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To unlock the Outpost in ARC Raiders, the Sheltered Retreat project asks for 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components, alongside a photo objective and two combat objectives. Industrial areas are the reported route for Planks and Sheet Metal; ARC enemies and Electrical POIs are the reported sources for the other two materials. Room expansion and Research Station upgrades use separate recipes, so check each live upgrade screen before you set out.
What you need to unlock the Outpost
The unlock is a three-part Sheltered Retreat project. Dot Esports’ guide, updated October 8, 2026, reports these objectives:
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- Photograph a farmland house. Find any farmland house around Ruined Homestead on Blue Gate and take its photo. The guide says you can buy a camera from Shani or obtain one through the Sizing Things Up quest.
- Submit the building materials. Turn in 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components.
- Complete the combat objectives. Deal 800 damage to flying ARC enemies and 300 damage to the Bully.
The material turn-in is only one stage of the project. Plan for the photography and combat tasks as well; collecting the four item types does not, by itself, unlock the Outpost.
Think of the project as a checklist with three different kinds of work: an exploration/photo task, a material deposit, and damage requirements. The quantities in the material list are the reported turn-in amounts, not a suggested stockpile for every later upgrade. If you want to build rooms or advance the Research Station too, those have separate costs below.
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The photo requirement is specific to a farmland house around Ruined Homestead on Blue Gate. The reported camera options are to buy one from Shani or get one through Sizing Things Up. If you are not sure whether you already have access to a camera, check your quest progress and inventory before making a separate trip. The source does not describe a substitute location or another photo target, so use the project wording and the Ruined Homestead area as your guide.
The combat portion is also separate from collecting materials: the project calls for 800 damage to flying ARC enemies and 300 damage to the Bully. Those are damage targets, not counts of enemies to defeat. The guide does not say that a particular weapon, map route, or number of encounters is required, so avoid planning around an assumed kill count. Check the project tracker as you progress and make sure both damage objectives are complete.
Where to find each Sheltered Retreat material
The locations below are routes reported by current game guides, not guaranteed spawns. Containers and vendor inventories can vary, and the Outpost arrived with the October 8, 2026 Frozen Trail 2.0 update, so check the live map and vendor stock if a route no longer matches your game.
| Material | Amount for unlock | Reported source or route | Practical note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planks | 3 | Industrial POIs; Stacking Yard and Customs House on Riven Tides; residential areas in southern Buried City. Celeste sells them for 3 Assorted Seeds each. | Containers can hold Planks. Industrial areas are described as a more reliable loot route; the seed purchase is an alternative if Celeste has stock and you have seeds. |
| Sheet Metal | 5 | Industrial POIs; Stacking Yard and Customs House on Riven Tides; residential areas in southern Buried City. Celeste sells it for 3 Assorted Seeds per piece. | Like Planks, it can appear in containers. Confirm stock before relying on the vendor route. |
| ARC Alloy | 10 | Uncommon drop from Wasps, Hornets, and other lower-level ARC enemies. | This is a combat drop rather than a vendor purchase in the reported guide. Enemy encounters add risk, so avoid treating a specific drop count as guaranteed per run. |
| Advanced Electrical Components | 3 | Rare item reported in Electrical POIs. | The guide identifies the POI type and rarity, but does not establish a guaranteed spawn location or quantity. |
Dot Esports identifies Industrial POIs as a useful way to pursue both Planks and Sheet Metal in one outing. That is a practical overlap, not a quantified guarantee that a run will yield enough of either material. The Celeste option trades Assorted Seeds for either building material at 3 seeds apiece; buying all 3 Planks and 5 Sheet Metal would therefore cost 24 Assorted Seeds, if all eight are in stock.
Planks and Sheet Metal: loot both, or spend seeds
For these two building materials, the choice is between looking through containers and using Celeste’s reported offer. Industrial POIs are the guide-recommended loot focus, with Stacking Yard and Customs House on Riven Tides named as examples. Southern Buried City residential areas are another possible route. The guide calls containers a source, but does not promise a particular container, room, or quantity, so treat a visit as a chance to find the items rather than a guaranteed pickup.
