The Frigate Inductor is the item that holds up a lot of Raiders on Research Station level 4. You only need one, it only comes from one place, and Update 2.3 changed how that place hands out loot. Many Frigate Inductor guides were written before that patch, so their grab-the-first-hatch-and-leave route needs a second look.
Quick answer (TL;DR): The Frigate Inductor is a Legendary Topside Material found only in containers aboard the ARC Frigate, a map condition that rotates between maps. It is a low-odds roll: ARC Tracker logs it in about 0.29% of all tracked raids, roughly 1 in 350, counting raids with no Frigate at all. You do not have to finish the cargo run to get one. Update 2.3.0 (October 27, 2026) raised the odds of better loot deeper in the ship, so work inward past the outer hull if you can. Put it in your Safe Pocket the moment you pick it up. You need 1 for Research Station 4, with 3 Thermal Shakers and 3 ARC Data Modules. It sells for 7,000 Coins, stacks to 1 and weighs 0.5.
Below you'll find which containers to open, how the 2.3 change affects the route, what the drop data says and what to do with a spare. New to the ship? Start with our Frigate boarding guide.
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What is the Frigate Inductor in ARC Raiders?
The Frigate Inductor is a Legendary crafting material added in Frozen Trail 2.0. Its description reads "Can be used to upgrade the research station", and that is its only use today.
Item stats from the ARC Raiders wiki and ARC Tracker:
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Rarity | Legendary |
| Type | Topside Material |
| Source | ARC Frigate only |
| Stack size | 1 |
| Weight | 0.5 |
| Sell value | 7,000 Coins |
| Recycles into | 2× Advanced ARC Powercell, 2× ARC Circuitry |
| Craftable? | No, scavenging only |
Where do you find the Frigate Inductor?
In the containers on the ARC Frigate, and nowhere else. ARC Tracker lists a single source, "ARC Frigate only". The wiki's Frigate page says the ship's containers hold mid-tier ARC loot "with a small chance for Amplification Modules, Frigate Inductors, and ARC Data".
Regular maps will not give you one, however many lockers you open. You need a raid with the ARC Frigate condition. When it is active, the map screen shows ARC Frigate under the map name.
Which maps have the Frigate?
It rotates. In the MetaForge events schedule we pulled on November 3, a Frigate slot ran every hour for 41 straight hours, on one map at a time:
| Map | Hourly Frigate slots (Nov 2 to Nov 4) |
|---|---|
| Pendola Pass | 11 |
| Dam Battlegrounds | 10 |
| Spaceport | 10 |
| Blue Gate | 6 |
| Buried City | 4 |
Treat that as a two-day snapshot. Check the in-game map screen before you load out.
Which containers can drop it?
Look for round containers set into the hull, walls and deck. Arcraidershub counts 64 of them in the game files, 56 large and 8 small. ARC Tracker's container page says some open straight away and others need a breach.
| Zone | What's there | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Hull ports | Round Breach & Search hatches in recesses along the hull and underside | Low, but contested and the outermost zone |
| Lower Atrium | Fold-out wall compartments, opened by shooting the yellow targets | Hydras and Rocketeers |
| Upper Atrium | Breachable containers in the walkway walls, plus 2 in each rear side room | Medium |
| Fire rooms | About 3 containers per room, left and right, on the Top Deck | High: timed flames and wind |
| Cargo | The dropped canister, after every power core is down | Needs a full squad |
The wiki adds that containers come in "higher concentrations in more dangerous zones", so the safest route is also the thinnest one.
Did Update 2.3 change where it drops?
It changed the odds by zone, and nobody has published by how much. The official 2.3.0 notes say this under Frigate:
"Adjusted loot distribution so areas further in have a higher chance of higher-tier rewards"
Embark doesn't say which containers count as "further in", or whether the Frigate Inductor is one of the "higher-tier rewards". Here is what we can and can't back up:
- Confirmed: areas further in now have a better chance of higher-tier loot. The Emperor got a similar change in the same patch.
