Keeping the Memory in ARC Raiders is a short, lore-heavy quest from Celeste that plays out in the Dam Battlegrounds. Instead of chasing loot or a high-value ARC target, you are sent to check on a First Wave memorial in the Formicai Hills, find a missing helmet, and restore it before extracting.
Keeping the Memory quest overview
Keeping the Memory comes from the trader Celeste and takes place in the Dam Battlegrounds region. It has three objectives that must all be completed in a single raid:
- Reach the wreckage in the Formicai Hills
- Search for the missing helmet
- Return the helmet to the memorial
Finishing the quest rewards:
| Reward | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Simple Gun Parts | 5 |
| Duct Tape | 5 |
| Magnet | 5 |
The mission doubles as a quiet piece of worldbuilding. Celeste’s dialogue frames the memorial as a makeshift tribute to the First Wave resistance and the people lost during those early battles against ARC.
How to reach the wreckage in the Formicai Hills
The first hurdle is simply getting credit for reaching the wreckage. Formicai Hills is a named area within Dam Battlegrounds, and the wreckage sits beside a derelict Baron Husk.
Step 1: Queue into a Dam Battlegrounds raid with Keeping the Memory active and check your initial spawn. Spawning near Formicai Hills greatly reduces travel time and helps avoid bugs tied to other players reaching the area first.
Step 2: Open the Dam Battlegrounds map and zoom in toward the southern portion of the region. Look for the small sub-area labeled “Wreckage” within the Formicai Hills zone. This is the objective location for the first step.
Step 3: Move toward the Wreckage marker. On the way, you may pass landmarks such as field depots or scrapyard-like areas; stay on course toward the “Wreckage” label rather than chasing side engagements.
Step 4: Enter the wooded clearing containing the large Derelict Baron Husk. As you close in on the husk, the “Reach the wreckage in the Formicai Hills” objective updates as completed.
Once the wreckage step is done, the quest immediately shifts focus to the missing helmet.
Where to find the helmet near the Baron Husk
After you reach the Derelict Baron Husk, the quest text updates to “Search for the missing helmet.” The helmet is close by but deliberately tucked away in vegetation.
Step 1: Stand facing the Baron Husk wreckage in the Formicai Hills clearing. From this position, turn slightly to the right-hand side of the husk.
Step 2: Walk a short distance to the right, watching for a small bush that can be interacted with. The helmet is hidden inside this bush, just off the main wreckage.
Step 3: Approach the bush until the interaction prompt appears (usually labeled to carry or pick up an item) and interact to pick up the missing helmet.
With the helmet in your hands, the quest advances to the final in-raid step: restoring it to the memorial.
How to return the helmet to the memorial
The memorial is only a few steps away from where you retrieve the helmet and is marked in a way that is easy to recognize once you know what to look for.
Step 1: From the helmet bush, walk a little further into the clearing while still carrying the helmet. Look for a slim memorial pole protruding from the ground near some wires or cabling.
Step 2: Identify the pole by the holographic projection of a helmet hovering above or around it. That hologram indicates exactly where the recovered helmet should be placed.
Step 3: Move up to the pole until the interaction prompt appears and place the helmet on the memorial. When the placement animation finishes, the “Return the helmet to the memorial” objective completes, and Keeping the Memory is marked as done for that raid.
Step 4: Leave the Formicai Hills area and make your way to an extraction point in Dam Battlegrounds. Successfully extracting is required to keep the quest progress and receive the rewards.
Common bugs and practical workarounds
Keeping the Memory can fail to progress for reasons that are unrelated to player error. Two issues come up often:
- The helmet does not appear in the bush near the Baron Husk.
- The memorial pole already has a helmet on it when you arrive, blocking interaction.
These behaviors generally indicate that another player in the same raid has already interacted with the memorial, or that the quest state failed to sync correctly.
Step 1: When loading into Dam Battlegrounds with this quest active, bring a low-risk or empty loadout. If the quest fails to progress, you can safely surrender and requeue without losing key equipment.
Step 2: Immediately check your spawn location. If you are not reasonably close to Formicai Hills, use the surrender option to exit the match and search for another raid that spawns you nearer to the objective.
Step 3: In a raid where you do spawn near Formicai Hills, sprint directly to the Baron Husk wreckage and the helmet bush. Minimize detours; the longer the raid has been running, the more likely it is that another squad has already completed the interaction.
Step 4: Pay attention to the raid timer. If more than roughly 20 minutes have passed and you find the pole already occupied or the helmet missing, treat the run as compromised for this quest and extract or surrender. Requeue and try again with a fresh match where you can reach Formicai Hills early.
These workarounds do not fix the underlying bug, but they reduce the odds of running into a state where the quest cannot complete.
Celeste, the First Wave, and the memorial’s role in the story
Keeping the Memory is framed by Celeste’s dialogue, which fills in some of the emotional background around the First Wave. She admits to having lost her temper earlier and connects that reaction to the losses and trauma that defined those first resistance efforts against ARC.
On accepting the quest, she explains that the memorial in the Formicai Hills was built for people the Raiders lost and asks you to “make sure it’s still standing.” When you enter the raid, she notes that the memorial sits beside an old First Wave wreckage and that it is as makeshift as the early resistance itself.
After you restore the helmet and successfully extract, her follow-up lines confirm that seeing the memorial is meant to put her earlier behavior in context and underline that the First Wave deserves to be remembered, even if the memorial itself is small and improvised.
One subtle detail ties the memorial into broader visual storytelling: the helmet on the pole appears to match the one from the Velati outfit. It is a quiet touch, but it helps connect gear aesthetics, character customization, and the in-world history you are asked to honor.
Once you have restored the helmet and extracted, the quest is complete, the rewards are granted, and Celeste’s questline moves on to its next step. The entire run is short on mechanics but long on context, turning a simple detour into a moment that grounds ARC Raiders’ firefights in a sense of shared history and loss.