ARC Raiders Bastion: Weak Points and How to Kill It

The Bastion is the heavyweight of the standard ARC roster — a quadruped “fortress on legs” that controls its patrol route with a heavy rotary cannon and absorbs almost everything thrown at its front. It is the machine most new Raiders learn to fear, and the one where positioning matters more than firepower. Treat its front plating as a wall and its rear as the only door.

Why the front does not work

Bastion’s front and side armor return near-zero damage. Pouring magazines into the torso is the most common way to waste a raid. The only places that take real damage are the yellow weak points:

• The rear canister. Destroying it peels back the rear plating and exposes an internal barrel-like component that takes a major damage multiplier per hit. This is your primary target.
• The leg joints. Each leg has yellow joint sections; breaking them staggers the Bastion briefly, opening safe windows to reposition or land more shots on the back. The enemy threat page ranks the Bastion at the top of the standard tier for a reason: it is among the highest-health machines you meet outside world bosses, and it is built to punish head-on play.

Reading the attack tell

A Bastion telegraphs. It emits a loud screech, then unloads its gatling for roughly three seconds at the last position it saw you. The screech gives you about a second to break line of sight. The loop is simple:

1. Hear the screech, get behind solid cover.
2. Wait out the three-second burst.
3. Use the two-to-three-second pause to dump damage into the rear canister or a leg joint.
4. Repeat until it is dead. Staying face-on “just a little longer” is how shields evaporate. Backpedal early and fight around its legs and rear.

The reliable solo method: a mine to the back

The cleanest solo kill does not involve trading shots at all. Deadline Mines, bought from Apollo’s shop, can be planted on the Bastion’s back after you climb above it. While you are standing on top of it, the Bastion cannot target you, and the mine finishes the fight. This is the go-to method for players farming it alone. If you prefer ranged engagement, heavy weapons built for ARC combat — the Hullcracker-class rifles sold by traders, or a budget LMG like the Torrente (crouch while firing to tighten spread) — let you work the rear canister from cover. EMP grenades can briefly suspend its defenses and open a window, but the core answer is always rear canister plus leg joints.

Why players hunt it: Bastion Cells

Each Bastion drops several Bastion Cells, and a fixed number of them upgrades the Gear Bench to the next tier. That upgrade path is the main reason organized squads seek Bastions out rather than avoiding them. If your goal is that upgrade, the mine method is both the safest and the fastest.

Squad tactics

One player kites the Bastion’s aggro while the others shred kneecaps and the rear canister from separate angles. An EMP thrown into the opening stun lets the team empty a magazine into the exposed core. Never let the whole squad stand in front of it at once.

Before you engage

Clear nearby Wasps, Hornets, and smaller ARC first. A stray unit pulling aggro mid-fight turns a manageable Bastion into a death spiral. And if you are undergeared and alone, the Scorta reward is not worth a lost raid — avoid any frontal fight and route around it. The loot priority page covers when a risky fight is worth the gear you would stake on it.