How to find and kill Arc Raiders Bastions

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Spawn locations
Weaknesses and strategies

The Arc Raiders Bastions are one of the most powerful robots in the whole game, but if you want Bastion Cells then you'll need to kill these giant minibosses, and find them. Bastions are somewhat unpredictable to find, as their spawns are mostly interchangeable with the equally destructive Bombardiers, but there's one place where they seem to reliably spawn at time of writing: Stella Montis. I'll explain where to find Bastions and get their Cells, as well as what you need to do to kill them, including information on their weaknesses.

Bastion spawn locations

Bastions can spawn in numerous locations, but the only guarantee that we've seen is the lower Loading Bay area in the central Arc Raiders Stella Montis map. I've been here multiple times and every time there's one Bastion in the lower section. Conveniently though, you can shoot at it from the upper levels where it's harder for it to reach you, an advantage you won't get on most maps. It can still fire in your direction, but there's a lot of cover and it's easy to retreat back to heal and apply shields again. If there's a better spot to hunt them in Arc Raiders, I've never found it.

Bastion weaknesses and strategies

Bastions have two specific weaknesses: the yellow joints on their legs, and the canister on their back. You'll want to target both sections with explosives or armor-piercing attacks, as destroying these points will stun the Bastion and do significant damage, as well as removing sections of armor. If you can destroy their back canister, you can actually reveal a large tank beneath that's an even more effective weak spot, doing major damage to the Bastion when destroyed.

Otherwise you'll want to use heavy-duty weapons, as well as fire attacks, as the slow Bastion will struggle to dodge or move out of areas that are ablaze. Any of the following Arc Raiders weapons and equipment would be good to bring with you if you're hunting Bastions:

Guns
- Anvil
- Aphelion
- Bettina
- Ferro
- Hullcracker
Explosives
- Blaze Grenade
- Deadline
- Explosive Mine
- Heavy Fuze Grenade
- Jolt Mine
- Snap Blast Grenade
- Trigger 'Nade
- Wolfpack

Once eventually destroyed, make sure you check all the pieces! The rare Bastion Cells can appear several times per slain Bastion, so if you overlook a chunk of metal, you might get less than your full reward.

Assuming you want to upgrade the Gear Bench to level 3, you'll need Six Bastion Cells. If you aren't sharing with any teammates, this means you'll need to kill at least two Bastions and fully harvest their parts.

Get our help with quests and missions! We've got walkthroughs for the Arc Raiders A Lay of the Land job if you're in Spaceport, or find out how to do the Arc Raiders Keeping the Memory quest if you're in Dam Battlegrounds!

CATEGORIES

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.

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