Arc Raiders Close Scrutiny Event Guide: How It Works, Best Strategy & Survival Tips

The Close Scrutiny event is one of the most demanding events Arc Raiders has seen in a long time. It throws a relentless and constantly respawning wave of aerial Arc at you — including a brand new enemy type — while you try to breach and loot Arc Assessors under extreme pressure. If you go in blind, you will get destroyed. If you go in prepared, it's one of the most rewarding events in the game.

This guide covers everything you need to know: how the event unfolds, what the new Arc does, how the Assessors work, and the exact strategy and loadout that gives you the best chance of walking out with loot intact.

What Is the Close Scrutiny Event?

— Close Scrutiny Event —

Close Scrutiny is a map event that can appear on both Buried City and Blue Gate. When active, it kicks off a chain of events driven by a new Arc type called the Surveyor, which you'll recognise as the large rolling ball units that patrol the map.

The sequence works like this:

Surveyors patrol the map searching for specific locations
When a Surveyor finds its target, it fires a yellow beam up into the sky — distinct from their normal blue beam, so you'll know immediately when it happens
That signal calls down an Arc Assessor — a large three-pronged structure that descends and lands at the marked location
The Arc Assessor contains loot that can be breached and searched across its three compartments
The Assessor doesn't stay indefinitely — each prong launches back off one at a time once its job is done, so you're working against a timer

In the later portion of a round — roughly the final 10 minutes — Assessors land more frequently and sometimes multiple are active on the map simultaneously. It's possible to have two or even three landed at once, which creates both opportunity and chaos in equal measure.

The New Arc: Vaporizers

Vaporizer — Vaporizer —

Before you can think about looting, you need to understand what you're up against. The Close Scrutiny event introduces the Vaporizer, a new aerial Arc unit and easily the most dangerous enemy in the event.

The best way to understand a Vaporizer is to picture a Rocketeer that's been given an energy weapon instead of rockets. It has two distinct firing modes:

Barrage mode: Fires a sweeping energy beam that ignites the ground, leaving fire on the floor that you can walk into and take continuous burn damage from
Targeted mode: Can lock onto and simultaneously fire at two Raiders at once, though these blasts are less powerful than the full barrage

The Vaporizer is nimble, aggressive, and almost always operates alongside other Vaporizers — you will rarely see just one. They have four jets like a Rocketeer, and targeting those jets in the same way you would a Rocketeer will bring one down. The weak point is reported to be at the back. The Jupiter performs well against them, as does the Hullcracker — though with multiple Vaporizers in the air simultaneously, you'll burn through ammo fast if you try to fight them head-on.

The practical reality of the Close Scrutiny event is that you are almost never going to out-fight the Arc presence around an Assessor. Every time you breach a compartment, more Arc spawn in. Fight too aggressively and you'll be completely overwhelmed while other players slip in and take the loot while you're occupied. The strategy is stealth and speed, not aggression.

How Arc Assessors Work

When an Arc Assessor lands, here's what you're looking at:

Three loot compartments, each corresponding to one of the prongs on the structure
Three beams of light shoot up from the Assessor when it first lands — one per compartment. As each compartment is looted, its beam goes dark. At a glance from a distance, you can tell which ones are still available
A small protrusion at the base of each cone also pops out once that compartment has been breached, giving you another visual indicator of what's been done
Compartments don't all open at once — a platform extends from each one when it becomes active. You need to stand on that platform to start your breach and search. They open in sequence, not simultaneously
Each time you breach a compartment, it calls down additional Arc — typically one larger Arc and two smaller ones, from a mix of Hornets, Wasps, Vaporizers, and occasionally Rocketeers

The Arc Assessors are also marked on your map as they land and approach, shown as moving icons. You can track incoming Assessors before they hit the ground, giving you a chance to reposition before the chaos begins.