The vendor arithmetic is straightforward: at 3 Assorted Seeds per piece, 3 Planks cost 9 seeds and 5 Sheet Metal cost 15, for 24 seeds total. That only covers the eight pieces needed for the initial Sheltered Retreat material deposit. The room recipes later in this guide call for another 20 Sheet Metal per room; the same per-piece price would make 60 seeds for the Sheet Metal in one room’s recipe if Celeste sells it at that price and has enough in stock. Do not assume the vendor has unlimited stock or that the price applies to other materials.
If you already have the right materials, depositing them avoids a detour to Celeste. If your inventory is short, check her stock before committing to a loot route; an incomplete vendor supply may still leave you needing containers. Conversely, if seeds matter more to you or stock is unavailable, target the reported POIs and residential areas. The sources do not provide drop-rate or run-time comparisons, so there is no supported basis for declaring one method always faster.
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The unlock needs 10 ARC Alloy. Dot Esports describes it as an Uncommon drop from Wasps, Hornets, and other lower-level ARC enemies. That gives you a general enemy category to pursue, but not a fixed number of enemies or a guaranteed amount per encounter. A route centered on these drops also involves combat, so weigh the extra exposure against the fact that the project separately asks for damage to flying ARC enemies and the Bully. You may be able to make progress on the flying-enemy damage objective while pursuing Alloy, but the guide does not promise that the same encounters will provide enough Alloy or complete the objective.
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Advanced Electrical Components: search Electrical POIs
Three Advanced Electrical Components are required, and the reported source is Electrical POIs. The item is described as Rare. The guide does not name a specific room or container and does not give a guaranteed quantity per visit. That means it is sensible to make the POI type your search priority while keeping the objective amount in view, rather than assuming the first Electrical POI will supply all three.
For a quick comparison, the two building materials have both a reported vendor option and overlapping loot routes; ARC Alloy is described as a lower-level ARC enemy drop; and Advanced Electrical Components are associated with Electrical POIs and called Rare. Only Planks and Sheet Metal have an explicit seed price in the cited guide. Do not extrapolate that price to the components or assume that one route yields every required material.
How to plan the material run
Check the project and vendor first
Use the Sheltered Retreat project requirements as your checklist, then check Celeste’s current stock before spending time on a route. The reported vendor price is per material, not for the full project. If stock is short or you would rather keep seeds, target containers in Industrial POIs such as Stacking Yard or Customs House on Riven Tides. Southern Buried City residential areas are another reported possibility for Planks and Sheet Metal.
Before leaving, compare what you already own with the four project amounts: 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components. Count only what the project needs for this stage if you are trying to unlock the Outpost quickly. If you are also saving for an expansion or station level, write down those additional recipes separately so you do not mistake an unlock deposit for the full upgrade budget.
Separate the loot and combat objectives
Planks and Sheet Metal are reported as container loot, while ARC Alloy comes from ARC enemies and Advanced Electrical Components are associated with Electrical POIs. You may collect items while progressing other objectives, but the sources do not establish a single route that reliably yields all four materials. Treat each run as an opportunity, not a guaranteed full shopping list.
A reasonable plan is to pursue the overlapping building-material route first if you need both Planks and Sheet Metal, then use the remaining shortages to decide whether you need an enemy-focused outing or an Electrical POI search. This is a way to organize the known sources, not a proven optimal route: the guides do not give comparative success rates, spawn guarantees, or a map sequence that combines them. If you see Celeste has the pieces you need, buying them can reduce the amount of container searching, but it cannot solve the Alloy or electrical-component requirements.
Once the items are collected, submit the exact quantities requested by Sheltered Retreat. Keep any extra materials you find if you expect to work on room or station upgrades; those later recipes are distinct from the unlock turn-in.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteAfter depositing the materials, verify that the project tracker has registered the task before setting out for the photo or damage objectives. The three stages are all part of the unlock, and progress in one does not erase the others. The October 8 guide lists the photo, material deposit, and damage goals as the project’s requirements; it does not describe the material deposit as an optional shortcut.
