How to Complete The Root of the Matter in ARC Raiders — Research Building Seed Vault
The Root of the Matter is a mid-tier story/side quest in ARC Raiders that tasks you with locating a specific seed vault inside the Buried City’s Research Building — the notorious room with a great view. This guide walks you through a complete, one-run strategy: where to drop, which routes to take, how to clear and secure the vault, what enemies to expect, recommended loadouts and perks, extraction timing, and all the tiny route optimizations that turn a frustrating search into a dependable, repeatable run.
If you want to finish this quest fast, consistently, and with minimal wipes, follow the route maps and priority checklist below. The guide assumes you’re comfortable with ARC Raiders movement and general combat, but I include tips for newer players and ways to scale the approach for solo, duo, or full squads.
What this guide covers
Quick objective summary and quest requirements
Best landing zones and approach routes to the Research Building
Step-by-step navigation to the seed vault location (the room with a great view)
Enemy types and encounter notes inside the Research Building
Recommended loadouts, perks, and gear tuning for speed runs
Extraction and time-saving tricks to finish in a single run
Troubleshooting common failure points and recovery options
Frequently asked questions and answers for edge cases
Quest overview and objectives
The Root of the Matter asks you to access the Research Building within the Buried City zone and find the seed vault room known in-game as the room with a great view. The primary objectives are:
Enter the Buried City mission area (standard mission or targeted quest extraction)
Locate the Research Building on the map and access its interior
Find the seed vault chamber and interact with the vault/data console to complete the objective
Extract successfully with the mission marked as complete
You may also get optional side objectives depending on quest variations, such as retrieving additional data logs or neutralizing a named enemy in the area. This guide focuses on the core objective (finding and accessing the seed vault) with optional notes for extras.
Quick-start summary (one-run checklist)
Choose landing near Buried City access points (see Landing Zones).
Bring a balanced loadout: mobility + precision weapon + suppression/heavy for room clears.
Prioritize bypassing unnecessary fights — speed is the main objective.
Locate Research Building (use map landmarks and beeline navigation).
Clear immediate entrance, then follow room-to-room path to the room with a great view.
Interact with vault, then extract via nearest LZ or mission extraction point.
If team wipe occurs, regroup and fast-respawn where possible to minimize time loss.
Recommended player count and playstyle
Solo: Possible but requires stealthier movement and conservative fights; use recon tools and a ranged precision weapon.
Duo: Ideal balance — one player scouts/mobility, the other provides suppression/heavy to clear rooms.
Trio/Full squad: Allows for aggressive clearing; designate roles (scout, breacher, anchor) and use respawn synergy to accelerate completion.
For a fast, reliable run, I recommend playing in a duo if you can. Two players allow you to split tasks: one can clear entryways and handle heavy spawns while the other navigates interior rooms and protects the objective interaction.
Best landing zones and approach to Buried City
Knowing where to land and which entrance to use is the fastest way to reach the Research Building. Depending on mission spawns and map rotation, aim for one of these access options:
Northern Outskirts Drop: Fast approach with fewer patrolling hostiles, good for stealthy runs.
West Watchpoint LZ: Slightly farther, but gives clearer line-of-sight to Research Building rooftops for grapples or vertical entries.
Eastern Tunnels Ingress: Riskier due to chokepoints but offers quick tunnel access close to the Research Building basement.
General rule: choose the LZ that results in the shortest path with the fewest clustered enemy spawn points between you and the Research Building. If the spawns are heavy on your chosen route, swap to a secondary ingress — speed matters more than landing close and fighting through multiple elite spawns.
Recommended loadouts and gear
Successful runs lean on a balance between mobility, precision, and room-clear capability. Below are recommended choices by role and a universal secondary setup you can adapt.
Primary loadout (all players):
Mobility Gadget: Grapple Hook or short-burst dash module for vertical movement.
Primary Weapon: Precision rifle or SMG with high DPS and good hip-fire for CQB. Bolt-action rifle for single-target precision (recommended for solos).
Secondary Weapon: Shotgun or LMG for room clears.
Grenades: One concussive/flash and one fragmentation. Flash/grenade combos speed clear rooms and allow breaches.
Armor Mods: Damage reduction for head/torso and mobility boost mods to shorten traversal time.
Class-specific tweaks:
Scout/Breacher: Equip silencer options, movement perks, and a lightweight pistol for quick suppression.
Anchor/Hunker: Heavy weapon (LMG or grenade launcher) to shred groups and control choke points.
Support: Deployable shield or healing beacon to sustain quick multi-room fights.
Loadout tip: For one-run quest completion, prioritize a lightweight kit that keeps you moving and eliminates the need for time-consuming looting.
Perks and technician mods to prioritize
Movement speed and cooldown reduction perks — cut seconds when traversing between floors.
Hacking speed or interaction speed perks — if the vault console has a long animation, speed mods shave critical time.
Armor penetration or armor shred perks — the seed vault area often spawns heavily armored bots that slow progress.
Awareness tokens or enemy ping improvements — helps spot patrols and avoid combat.
