The annoying part of Apollo's storm cleanup isn't the fighting; it's finding the tiny interaction spots before some drone ruins your day. The Battening Down quest in Arc Raiders is a short early Riven Tides job, and if you're sorting your loadout through ARC Raiders Items before dropping in, don't waste slots on cameras or repair tools. Apollo just wants three things: a photo at Wavebreaker, an oil pipe fix east of it, and a shoreline sample near Hotel Panorama Azzurro. Extract alive, talk to him back in the city, and you get Hotel Keycard No. 107 plus three Smoke Grenade Traps.

How to complete Battening Down quest in Arc Raiders

Start at Wavebreaker in the northeast and push to the north end of the huge concrete seawall. You're looking for a shipping container sitting near cracked concrete, not some fancy quest prop with neon arrows. The photo prompt pops up when you're close enough, and yeah, the game handles the “camera” part for you. I burned a deployment checking my backpack like an idiot, so save yourself that little shame spiral.

For the pipe repair, go farther east from Wavebreaker until you spot two industrial pipes sticking out of the water. The spot you want is on the southern section, where the oil slick has that rainbow puddle look. Hold the interact prompt and you're done. No wrench, no parts, no weird crafting tax — which honestly feels generous for Arc Raiders.

Where is the shoreline sample near Hotel Panorama Azzurro?

The last Battening Down objective sends you to Hotel Panorama Azzurro in the northwest, but don't dig through the lobby first. Walk north from the hotel toward the water, roughly southwest of the Seabed area, and scan the edge for small seaweed piles. The sample prompt is easy to miss because it doesn't scream “quest item,” it just sits there like beach trash. In the current patch, I've finished these three steps across separate deployments, so no shot you need to force the whole run in one sweaty match.

Here's the catch: rewards don't hit until you leave through an elevator and report to Apollo. Riven Tides elevators have that ugly call delay, and the sound may as well be a dinner bell for Arc units and bored players. Clear the area first, then call it. If you're carrying a rare blueprint, play boring for thirty seconds; boring gets paid.

Powered Descender blueprint and why it matters after Battening Down

Once Battening Down opens the Azzurro hotel room path with Keycard No. 107, the loot loop gets a lot better. The Powered Descender blueprint is still RNG, but high-loot spots like Hotel Panorama Azzurro and the Port Authority Building have treated me best, especially behind locked Port Authority doors or during night raids. Crafting asks for two Power Rods from Dam Battlegrounds and one Turbine Compressor, which drops from Arc Turbine enemies or, if the loot gods are feeling spicy, Arc Couriers.

Don't pop the Powered Descender too late. It has a tiny delay before the glide kicks in, and if you hit it right above the pavement, your ankles still file a complaint. Think of it like the Photovoltaic Cloak's power meter, but for vertical panic. In Buried City, that extra air time opens up rooftop loot paths and gives you a cleaner escape when extraction turns into a clown show.

Best follow-up loot after Apollo's Riven Tides quest

After Apollo pays out, I usually farm industrial batteries and rusted gears in Buried City's mechanical zones, then swing back to Azzurro for medical merchandise and technical scrap. Fixed spawns for those mats still aren't confirmed in the current patch, so take any map pin spam with a grain of salt. Reports about missing skill points after expeditions are floating around too, but I'm not sold on whether that's a UI bug or real progression loss yet. If you're gearing for harder Riven Tides runs or browsing cheap Raiders weapons between sessions, the short version is simple: finish Battening Down early, use the keycard, and don't trust an elevator you haven't cleared first.