint between two buttons quickly enough. This has not been universally confirmed, and results may vary depending on button placement, which could also shift between instances. A full four-person group remains the most reliable approach.
Standard squad size in ARC Raiders caps at three, so opening this vault with your own squad alone is tight. You may need to cooperate with another team or a solo player in the same raid, which fits the zone's design philosophy of encouraging cross-team interaction in a high-stakes environment.
Loot inside the Controlled Access Zone vault
The vault room rewards are weighted toward mid-to-high-tier crafting and combat gear. Confirmed loot from the cooperative vault includes:
- Advanced mechanical components
- Regular mechanical components
- 2× weapon cases
- 1× grenade case
The exact contents may vary between raids, but the presence of multiple weapon cases makes this one of the denser single-room loot concentrations on Dam Battlegrounds. For context, the entire map has roughly 19 weapon case spawns total, so pulling two from a single room is significant.
Dam Battlegrounds map overview
Even before the Controlled Access Zone, Dam Battlegrounds was one of the more complex maps in ARC Raiders. Its key landmarks include Victory Ridge, Red Lakes, Formicai Hills, and the Swamp, all centered around the dam itself. The map supports four standard extraction points (including the Central Swamp Lift, Water Treatment Elevator, Red Lakes Balcony Lift, and North Complex Elevator) plus four hatch extracts for quicker exits.
Other notable features on the map include six Field Depots, 12 Supply Call Stations, a Harvester boss event spawn, and over 40 raider cache locations. The map also has two key-locked doors tied to the Dam Staff Room Key and the Dam Testing Annex Key, and the Controlled Access Zone now adds at least one more locked door to that list.
Why the Controlled Access Zone matters
This is the first time Embark Studios has added a meaningful new interior location to an existing ARC Raiders map through a seasonal update. Previous patches focused on balance changes, new enemies, and quality-of-life fixes, but the Shrouded Sky update signals a willingness to evolve existing maps with fresh geometry and mechanics rather than only shipping entirely new maps. If the approach works, similar additions could appear on Buried City, Spaceport, The Blue Gate, or Stella Montis in future updates.
For now, the Controlled Access Zone gives Dam Battlegrounds a distinct new reason to visit — especially for players willing to take the risk of coordinating with strangers in a game where trust is never guaranteed.