ARC Raiders Research Points: where to farm them and how to turn them in

Nothing in ARC Raiders tells you where Research Points come from. The number at the Research Station sits on zero, your stash fills up with paperbacks, and you assume they’re vendor fodder like the rest of the junk in there (I assumed that for a good while, and I’m not proud of it). They’re not junk. Every one of them is worth Research Points, so here they are in order of what they pay.

Which items give Research Points

None of them can be recycled, so it’s study them or sell them. They all sell fine for coins, but coins don’t unlock blueprints, which is the entire point of the exercise.

How to turn items into Research Points

Extract with the item first (you can’t study something you left on the floor of the raid). Back in the stash, right click it and pick Study, or open the Research Station, hit Acquire Research Points and choose what to hand in. Same result either way, so use whichever your hand finds first.

One catch: no Outpost means no Research Station, and the Outpost comes from the Sheltered Retreat project. If you can’t find the station, that’s why.

Where to farm Research Points

None of these is a guaranteed spawn, but this is the order I’d go in.

Every ARC machine you kill. This is the one I do every run, so it goes first. Data Modules come out of ARC, and probes, couriers and harvesters can be carrying them in their containers. I check every wreck now. It costs ten seconds, and a 200 point module is the cheapest thing on that table.

Pendola Pass for books. Old Town’s house interiors are where I find the paperbacks and logbooks, and the Observatory is the place to look for the Exodus handbooks. If I want books, that’s the map I pick.

The Frigate, when it’s up. This is the big one at 1,000 a Node, and you won’t walk off with one every run. Nodes only drop while the Frigate condition is active, and they come out of the round breach-and-search containers on the ship (plus the odd ARC Data Module). Getting up there is a squad job and a half, and our Frigate guide has the whole climb, because I’m not retyping it here.

The Emperor. The inside of it is one of the richest places on the map and an absolute pain in the arse to get into. You need the Redirection condition active, a beacon off a damaged Emperor relay, and a Gateway Conduit crafted from three different couplers. Dessert, not the meal.

Everywhere else. Paperbacks, logbooks and handbooks drop on every map, so loot the way you normally do and open the containers other people skip.

What to spend Research Points on

Weapon perks first, for the guns you actually run. They’re 5,000 each at Level 4, so that’s where most of your points will go. Blueprints that change your kit come next, and furniture Designs go dead last, since they do nothing in a raid.

The Grappling Hook Blueprint is a cheap early one at 2,000 Research Points and 10 Rope, and it’s the only thing in this list that lets you climb a building. Worth it just for that.

More ARC Raiders guides are on the hub.