- Reported, not confirmed: a player in the 2.3.0 thread wrote "Apparently the exterior containers are really bad now". That is secondhand, by their own account.
- Reported the other way: an October 31 comment says "after about 6 runs I found a frigate inductor and a Mk IV amp module in that first breech", two days earlier and after the patch. It is one report, but it suggests the outer containers are not dead.
- What the data shows: Inductors kept dropping after the patch. On Spaceport, the one map where ARC Tracker publishes a weekly trend, its rate went from 0.66% of tracked raids in the week of October 19 to 0.87% in the week of October 26, when the patch landed. It was 0.38% the week before that, so it swings a lot, and none of it says which container the item came from.
Our read: hull ports are still worth opening if they're on your way, but don't build your whole raid around them. Keep moving inward when you can.
What are the odds of finding one?
Low. Expect it to take a while.
ARC Tracker's drop statistics show the share of its logged raids that found the item. The overall figure is 0.29%. Every figure below carries its top reliability label, which means 200+ logged raids:
| Map | Share of tracked raids |
|---|---|
| Spaceport | 0.61% |
| Blue Gate | 0.45% |
| Pendola Pass | 0.28% |
| Buried City | 0.27% |
| Dam Battlegrounds | 0.24% |
Stella Montis and Riven Tides show tiny figures too, under 0.03%, but neither has a slot in the schedule above and ARC Tracker's cargo guide leaves both off its map list. The wiki does still list Riven Tides as a Frigate map.
Two cautions on the table. These numbers include every raid on the map, with or without a Frigate, and Frigate time varies by map, so your odds on a real Frigate raid are higher than the table shows. The window is also a rolling 12 weeks that starts before the item was added on October 8. That means the table can't tell you which map is best. It only tells you the item is rare everywhere.
Players back that up. One r/ArcRaiders commenter reported "around 20 runs" before finding one in the first breachable container after boarding, on a naked run. A comment in another thread sums it up: "Some of us have opened close to 100 containers on frigate and can't get one". Both predate 2.3.
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What is the best Frigate Inductor route?
This route favors container count over finishing the ship. You can run it solo with a hook or the roof route in step 5:
- Queue a map with ARC Frigate active. The ship usually appears 1 to 2 minutes into the raid and stays in one spot. No one can join after about 6 minutes, per ARC Tracker's cargo run guide.
- Run to the stern. Stay clear of the open ground under the ship: the indestructible Frigate Cannon shells groups 100 to 200 m away.
- Board on a Reclaimer. Step on one while it's low and hold Disrupt for 3 seconds to ride it up. A Grappling Hook or Snap Hook also gets you on.
- Open hull ports only if they're free. Don't queue behind other players for the outer hatches.
- Get up to the Upper Atrium. The first lift needs two Raiders holding Move Up together, and a Grappling Hook or Snap Hook bypasses it. After that, shoot the yellow wall targets and the walls fold out into a climb. One post-patch tip skips all of it: run up the wings to the roof, then drop down the small ventilation shafts near the back onto the upper walkway.
- Work the Upper Atrium. Follow the walkway and hit the wall containers, then the two breachables in each rear side room.
- Clear the fire rooms if your kit allows. Shoot the shields on the fire room core to switch off the flames. Without that, you only have time to breach a container before you have to come back and search it. One commenter reported 2 Inductors from these rooms in 8 tries before the patch.
- Pocket it and leave. Move any Inductor into your Safe Pocket immediately, then extract. Arcraidershub lost a whole haul on the deck on one run and kept only the item in its Safe Pocket.
What should you bring?
Free loadouts are disabled under the ARC Frigate condition, so anything you bring is at risk. The condition also turns off Raider Hatches, so plan your extraction, and it lowers loot value across the map.
- Almost nothing, if you only want the Inductor. The same post-patch tip says to skip the gun and shield and take 5 Adrenaline Shots and 2 or 3 smokes, then repeat until one drops. If you want to fight, pack the rest of this list.
