How to Get the Emperor Gateway Conduit in ARC Raiders and Open the Fallen Emperor

The Fallen Emperor is the giant dead ARC lying across Pendola Pass, and it's the most interesting place the Frozen Trail update added. Inside is a climbing-and-puzzle dungeon with some of the best loot in the game, including Amplification Modules and the Emperor Modulator you need for Gunsmith IV. The catch is the door. It only opens with a Legendary key called the Emperor Gateway Conduit, and you'll have to craft it.

This guide covers where the blueprint and parts come from, how to craft the key and how to get through the door. It's up to date for Live Update 2.3.0 (October 27, 2026), which changed drop rates for this key and how loot is spread inside the Emperor.

Emperor Gateway Conduit at a glance

The Reward Pass route gets you one key, not the blueprint. If you want to run the Emperor more than once, you'll have to farm the blueprint anyway.

Step 1: Farm Emperor Payloads during Redirection

Both the blueprint and the three Couplers come from Emperor Payloads. These are big ARC drops that only appear on Pendola Pass while the Redirection map condition is active.

1. Queue Pendola Pass when Redirection is up. Check the map conditions before you deploy. Outside Redirection, this method doesn't work.
2. Watch your map for an active Damaged Emperor Relay. Active relays put up a red beam and show on the map. Not every relay is active at once, so it's fine to loot elsewhere first and come back.
3. Search the relay for an Emperor Beacon. It's an Epic item, and one relay can give you more than one beacon.
4. Deploy the beacon in a wide-open area with plenty of clear sky above it. Then back away: a payload crashes down where the beacon lands, and the falling debris can hurt you.
5. Breach the large upright payload container. This is the one that matters. It holds the Couplers and, rarely, the blueprint. The smaller broken pieces and the debris around it mostly give ARC parts.
6. Repeat with spare beacons. Each payload is a new roll at the blueprint.

A few things to keep in mind:

• The blueprint is rare, and 2.3.0 made it rarer. Embark lowered its drop chance from Redirection pods and added a small chance of ARC parts and high-tier ARC loot instead. Plan on several Redirection raids.
• Couplers are much easier. A single upright payload often holds several. You don't need all three types in one raid, so stash what you get and keep going.
• Lit relays draw a crowd. That beam is visible from far away, and in PvP lobbies other squads know what it means. Expect someone to wait nearby for you to call down a payload.
• Use your safe pocket. If the blueprint drops, it goes in first. After that, one Coupler of each type.

Step 2: Craft the Conduit

1. Extract with the blueprint and at least one of each Coupler. You can't craft in the middle of a raid.
2. In Speranza, learn the blueprint.
3. Open your Workbench. Level I is enough.
4. Craft the Emperor Gateway Conduit from one ARC Conductive Coupler, one ARC Insulated Coupler and one ARC Plated Coupler.

Since the key is used up when the door opens, each run costs one set of three Couplers. That's why the blueprint is worth chasing even if you've already claimed the Reward Pass key.

Step 3: Find the Fallen Emperor

The Emperor is hard to miss. It lies on the western side of Pendola Pass, a bit west of the map's center, and its legs reach high enough that you can see them from most of the map. The in-game map labels it Fallen Emperor. Old Town is to its south, and Piazza della Rupe is to its east. The Reckless Transceiver, the Gondola extraction in the Emperor's shadow, is the closest way out.

Step 4: Open the door

1. Bring the crafted Conduit into a new Pendola Pass raid in your loadout.
2. Head to the Emperor and go to the base of its body, where the locked gateway is.
3. Walk up to the socket and use the Emperor Gateway Conduit when the prompt appears. The hatch opens. One Conduit opens it for your squad.

Inside: what to expect

The interior is a vertical dungeon of shafts, rings and hazard rooms. The layout changes between runs, so you can't simply memorize a route. Expect electrified surfaces, closing walls, drops that can kill you, and Hydras guarding some rooms.

What to bring:

• A Snap Hook or Grappling Hook. Several sections are built around hooking across gaps or up walls.
• A weapon for heavy ARC. The Hullcracker is the usual pick for Hydras.
• Shield chargers, heals and stamina items. There are few safe spots to recover.
• A teammate if you can. If you go down alone in here, your run is over.

The final loot room is always at the end. Shoot the targets in the room to open the loot capsules in the walls. Small ARC will pour in when you do, so clear them before you start looting.

The loot (and the 2.3.0 change)

The Emperor is one of the few places that drops Amplification Modules, which you need to push Amplified Weapons to higher quality tiers. It's also where you find the Emperor Modulator for the Gunsmith IV upgrade. The Modulator drops from pods and containers throughout the dungeon, not only in the last room, and it isn't guaranteed.

Since update 2.3.0, containers near the Emperor's entrance give lower-tier loot, and the high-tier rewards sit deeper inside. Grabbing a few crates by the door and leaving is no longer worth a Conduit. Commit to the full run.

Common mistakes

• Farming outside Redirection. Payloads only drop during that condition.
• Opening the small payload pieces and skipping the upright container. The Couplers and blueprint are in the big one.
• Deploying a beacon under cover. The payload needs open sky, and you need distance.
• Leaving the blueprint out of your safe pocket. Losing it to a third party on the way out is painful.
• Using your only Conduit on a weak loadout. The key is gone once the door opens, so bring a full kit.