Pendola Pass is the first ARC Raiders map where a door can stop you cold — literally. Some doors freeze over and refuse every breaching trick you learned on Spaceport or Buried City. This guide is the complete rundown: what a frozen door is, the two ways to open one, which to reach for, and how to tell a frozen door apart from the Church puzzle and the Fallen Emperor's locked gate so you stop wasting a Flame Spray on the wrong barrier.
ARC Raiders - Blueprints
Get blueprints in 10 minutes
TLDR: How do you open a frozen door in ARC Raiders?
A frozen door on Pendola Pass is opened one of two ways: melt the ice with fire — the Flame Spray gadget is the reliable tool — or smash through it with your Raider Tool. Normal breaching methods do not work on an iced-over door. Flame Spray is the planned-ahead option you pack into a run; the Raider Tool is the fallback you always carry when you have no fire source. Frozen doors are not the same as the Church button puzzle or the Fallen Emperor key gate, which need a sequence and a crafted key respectively.
What is a frozen door in ARC Raiders?
Frozen doors are a Pendola Pass–exclusive barrier added with the Frozen Trail 2.0 update, which went live on October 8, 2026. On every earlier map, a closed interior door is either unlocked, breached, or behind a key. Pendola Pass adds a fourth state: iced shut. The frame is caked in frost, and the usual breach interaction simply is not offered.
Community coverage ahead of the launch summed up the design intent. The ARC Raiders Updates account — a fan channel, not an Embark Studios account — previewed it on October 5, before the map went live:
"Pendola Pass feels different from every other ARC Raiders map. One of the coolest examples is how frozen doors work. Instead of using the usual breaching methods, Raiders can melt them open with Flame Spray or another source of fire." — ARC Raiders Updates (community account)
The point is tempo. A frozen door is a small tax on your route that forces a decision: carry a fire source into a run, or commit a slower Raider Tool breach when a storm is bearing down on you. On a map where the cold can kill you for standing still, a few extra seconds at a door is a real cost.
How to open a frozen door with the Flame Spray
The go-to method is fire, and the Flame Spray is the tool built for it. Point it at the iced door and the frost melts away, opening the door without a breach charge. The developers increased the Flame Spray's range in the Frozen Trail 2.0 patch to better match its visual effect and improve usability, which also makes landing the melt on a door easier than it was on the pre-patch build.
Here is the Flame Spray's profile so you know what you are carrying:
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Uncommon Quick Use gadget (makeshift fire) |
| Damage | 10 per second |
| Durability | 100 / 100 |
| Weight | 1 kg |
| Sell value | 2,000 |
| Stack | 1 |
It is a cheap, light tool that doubles as a close-range panic weapon against the new enemies, so bringing one to Pendola Pass costs you almost nothing. You can find a Flame Spray in Raider Caches, Rigged Raider Caches, Worn Backpacks, and Supply Drops across the maps, Pendola Pass included, so you do not have to buy or craft one before every run.
The developers describe the method as Flame Spray "or another source of fire," so other fire sources are intended to thaw the door too — but the Flame Spray is the one players have confirmed on the live build, so it is the one to count on.
How to open a frozen door with the Raider Tool
No Flame Spray and no fire? Your Raider Tool is the backup. Instead of melting the ice, you smash the door open with the tool, the same multi-tool you already carry for other map interactions. ARC Raiders Hub's Frozen Trail documentary recap put it plainly:
"Frozen doors can be melted with fire or smashed with the Raider tool."
The Raider Tool method is universal — you always have the tool, so you are never fully locked out of a frozen door even on a run where you packed no fire. Treat it as the fallback for the door you did not plan for, not your default approach.
Flame Spray vs Raider Tool: which should you use?
Both open the same door, so the choice comes down to what you are already carrying.
| Factor | Flame Spray (fire) | Raider Tool (smash) |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Must loot or bring one | Always on you |
| Extra use | Doubles as a close-range fire source | General map multi-tool |
| Weight cost | 1 kg in your kit | Already equipped, no extra weight |
| Best when | You planned the route and packed fire | You got caught without a fire source |
The clean answer: if you know you are running Pendola Pass, pack a Flame Spray — it is light and cheap at 1 kg and doubles as a close-range weapon. Keep the Raider Tool smash in your back pocket for the frozen door you did not expect.
ARC Raiders - Materials
Get materials in 10 minutes
Frozen doors vs the Church puzzle vs locked rooms
This is where most players lose time: not every sealed door on Pendola Pass is a frozen door. Three different barriers look similar at a glance, and each needs a completely different solution.
Is the Church door a frozen door?