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Room expansion costs
Beebom’s October 9, 2026 Outpost guide reports the same recipe for each of the three named rooms:
| Room | Reported cost |
|---|---|
| Panoramic Room | 3 Steel Cables, 20 Sheet Metal, 3 Cable Strippers |
| Timeless Room | 3 Steel Cables, 20 Sheet Metal, 3 Cable Strippers |
| Chalet Room | 3 Steel Cables, 20 Sheet Metal, 3 Cable Strippers |
These are reported per-room costs, not a single cost for all three. If you plan to build all three, the arithmetic total is 9 Steel Cables, 60 Sheet Metal, and 9 Cable Strippers. The available guide does not establish where Steel Cables or Cable Strippers are best found, so do not assume the Industrial POI advice for Planks and Sheet Metal applies to those items. Confirm the recipe in the live Outpost menu before depositing materials, particularly if you are choosing between rooms or saving parts for another upgrade.
Sheet Metal is the overlap between the initial unlock and the reported room recipes. If you build one room after unlocking, its 20 Sheet Metal is in addition to the 5 pieces required by Sheltered Retreat; all three rooms would require 60 pieces for rooms alone, or 65 when you include the unlock. That total does not include other uses or any recipe changes. Steel Cables and Cable Strippers are not part of the initial turn-in list, so keep their room costs separate from your four-item unlock checklist.
The reported recipe is identical for Panoramic, Timeless, and Chalet, so the listed material cost alone does not distinguish which room to choose. The cited guide does not establish a different price, a best order, or specific loot locations for their components. Compare the live menu and your own priorities rather than choosing based on an assumed resource advantage.
Research Station requirements
The Research Station has its own progression costs. The workshop reference guide lists this Level 1 recipe:
- 3 Mini Pumps
- 35 Planks
- 5 Battered Paperbacks
Later levels introduce specialized ARC parts, including Skulker Targeters, Bully Fragmenters, and a Frigate Inductor. The cost information does not provide a complete set of later-level recipes or dependable acquisition routes for every component. Before a raid, inspect the next level’s recipe in the in-game Research Station and make a checklist from that exact screen; do not spend scarce parts based on an incomplete list.
The Level 1 Plank requirement is much larger than the 3 Planks in the unlock: it is 35 Planks for the station recipe. If you are planning to do both stages, that is 38 Planks total before considering any other use. Celeste’s reported price would make 35 Planks cost 105 Assorted Seeds if the full amount were in stock at 3 seeds each; combined with the 3 unlock Planks, buying all 38 would cost 114 seeds. These are arithmetic totals using the reported price, not a claim that Celeste will carry that quantity.
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The station’s other listed costs are 3 Mini Pumps and 5 Battered Paperbacks. The workshop reference page does not establish reliable routes for those items in the material information summarized here. Later levels add named ARC parts but not a complete set of recipes or acquisition instructions. Check the live Research Station screen for the exact level you intend to upgrade; a previous level’s recipe is not a reliable substitute for the next one.
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Keep the three kinds of costs separate
It is easy to mistake the initial project turn-in for the whole Outpost bill. These are different stages and systems:
- Outpost unlock: 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components, plus the photo and combat objectives.
- Room expansion: the reported 3 Steel Cables, 20 Sheet Metal, and 3 Cable Strippers for each of the Panoramic, Timeless, and Chalet rooms.
- Research Station Level 1: 3 Mini Pumps, 35 Planks, and 5 Battered Paperbacks. Later levels add specialized parts, with exact next-level costs best confirmed in-game.
The Frozen Trail 2.0 update, reported released October 8, 2026, added the Outpost, Research Bench, expandable modules, and lootable furniture designs. Because these are new progression systems, older workshop references may omit them. The research system also supports choosing what to pursue using research points found in items in the world, rather than relying only on random blueprint drops; executive producer Aleksander Grøndal described that system in a September 24, 2026 GamesRadar+ interview. That broader system does not change the listed Sheltered Retreat turn-in or replace checking the specific upgrade recipe.
