In Arc Raiders, follow the trail to the seed vault, where an Experimental Seed Sample awaits and the roots of The Root of the Matter quest take shape.
Go to the Research Building
From the Research Building, head to the northwest corridor and follow the humming conduits until you reach the sealed vault door.
To start, load into Buried City. I recommend a custom loadout for this one instead of a Free Loadout because you’ll need to transport an Experimental Seed Sample back to Speranza to complete the quest. Stow it in your Safe Pocket, and should the worst happen, you won’t have to run through the entire quest again.
Once in Buried City, head over to the Research building in the northern half of the map. It’s technically west, but it’s better described as in the central part of the map. It’s sandwiched between Space Travel to the east and Marano Park to the west in the New District part of Buried City.
The area receives a lot of foot traffic from both Arc enemies and Raiders. Avoid drawing the attention of other players by keeping a low profile and keep an eye out for the Ticks, Pops, and Fireballs that roam the building’s floors.
Search for the seed vault in the “room with a great view”
Head to the west side of the Research Building and climb to the floor where the up and down ziplines meet, then enter the park-facing room with the large window overlooking Marano Park. Inside, check the left wall for the cylindrical container marked with a Cryogenic Hazard symbol, which serves as the seed vault. Interact with it to secure the seeds and pick up the Experimental Seed Sample that drops to the floor.
To find the “room with a great view,” enter from the Research building on the ground floor from the south. Head up the main corridor and enter the first room on your left. This is the “room with a great view” overlooking Marano Park.
On the left side of the room, you’ll spot a large metal cylinder with “Cryogenic Hazard” on the front below a snowflake warming sticker. When you approach, you’ll see a prompt to “Secure Seeds.” Interact with the cylinder and then pick up the Experimental Seed Sample that drops to the ground.
Deliver the Experimental Seed Sample to Celeste
Head to Celeste at the specified outpost after securing the Experimental Seed Sample from the vault. She waits near the central workbench, ready to receive it. Hand over the item through the quest menu or direct interaction to advance the storyline. This triggers the next objectives without delays.
To complete the last objective, all you need to do is extract with the Experimental Seed Sample. The nearest extraction point is the Metro Entrance to the west in Marano Park. You should be able to leg it over and make it out safely without too much trouble.
Arc Raiders Seed Vault location guide details
The Seed Vault in Arc Raiders is tied to two things players commonly mean: the Root of the Matter quest’s vault in Buried City, and the separate high-value Seed Vault activity on the Stella Montis map.
Root of the Matter quest Seed Vault
This is the one you visit while doing Celeste’s “The Root of the Matter” quest.
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Go to Buried City and head for the Research Building, which is just to the right (east) of Marano Park in the New District. Expect lots of ARC enemies and other raiders around this hotspot.
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Enter the Research Building from the south side and stay on the ground floor; you do not need to go upstairs for the quest vault.
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Your goal is the “room with a great view” on the west side of the building, identifiable by a big window looking out over Marano Park.
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Inside that room, look along the walls for a cylindrical container labeled as the Seed Vault. Interact with it to “search” the vault and grab the Experimental Seed Sample.
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Once you pick up the sample, all quest objectives should tick off; you then only need to reach an extraction point in the same raid without dying to complete the quest.
A quick way to visualize it: if you run in from the south, follow the corridor, and take the first open room on the left on the western side; that is usually where guides show the room with a view and the vault.
Stella Montis Seed Vault activity
Separately, there is a named Seed Vault location on the Stella Montis map that functions as a high-value loot area, not tied to the Root of the Matter quest.
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On Stella Montis, open the map and look at the bottom layer: the Seed Vault point of interest is marked in the southeast and tagged as a “high loot value” zone.
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Access is controlled by a powered door; you must find a Power Cell in the surrounding underground area (often near the nearby extraction) and use it to open the Seed Vault door.
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Inside are dense loot rooms with lots of seeds and containers, making it one of the more efficient spots for farming assorted seeds and related materials compared to normal containers.