No. The Church door in Old Town is a button puzzle, not an iced door. Four lights sit above it and must all turn yellow to open. Four hidden buttons near the church must be pressed in a specific order; four symbols painted on the side of the church building show that order. Both the order and the button locations are randomized every run, so there is no memorized solution — read the symbols, find the buttons (a stack of rocks often marks one), and press in sequence. A wrong press turns the lights red and you start over. Inside are weapon cases and health kits. Fire and the Raider Tool do nothing here.
What about the Fallen Emperor and locked rooms?
Also not frozen doors. The Fallen Emperor's entrance is a key gate: you need the Emperor Gateway Conduit, a legendary key you craft from its learned blueprint plus one each of the ARC Conductive, Insulated, and Plated Couplers. The blueprint and those coupler materials come from Redirection payloads on the map. Other locked rooms behave like locked rooms on any map — they want a key, not a flame. If a door is asking for a key or showing a lock, no amount of Flame Spray will open it.
So before you waste durability: is the door iced over (frozen → fire or smash), lit with a light panel (Church puzzle → button sequence), or locked (key gate → bring the key)?
Frozen doors and the Flash Freeze
Frozen doors share the map with the Flash Freeze, the Cold-Snap-style frozen front that moves across Pendola Pass and damages anyone caught in the open without a shelter. The two combine into the map's core tension: a frozen door costs you seconds, and the Flash Freeze punishes you for spending them in the wrong place. Plan your door interactions for when the front is not on top of you, and add the door time to your mental timer for reaching the next shelter. For the full survival breakdown, see our dedicated guide below.
If the grind to kit up for Pendola Pass is eating your week, a carry can drop you into the new map already geared instead of farming the Rust Belt first:
Short on time for the new map? Skip the kit-up grind and get straight into Pendola Pass.
- ARC Raiders Frozen Trail Runs — drop into Pendola Pass with a loaded, geared raider
- ARC Raiders Frozen Trail Quest Line — clear the new questline without the trial-and-error
- ARC Operation Carry — a full carry through the toughest Frozen Trail content
Common mistakes with frozen doors
A handful of errors cost Raiders runs at Pendola Pass doors in the first week of Frozen Trail. Avoid these and the mechanic stops being a problem:
- Trying to breach an iced door. The usual breach interaction is not offered on a frozen door. If the prompt is missing, the door is iced — switch to fire or the Raider Tool instead of standing there hunting for a breach charge.
- Running Pendola Pass with no fire source. Without a Flame Spray or other fire, you are forced into the slower Raider Tool smash on every frozen door, which is exactly the wrong thing to be doing when a Flash Freeze front is closing. One 1 kg Flame Spray in your kit removes the problem.
- Confusing the three barrier types. Burning a Flame Spray on the Church puzzle or a key-gated room does nothing but waste durability and time. Read the door first: frost means fire or smash, a light panel means the button puzzle, a lock means a key.
- Opening a door into a storm. A frozen door costs you seconds of standing still. Clearing it with the Flash Freeze on top of you means taking cold damage the whole time. Open doors between fronts, or with a shelter in reach.
- Melting the ice but mistiming the entry. Thawing the door does not clear whatever is inside. Peek and clear as you would any interior room — the melt just gets you to the threshold.
Related ARC Raiders guides
- ARC Raiders Pendola Pass map guide — every POI, extract, and loot zone on the new map
- ARC Raiders Pendola Pass loot route by condition — the best route under Redirection, Flash Freeze, and Frigate
- ARC Raiders Flash Freeze survival guide — how to live through the storm and where the shelters are
FAQ
How do you open frozen doors in ARC Raiders? Melt the ice with fire — the Flame Spray weapon is the reliable tool — or smash the door open with your Raider Tool. The normal breaching methods do not work on an iced-over door.
What is the best way to open a frozen door? Fire. A Flame Spray melts the ice open without a breach charge, and its range was increased in the Frozen Trail 2.0 patch to improve usability. Pack one before you run Pendola Pass and keep the Raider Tool smash as your fallback.
Where do you get a Flame Spray in ARC Raiders? It drops from Raider Caches, Rigged Raider Caches, Worn Backpacks, and Supply Drops across the maps, including Pendola Pass. It is a 1 kg makeshift fire weapon that deals 10 damage per second and sells for 2,000.
Can you open a frozen door without a Flame Spray? Yes. Your Raider Tool smashes a frozen door open, so you are never fully locked out. It is slower and more exposed than a fire melt, so treat it as the backup when you have no fire source.
Is the Pendola Pass Church door a frozen door? No. The Church door is a button puzzle — four lights must turn yellow by pressing four hidden buttons in a randomized order shown by symbols on the church building. Fire and the Raider Tool will not open it.
Does the Flame Spray open locked rooms or the Fallen Emperor door? No. Those are key gates, not frozen doors. The Fallen Emperor needs the crafted Emperor Gateway Conduit key; locked rooms need their key. Fire only works on iced-over doors.
