The Shrouded Sky update brought a lot of new content to Arc Raiders, but nothing has sent more players scrambling for answers than the Firefly Burner. This component is required to progress the Weather Monitor System Project, and since it cannot be found in loot crates or purchased from any vendor, a surprising number of players have no idea where to start looking.
This guide covers everything you need to know about how to get the Firefly Burner in Arc Raiders — what the Firefly enemy is, exactly where it spawns across all maps, the most efficient way to kill it, what it drops when destroyed, and what you actually do with the Burner once you have it.
What Is the Firefly Burner?
The Firefly Burner is a crafting and Project component introduced with the Shrouded Sky update in Arc Raiders. It is a direct drop item, meaning there is only one way to get it: you have to kill the Firefly ARC enemy and loot its remains.
It cannot be found as random chest loot, bought from traders in Speranza, or substituted with any other material. Every Firefly Burner in your stash was earned the same way — by taking down the Firefly mid-raid and successfully extracting.
The Firefly Burner has two primary uses in the current version of the game. First, it is required to complete one of the five stages of the Weather Monitor System Project, which is the main community project added in the Shrouded Sky update. Second, it is a crafting ingredient for the Trailblazer grenade — a recipe that requires one Synthesized Fuel, two Crude Explosives, one Firefly Burner, an Explosives Station at Level 3, and the Trailblazer Blueprint.
If you are working through the Weather Monitor System and have hit a wall at one of the later stages, the Firefly Burner is almost certainly the bottleneck. The good news is that the drop rate is consistent — nearly every Firefly kill yields one — which makes farming manageable once you know what you are doing.
What Is the Firefly ARC Enemy?
Before you can farm the Firefly Burner, you need to understand exactly what the Firefly is, because it behaves very differently from most flying ARC enemies you have encountered before.
The Firefly is a flying drone introduced alongside the Comet as one of two new ARC threat types in the Shrouded Sky update. Visually, it shares its basic profile with the Hornet and Wasp — it is an airborne unit with rotors — but its attack style and danger level are significantly different.
Unlike the Hornet, which engages from a hovering distance using electric attacks you can dodge, the Firefly closes distance aggressively and uses a flamethrower mounted on its underside. Once it locks onto you, it will chase you rather than patrol, and it can burn through your armor in seconds if you are caught in the open without cover. Standing still or retreating into a straight line are both bad options — the Firefly is fast enough to catch you, and its fire stream is wide enough that lateral movement does not reliably get you clear.
The Firefly is also heavily armored compared to other flying ARC units. Its rotors are enclosed in protective plating from multiple angles, unlike the Hornet and Wasp whose rotors are exposed at the front. This means you cannot simply target the propellers from any direction and expect fast results.
Firefly Spawn Locations: Where to Find It
The Firefly spawns on every map in Arc Raiders. It does not have a fixed, static location — instead, it joins the standard ARC patrol routes that already include Wasps and Hornets. Like those enemies, Fireflies crash down from orbit at the start of encounters and immediately join the fight.
In practice, you will most commonly find Fireflies in open outdoor areas, particularly in zones where flying ARC enemies are already active. If you hear the sound of aerial deployment or see a cluster of flying ARC units converging, there is a strong chance a Firefly is part of the group.
Some locations have higher Firefly density than others based on community reports:
Spaceport is widely considered the best map for Firefly farming. Its open terrain makes it easier to spot Fireflies before they spot you, which gives you time to position and engage on your terms rather than reacting.
Blue Gate has reliable Firefly sightings, particularly around the Dam Battlegrounds area near the Hydroponic Dome Complex and in the swamp sections. The more open sections of the map provide good engagement range.
Stella Montis sees Fireflies appear regularly in the larger open loading areas and lobby spaces where Wasps and Hornets already patrol.
On any map, two reliable triggers for Firefly encounters are Matriarch and Harvester events. Smaller ARC units, including Fireflies, tend to cluster around these major enemies. If you are struggling to find Fireflies in open patrol routes, jumping into a Matriarch event is a dependable alternative — though you will be dealing with significantly more chaos.
How to Kill the Firefly and Get the Burner
Killing the Firefly efficiently requires understanding its weak point and using the right loadout. Wasting ammo on its armored body or plated rotors without hitting the critical target will drag out the fight and give the Firefly more time to close the distance and burn you.
The Weak Point: Yellow Gas Canister
The Firefly’s primary weak point is the yellow gas canister visible on its underside. This is the flamethrower’s fuel tank, and it is the most damage-efficient target on the enemy. Consistent hits to the gas canister will destabilize the Firefly quickly. Hitting the rotors can also work — destroying two rotors will bring it down — but experienced players prioritize the fuel tank because it leads to faster kills with less ammo.
