The Flow Controller sits in a strange place in ARC Raiders right now: it looks like a quest item, behaves like standard loot, and spawns rarely enough that players get stuck staring at an incomplete objective. It is also quietly valuable as a material once you finally extract with one.
This breakdown focuses on what the Flow Controller actually is, how it’s used, and where players are reliably increasing their odds of finding one on the Stella Montis map.
Arc Raiders Flow Controller basics
In-game, the Flow Controller is treated as a regular lootable item, not a special quest-only pickup. It lives in the Exodus loot pool on Stella Montis and can turn up in containers during raids. You can carry, sell, recycle, or salvage it like any other material.
| Property | Flow Controller value |
|---|---|
| Item type | Material (Recyclable) |
| Rarity | Rare (blue) |
| Loot pool | Exodus |
| Weight | 1.5 |
| Stack size | 3 |
| Sell price | 3,000 coins |
| Primary source | Scavenging during raids |
How Flow Controller recycling and salvaging works
The Flow Controller doubles as a compact bundle of mechanical parts. What you do with it after extraction changes what you get back out of it.
| Action | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Recycle | 1× Flow Controller | 1× Advanced Mechanical Components, 1× Sensors |
| Salvage | 1× Flow Controller | 2× Mechanical Components |
That split matters. Recycling pushes you into higher-tier crafting materials, while salvaging is better if you specifically need basic Mechanical Components. Because the item is also worth 3,000 coins on sale, it becomes a constant trade-off between cashing out, feeding a mid-tier build, or padding out your stock of basic parts.
Why quests ask for a Flow Controller
The Flow Controller is part of the North Line-era objectives tied to Stella Montis. A key example is the “Snap and Salvage” quest, which includes a requirement to deliver a Flow Controller to the trader Tian Wen. You only need to successfully extract with one and hand it in; that single turn-in is enough to satisfy the relevant objective step.
Quest progress here is forgiving in one respect: each step can be completed independently. You do not have to hold multiple rare items at once or chain perfect raids. If you manage to extract with just the Flow Controller, you can bank that progress before worrying about anything else the quest throws at you.
Where Flow Controller actually spawns on Stella Montis
The awkward truth: there is no fixed or guaranteed Flow Controller spawn. It is part of the general Exodus loot table, and its appearance is rare enough that it feels inconsistent from run to run. On top of that, anything that spawns can be picked up by other squads before you ever get there.
Still, certain points of interest have emerged as strong bets for hunting it down, especially if you are stuck on a quest turn-in.
Arc Raiders Flow Controller locations players are using
Two areas of Stella Montis show up repeatedly when players talk about where they actually find Flow Controllers:
| Location | Map area | Where to look | Notes on spawns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical Research POI | South-west Stella Montis | Rooms and corridors packed with containers and drawers | Most commonly cited Flow Controller hotspot; heavily contested by other players |
| Assembly Workshop area | Industrial section of Stella Montis | Breachable cabinets and similar high-value storage | Players report finding both Flow Controllers and Magnetrons here |
In practice, the Flow Controller seems more common than its sibling, Magnetron. Players report picking up multiple Flow Controllers over several raids, while a Magnetron can take many runs to see even once. That makes the Medical Research and Assembly Workshop especially useful when you want both items for intertwined objectives.
How the Flow Controller fits into the wider loot economy
The Flow Controller sits in an interesting middle tier of Stella Montis loot. It is not common enough to plan around for every single raid, but it drops often enough in Medical Research and Assembly Workshop that regular runners will see it more than once.
Its three main roles are:
- Quest progress, particularly anything that asks for a single Flow Controller extraction and delivery.
- Crafting support, especially when you recycle it into Advanced Mechanical Components and Sensors.
- Currency gain, with a flat 3,000-coin sell price if you do not need its materials immediately.
Because it weighs 1.5 and stacks only up to three, it is light enough that you rarely need to drop anything else to carry one out, which makes it almost always worth extracting if you find it, even when you have already completed the relevant quest step.
For now, the Flow Controller is best treated as a rare but recurring bonus: run Stella Montis with a focus on the Medical Research and Assembly Workshop POIs, clear as many containers and breachable cabinets as you can, and treat every Flow Controller you extract as either a banked quest item, a flexible bundle of mechanical parts, or a small but reliable cash injection.
