How to Complete Broken Monument in ARC Raiders: Compass, Video Tape and Rations Locations

How to Complete Broken Monument in ARC Raiders: Compass, Video Tape and Rations Locations

Broken Monument is a quest from the trader Tian Wen, not a landmark you can visit, so this guide covers the arc raiders broken monument steps. She sends you into the Scrap Yard in the south of Dam Battlegrounds to recover three First Wave relics: a compass hidden between broken-down vehicles, a video tape near the cylindrical containers, and old field rations at a Raider camp. All three must be found and extracted in a single round, then handed in to Tian Wen. The documented rewards are an Arpeggio I, a Compensator II, 80 Medium Ammo and 5000 XP.

The quickest route is simple: load into Dam Battlegrounds, walk south into the Scrap Yard, sweep the three caches in one pass, and extract without dying. Everything below covers exactly where each relic sits and why the quest exists in the first place.

Broken Monument Is a Quest, Not a Place

The "monument" never appears on your map. It is a story object: a memorial to the Battle of Victory Ridge, raised after the First Wave and later vandalized by feuding survivors. No marker points you to it, and you cannot stand in front of it.

Tian Wen, Speranza's gunsmith, hands out the quest on Dam Battlegrounds and describes the target as "hallowed grounds by the Scrap Yard" that Raiders now pick clean. Her line "People forget quickly. Quicker than they should." sets the tone. This is a lore errand about remembering the First Wave, not a combat contract, so treat it as a scavenger hunt with a story attached.

Where the Scrap Yard Sits on Dam Battlegrounds

The Scrap Yard occupies the south and southeast of Dam Battlegrounds, directly south of the Research & Administration building. Zoom in on the map to spot the label, then head for the bottom of the zone.

The "reach the hallowed grounds" step ticks over once you are in the south end of the yard, by the ruined vehicles and the tires lying on the ground. That is also the best starting point, because it puts you closest to the compass.

All three relics sit inside this one zone. There is no map-hopping and no second region to visit, which makes Broken Monument far tighter than quests such as What We Left Behind and Eyes in the Sky, which require visiting three separate regions. If you enjoy this kind of single-zone search, our Arc Raiders 'Clean Hands' Quest Walkthrough follows the same pattern.

Broken Monument Walkthrough: All Three First Wave Relic Locations

Follow the run in order. The table beneath it is the reference version if you only need one cache.

1. Load into Dam Battlegrounds and head south into the Scrap Yard, toward the ruined vehicles and the tires on the ground.
2. Collect the First Wave Compass from the yellow-marked box between the vehicle rows.
3. Move to the middle of the yard and take the Video Tape from the small brown box near the cylindrical storage tanks.
4. Swing past the Raider camp near the front of the yard and search the supply depot for the Old Field Rations.
5. Extract with all three relics in your inventory.
6. Hand in to Tian Wen in Speranza.

First Wave Compass

The compass is the one most players miss. The box is concealed between vehicle rows rather than sitting in the open, so you have to vault over wrecks to reach the center pocket. Search the yellow-marked box, then pick the compass up - searching alone does not count as collecting it.

Video Tape

Push deeper into the middle of the yard and look for the cylindrical storage tanks. Between a few broken vehicles you will find a small brown box lying on the ground. Interact with it to grab the tape.

Old Field Rations

Swing past the Raider camp near the front of the yard and check the small supply depot with boxes and containers stacked inside. One box holds the Old Field Rations, flagged as a quest item, so it stands out from ordinary camp loot once you search the right container.

Extract All Three in One Round

Every relic has to be found and extracted within the same raid. If you die before reaching the extraction point, the run resets and the hunt starts over.

Bring a looting augment alongside your Shield in your loadout; extra safe storage can help you keep quest items through a down, though it is no substitute for reaching extraction alive.

Clear or avoid the Raider patrols and small camps around the yard before you start looting. Guides for the quest advise clearing the area first, since some sections of the Scrap Yard have multiple small camps or Raider patrols.

Hand In to Tian Wen and Collect Your Rewards

Deliver the First Wave items to Tian Wen once you are back in Speranza. The three hand-ins can all be done in one visit, so you do not need to make separate trips.

The documented reward set is:

• Arpeggio I x1
• Compensator II x1
• Medium Ammo x80
• 5000 XP

Treat the numbers as current rather than permanent: rewards can shift between patches. If a reward looks different in your build, check the patch notes before assuming you missed something.

What Broken Monument Unlocks Next

Broken Monument gates Tian Wen's Buried City storyline. Marked for Death opens after you finish it, and that trail leads into Market Correction, so this small scavenger hunt is the front door to a much longer chain.

The lore behind it runs deeper than the errand suggests. The Battle of Victory Ridge, fought west of the Dam, ended the First Wave when Raider groups united under Major Aiva and drove ARC out of the Rust Belt; Aiva died in the fighting, and she was Tian Wen's mother. The victory fractured the survivors rather than binding them, and they eventually vandalized the monument raised to the battle - the "broken monument" of the quest title. Her later quest The Major's Footlocker makes the personal stake explicit: she was hoping to find something of her mother's, with Aiva's mementos recovered from apartments northwest of the Dam.

Turn the Scrap Yard Run Into a Habit

Broken Monument is one of the cleanest quests in ARC Raiders once you know the shape of it: three boxes, one zone, one extraction. The only real failure states are dying with the relics in your pockets and searching a box without picking up what is inside.

If you want to keep building on this kind of route work, our ARC Raiders Blueprint Farming Guide explains how post-2.3.0 drop rules and Research Station unlocks change what is worth grabbing on a Scrap Yard sweep, and the ARC Raiders hub keeps the wider quest and map coverage together. For a no-combat change of pace after this one, How to Complete Tracks of the Beast in Arc Raiders (No Combat Required) is a good next stop, and 'Someone Else's Shoes' Quest Walkthrough covers another multi-location relic hunt with a key reward at the end.

Sources

• arcraiders.wiki/wiki/Broken_Monument
• arcraiders.gg/quests/broken-monument/
• arcraiders.gg/lore/tian-wen/
• arcraiders.gg/lore/dam-battlegrounds/
• arcraiders.gg/lore/timeline/
• metaforge.app/arc-raiders/database/item/first-wave-rations
• coe.gg/broken-monument/
• arcraiders.com/news/hotfix-2-4-1 (Hotfix 2.4.1, 5 November 2026) - cited only for the general caveat that rewards can change between patches

Reward figures above follow arcraiders.gg/quests/broken-monument/, which lists Arpeggio I x1, Compensator II x1, Medium Ammo x80 and 5000 XP; Gamerant corroborates the three items, while some third-party guides list only the Arpeggio I.