Celeste’s Boarding the Frigate quest takes place aboard the enormous ARC vessel suspended above the battlefield during the Frigate condition. There’s no need to dismantle the ship: reach its upper deck, inflict 100 damage on each of three designated machines, then make it back to the ground alive.
Quick answer: Join a raid where ARC Frigate is active, use a Reclaimer disc to reach the deck, hit a Hydra, Vaporizer, and Rocketeer for 100 damage apiece, survive an extraction, and return to Celeste with the quest.
Find a raid with the ARC Frigate condition
The Frigate appears through a map condition rather than in an ordinary raid. On the map selection screen, check beneath each map name for the ARC Frigate tag. Its appearances don’t follow a set schedule: it has been available on Buried City, Pendola Pass, and Dam Battlegrounds, and the game is configured to include it on The Blue Gate and Spaceport too. If none of the maps have the tag, wait until the condition comes around again.
With a difficulty rating of 5 out of 5, this condition also affects the raid below the vessel. Map-wide locked doors are disabled, ground loot is worth less overall, and Raider Hatches are unavailable, leaving standard extraction points as the only exits. Free loadouts are disabled too, so take gear you’re prepared to lose.
The ship descends through the clouds early in the round, about 30 seconds to one minute after you spawn. Check its position on your map and make for it immediately instead of searching the far side.
What to bring
Free kits aren’t an option here, so bring a complete setup you can risk losing. ARC are numerous across the deck; plan to deal with one encounter after another.
- Choose a reliable rifle—such as a Bettina, Rattler, or Renegade—and carry a generous supply of Heavy or Medium Ammo.
- An armor-breaking weapon for the heavier ARC: the Hullcracker, Jupiter, Rascal, or Anvil.
- Take two shields to offset the rapid damage from deck fire and incoming ranged attacks.
- Stacked healing and Shield Rechargers.
- Bring Wolfpack grenades, along with Barriers to provide protection.
- A Snap Hook to skip the climb, a Defibrillator for teammates, and a Powered Descender for the trip down.
Frozen Trail boosts explosive damage against ARC armor plates by over 50 percent, but reduces it against fragile parts by 30 percent. That makes the Hullcracker and Jupiter better for armored targets than exposed weak spots. Carry a precise armor-piercing weapon for those openings and reserve some explosive ammo for the objectives. Hullcracker rounds only detonate on ARC, making them ineffective against other Raiders.
The Light Shield costs less and lets you move at full speed. A Medium Shield offers greater charge and damage reduction, with a slight movement penalty. A Photoelectric Cloak can be useful on the slow, exposed ascent to the ship.
| Shield | Charge | Damage reduction | Cost (Lance) |
|---|---|---|---|
 Light Shield | 40 | 40% | 1,920 Coins |
 Medium Shield | 70 | 42.5% | 6,000 Coins |
Board the Frigate with a Reclaimer disc
You do not climb the ship from the ground. You ride the saucer-shaped ARC Reclaimers that shuttle between the surface and the Frigate’s underside. They are ARC, but they leave you alone, and a forcefield wraps around you for the trip.
As you ascend, the cannon mounted beneath the Frigate tracks you, while the platform leaves you slow and vulnerable. Keep clear of the blue targeting lasers, secure the area before boarding, and don’t ride up alone if another squad may be watching the boarding point.
Reach the top deck
Take the rear tunnel out of the docking bay to get onto the lower exterior wing. Containers along the route are available to loot, but continue toward the exposed upper surface.
Most squads use the central lift marked Move Up. Its controls need to be activated together, which generally takes three Raiders; a Snap Hook can bypass the lift. When solo, travel around the wing’s outside edge toward the front engines. Climb the rings and pipes, then take the angled engine tunnel upward to reach the deck. Avoid the thermal vents at the top, which send flames across the surface.
Deal 100 damage to the Hydra, Vaporizer, and Rocketeer
Destroying the machines isn’t required. Dealing damage advances each objective, and just 100 damage to each target will do. All three may be present on the deck together, letting you work through them quickly as you move from cover to cover.
Each machine has far more health than you need to chip away, so aim for the quickest part to tag and move on. The figures below come from the shipped game data.
| Machine | Damage needed | Part to hit (HP) | Its attack |
|---|---|---|---|
 Hydra | 100 | Gatling gun (280) | — |
 Vaporizer | 100 | Body (1,500) | Laser |
 Rocketeer | 100 | Body (1,100) | Missile (90) |
Hydra
The Hydra is a three-level turret built into the deck, usually located on the center platform; it is often destroyed during the ship’s propulsion phase. Its two weapon sections can target different players, so use separate pieces of cover. The gatling section has only 280 health, so its counter fills quickly once you shoot.
Send a few shots its way, then duck into cover. If additional ARC converge on you, toss a Noisemaker away from your position to draw them off and give yourself a clear shot at the Hydra.
Vaporizer
Vaporizers charge in amid flames and fire a laser. Damage one before its flames intensify. It has 1,500 health in its body, but the objective requires only 100 damage, so a brief burst is sufficient.
Rocketeer
Rocketeers generally appear after the deck suffers significant damage, so take out the Hydra and Vaporizer before they arrive. Their missiles deal 90 damage at range; peek out, inflict the required 100 damage, then retreat. Place a Barrier inside the tunnel entrance to create a protected spot for firing.
Each objective fills a counter as you land hits, and the Hydra line reads 100/100 when it is done. Once all three counters and “Find a way on top of the Frigate” are complete, the quest progress is locked in on your end. You still have to survive and extract to keep it.
Get back down and extract
Leaving can be the harder leg, since Raider Hatches are disabled during this condition. Retrace your route through the engine tunnel to the lower wing, then head back to the rear docking bay. A Grappling Hook or Snap Hook speeds up the climb, while a Powered Descender gives you a direct exit if the return route closes off behind you.
Get onto a Reclaimer disc as it arrives without activating Disrupt; it will take you down to the rooftops. On landing, run out of the blue targeting beams that show where the cannon is about to fire, then use a standard extraction. After exiting the raid, locate Celeste in the hideout and turn in the quest.
Boarding the Frigate rewards
Handing the quest to Celeste pays out the following.
- 10,000 XP
- A Legendary Snap Hook with a 20m range, valued at 14,000 Coins
- A Wolfpack
- A Rascal I
- Three Launcher Ammo
Launcher Ammo is a Rare anti-ARC round, fired primarily by the Hullcracker. It sells for 250 Coins, while Tian Wen stocks it for 4,500 Coins; keep the three you earn if you intend to take the Hullcracker on your next trip up.
Completing Boarding the Frigate unlocks its follow-up, Disrupting the Frigate. That mission has you destroy the ship’s power cores, reach the cargo, and eliminate three Hydras. The quest you’ve finished is the entry point to this longer sabotage sequence.
