Let's be real: hitting the 100K damage milestone in a single ARC Raiders expedition is a massive flex. It's the kind of number that requires an intensely optimized squad, a mountain of high-tier resources, and a lobby that cooperates just right. However, even if you don't hit the perfect six-figure ceiling on your first try, you can comfortably pull in 20K to 50K damage per round using the right methods.
The best part about grinding out this damage challenge? Progress counts even if you don't make it to the extraction chopper. Damage is entirely cumulative, meaning you can leave your cautious, survival-first mindset at the door. You are free to play with high-risk, maximum-velocity aggression, burning through your resources and picking fights with the biggest ARC units on the map without worrying about losing your hard-earned progress upon a failed extraction.
The Ultimate Damage Loadout
Before heading into the match, stop hoarding your stash. Burn through your accumulated materials or spend your bank currency to build a high-tier, heavy-hitting kit designed specifically for raw damage output:
Primary Weapon: Hullcracker or Jupiter. The Hullcracker is the undisputed meta weapon for this challenge. It effortlessly shreds large ARC health bars.
Secondary Weapon: Renegade or Bettina. Aim for Tier IV versions equipped with extended barrels and a Kinetic Converter.
Gadgets & Throwables: Deadlines and Wolfpacks. Throwing a Deadline at a pinned ARC unit can instantly chunk nearly 2K points of damage in a single flash.
Ammunition: Do not skimp here. Pack at least 4 to 5 full stacks of heavy/launcher ammo. Treat this run as a total resource dump.
Strategy 1: The Queen & Matriarch Raid Meltdown
If you want high-density damage numbers as fast as humanly possible, farming the massive world bosses is your absolute best bet. These encounters are loud, chaotic, and packed with health pools ripe for farming.
Aim for the Body, Not the Legs: When you are going face-to-face with the Queen, ignore your usual tactical instincts. Instead of focusing on her legs to bring her down, aim your Hullcracker directly down the middle at her main body. This ensures you maximize pure, raw damage output per shot without prematurely ending phases.
Farm the Matriarch Spawns: While the Queen is great, many experienced players actually prefer the Matriarch event for this challenge. The Matriarch consistently spawns an endless wave of smaller, high-health heavy ARC enemies. You will get a non-stop influx of Bastions, Bombardiers, Rocketeers, and Leapers to pump ammo into.
Maximize Enemy Call-ins: Keep an eye out for Snitches during the chaos. Use a Renegade to shoot a Snitch just enough until it starts smoking, but do not kill it right away. Let it live long enough to call in reinforcements. As the ARC dropships fly in, blow them up before the units can even scatter onto the ground for massive AOE damage numbers.
Strategy 2: High-Ground Camping on Riven Tides (Solo or Group)
World bosses are great, but those lobbies can get incredibly overcrowded or heavily contested by other aggressive squads. If you want a more controlled environment to farm your damage, you can run standard matches efficiently on Riven Tides, whether you are playing solo or in a group.
The Vantage Point Control: Load into the Riven Tides map and immediately lock down high-ground positions. Head straight to the top of the Hotel, the Port Authority building, or the Stacking Yard. These spots give you clear lines of sight across massive spawn zones, allowing you to rain down heavy launcher fire on rotating ARC squads with minimal risk.
The Wharf Hatch Grind: If the high ground isn't your style, head over to the Wharf Hatch. This localized sector is notorious for its continuous, highly aggressive respawns of tanky targets. You can effectively camp this area to farm back-to-back spawns of Bastions and Vaporizers.
Prolong the Match: Don't forget to pack a Raider Hatch Key. Bringing a key allows you to stay in the session significantly longer than other teams who are rushing to the standard extractions. This gives you exclusive access to milk the late-game spawns when the map gets chaotic and high-health targets become more frequent.
Strategy 3: Drop-and-Bait Eco Farming
Let's say you're running low on launcher ammo or your bank currency is looking a little light. You don't need a premium loadout to put up respectably high numbers if you turn the ARC's own technology against them via explosive chain reactions.
Collect the Fuel: Hunt down smaller, fragile targets like Wasps or Fireballs. Eliminate them and scoop up the Fusion Drives and Energy Cores they drop on the ground. Instead of slotting them away, carry them to a choke point where you can lure a massive enemy, like a Shredder.
Set the Trap: Drop two or three of these collected Drives right at your feet in a tight cluster, then back away to a safe distance.
Trigger the Blast: The moment the heavy ARC unit steps directly over your makeshift pile, throw an Impact Grenade or detonate an Explosive Mine on top of it. The resulting chain reaction triggers a massive, high-damage explosion that chunks the target's health bar and inflates your match total instantly without costing you a fortune in heavy ammo.