Getting Started with A Toxic Trail
A Toxic Trail is a follow up quest in Arc Raiders that sends you back to a familiar location from the earlier Source of Contamination mission. If you remember hunting down a toxic barrel dumped in a drain near the Water Treatment Control building, you are already halfway to knowing what to do here.
This quest is set in the swamp which means you are not just dealing with objectives but also with other Raiders who might be roaming around looking for loot. It is best to plan your route, move efficiently, and avoid wasting time wandering around in the water.
For this run it is a good idea to skip using a free loadout. The reason is simple: a key can drop at the end of the quest and if you die or extract without proper planning you risk losing it, just like what can happen during the Armored Transports quest. Bring a loadout you are comfortable fighting with and be ready to survive long enough to secure your reward.
Return to the Toxic Barrel Location
The first step of A Toxic Trail is very straightforward. You need to go back to the water intake area below and just north of the Water Treatment Control building. This is the same spot where you located the toxic barrel during Source of Contamination.
Open your map and look for the drain area outside the Water Treatment Control building. The barrel is placed by that drain. Once you get close enough to the barrel, the game will update your quest progress and complete the initial objective. You do not need to interact with it or examine it like you did before in the previous quest. Simply being in the right place is enough.
This can make the opening step feel almost too easy, but it sets you up for the main part of the mission which takes you deeper into the swamp to find out where that toxic barrel actually came from.
Track the Barrel Back to Its Source
Once you have revisited the barrel, the quest objective changes. You are now asked to search the swamp for traces of the barrel's origin. The game is basically pointing you toward the vehicle that dropped this toxic cargo in the first place.
From the barrel location, head northwest along the river. What you are looking for is a partly submerged truck sitting in the water, loaded with barrels. This truck is the source of the contamination and it is the key point for finishing A Toxic Trail.
Use the map or environmental cues to follow the river. When you spot a truck half submerged with barrels still on its bed, you are in the right place. Approach it and you will get a new objective that asks you to take a photo of the barrel truck.
To take the photo, look for the yellow marked icons around the side of the truck. These icons show where you can interact. Stand near any of them and press the interact button to snap the picture. You do not need to line up an actual manual screenshot as the game handles the objective automatically once you interact with the marker.
After the photo is taken, the objective changes again. Now you need to search the truck for clues about who is responsible, referred to as the saboteur.
Move to the drivers compartment and look for another yellow icon by the door or cab. Interact there to investigate the truck. When you do this, a Spaceport Warehouse Key will drop.
What to Do With the Spaceport Warehouse Key
The key that drops from the truck is important but slightly confusing at first. In terms of the quest, you do not actually have to pick up the key to complete A Toxic Trail. The objective is satisfied as soon as you interact with the truck and trigger the drop.
However, that does not mean you should ignore it. The Spaceport Warehouse Key is likely tied to later missions or loot opportunities, similar to the keys used in the Armored Transports quest. Losing it because you did not bother to grab it would be a waste.
Here is what you should do once the key drops:
- Pick up the Spaceport Warehouse Key immediately.
- Stow it safely so you do not risk losing it during a messy fight.
- Consider heading to the nearby Swamp elevator to extract if you have already gathered decent loot.
Since this is the kind of key that could open up new areas or loot at the Spaceport in a later quest, treating it as a valuable resource is smart. If your inventory is full, prioritize the key over low value loot items.
Once the investigation step is complete and the key is secured, the A Toxic Trail quest is effectively done. At this point you can either continue exploring the swamp, hunt other objectives, or exfil to bank your progress and keep your new key safe.
If you enjoy digging deeper into Arc Raiders quests, it is worth checking out related missions like Field Depots, Field Crates, Greasing Her Palms, A Reveal in Ruins, The Root of the Matter, or Armored Transports. These quests help you understand the world, learn how keys and loot systems work, and generally improve your survival odds on the surface.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-a-toxic-trail-walkthrough/