- Grappling Hook or Snap Hook. It boards the ship and skips the lift. Bring a Snap Hook you can afford to lose, because they break.
- Powered Descender. Arcraidershub calls getting back down the hard part.
- Photoelectric Cloak. It helps against the Frigate Cannon on the approach.
- Hullcracker or Jupiter. Both suit the Hydras and armored ARC on board. Our Hydra guide covers that fight.
- Extra ammo, shields and defibs. Every creator arcraidershub tracked ran out of ammo up there.
Is the cargo run worth it for an Inductor?
Only with a coordinated squad, and not for the Inductor alone. Several steps need 2 or 3 Raiders at once, and the full route takes most of a roughly 35-minute raid. The wiki says the Cargo has a much higher frequency of Frigate Diagnostic Nodes and Amplification Modules. Neither the wiki nor ARC Tracker lists the Inductor in the Cargo specifically, and player reports split: one commenter who finished the ship got "5 frigates nodes and NONE frigate inductors in cargo", while another wrote that the final containers "have a lot of inductors". The safer reason to clear the ship is the many containers you pass on the way. If you need modules too, our Amplification Module farm guide compares the Frigate with the Emperor.
What is the Frigate Inductor used for?
One recipe, per the wiki:
| Upgrade | Materials |
|---|---|
| Research Station level 4 | 1× Frigate Inductor, 3× Thermal Shaker, 3× ARC Data Module |
ARC Tracker's hideout data also lists four Outpost rooms as a requirement. Level 4 is worth the trouble because it opens 15 weapon perks to research, at 5,000 Research Points plus ARC parts each per the wiki, and the wiki's Amplification page requires Research Station and Gunsmith level 4 before you can amplify a weapon. Our weapon Amplification guide and Research Points guide cover what to spend on first. If Gunsmith 4 is next on your list, see the Radial Press guide.
Should you sell or recycle a Frigate Inductor?
Keep your first one. Sell any others.
- Before Research Station 4: never sell it. The 7,000 Coins are not worth repeating the hunt.
- After the upgrade: it has no other use today, so sell extras at 7,000 Coins each.
- Don't recycle it. ARC Tracker values the recycled materials at 3,280, which is 3,720 less than the sell price.
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FAQ
Where is the Frigate Inductor in ARC Raiders? Only in containers aboard the ARC Frigate, during raids with the ARC Frigate map condition. It does not appear in normal map loot.
Do you need to finish the Frigate puzzle to get one? No. The containers along the ship can roll it, so you don't need to drop the cargo. Since Update 2.3.0, better loot is more likely deeper in, so opening only the outermost hatches looks like a weaker plan, though at least one player reports an Inductor from the first breachable after the patch.
Can you get a Frigate Inductor solo? Yes. Ride a Reclaimer or hook onto the ship and work the containers you can reach alone. Puzzle steps like raising the central core need 2 or 3 Raiders, but those aren't required for looting.
What is the Frigate Inductor drop rate? Embark hasn't published one. ARC Tracker logs it in about 0.29% of all tracked raids, including raids with no Frigate, so that figure is a floor and not your odds per Frigate raid.
How many Frigate Inductors do you need? One, for Research Station level 4. There's no other recipe today.
How much is a Frigate Inductor worth? It sells for 7,000 Coins. Recycling gives 2 Advanced ARC Powercells and 2 ARC Circuitry, worth 3,280, so selling is the better return.
Sources: arcraiders.com Live Update 2.3.0 notes, ARC Raiders wiki: Frigate Inductor, ARC Raiders wiki: ARC Frigate, ARC Raiders wiki: Amplified Research, ARC Tracker item data and 3D Frigate model, ARC Tracker cargo run guide, arcraidershub Frigate guide, MetaForge events schedule, r/ArcRaiders. Drop statistics aggregated November 2, 2026. Last checked November 3, 2026.
