The Deadline mine in Arc Raiders is an epic explosive that quietly turns the hardest PvE fights into math problems. Each mine deals a flat 1,000 damage on a six‑second timer, and that number is the anchor for figuring out how many you need to bring when you are planning to delete a Queen ARC or Matriarch.
Deadline mine basics and damage model
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Item type | Deployable timed explosive |
| Rarity | Epic (pink) |
| Damage | 1,000 |
| Blast radius | 10 meters |
| Fuse | 6 seconds (cannot be shortened or manually triggered) |
| Weight | 1.0 kg |
| Max stack | 1 per inventory slot |
Two details matter for bosses:
- The 1,000 damage is enough to one‑shot mid‑tier arcs like Bastions and Bombardiers when stuck directly on them.
- The explosion applies 1,000 damage to each individual hitbox inside the blast radius. On multi‑limb enemies, that means a single mine can register multiple 1,000‑damage hits if the radius overlaps several legs or body parts at once.
On a Queen or Matriarch, the second point is where things get interesting. You can brute force them by treating each mine as a single 1,000‑damage hit, or you can try to stack the blast across several hitboxes and cut the total mine count down with good placement.
How many Deadline mines to kill the Queen ARC
Player damage tracking on the Queen shows total contributions around 21,000 damage per clear for a full health kill. If you divide that straight by the mine’s 1,000 damage, you end up with a simple upper bound:
| Assumption | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Treat each mine as 1,000 effective damage | Queen HP ≈ 21,000 ÷ 1,000 per mine | ≈ 21 mines required |
That “21 mines” estimate is deliberately conservative. In practice, runs that focus on mine placement consistently come in far lower:
- Solo and duo clears built around mines land the kill in 7 Deadline traps from full health.
- Squad runs that supplement mines with a couple of Wolfpack rockets finish the Queen in roughly 6–8 mines.
The reason the real number is closer to 7 than 21 is the hitbox behavior. When you plant a mine in the right pocket under or beside the Queen, the 10‑meter blast overlaps several leg hitboxes and can also clip the main body. That effectively multiplies the value of a single mine.
In terms of loadout planning, the safe answer is simple:
| Scenario | Recommended Deadline mines | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Optimized solo kill (no outside damage) | 7–8 | 7 mines are enough with clean placements; bring 8 to cover mistakes or missed hitboxes. |
| Trio or squad where teammates also damage Queen | 4–6 | Extra rifle damage, grenades, or Wolfpacks reduce the required mines. |
| Pure theory if each mine hit only once | ≈21 | Upper‑bound math; real fights end sooner because blasts hit multiple legs. |
How long the Queen kill takes with Deadline mines
Once the first mine is down, a clean, mine‑focused Queen fight finishes surprisingly fast. Solo routes using Photoelectric Cloak and a careful loop between cover spots typically put the Queen down in about five to ten minutes from that first placement.
That time window assumes:
- Seven traps successfully detonated on the Queen.
- One or two mines per approach, depending on how safely you play the aggro reset.
- Minimal interference from other raider squads in the harvester area.
Every wasted run at the legs, every early cloak activation, and every stray hit that downs you adds up quickly. The mine count is the constant; execution is where the timer lives or dies.
How many Deadline mines to kill the Matriarch
The Matriarch sits in the same “boss” tier as the Queen, and Deadline is just as effective on it. The item’s 1,000‑damage blast still applies per hitbox, and the Matriarch has multiple large limbs that can be overlapped by a single explosion.
There is no widely shared hard number for the Matriarch’s health in raw damage terms, but live testing shows a similar pattern:
- Deadline mines remove large chunks of health with each well‑placed explosion.
- A coordinated squad carrying two mines each can skip major portions of the fight, ending it in only a handful of detonations.
For planning purposes, using the Queen as a benchmark is reasonable. If seven clean mines can erase a Queen from full, expect a comparable number for the Matriarch when you are landing blasts on multiple limbs rather than throwing mines at empty ground.
