Since the Frozen Trail update landed on 8 October, ARC Raiders has hidden the wreck of an Emperor, a giant ARC machine, above the village on the Pendola Pass map. You can get inside it, and it holds the most sought-after item in the game right now: the Emperor Modulator, which you need to take your Gunsmith to level 4. Getting in means crafting a key first, the Emperor Gateway Conduit, from parts that only drop during one specific map condition. The modulator is never guaranteed once you’re in, so it pays to know where to look and what to bring, from the first beacon all the way to extraction.
At a glance
The Emperor Modulator takes the Gunsmith to level 4, alongside 3 Radial Presses and 3 Magnetic Accelerators.
To get inside the Emperor, you need to craft the Emperor Gateway Conduit at the Workbench.
The Conduit blueprint and its three couplers drop from Harvester Payloads during the Redirection condition.
Why the Emperor Modulator matters so much in ARC Raiders
In ARC Raiders, the Emperor Modulator is a legendary material worth 7,000 coins. Its in-game description is short: it lets you upgrade the Gunsmith station. Taking the Gunsmith to level 4 costs 3 Radial Presses, 3 Magnetic Accelerators and one Emperor Modulator. That level unlocks crafting for Amplified weapons, the big endgame system Frozen Trail brought to ARC Raiders.
In its Frozen Trail announcement on Steam, Embark Studios pitches weapon amplification as a way to reinvent familiar guns, from a fully automatic Burletta to a scoped Renegade or a Rattler firing incendiary rounds. Fifteen weapons support it for now. If you’re unsure which ones to upgrade first, our tier list of the best weapons after Frozen Trail should help.
Crafting the Emperor Gateway Conduit
It all starts with Redirection, a new ARC Raiders map condition on Pendola Pass. It isn’t active all the time, so keep an eye on the map selection screen. Arka Sarkar sets out the process in his Emperor guide for Destructoid: while Redirection is running, damaged Emperor relays appear on the map, easy to spot thanks to their red beam. Interact with one and you’ll pick up an Emperor Beacon.
Drop the beacon in an open area and back off, because a Harvester Payload will come crashing down on that spot. Search the large central container sticking out of the ground. That’s where the Conduit blueprint and the three couplers needed to craft it drop, at random. Since it all comes down to luck, you may need to repeat the process a few times to collect the full set.
The recipe calls for one of each coupler: the ARC Conductive Coupler, the ARC Insulated Coupler and the ARC Plated Coupler. You then craft the Conduit at the ARC Raiders Workbench, with no upgrade required. Celeste’s quests, covered in our Pendola Pass quests guide, also have you search a first Harvester Payload at the foot of the Emperor. There’s a riskier shortcut too: slipping through a door another Raider has opened, as Sean Martin suggests in his guide for PC Gamer.
The ARC Raiders loadout to bring inside
In his guide to finding the modulator, Sean Martin calls the Snap Hook essential for the platforming sections, with a Grappling Hook as a backup in case it breaks. He also recommends an Anvil or a Renegade to destroy the yellow nodes that drive some of the puzzles, and a Hullcracker for the Hydra turrets. A Rascal will do the job too, just a little more slowly.
Bring plenty of healing and Shield Rechargers as well, since this ARC Raiders dungeon is full of hazards. A looting setup with space to spare and Safe Pockets makes all the difference, because it keeps the modulator secure if you go down before extraction, as both guides point out.
Inside the Emperor: the rooms and where to look
The entrance sits at the base of the Emperor, towards the west of Pendola Pass. According to PC Gamer, the opening is always the same: a corridor guarded by a Hydra turret, then an electrified lift you make safe by destroying yellow nodes. After that, the layout changes from one run to the next.
Among the rooms described, one is full of pillars and makes you destroy nodes to lower a pillar you can then ride up, another closes its walls in on you while a gas drains your stamina, and a Hydra room has to be crossed with the Snap Hook. PC Gamer places the Emperor Modulator in the final loot room, while Destructoid stresses that no spot is guaranteed, so search every container and pod you find. The containers along the way also hold Amplification Modules, which you’ll want for Amplified weapons in ARC Raiders. Watch out for the red ones, though, as they explode a few seconds after you open them.
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