Bring one or two utility mods that let you bypass or mitigate dangerous spawns: a temporary cloak or a decoy drone is very effective for slipping past patrols to the vault.
Entering the Research Building — step-by-step
Approach the Research Building via the cleared side (least patrols). Avoid the main plaza if you can — it often has patrol spawns and turret emplacements.
If available, use grapple points to enter on the upper floors. Vertical entry often bypasses the most aggressive waves on ground level.
If you must enter through the front, use a flash-concussion combo: throw a flash into the large atrium to disorient drones and sprint for the door frame.
Clear the immediate foyer and disable any alarm panels — these can trigger reinforcements if left active.
Use the interior map markers: Research Buildings in Buried City often use a consistent layout pattern. Head to the central elevator bank or stairwell that leads to the research levels. The seed vault room is near the observation area labelled the room with a great view.
Pro tip: Don't open every door. Mark doors that likely lead to vault-adjacent corridors and prioritize them. Spending time clearing every adjacent office is a time sink.
Navigating to the room with a great view
The phrase “room with a great view” is a developer shorthand for the seed vault’s observation chamber adjacent to the eastern face of the building. Use this room-to-room path:
From the main atrium, take the east corridor on the second floor.
Enter the secure lab wing (look for reinforced doors and white-red tape).
Proceed past two lab suites; the third door opens into a small antechamber with a glass wall facing the city — that is the observation avenue.
The seed vault resides behind the thick vault door beyond this antechamber.
If you find stairwells marked “Maintenance” or “Hydroponics,” you’re close; both lead into the same lab ring surrounding the observation chamber.
Movement note: These corridors spawn small patrol bots and camera turrets. Use flash grenades or drone hacks to neutralize line-of-sight devices before sprinting.
Enemy types and combat tactics inside the building
Be prepared for the following enemies inside the Research Building:
Patrol Drones: Small, fast, and lethal in numbers. Take them out with precision shots or area-of-effect grenades.
Heavy Sentinels: Slow but heavily armored units inside the vault wing. Coordinate suppression and focus-fire to neutralize quickly.
Turret Arrays: Fixed emplacements with long range. Use cover and throw EMP or hacking grenades to disable.
Experimental Biotics (if present): Human or humanoid enemies with short EMP bursts; interrupt their charge animations.
Combat tactics:
Use doorways and corners to set up choke-point fights; the narrow corridors favor shotguns and LMGs for suppression.
Save heavy ammo for the vault wing where Sentinels appear.
If you have a hacker in the squad, take a moment to disable turrets remotely — the time saved in damage taken outweighs the seconds spent hacking.
If you’re solo, rely on vertical escape routes: climb to vents or upper railings and kite heavy enemies while you reposition.
Interacting with the seed vault
Once at the vault door, follow these steps to prevent delays:
Check for pressure mines or external containment fields. If present, clear or disable them first.
Start the vault interaction and ensure at least one teammate stands cover — the interaction can be interrupted by waves.
The vault console may present a short hacking minigame or a timed data extraction. Use the fastest interaction mod available.
Once the console uploads, expect a timed extraction window or a final wave. Secure the immediate room first, then proceed to extraction.
Important: If the vault triggers a countdown, prioritize survival and regrouping — extraction is useless if the team dies during the timer. Keep one player dedicated to cover duty to maintain the interaction.
Extraction planning and fast-exit strategies
Extraction is where timed planning shines. You have three primary options depending on mission rules:
Immediate LZ Extraction: If the mission provides an immediate extraction LZ, sprint there via the rooftop access points for the fastest egress. Rooftop grapples cut travel time dramatically.
Mobile Beacons: Some mission types let you call a mobile extraction; place it in a covered rooftop to avoid being wiped by spawn clusters.
Standard mission extraction: If no fast-exit is available, run for the nearest safe corridor and hold position until the extraction safe zone opens.
Fast-exit strategy:
Before interacting with the vault, agree on the extraction route and measure distances to the LZ.
If possible, clear a path to a rooftop or elevator that bypasses congested ground-level spawns.
Use smoke or flash to cover the final sprint. Move as a unit while one player screens for flanking spawns.
Post-extraction checklist:
Confirm mission completion in the HUD before leaving the LZ. Sometimes server lag delays quest progress; wait a second before disengaging.
Timing and mission pacing — how to shave seconds
Small time savings add up; use these tips to shave crucial seconds:
Skip loot that’s clearly time-consuming or in high-risk spawn pockets. You only need the vault to complete the quest.
Use vertical movement: grapples and climb points are faster than clearing corridors.
Assign a vault-sitter: one teammate starts the vault hack while another holds point and scans for flank spawns.
Pre-plan your extraction route before interacting with the console. The act of deciding during the post-vault scramble costs precious time.
Use interaction speed perks to reduce console time. Even a 1–2 second cut helps for a run that expects minimal time margins.
Recovery strategies if things go wrong
Team wipe early: If the squad wipes prior to the vault, respawn and use the shortest route with vertical traversal to re-enter quickly.