Why solo Queen routes usually bring 7–8 mines
Solo Queen runs that lean on Deadline have settled into a consistent pattern: the mines do nearly all the work, while the rest of the kit is there to protect the mines and the player.
| Item or perk | Role in a solo Queen run |
|---|---|
| 7–8 Deadline traps | Primary damage source against the Queen. |
| 2 Wolfpack rockets | Used mostly to remove the nearby Rocketeer without accidentally hitting the Queen. |
| Photoelectric Cloak | Crucial for safely approaching the Queen’s legs and resetting aggro between mine placements. |
| Raider hatch key | Gives a controlled extract option once the Queen is dead, especially if the main elevator is hot. |
| Plenty of meds | Covers chip damage and the occasional leg swipe when you misjudge distance. |
| Defensive or tactical augment | Either extra shielding for mistakes or tactical utility like smoke in PvP third‑party situations. |
Seven mines are mathematically enough because of how often a single blast can overlap several hitboxes. The eighth is a buffer against:
- A whiffed placement that explodes too far from the legs.
- A mine that goes off while the Queen is repositioning and only tags one limb.
- Random player interference that pulls the Queen out of the ideal pocket mid‑fuse.
How to place Deadline mines on the Queen efficiently
Pure damage math only gets you so far. The difference between needing seven mines and burning through ten or more is almost entirely about how and where you place them.
The solo pattern that has emerged looks like this:
- Arrive late. Starting the Queen encounter late in the match reduces third‑party squads wandering through and pulling aggro to upper platforms where you cannot reach her legs.
- Clear the Rocketeer first. Use Wolfpack rockets on the Rocketeer near the harvester, but drag it out of the Queen’s range so splash does not tick the boss and accidentally start the fight on someone else’s terms.
- Use Photoelectric Cloak to approach. Even if the Queen would not normally aggro at that distance, the cloak lets you get close to the legs without drawing stray swipes while you line up a plant.
- Plant in “safe pockets.” Place mines in leg pockets where you can drop them, backpedal, and break sight behind cover before the Queen can body‑check you. These spots tend to also overlap more hitboxes.
- Limit how often you double‑plant. Placing two mines per visit is optimal in theory but greedy in practice. If the timing feels tight, commit to one mine, reset aggro, and live to make another pass.
- Respect the leg hitbox. The Queen can swat you even if she is not fully aggroed. Getting knocked down by a stray leg while a mine is ticking under you is a fast way to lose both time and traps.
Every time you finish a plant, duck into solid cover and hold cloak until the Queen drops aggro again. The boss reset is slower than most players expect, and popping invisibility too early can leave her locked on you, wasting precious seconds and stopping you from getting close enough for the next placement.
Why other players make Deadline Queen kills harder
The mine count for the Queen stays roughly the same whether you play solo or in a squad, but the difficulty and time to execute change dramatically when other players are nearby.
Two behaviors in particular work against a Deadline‑centric strategy:
- Persistent aggro on upper levels. If another raider holds the Queen’s attention from a higher platform, she hugs that level and keeps her legs out of reach, making safe mine placements almost impossible.
- Random damage bursts mid‑fuse. Stray shots, grenades, or Wolfpacks can stagger or reposition the Queen in the few seconds between your throw and the explosion. That often turns a multi‑hit blast into a single‑hit dud.
This is why some experienced players prefer initiating the Queen late in the match, after most squads have already rotated away or extracted. With fewer human variables, they can methodically work through all seven or eight mines without having to recalc the plan every minute.
What this means for your own runs
If the question is purely numerical—“How many Deadline mines do I need to kill the Queen?”—the practical answer is that seven clean blasts are enough when you are planting in the right spots, and bringing eight gives you room for mistakes. For the Matriarch, expect a similar order of magnitude, especially if you are stacking blasts across multiple limbs.
Once you start planning around that number, the real challenge shifts away from raw damage into logistics: surviving the approach, managing aggro with Photoelectric Cloak, navigating other players in the arena, and not getting trampled while a 1,000‑damage timer ticks at your feet. Treat the mine count as solved; the rest of the run is about giving those seven or eight explosions a clean shot at doing their work.