If you tell me which one you’re trying to reach (Buried City quest room vs. Stella Montis POI), I can lay out a very short turn-by-turn route based on where you usually spawn.
Safest route to Research Building from Buried City spawn
You can’t fully control your spawn in Buried City, but you can follow a “low-traffic” approach pattern that stays away from Plaza Rosa, Red Tower, and the central streets while you head to the Research Building east of Marano Park. I don’t have live map access right now, so I’ll outline routes that line up with how most safe-route guides handle Buried City and the Research area.
General safety principles
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Skirt the outer blocks rather than cutting straight through the big central roads; most squads and ARC patrols like those lines of sight.
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Avoid Plaza Rosa, Red Tower, and Town Hall unless you’re forced through, since they’re common loot and PvP magnets.
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Stay off roofs unless you’re scouting briefly; jumping across roofs exposes you to multiple angles at once.
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When you must cross an open street, cross at a diagonal and use parked cars, kiosks, or planters as micro-cover instead of sprinting in a straight line.
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Move “block by block”: clear or at least audio-check each building line, then cross, instead of running a long straight corridor of streets.
If you spawn in the south (Plaza Rosa / highway side)
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First, angle away from Plaza Rosa itself; hug the southern edge of the map and use smaller back streets until you’re roughly south-southwest of Marano Park.
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Once you see signs or map markers putting you near Piazza Arbusto, cut north through the quieter blocks rather than going through the big open square.
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From here, keep buildings between you and the park until you reach the west or southwest corner of Marano Park, then follow its outer edge east, staying one row of buildings south of the park instead of running inside it.
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When you’re roughly due south of the Research Building (east side of Marano), use a short street crossing to reach the south entrance of Research; this door is usually the least contested and is used in most “Root of the Matter” quick routes.
If you spawn in the east / southeast
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Stay near the outer boundary and move west using back alleys and the “second row” of buildings in from the edge, avoiding large plazas and main intersections.
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Set your goal as “get to the southeast corner of Marano Park” instead of “straight to Research”; this lets you stay behind cover until the last turn.
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Once at the southeast corner of the park, follow the southern edge of Marano west for about a block, then cut north toward the Research building from an angle, using trees, cars, and low walls as cover.
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Enter via the closest side door rather than wrapping around the entire facade, which is where other teams often watch.
If you spawn in the north / northwest
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If you’re near the Hospital or Library, use those big buildings as cover and move south while staying one block away from the central avenues.
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Avoid dropping straight through any large intersection that gives line of sight to Town Hall or Plaza Rosa; instead, weave around by going Library → inner residential blocks → south toward the north edge of Marano.
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Once you hit the north side of Marano Park, do not cross the park diagonally; go around its west or east edge depending on where you find the least noise and gunfire.
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From the northeast corner of the park, wrap east then south to come in on Research’s east or southeast side, again entering from a side door instead of the front.
If you spawn in the west / Old Town side
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Use Old Town’s tight streets to move south or southeast until your map shows you roughly west of Marano Park.
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Peek into main roads only long enough to check for ARC patrols or players, then cross quickly into the next row of buildings.
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Approach Marano Park from the west and then follow its outer edge on the south side, just like the southern route, to line yourself up with the Research Building’s south entrance.
Extra safety tips for the run
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Listen before sprinting: pause at the edge of each street to listen for gunshots, ARC audio cues, and footsteps; reroute rather than forcing through noise.
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Use vertical audio: if you hear fighting above or below, take the other floor or another building line instead of pushing through and hoping they miss you.
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Don’t greed extra loot on the way; if you’re on The Root of the Matter, treat the run as a straight objective push, then loot Research and the nearby buildings on the way out.
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When leaving Research after grabbing the seed, exit the same south side and reverse your quietest path rather than cutting through new, unscouted areas.
If you tell me which spawn landmark you last saw (for example “Plaza Rosa”, “Hospital”, “Old Town”), I can compress this into a 3-4 step mini-route just for that start.
