Quick answer: Bring two ARC Powercells into Blue Gate, activate the panels inside an ARC Deforester, then climb up and loot its core.
ARC Raiders A Prime Specimen quest objectives
A Prime Specimen comes from Shani in Speranza and can only be completed on the Blue Gate map. You are asked to:
- Obtain 2 ARC Powercells
- Interact with any ARC Deforester
- Loot an ARC Deforester
You receive three Remote Raider Flares when you accept the quest, and completing it grants a Patrol Car Key and three Door Blockers.
How to get 2 ARC Powercells
The first step is straightforward. ARC Powercells are a common drop from basic ARC enemies.
Deploy on any map (Blue Gate is convenient for the next step) and destroy a few easy ARC units such as Wasps, Snitches, or Hornets. Search their remains and pick up ARC Powercells until you have at least two.
If you already have Powercells in your stash, you can load into Blue Gate with two in your inventory and skip farming entirely.
Where to find an ARC Deforester in Blue Gate
ARC Deforesters are huge, broken ARC machines that look like massive pipes or cylinders lying in the environment.
On Blue Gate, there are several known Deforester husks:
- Between the Broken Earth POI and the Ridgeline POI
- Near Ridgeline on the eastern side of the map
- In the southwest, around Adorned Wreckage and Barren clearing
From a distance, look for a large cylindrical wreck with pipes and an open central chamber. As you approach the correct spot, you should see electrical sparks coming from a console just inside the husk; that console is the first interaction point.
How to interact with an ARC Deforester
Once you reach a working Deforester, keep your two ARC Powercells on you and climb into the central chamber.
Use Powercells on the internal panels
Inside the husk, focus on the sparking consoles:
First, locate the front console near the entrance of the chamber. Interact with it and spend one ARC Powercell. This powers up the machine and causes jets of fire to begin cycling inside the cylinder.
Next, move deeper into the chamber toward the back. Watch the flame pattern and advance only when the fire drops. At the far end is a second console. Interact with it and use your second ARC Powercell to complete the interaction objective.
Deal with the fire safely
The flames inside the Deforester pulse on and off rather than burning constantly. In some raids, you can wait until the fire fully stops before crossing; in others, the flames continue cycling, and you must time your movement between bursts.
Use short sprints and dodges to get through safely. Healing items and Adrenaline Shots help if you get clipped while learning the pattern.
How to loot an ARC Deforester
After powering both internal consoles, the last step is to access the lootable core higher up in the husk.
Reach the upper platform
Exit the central chamber back to the outside of the wreck. Near the front of the Deforester, look up for a reachable ledge or pipe leading to a higher level along the hull.
Jump and mantle onto this ledge, then follow the path back into the top of the Deforester. In some layouts, this forms a bridge-like walkway heading toward the back of the cylinder.
Loot the core to finish the quest
At the end of the upper path, past any remaining flame hazards, look for an interactable panel or core on the back wall of the husk. Interact with it to breach and loot the cache.
Collect all available items from this core. As soon as you finish looting, A Prime Specimen is marked complete. You can then extract from any point and return to Speranza to hand the quest in to Shani.
A Prime Specimen quest rewards
| Reward | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Patrol Car Key | 1 |
| Door Blocker | 3 |
Known bugs and workarounds for A Prime Specimen
A Prime Specimen is currently prone to issues around the Deforester interaction:
Sometimes the consoles inside a Deforester cannot be interacted with at all, even when you appear to be the first player to arrive. In other raids, only one player can successfully use the machine, leaving everyone else without a prompt.
If you encounter a Deforester with no sparks or no interaction prompts:
- Check another Deforester location on Blue Gate in the same raid
- If all Deforesters are inactive, leave the raid and load a new instance
- Consider spawning with a lightweight kit (or free kit plus stims/Adrenaline Shots) to quickly sprint to a Deforester at the start
Because only one successful interaction seems to register per raid, reaching a functioning Deforester early significantly improves your chance of finishing the quest in fewer attempts.
