The new weekly trials for ARC Raiders just dropped, and this one has already annoyed a lot of people: damaging Rocketeers with snowballs. On paper, it sounds goofy. In practice, it can be insanely time-consuming if you don’t know what you’re doing.
I managed to pelt Rocketeers with 177 snowballs as a solo Raider, which landed me a ridiculous 44,250 points in a single run. That’s more than enough to push leaderboard progress and actually make this trial worth the pain. This guide breaks down exactly how I did it, the safest locations, and two different methods depending on whether or not you have Showstoppers.
If you want points, efficiency, and fewer deaths to rockets, this is the way to do it.
How the Snowball Trial Actually Works
This trial only appears during Cold Snap conditions, and while you don’t technically need Cold Snap active to throw snowballs, you absolutely want a 2x modifier like Locked Gate to make the score worthwhile. Rocketeers are tanky, loud, and attract other Raiders, so the whole goal here is to disable one safely and dump as many snowballs into it as humanly possible before someone ruins your fun.
The secret is preparation. This is not something you want to wing in your scoring run.
Snowball Farming Setup (Do This First)
There are two methods for completing this challenge. One uses Showstoppers and is faster but riskier. The other only requires an Anvil or Renegade and a bit of patience. No matter which method you use, the prep work is the same.
You should dedicate one full raid purely to farming snowballs. Farming snowballs is slow, especially if you only have access to a single snow pile. You can farm one snowball every six seconds, which means filling an MK2 loot bag with around 100 snowballs takes roughly ten minutes. Once you factor in freezing and defrosting, you’re realistically looking at about fifteen minutes total.
You can speed this up by running between multiple snow piles if they’re close together, but either way, this part is a grind. That’s why you should never try to farm snowballs in the same raid where you’re going for your high score.
There is a huge quality-of-life trick here too. Snow piles under roof overhangs let you farm without freezing at all. Ruby Residence on Dam Battlegrounds has one of these, and Pale Apartments might as well, though Ruby is the confirmed spot. You can sit there nonstop and fill your inventory without ever needing to defrost, which saves a ton of time.
Once your bag is full, extract, reset, and then go for your scoring run.
Best Map to Do This On
You can technically do this on any Cold Snap map, but avoid Buried City. There are fewer Rocketeers there, and the ones that do spawn are more likely to get blown up by other Raiders before you finish farming points.
Blue Gate is by far the best option. It consistently has three to four Rocketeers flying around, good cover, and Raider hatches close enough to let you leave at the last second. Dam Battlegrounds is also excellent, especially for the safer building method I’ll explain below.
Equipment You’ll Want
If you have Showstoppers, bring more than you think you need. It usually takes multiple throws to properly disable a Rocketeer, and missed throws or partial hits happen more often than you’d expect.
If you don’t have Showstoppers, bring a heavy weapon. The Anvil is ideal, but the Renegade works just fine. Both are strong enough to destroy Rocketeer thrusters without killing the whole unit.
Healing items are mandatory. Even when played safely, you’re probably eating a rocket or two during setup.
Walkthrough: The Showstopper Method
Once you spawn in, head straight to the nearest Rocketeer patrol area and find solid cover. You want a place where you can warm up, break line of sight, and avoid getting rocketed while frozen.
Clear out nearby enemies first, then aggro the Rocketeer. Stay in cover until it gets close, then start throwing Showstoppers. When done correctly, the Rocketeer will flip over, land upside down, and become fully paralyzed on the ground.
This is the ideal state. It can’t take off, it doesn’t reposition, and it’s basically a very angry snowball magnet. Just make sure you stay behind it, because it can still fire rockets from the front side.
Once it’s down, unload your entire inventory of snowballs into it. If you can pelt it while staying in cover, even better, since you won’t need to pause to warm up.
Time matters here. The longer a Rocketeer sits paralyzed, the higher the chance another Raider shows up and destroys it. Don’t be slow. Dump snowballs fast.
After you run dry, farm more snowballs nearby and move on to your second Rocketeer. The village houses on Blue Gate are perfect for this. Rocketeers patrol nearby, and there’s a Raider hatch close enough to extract at the very last second.
Walkthrough: No Showstoppers Required
If you don’t have Showstoppers, the goal is simple but precise. You need to destroy only the two front thrusters on the Rocketeer.
An Anvil will take a couple of cylinders per thruster. A Renegade will take a magazine or two. Once both thrusters are destroyed, the Rocketeer will fall and become paralyzed exactly like it does with Showstoppers.
Be careful not to overdamage it. If the Rocketeer takes too much damage beyond the thrusters, it can explode when it hits the ground, ending your run instantly.
Once it’s down, everything else plays out the same. Get behind or beside it and dump your remaining snowballs. Stay close to a Raider hatch so you can extract at the very end without risking your score.
The safest non-cheese method is using a small building with two exits. Aggro the Rocketeer from far away to get a short damage window, then rotate between exits. Peek, shoot the thruster, duck inside, rotate, repeat. The Rocketeer will fire every time you peek, so patience matters.
Once both thrusters are gone, it’s helpless. You can even finish it with a pickaxe if you really want to.
The Dam Battlegrounds Building Method
On Dam Battlegrounds, there’s a specific building near the swamp that makes this trial absurdly easy. It has a snow pile right next to the entrance, so you can farm five to seven snowballs, run inside, defrost, and repeat without freezing.
Rocketeers almost always patrol the nearby swamp. If you see one in the distance, just shoot it once and it’ll come straight to you. The building also has holes in the roof, which means if the Rocketeer flies overhead, you can pelt it safely from inside.
There’s an extract nearby too, making it incredibly easy to finish the trial and leave immediately. Just be cautious of other Raiders, since this area sees a lot of activity. When I did this, I stayed stealthy and avoided unnecessary fights until the Rocketeer was disabled.
To make sure a Rocketeer falls on its back when using Showstoppers, always target the front two thrusters. This massively increases the chance of a clean disable.
This week’s leaderboard is brutal. 300k+ is basically the requirement for 2x promo, and as usual, trios and sweat squads are clogging the top ranks. Honestly, these trials would feel way better with a solos-only leaderboard.
Cold Snap conditions rotate, so you may need to swap maps. The good news is that when Cold Snap hits Dam Battlegrounds or Blue Gate, it often sticks around longer than usual. One of my runs lasted nearly two hours, which gives you plenty of time to set up properly.
Wrap-Up
This trial looks dumb, sounds annoying, and turns out to be one of the best point farms of the week if you approach it correctly. Spend one run farming snowballs, come in prepared, disable Rocketeers safely, and dump everything you’ve got before anyone else shows up.
If you do it right, you’ll watch your score skyrocket as you head back to Speranza, wondering why throwing snowballs at military hardware is somehow peak ARC Raiders gameplay.
If this guide helped you finish the trial or save your sanity, you already know you did it right.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
