How to farm Damaged Heat Sinks in ARC Raiders

Damaged Heat Sinks sit in an awkward spot in ARC Raiders: they’re common enough to be a basic upgrade requirement, but rare enough that you can run dozens of raids without seeing one. They’re needed to push the Utility Station from level 1 to level 2, and after that they become a valuable source of Wires and Metal Parts through recycling or salvaging.

The game treats them as Technological loot, so they appear in tech-heavy interiors – control rooms, research offices, launch towers – rather than in random trash piles. Loot is still RNG-based, but some points of interest consistently outperform others.

What Damaged Heat Sinks are used for

Damaged Heat Sink is a rare, recyclable material tagged as Technological. It has a weight of 2, stacks up to 3 per slot, and sells for 1,000 coins each.

• Workshop upgrade: 2 × Damaged Heat Sink, 5 × Electrical Components, and 6 × Snitch Scanner are required to upgrade Utility Station 1 → Utility Station 2.
• Recycling: Recycling one Damaged Heat Sink yields 2 × Wires and 6 × Metal Parts.
• Salvaging: Salvaging instead gives 3 × Wires.

Once the Utility Station upgrade is done, Damaged Heat Sinks effectively become a high-value way to convert Technological loot into basic crafting materials.

How Damaged Heat Sink spawns work

Damaged Heat Sinks are tied to the game’s Technological loot pool rather than to a specific enemy or quest. A few rules of thumb help narrow your search:

• Look for the Technological tag: On the map, this is the tech-style “microchip” icon. Any area with this tag can roll Damaged Heat Sinks.
• Prioritize high-value interiors: Control rooms, research offices, and data centers with lots of desks, terminals, and breachable containers have better odds than small side shacks.
• Expect RNG: Even in the best spots, sometimes the Technological loot table will roll something else. Plan to make several runs.

Best Damaged Heat Sink locations by map

Dam Battlegrounds: Power Generation Complex and offices

Dam Battlegrounds has several Technological points of interest, but two stand out when you need Damaged Heat Sinks quickly – the Power Generation Complex and the main office block around Research & Administration/Control Tower.

Power Generation Complex route

Step 1: Spawn into Dam Battlegrounds and move toward the Power Generation Complex. You’ll know you are close when you see high concrete walls and fenced-off electrical structures around a central building.

Step 2: Enter the complex and drop inside. You can use the interior staircase, but a faster option is to drop through one of the skylight openings into the lower level.

Step 3: In the basement, move room to room and open every basic breach container and lockbox you find. Pay special attention to low, metal tech crates and stacked containers near workstations.

Step 4: Scan every desk, console, and cart surface. Damaged Heat Sinks often appear as loose floor loot on and around terminals rather than only inside containers.

Step 5: Clear enemies carefully. The complex can spawn a sentry and crawling drones that turn the tight rooms into kill zones. Take them at range before you start looting thoroughly.

If the first basement room is dry, check the adjacent rooms: several interconnected spaces share the same Technological loot pool, so a bad roll in one can be redeemed in the next.

Research & Administration and Control Tower

Another consistent cluster sits around the main office high-rise on Dam Battlegrounds:

• Head to the Research & Administration building and climb to the upper floors.
• Focus on office areas packed with computer workstations.
• Open every basic breach container and check desktops, filing cabinets, and carts.

Nearby, the Control Tower shares the same Technological flavor – but parts of it may be locked behind keys, which limits how many containers you can access without extra prep.

Water Treatment offices on this map are another small but relevant tech pocket, especially the office spaces “where the Fireballs hang out.” It’s not as rich as the complex, but it’s a solid stop if your route already passes through.

Spaceport: Launch Tower and Trench Towers

Spaceport is one of the strongest overall maps for Damaged Heat Sinks, but it’s also among the most hostile for PvP. Many players treat it as a hot-drop zone, especially around the central structures.

Launch Tower (best single farm)

Launch Tower sits at the dead center of Spaceport and is the standout location for focused Damaged Heat Sink farming.

Step 1: From any spawn, move toward the massive skeletal tower in the middle of the map – this is Launch Tower.

Step 2: Enter the frame and ride the internal ziplines up. If a loot event is active here, you may need to locate a battery and power a generator inside the tower to enable the ziplines.

Step 3: At the top, enter the double-sided control room. This area is dense with breachable containers, desks, and terminals.

Step 4: Open every container you can and sweep both sides of the control room. Damaged Heat Sinks often spawn:

• On top of terminals and consoles on either side of the room.
• On metal carts between workstations.
• Inside basic breach containers near the windows.

