Emperor: Fallen Emperor Dungeon Guide

Last updated: 2026-10-30

The Fallen Emperor is a huge crashed ARC machine in western Pendola Pass, added with the Frozen Trail update. Unlike a normal ARC boss, this Emperor is already down — the challenge is entering its body with a crafted key, surviving a series of puzzle rooms, and reaching the stored technology in the final loot hangar. It is one of only two places that drop Amplification Modules, and the only source of the Emperor Modulator needed to upgrade your Gunsmith to Level 4.

• Location: western Pendola Pass, near Piazza della Rupe and Almatera Station
• Entry requirement: an Emperor Gateway Conduit (legendary key, consumed when the hatch opens)
• Key farming: Redirection map condition on Pendola Pass
• Dungeon layout: ground floor and final hangar are fixed; the dozen or so trials between them come in a random order each run
• Main enemies: Hydra turrets, Pops, Fireballs, Shredders, and a Vaporizer in the final hangar
• Key loot: Emperor Modulator, Amplification Modules Mk. I–V

Getting the Key: Emperor Gateway Conduit

The Conduit is crafted at Workbench I from its blueprint and one of each ARC Coupler. None of the parts are farmed inside the dungeon itself — they come from the Redirection map condition on Pendola Pass.

Call Down an Emperor Payload

1. Queue into Pendola Pass while Redirection is active and wait for a Damaged Emperor Relay to activate. All relays start the raid switched off and come online from about 25 minutes left, one or several at a time. An active relay fires a red laser into the sky and its map icon lights up with a countdown.
2. Search the relay for an Emperor Beacon (epic quick-use item, stacks to 3, weighs 2.0).
3. Deploy the beacon in the open near cover — for example on a rooftop with few entrances. Debris rains down for roughly 10–20 seconds and shreds health and shields, so wait it out under cover.
4. Breach the large upright Harvester Payload. Of all the payload pieces, only that one holds the couplers and the blueprint; the small broken pieces around it give ARC parts.

• Use the beacon in the same raid. Extracting with an unused beacon turns it into a Ruined Emperor Beacon you can only sell.
• Deploy near cover: the falling debris damages you, and every beam on the map is visible to other Raiders. Fireflies also appear on Pendola Pass only during Redirection.

What the Payload Drops

The blueprint is a chance drop, not a guarantee. Community reports range from five or six payloads to twenty or more before seeing one. It can also drop from a Surveyor Vault — the core you loot from a destroyed Surveyor — and the couplers can also drop on the Frigate.

Craft the Conduit

You cannot craft it mid-raid, and couplers cannot be pooled with other Raiders. The Frozen Trail Reward Pass also lists a completed Conduit among its later rewards, but learning the blueprint is what makes repeat runs possible.

Dungeon Entrance

Head toward the giant wreck in western Pendola Pass and look around the base of its body, beneath the massive legs. The entrance is a large circular hatch with an interaction panel on the hull — the prompt reads “Unlock: 0/1 Emperor Gateway Conduit”. Slot in the key and the hatch opens; the opening is loud enough that other players on the map can hear it.

You do not have to farm the key during the same raid you enter with. If another Raider has already unlocked the hatch, you can follow them in without spending your own Conduit.

Before entering, check the raid timer: a broadcast warns “the safe window is closing” with ten minutes left, and you want time to loot the hangar on the way out.

Recommended Loadout

Leave some inventory space open — containers line the whole route, and a full backpack makes it harder to grab the best items in the final chamber.

Inside the Emperor: Learn Rooms, Not a Route

The dungeon is built from giant rings and shafts. The ground floor and the final loot hangar are always the same; the trials in between come in a different order every run (the game files hold six route layouts). A door with two white lights is the way on; a door with a yellow light drops you back to the base elevator or outside.

1. Entrance corridor. Electrified ARC equipment: shoot the glowing boxes to discharge them — safe to touch for a few seconds before they recharge, and brushing active machinery sets you on fire. A Hydra guards the end of the corridor; destroy its bottom turret first if you try to melee it.
2. Electric elevator. Shoot the yellow nodes on the center mechanism and on the walls around the shaft — look above and below your position too — to disable the electricity and power the moving platform. Time your jumps: fall through the gap and you can die, ride up too far and you can be crushed.
3. Moving pillars. Shoot the yellow weak points on the machinery to reposition the tall pillars, then move onto the lowered section before it rises. Wait until the pillar is stable before jumping.
4. Gas and crusher room. The gas drains your stamina (Stims buy a short sprint), and the walls only start moving once the first player steps onto the floor. Watch one full wall cycle, wait in the dip in the middle of the floor where the walls leave gaps, and cross when the walls pull apart.
5. Container hangar. Containers ride a track over the gas walls while several Hydras guard the room. The exit is the door right above the track — clear the Hydras from cover, get onto the track and hook up. Falling off is likely fatal.
6. Chasm drop. Drop through the cutouts in a tall shaft one level at a time; dropping several levels at once can down you. Shoot the electrified boxes on the way.
7. Maze rooms. Keep heading the way you faced at the entrance. The walls are open at the bottom, so Pops and Fireballs chase you through. In some layouts you must clear enemies and shoot yellow nodes; in others the solution is simply finding the unlocked round door. If you cannot find more nodes, stop and test the doors.
8. Platform climb. Climb the ladders and jump between containers — some carry an electrical charge, so shoot the energized box before landing and cross quickly. A later shaft needs a strafe jump beside a pillar; a Snap Hook is safer.
9. Laser room. Rotating purple lasers remove large amounts of health. Some containers block the beams, or learn the sprint route: take the right corner into the hallway, turn right again, jump up, dodge the canister, and jump to the far wall.
10. Moving container. Ride the container going up and down the shaft, hop off onto the ledges on one side, and take the ladder down. Missing the ledges usually costs fall damage.

The Final Loot Hangar

Enter through the huge opening ahead, not the yellow-lit side door — that one leads back to the base elevator and lets late arrivals skip every trial. Ride the giant piece that swings toward you and jump down by the collapsed container on the other side.

There are three yellow weak points on each side of the hangar, six in total. Shoot all six to pop the canisters out of the walls and unlock the extra wall caches. The roof opens when you do, and small ARC plus a Vaporizer fly in — shoot from under the collapsed container (a silencer keeps you hidden) and wait for the Vaporizer to leave before looting.

Loot and Rewards

Loot is not identical on every run, and exact drop rates are unconfirmed, so breach every round panel on the way up and every canister in the hangar before judging a run unsuccessful.

Amplification Modules are not interchangeable: each Mark matches a weapon rarity, so a Mk. I for the common Rattler is not the same item as a Mk. V for the rarest weapons. Keep the first Modulator you find instead of selling it.

Extracting Safely

Both doors in the hangar are exits that put you back outside on solid ground — take the smaller corner doors and the ladder down rather than the main entrance where ARC spawn in.

• Put the Modulator and your best Modules in Safe Pockets before moving.
• Reload, recharge your shield, and check the raid timer.
• The Reckless Transceiver is the closest Ballistic Gondola — and the most exposed, so approach through cover and listen for Raiders before calling it. If it is contested, use another extraction instead of risking everything in a direct fight.

Solo runs are possible: prioritize reaching the final chamber over clearing every enemy. A squad brings more firepower, covering angles and revives, but also more attention — assign one player to watch Hydra fire while another handles nodes and traversal.

Common mistakes to avoid: entering with too little raid time left, forgetting a movement tool or healing, sprinting through the gas, standing beside a just-breached orange pod, leaving the hangar before opening the extra wall caches, or carrying the Modulator in your regular backpack.