ARC Raiders: Where to Farm Calculators in Pendola Pass

Calculators are a Rare topside material in ARC Raiders, and you need them to push your Research Station forward. They only turn up in Technological and Electrical loot, which narrows the search considerably. Pendola Pass, the map added with the Frozen Trail update, is where they spawn most reliably, and a quiet stretch of parked train cars at the Railyard is the fastest place to grab one without fighting over it.

Quick answer: Drop into Pendola Pass and head to the Railyard. Drop under the overpass into the parked passenger cars and search every table, seat, and bag. Cielo Sereno Observatory, Old Town, and Commissary Supermarket are strong backups.

Image credit: Embark Studios via Arc Raiders wiki

What a Calculator is and what it weighs

The Calculator is a Topside Material tagged Rare. Each one weighs 0.5 kg, stacks to three, and sells for 640 Coins. Because a full stack costs you so little carry weight, there is no reason to leave any behind once you find them.

It sits in the Technological and Electrical loot categories, so it clusters around Research, Technology, and Housing points of interest. Housing spots pull their weight here too, since the item shows up in most stores and near kitchens and homes.

Trader menu with Celeste on the left, a materials grid, and a Battery tooltip beside a detail panel. — Celeste’s TRADES screen in ARC Raiders shows the Battery tooltip, an Uncommon Topside Material used to craft Energy Clip and tracked for a quest, priced at 250.

The fastest route: Railyard train cars on Pendola Pass

The Railyard sits between the Northern Tracks and the Loading Platforms, close to Almatera Station. It usually sees low player traffic, and the stationary passenger cars underneath the overpass hold Calculators along with other Outpost loot. The whole run takes a couple of minutes.

Deploy into Pendola Pass and open your map. Pick out the Railyard and set your path toward it from your drop point.

Reach the concrete ledge above the tracks and drop down into the lowered underpass section where the snowy rails run beneath the structures.

Approach the connected train cars parked under the overpass and step inside the first passenger car.

Entering Train Cars — Inside the first passenger car, where loose pickups and container bags are waiting. Shown at 00:33 in PazarGamingGuides’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Sweep the seats and tables in that first car. Calculators sit out in the open on tables, so check every surface before moving on.

Checking First Train Car — Use your flashlight to scan the seats and tabletops, where loose materials sit out in the open. Shown at 00:35 in PazarGamingGuides’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Cross the open gangway into the next car. Keep searching seats and tables here, picking up loose parts like Cooling Coils as you go.

Entering Second Train Car — The gangway between cars; keep moving through each connected car to clear the whole set. Shown at 00:44 in PazarGamingGuides’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Enter the final car and search the floor loot alongside the tables and chairs. The bags and suitcases on the ground are the ones that tend to hold a Calculator.

Checking Third Train Car — Loose bags on the car floor are the containers most likely to hold a Calculator. Shown at 01:20 in PazarGamingGuides’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Open the bag container and loot the Calculator. The item card confirms it with the Topside Material tag and the note that it is used in crafting.

Finding the Calculator — The container inventory with a Calculator selected, ready to transfer into your pack. Shown at 01:37 in PazarGamingGuides’s video. Image: Embark Studios

Other reliable Calculator spots on Pendola Pass

If the Railyard is already picked clean or you dropped elsewhere, three more locations carry dense Calculator loot. Pick whichever sits closest to your extraction route.

Location	Loot category	Threat level
Cielo Sereno Observatory	Exodus, Technological	1
Commissary Supermarket	Commercial, Medical	1
Railyard	Industrial, Mechanical	1

Cielo Sereno Observatory

This site in the northeast has a strong loot rating, with Technological and Exodus gear as its focus. Search the front section and breakroom, checking lockers, tables, and counters; after that, head upstairs to the control office, the most reliable spot for Calculators. Steel Cables and Epoxy Buckets are among the electronics available on this route. The Pendola Pass Observatory Key opens one interior door, though everything else in the facility is accessible without it.

Top-down snowy Pendola Pass destinations map with labelled areas and a legend of location categories on the right. — The Destinations map shows Pendola Pass, with a legend listing Gondola Transceiver, ARC, Mechanical, Electrical, Commercial, Medical, Industrial, Residential, Old World, Exodus, Nature and Technological, and labelled areas such as Fallen Emperor, Old Town, Railyard and Cielo Sereno Observatory.

Old Town

Old Town lies beneath the Fallen Emperor ruins and consists of flattened homes. Electronics turn up in its shops and buildings, as well as in kitchen cabinets; check the alleys too for containers and trash heaps that frequently contain loot. Clear each house completely before moving across the street to avoid retracing your route.

Commissary Supermarket

This supermarket sits centrally in Pendola Pass. Its aisles hold well-stocked shelves, and the rear storage area contains cargo and breach containers. Check each aisle, then search the stockroom.

Skulkers and Bullys can spawn inside Commissary Supermarket; stay ready for a fight as you search the aisles and back rooms.

Which containers to open

Once you are inside a building, the same container types keep paying off wherever Technological and Electrical loot gathers. Prioritize these and ignore the rest when you are low on time.

Dark skill tree screen with a tooltip for Looter's Instincts on a Survival node, marked as not reached. — The Skill Tree menu showing the Looter’s Instincts node in the Survival branch, which reveals loot faster when searching a container and has not yet been reached.

Red lockers and green wall cabinets
Office desks, bench drawers, and filing cabinets
Open tables, seats, and control consoles
Kitchen cabinets and shop shelves
Bags, suitcases, and closets on the floor

What Calculators are used for

Calculators feed Outpost and Research Station progress. The Research Station Level 2 upgrade asks for three Calculators, delivered alongside three Raider Logbooks and five Skulker Targeters. Pushing the station on toward Level 4 later unlocks the weapon amplification recipes that Calculators also support, so a surplus is never wasted.

The item also goes directly into a few crafted gadgets. Here is how those compare, with figures the recipes draw on.

Crafted item	Rarity	Weight	Sell value
Advanced Camera	Rare	0.5	1,000
Mountaineer’s Detector	Rare	1	—
Tether Launcher	Rare	5	—

The Advanced Camera is also sold by Shani for 3,000 Coins if you would rather buy than build. Both the Advanced Camera and the Tether Launcher take one Calculator per craft at their respective Utility Station recipes.

When you have more Calculators than you need, process the surplus at a bench. Recycling a Calculator returns 1 Wires and 2 Plastic Parts; salvaging one instead provides 2 Rubber Parts. Recycling an Advanced Camera or a Thermal Shaker can also produce Calculators.

Confirming the Research Station upgrade

For a Research Station upgrade, try to leave with three or more Calculators: Level 2 requires exactly that many. At the Outpost, submit them together with the other materials needed by the station. Once all requirements show green, the upgrade finishes and the following research tier becomes available. Keep upgrading toward Level 4 to access weapon amplification nodes, which also use these devices.