Vault interrupted: If you’re interrupted, fallback to the nearest choke point, clear, and restart the interaction. Consider aborting the run if reinforcements are overwhelming.
Timer expires: If an extraction timer expires or you trigger mission failure, salvage what you can from the run by recording video or notes about the spawn patterns for next attempt.
Keep calm. The Buried City is designed to be dense and dangerous; consistent runs come from predictable route repetition and small adjustments based on spawn patterns.
Optional objectives and side loot
Some mission variants attach nearby data logs, extra seed samples, or a named elite. Optional objectives are great for loot but slow you down. Consider:
Taking optional data logs if you have spare time or if the mission spawn is light.
Prioritizing high-value items only: artifacts or mission-critical samples that sell well or craft pieces.
Leaving named elite fights to a later focused farm run if you want to minimize quest time.
For players aiming for completionist runs, plan for a two-pass strategy: first run completes the vault objective; second run clears everything for loot.
Advanced tactics and high-skill shortcuts
Rope-skip technique: use grapple to clip through certain observation balcony edges and drop directly into the antechamber near the vault. This requires precise timing but shaves significant time.
Drone-cam recon: deploy a small recon drone to mark turret locations and patrols before you commit to the approach.
Decoy baiting: toss a decoy into a corridor, lure patrols out, then sprint past the cleared path into the vault wing.
These moves are high-risk/high-reward. Practice in non-quest missions before using them under quest pressure.
Tips for newcomers
Don’t panic if you encounter an initial wipe. Study the spawn patterns and try a second run with a slightly altered LZ.
Practice movement in the Buried City without quest objectives to learn grapples, hop timings, and vertical shortcuts.
If you’re unsure of the building’s interior layout, explore during calm matches — the Research Building layout is consistent between runs.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Mistake: Clearing every room. Fix: Use targeted pathing—only clear what blocks your route to the vault.
Mistake: Not planning extraction. Fix: Choose extraction route before starting vault interaction.
Mistake: Overloading on heavy weapons. Fix: Choose mobility-first loadouts with one heavy option for the vault wing.
Mistake: Ignoring vertical options. Fix: Learn rooftop entries and grapple points that skip congested floors.
Replayability and farming the Research Building
If you want to farm this quest for materials or mastery:
Rotate LZs to avoid patrol-learning by the AI — mixing spawn points keeps runs fresh.
Use different class loadouts to explore varied playstyles and find the optimal solo/duo configuration.
Record runs to spot where you lose time repeatedly and script small changes to shave seconds.
Walkthrough recap — step-by-step in a bullet run
Land at the nearest low-patrol LZ to Buried City.
Move fast to the Research Building, prefer vertical rooftop entry.
Bypass heavy plaza fights; enter second-floor east corridor.
Reach the observation antechamber — the room with a great view.
Interact with seed vault console; one teammate covers.
After console completion, follow a preplanned rooftop extraction route to the LZ.
Confirm quest completion on the HUD, then extract.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly counts as the seed vault for this quest?
The seed vault is the secure chamber behind the observation antechamber known in-game as the room with a great view. It’s protected behind a reinforced vault door and usually triggers a short extraction or wave upon interaction.
Can I complete The Root of the Matter solo?
Yes. Solo completion is possible but requires careful movement, precision weapons, and a conservative approach; prioritize stealthy vertical entries and avoid unnecessary room clears.
Is there a guaranteed spawn point for the Research Building inside Buried City?
The Research Building spawns consistently in the central-eastern ring of the Buried City maps but the exact approach path and adjacent plaza spawns can vary. Familiarize yourself with the map’s main access points to plan consistent routes.
What’s the fastest weapon combination for speed runs?
A precision rifle for long-range picks and a lightweight SMG or shotgun for close quarters is ideal. Keep heavy weapons for the vault wing only.
Do I need specific perks to finish the vault?
No mandatory perks, but movement speed and interaction speed perks greatly improve run times and reduce exposure while hacking the console.
How do I deal with heavy Sentinels inside the building?
Use combined suppression and heavy fire; one player should draw aggro while the other focuses high DPS shots. EMP or armor shred perks make this fight trivial.
What should I do if the vault triggers a large enemy wave while hacking?
Designate one teammate as cover to hold the entrance while the hacker continues. If overwhelmed, abort, retreat to a nearby choke point and resume.
Is there a fast rooftop trick I can learn?
Yes, practiced grappling to observation balcony edges can let you drop directly into the antechamber. This requires precise timing but is a reliable shortcut for skilled players.
Can I still complete optional objectives during the quest without losing too much time?
Yes, pick one high-return side objective and skip the rest. If your mission run is light on spawn density you can clear additional objectives without sacrificing the main one.
Closing notes and final strategy
The Root of the Matter is as much about intelligent pathing and timing as it is about raw firepower. The fastest and most reliable runs come from repetition, vertical movement mastery, and a ruthless focus on the vault objective rather than indiscriminate looting. Use the rooftop entries, keep a vault-sitter during interactions, prioritize movement and interaction speed perks, and pre-plan extraction routes.
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