The “Reduced to Rubble” quest in Arc Raiders asks you to “follow the trail of destruction through the Broken Earth” on the Blue Gate map. The wording sounds simple, but many players get stuck because Broken Earth is both a named landmark and a wider ruined area, and the trail runs in the opposite direction to what the terrain suggests.
Where Broken Earth is on the Blue Gate map
Broken Earth is a point of interest in the eastern half of Blue Gate. It sits between several familiar locations:
- West of Ridgeline
- East of Olive Grove
- Directly east of the Maintenance Bunker
On the map, look for the “Broken Earth” label slightly west-southwest of Ridgeline. The quest text uses “the Broken Earth” as a proper name, not a generic description of rubble, so you are expected to head toward that specific label rather than search any random destroyed area.
How the “trail of destruction” objective actually works
The confusing part is direction. The environment near Highway Collapse looks like something came down the dried riverbed and smashed through the highway. Naturally, many players try to follow that trench downhill or west, away from Broken Earth, and never see the quest update.
The quest logic is the opposite. The “trail” is essentially an invisible line that runs from Broken Earth toward Ridgeline, not from the highway down the valley. You are not tracing debris from the highway back to its source. Instead, you are moving forward along the path that leads out of Broken Earth and up into the hills toward a wrecked Arc machine.
In practice, you complete the objective by reaching a specific machine east of Broken Earth and interacting with it. The game treats that route as having “followed the trail of destruction,” even if the visual storytelling suggests the impact came from the other way.
Follow the destruction through Broken Earth
Step 1: Start from the Broken Earth landmark on Blue Gate. Whether you arrive from Highway Collapse via Olive Grove or spawn closer to the east side of the map, make sure you are inside the area where “Broken Earth” appears as a named location on your HUD and map.
Step 2: From the center of Broken Earth, turn so you are facing generally northeast, in the direction of Ridgeline. Players often instinctively run downhill or west; ignore the slope and the carved trench and instead head uphill away from them.
Step 3: Move up the hill toward the large circular structure made of scrap and metal on the ridgeline. This sits roughly halfway between the Broken Earth and Ridgeline labels, and directly east of the Maintenance Bunker marker.
Step 4: As you get close to this scrap ring and the ruined Arc hardware around it, your objective will update to tell you to investigate unknown Arc machines. Keep climbing until you reach the large, dilapidated Arc machine on the grassy hilltop.
Step 5: Approach the base of the big Arc machine. When you are in the correct spot, an interaction prompt appears to investigate. Use the interact input to complete the investigation. This finishes the “follow the trail of destruction through the Broken Earth” portion of “Reduced to Rubble.” Extraction is not required for the quest to count once this interaction is done.
How this ties into the collapsed highway photo objective
The Broken Earth section is the second half of “Reduced to Rubble.” The first half asks you to “take a photo” of the collapsed highway at Highway Collapse, also on Blue Gate. There is no separate camera item; you simply interact with a world prompt in the right spot.
That prompt is on the west side of Highway Collapse, slightly north of the “Highway Collapse” text on the map. Stand by the broken edge of the highway between a tree and a rock, facing the collapsed span and overturned vehicles, and use the “take photo” interaction when it appears.
Once the photo is taken, the quest directs you toward Broken Earth. If you are trying to do both steps in one deployment, travel east from Highway Collapse, pass through Olive Grove, enter Broken Earth from the west, then follow the steps above toward the scrap ring and Arc machine near Ridgeline.
The main pitfalls are treating “Broken Earth” as a generic description instead of a named landmark, and following the terrain downhill instead of running from Broken Earth toward Ridgeline. As soon as you correct both, the trail of destruction objective resolves quickly.