Step 5: Once you finish the top, re-check connecting corridors and any side rooms for extra containers, then head to extraction – staying too long in central Spaceport dramatically raises your risk of being ambushed.

Well-rolled Launch Tower runs regularly produce 2–4 Damaged Heat Sinks in a single raid, making it one of the most time-efficient farms.

North and South Trench Towers

If central Spaceport is too busy, shift to the North Trench Tower and South Trench Tower in the northern part of the map:

• They are smaller, so there are fewer total containers, but the loot pool is still Technological.
• The area attracts fewer human players and fewer ARC patrols than the central hub, which makes it more manageable for solo raids.
• Focus on interior levels with terminals and any breachable crates.

Spaceport also offers Technological opportunities in the Arrival Building, Departure Building, and Control Tower A6. These are useful if your spawn puts you far from Launch Tower or if you want to chain multiple tech POIs before extracting.

The Blue Gate: Pilgrim’s Peak and other tech pockets

The Blue Gate is less dense with Technological areas than Spaceport, but it has one standout location: Pilgrim’s Peak in the northeast corner.

Pilgrim’s Peak has two distinct parts:

• A visible surface tower.
• A large underground bunker beneath it.

The underground section is the more important part for Damaged Heat Sinks. It includes:

• Long corridors lined with breachable containers.
• Control rooms and storage with desks, carts, and tech crates.

Run the bunker interior slowly, opening every basic container and checking floor loot around the computers. Getting three Damaged Heat Sinks in a single Pilgrim’s Peak run is entirely possible when RNG cooperates.

Elsewhere on The Blue Gate, Ancient Fort, Reinforced Reception, and the Security Wing offer smaller Technological hotspots worth looting if they sit on your route toward or away from Pilgrim’s Peak.

Buried City: Research blocks and Space Travel building

Buried City’s best Damaged Heat Sink farms are split between research facilities and a space-travel-themed tower.

• Research areas: Any multi-floor office or lab complex marked with the Technological icon is worth a pass. Prioritize floors with open-plan offices and rows of PCs.
• Space Travel building: This structure performs especially well from roughly the fourth to sixth floors, where computer clusters are densest.

Space Travel building route

Step 1: Move to the Space Travel POI and enter the main lobby.

Step 2: Climb to the mid-upper floors (4–6). Use stairs, elevators, or internal traversal tools depending on layout.

Step 3: Clear enemies, then methodically check each office row. Open breachable containers and scan all desktops, shelves, and carts near the computers.

Step 4: Once these floors are clean, you can decide whether to keep climbing or extract. For pure Heat Sink farming, looping 4–6 quickly tends to be most efficient.

Stella Montis: tech-dense but PvP-heavy

Stella Montis is effectively “all-in” on Technological loot. Almost every major named area carries the Technological tag, including:

• Assembly
• Assembly Workshops
• Communications
• Lobby and Lobby Metro
• Medical Research
• Sandbox

That density makes Stella Montis a strong map if you want Heat Sinks while working on multiple quests or farming general tech loot. The tradeoff is player density: Stella Montis is notorious as a PvP hotspot, so you’re effectively choosing more Damaged Heat Sink rolls at the cost of higher risk.

A practical approach here is to pick a short loop – for example, Lobby → Communications → Medical Research – and commit to early extractions once your backpack has a couple of Damaged Heat Sinks or other high-value items.

General tips for safer and faster Damaged Heat Sink farming

• Commit one run to “empty pockets”: Go in with a free loadout or cheap kit, bee-line to your chosen Technological POI (Launch Tower, Power Generation Complex, Pilgrim’s Peak, etc.), and extract as soon as you have 2–3 Damaged Heat Sinks.
• Loot surfaces, not only containers: Many players open crates and immediately leave. Desks, carts, and terminals often hide Heat Sinks that others miss.
• Use quieter tech spots when solo: North/South Trench Towers, Pilgrim’s Peak, and Dam’s Power Generation Complex tend to be less chaotic than central Spaceport or inner Stella Montis.
• Watch your weight: Each Damaged Heat Sink weighs 2. Combine that with other tech loot and your carry weight climbs quickly, putting you at risk in firefights.

Once your Utility Station hits level 2 and you’ve stockpiled a few extra Damaged Heat Sinks, they become a convenient way to backfill Wires and Metal Parts. Until then, treat them like priority loot: plan a route around one or two of these Technological hotspots, get in, clear the desks and tech crates, and get out.