Reduced to Rubble sounds simple on paper: take a photo of a collapsed highway, then follow a trail of destruction across The Blue Gate. In practice, the first step is where many players stall. The game never explains how photos work, there is no photo mode, and the binoculars reward is easy to misread as a camera.
The quest is not bugged, and it does not use screenshots or binocular zoom. It relies on very small interaction points placed around the highway collapse and later on a wrecked ARC machine in Broken Earth.
Take a photo of the collapsed highway on The Blue Gate
The highway you need is not in Buried City. The entire Reduced to Rubble quest plays out on The Blue Gate map.
| Step | What to do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Queue into The Blue Gate | From the normal deployment flow |
| 2 | Open your map and locate “Highway Collapse” | Southwest area of The Blue Gate |
| 3 | Move to the collapsed section of the elevated road | Along the marked highway icon |
| 4 | Search for a yellow/amber interaction prompt | Near the edge of the broken span or in nearby trees |
| 5 | Stand in the prompt and press the interact key | The game auto-“takes” the photo and updates the quest |
The critical detail is that you are not manually taking a picture. You are triggering a context action.
- The point of interest on the map is labeled Highway Collapse.
- The part you actually “photograph” is on the north side of the highway, down in the gully where the road has dropped and sits at an angle.
- Interaction points appear as small yellow or amber prompts when you are in the right spot and facing the scene.
Several players report multiple valid interaction spots around the gap:
- On the broken edge of the elevated road, right at the lip of the collapse.
- Among trees near the highway, looking back at the jammed cars and the fallen section.
- On the west side of the highway, at the southern end of the map, where an amber prompt appears if you climb onto a broken piece.
In all cases, the behavior is the same: walk into the yellow/amber marker, look toward the collapse, and hold your standard interact key (for many players, this is E). A short animation plays, and the step completes.
Why screenshots and binoculars do not work
The wording of the objective pushes players toward systems that ARC Raiders does not actually use for this quest. Three common misconceptions cause most of the confusion:
| What players try | Why it fails | What actually works |
|---|---|---|
| PC/console screenshots | The quest does not track OS or platform screenshots | Only in-game interaction prompts advance the objective |
| Looking through binoculars at the collapse | Binocular zoom has no quest-specific trigger here | Standing on the exact interaction spot triggers the “photo” |
| Searching under the bridge | The prompt is placed around the broken upper roadway, not underneath | Climb onto the collapsed span or stand where you can see it from above or nearby |
The quest logic is very strict about position. Being a few meters off, even while staring at the collapse through binoculars, is not enough. The “photo” is essentially a hidden button press tied to a tiny sphere on the map.
Follow the trail of destruction through Broken Earth
Once the collapsed highway is recorded, the quest immediately shifts to the second phase: tracking a path of devastation across another part of The Blue Gate.
| Objective | Action | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Travel to Broken Earth | Move from Highway Collapse toward a new point of interest | Southeast corner of The Blue Gate, directly east of the highway |
| Follow the trail of destruction | Stay inside the carved-out ravine | Through the canyon-like terrain of Broken Earth |
| Investigate the unknown ARC machines | Interact with the marker on a massive, wrecked ARC structure | At the far end of the ravine, near the giant machine |
Broken Earth is another named area on the same map. Travel east from Highway Collapse, passing the olive grove landmark. As you approach the southeastern corner, the quest text updates to mention both Broken Earth and a “trail of destruction.”
The environment itself does the rest of the signaling. The ground opens into a ravine, with the terrain carved out as if something huge plowed through it. The intended path is to simply follow this gouged landscape forward, staying within the hollowed channel.
At the end of this path sits a giant ARC wreck. Different players describe it as a tangle of pipes, articulated legs, and exposed metal. This is the endpoint of the trail and the focus of the next interaction.
Investigate the unknown ARC machines and finish Reduced to Rubble
Near the destroyed ARC structure in Broken Earth, another context prompt appears. Instead of a camera icon, the marker uses the usual “Investigate” or interaction styling.
- Walk up to the wreck so that the prompt becomes visible.
- Align yourself until the “Investigate” marker is directly on the machine.
- Hold the interact key to inspect it.
That interaction completes the Broken Earth segment and closes out Reduced to Rubble. At that point, you are free to extract from The Blue Gate in any way you normally would.
Back at Shani, turning in the quest grants a small but useful bundle of tools:
- Zipline
- Three Barricade Kits
- Three Door Blockers
Shani then offers a follow-up assignment called With a Trace, continuing the same narrative thread that begins with the collapsed highway and ends at the ruined ARC machine.
The design of Reduced to Rubble leans heavily into subtle prompts and environmental reading instead of obvious markers. Once you treat “take a photo of the collapsed highway” as a hunt for a hidden interaction point rather than a literal photography task, the quest becomes straightforward: reach Highway Collapse on The Blue Gate, stand in the right yellow circle to trigger the shot, then ride the scar across Broken Earth to the fallen ARC colossus and investigate it.