The Best Strategy for Close Scrutiny

Given how overwhelming the Arc presence gets, the meta for this event — especially in solos — is built entirely around stealth and rapid looting rather than combat. Here's the approach that works best.

Step 1: Use the Photoelectric Cloak

The Photoelectric Cloak is the single most important item to bring into this event. It is non-negotiable for solo players and highly recommended even in duos and trios. The cloak lets you walk directly up the Assessor ramp without the Arc targeting you, giving you a window to reach the platform and begin your breach without immediately being lit up.

The recommended sequence:

Activate the Photoelectric Cloak and approach the Assessor
Walk up the ramp cloaked
Drop the cloak once you're on the platform and begin your breach and search
Grab your loot as fast as possible
Re-activate the cloak to get out

Crafting the Photoelectric Cloak requires: 4 Speaker Components and 2 Advanced Electrical Components, built at the Utility Station.

Step 2: Throw Smoke at Your Feet Before Breaching

Just before you start a breach, drop a smoke grenade at your feet. The smoke will draw Arc attention — they turn and look at the smoke plume — but critically, they cannot get a lock on you through it. Since breaching an Assessor is going to draw Arc attention anyway the moment the alarm triggers, you lose nothing by smoking up first and gain meaningful cover during the breach window.

Bring around 10 smoke grenades per run. Between the smoke and the cloak, you have two layers of protection during the most vulnerable moment of the loot cycle.

Step 3: Time Your Runs and Use Raider Hatches

In the later part of the round, Assessors are landing more frequently and some have already been partially looted. This is actually a good time to run them because:

Other players have either been killed, filled their pockets and left, or moved on
Some compartments may still be untouched even on Assessors that look partially looted
The beams of light and base protrusions let you quickly identify what's still available without committing to a fight

If you're planning a late-round push, bring a Raider Hatch Key and plan your extraction route around a hatch rather than a standard extract point. This lets you get in, grab loot from one or two Assessors, and leave quickly without fighting your way to an extract through a map full of aggressive Arc.

Recommended Skills for This Event

Proficient Prior (maxed to 5/5): Speeds up your breach and search significantly. In an event where seconds matter, this directly determines how much loot you walk away with
Turtle Crawler or Crawl Before You Walk: You are going to get downed regularly in this event. Crawling faster or crawling to extract while downed is a genuine survival tool here, not a panic pick

Loadout Recommendations

Essential:

Photoelectric Cloak (craft before every run)
10 Smoke Grenades
Multiple Shields and Shield Replenishers — the Fireflies and Vaporizers deal heavy damage very quickly
Consider bringing a spare shield in your backpack

Weapons:

Bring something capable of dealing with Vaporizers if you need to fight your way through — a Jupiter or Hullcracker for aerial Arc
A solid secondary for self-defence against other Raiders who will absolutely be contesting the same Assessors as you

Optional but Recommended:

Luton MK3 Survivor Backpack — if you're downed, crawl to a hatch rather than losing your run entirely

What to Expect: The Reality of This Event

Let's be direct: Close Scrutiny is genuinely difficult. Even experienced players are regularly getting overwhelmed by the sheer volume of aerial Arc that accumulates around Assessors. Nine or more flying Arc in the air at once is not an exaggeration — it's something that happens when a round develops and multiple breach cycles have been triggered.

The players who walk away with the best loot from this event are not the ones trying to kill everything. They're the ones who sneak in with a cloak, smoke their feet, grab what they can from whatever compartments are open, and leave before the situation becomes unmanageable.

Stay mobile. Don't fixate on a single Assessor if the Arc presence is too dense — check your map for another one and rotate. And if you load in early in a round, consider waiting for the late-round phase when Assessors are landing in higher volume and the initial wave of players has already thinned out.

For a full breakdown of all the loot, new items, and project materials available from the Close Scrutiny event, check out our companion guide: Arc Raiders Close Scrutiny Loot Guide — Assessor Matrix, Vaporizer Regulator & New Blueprints Explained.