Grøndal’s interview describes finding items that contain research points and using those points to choose research, including some blueprints. That is useful context for the Research Station system, but it should not be confused with the physical materials listed for a particular station upgrade. Research points, project turn-ins, room components, and station recipes serve different progression steps; use the relevant in-game screen to check which one you are working toward.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Because the Outpost was added in Frozen Trail 2.0 on October 8, 2026, an older workshop guide may not include these systems or reflect their current recipes. The listed requirements come from game guides and a workshop reference page rather than a publisher-authored item-location database. Treat material counts as reported recipes, and treat locations as farming suggestions. A live menu and current vendor stock are better checks when you are about to commit scarce parts or plan a run after a patch.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to unlock the Outpost?
Sheltered Retreat has three reported stages: photograph a farmland house around Ruined Homestead on Blue Gate, submit 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components, then deal 800 damage to flying ARC enemies and 300 damage to the Bully.
Where do I find Planks and Sheet Metal?
Dot Esports reports Industrial POIs as a good route and names Stacking Yard and Customs House on Riven Tides. Southern Buried City residential areas are another possibility, and containers can hold both materials. Celeste is reported to sell each for 3 Assorted Seeds; check her live stock before relying on that option.
How many Assorted Seeds would the unlock materials cost?
If Celeste has all the required pieces, 3 Planks plus 5 Sheet Metal cost 24 Assorted Seeds at 3 seeds per piece. That covers only those two materials; the reported sources for ARC Alloy and Advanced Electrical Components are enemy drops and Electrical POIs, respectively.
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The guides do not establish a guaranteed route or quantity for a single run. Industrial POIs are reported for both Planks and Sheet Metal, but ARC Alloy is described as a drop from lower-level ARC enemies and Advanced Electrical Components as a Rare Electrical POI item. Plan around those different source types and verify what you still need.
Are room costs included in the Outpost unlock cost?
No. Each of the Panoramic, Timeless, and Chalet rooms is reported to require 3 Steel Cables, 20 Sheet Metal, and 3 Cable Strippers. Those are per-room costs separate from Sheltered Retreat’s four-material deposit. Check the live Outpost menu before spending the parts.
What does Research Station Level 1 require?
The workshop reference guide lists 3 Mini Pumps, 35 Planks, and 5 Battered Paperbacks. Later levels include specialized ARC components such as Skulker Targeters, Bully Fragmenters, and a Frigate Inductor, but consult the in-game screen for the full next-level recipe.
Where do I find Steel Cables, Cable Strippers, or later Research Station components?
The cited room-cost information does not establish the best source for Steel Cables or Cable Strippers, and the workshop reference information does not give dependable routes for every later station component. Do not apply the Planks and Sheet Metal route to these parts without confirmation; check the live recipe and current item information.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What do I need to unlock the Outpost?
Complete Sheltered Retreat’s photo task at a farmland house around Ruined Homestead on Blue Gate, submit 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components, then deal 800 damage to flying ARC enemies and 300 damage to the Bully.
Where can I find Planks and Sheet Metal?
Guides recommend Industrial POIs, including Stacking Yard and Customs House on Riven Tides; southern Buried City residential areas are another reported possibility. Celeste is reported to sell each for 3 Assorted Seeds, subject to current stock.
How many seeds do the unlock’s Planks and Sheet Metal cost?
At the reported price of 3 Assorted Seeds per piece, 3 Planks and 5 Sheet Metal cost 24 seeds total, if Celeste has all eight in stock.
What are the room expansion costs?
Each of the Panoramic, Timeless, and Chalet rooms is reported to cost 3 Steel Cables, 20 Sheet Metal, and 3 Cable Strippers. Verify the live Outpost recipe before committing parts.
What does Research Station Level 1 need?
The workshop reference guide lists 3 Mini Pumps, 35 Planks, and 5 Battered Paperbacks. Later levels add specialized parts, so inspect the in-game Research Station for the next exact recipe.
The Bottom Line
For Sheltered Retreat, collect 3 Planks, 5 Sheet Metal, 10 ARC Alloy, and 3 Advanced Electrical Components, and complete the separate photo and damage objectives. Industrial POIs are the reported overlap for the two building materials; Celeste’s reported price is 3 Assorted Seeds each. Room and Research Station costs are separate, so check the live upgrade screen—especially for components whose sources are not established—before spending scarce materials.
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