First, I’m telling you to stop exploiting the ledge grab in Arc Raiders, and now I’m telling you to stop obsessing over something that probably isn’t worth your attention. Sorry to be “mom” here, but I’m pretty sure the Hidden Bunker mystery in Spaceport isn’t really a mystery at all.
Read More: Arc Raiders’ Ledge Grab Exploit Is Bad, Actually
Each map in Arc Raiders will see various timed events come and go. Some just see the map swapped over to a night theme, while others have dangerous electrical storms. Most recently, a mysterious hidden bunker underneath the Spaceport map was thrown into the rotation. It works like this: After an activation sequence on the surface, players can explore the corridors beneath the map to find some decent loot as well as some computer terminals to download data from. You get 500XP for downloading the data, and earn progress on your weekly Trials, but not much else happens. Fans, however, are not convinced that’s all there is to it (h/t Dexerto).
As documented by YouTuber The Gaming Merchant, downloading the data in the Hidden Bunker feels like it should make something happen somewhere else or deeper in the Bunker, or like it’s part of a larger puzzle. You press a button, a meter fills up, a light turns green and you get XP, but if you walk away without doing this, the light turns red. There are multiple computer terminals that do this within the Bunker, which has led some to believe that they all either need to be activated at the exact same time or in some unknown sequence. There are more terminals than players the game allows for in a single party, so you’d have to gather together a bunch of randos to fully exhaust the options here, but I’m pretty sure that earning XP and making progress on your Trials is the whole point here: Activate the terminals and defend the room until they’re finished downloading.
Downloading the data is not as easy as just flipping a switch and walking away. Gamers Heroes’ video on the Hidden Bunker documents this well. There’s a bit of Siege-esque Defend-The-Room™ required as the Hidden Bunker is likely to be swarming with players looking for other loot.
Do this successfully, and you earn three stars in your Trials progress.
Is there a secret beneath the Spaceport?
Some folks are not convinced the XP and Trials progress is the point here. They’re running around trying to crack sequences they think exist, or they’re trying to activate them all at the same time, but to no avail.
Honestly, I think too many folks still have their spinfoil hats on from Destiny.
A megathread on the game’s subreddit is presently documenting some borderline Charlie-Day-meme theory crafting about what’s going on here.
The biggest piece of evidence, in my opinion, that there’s no there there is in a lone comment indicating that the download progress of each computer is different for each player, which would mean it’s a different instance for players outside of your squad and that timing the downloads is nigh impossible because, well, they’re not designed that way. You get your data, you get your XP, you get your Trials progress. That’s it!
Read More: This Is The ‘Easiest’ Field Depot In Arc Raiders
Other folks are pointing to different assets in the game that match what’s in the Bunker as proof of something. When you download the data, a light on the computer turns green. That light, as it turns out, is the same model as found on Field Depots, of which there is one sitting right on top of the Hidden Bunker’s location. Another theory concerns the language found on Arc Raiders’ official website describing the event, particularly that “whatever is inside [the Bunker] must be worth the static.” This has folks obsessing over what “static” means.
Comments in the megathread indicate that a variety of attempted solutions, such as downloading everything at the same time, or downloading the data and then racing to a suspicious location on the map, offer no alternative outcomes. Also, while exploring the Hidden Bunker, someone managed to fall through the map and, based on their screenshots, there doesn’t appear to be any secret sublayer below. So, various activation methods don’t trigger anything and there don’t appear to be any unlockable portions of the Hidden Bunker.
But curious minds aren’t so easily dismayed. Even the fact that the data downloads are required for this week’s Trials has folks suspicious: “I feel like this could either mean that collecting the data for that 500 XP is its own reward,” one reply says, “or this is to incentivize people to run it more and more until someone figures it out.”
I think ya had the answer right the first time there.
But maybe I’m just a wet blanket of a skeptic as always. I’d like to believe!