One important note if you are running the Firefly Damage Trial: aim for the body, not the rotors. Shooting off the propellers causes the Firefly to enter a death spin where environmental collision damage finishes it off — and that collision damage does not count toward your Trial score. For regular farming runs where you just need the Burner, the distinction does not matter. For Trial scoring purposes, it does.
Best Weapons for Killing the Firefly
Heavy ammo weapons are the recommended option across the board. The Firefly’s armor is thick enough that lighter weapons produce poor results even with accurate shots.
The Ferro and Anvil are the two most recommended weapons. Both deal high damage per shot, offer reliable armor penetration, and give you enough range to engage before the Firefly reaches dangerous close-range distance. The Ferro in particular can strip the fuel tank in a focused burst. The Hullcracker is another effective option if you have it available.
If you prefer a budget approach or want to keep your main loadout intact, Seeker Grenades are a surprisingly effective alternative. They home in on airborne targets and can knock a Firefly out of the sky in one well-timed throw. Wolfpack grenades — the homing variant — also perform well against Fireflies. Using explosives allows you to engage from cover and avoid the flamethrower range entirely.
Staying Safe While Engaging
Keep your distance. The Firefly’s flamethrower is devastating at close range and cannot be avoided by simply sidestepping the way you dodge Hornet attacks. If it closes to within a few meters, you will take rapid fire damage that burns through both armor and health quickly.
Use buildings and solid cover to break line of sight when needed. Unlike some ARC enemies that will disengage if you break visual contact, the Firefly will follow you indoors if it has already locked on — but indoor corridors do limit its flamethrower effectiveness and give you angles to shoot from.
If multiple Fireflies are present at the same time, prioritize the closest one and use the terrain between you and the others to manage the engagement pace.
Looting the Firefly Burner
Once the Firefly is destroyed, loot the remains. The drop rate for the Firefly Burner is very high — almost every Firefly kill will produce one. Alongside the Burner, each Firefly drop also typically includes Simple Gun Parts, Chemicals, and an Arc Powercell. Occasional drops include Crude Explosives or Explosive Compound.
The looting step is important: extract successfully to keep the Burner. If you are killed before reaching extraction, the Burner can be lost from your inventory unless you stored it in your Safe Pocket after picking it up. Given the effort required to get back into a raid and kill another Firefly, safe-pocketing the Burner immediately after looting it is worth the habit. For a full breakdown of extraction options — including the silent Raider Hatch method — check the Arc Raiders Raider Hatch Key guide for tactics that let you extract without broadcasting your position.
Weather Monitor System: How the Firefly Burner Fits In
The Weather Monitor System is the five-stage community Project introduced with the Shrouded Sky update. Like other Projects in Arc Raiders, each stage requires specific components to complete, with rewards unlocking progressively as the community contributes.
The Firefly Burner is required at one of the later stages of the project. Without it, progression stalls entirely at that stage — there is no substitute material and no workaround. This makes Firefly farming a mandatory part of completing the Weather Monitor System for any player who wants to push through to the final reward tier.
The structure is the same as other Projects you may have encountered before: contribute the required materials at the appropriate contribution terminal in Speranza, and the stage advances. If you have already been working through Arc Raiders’ broader crafting ecosystem, the High Gain Antenna Project guide covers the parallel Project added in the Flashpoint update and is worth reading for context on how these multi-stage systems are structured.
Trailblazer Grenade: The Other Use for Firefly Burners
Beyond the Weather Monitor System, the Firefly Burner is a crafting ingredient for the Trailblazer grenade — a new throwable added alongside the Shrouded Sky content.
The Trailblazer recipe requires:
- 1x Synthesized Fuel
- 2x Crude Explosives
- 1x Firefly Burner
- Explosives Station Level 3
- Trailblazer Blueprint
The Trailblazer performs well against Firefly enemies themselves, which makes it a useful cyclical tool — use Trailblazer grenades to help kill Fireflies more efficiently, then use the Burners they drop to craft more Trailblazers. Once your crafting setup supports it, this loop reduces the resource cost per kill.
The Crude Explosives required for the recipe can occasionally drop from Fireflies directly, so runs that produce both Burners and Crude Explosives move your Trailblazer crafting forward at the same time.
Efficient Firefly Burner Farming: Key Tips
Running Spaceport or Blue Gate gives you the best Firefly density per raid. Both maps have open terrain that lets you engage at range and spot Fireflies before they engage you.
If you want a reliable trigger rather than passive patrolling, join a Matriarch or Harvester event on any map. Fireflies frequently cluster around these encounters, so you can combine ARC boss farming with Burner collection in the same run.
Bring Seeker or Wolfpack grenades as a backup option for the Firefly if your primary loadout does not include heavy ammo weapons. The ability to knock one out of the sky from behind cover without committing to an open-field engagement is worth the inventory slot.
Safe-pocket the Burner immediately after looting. The most common way to lose a Firefly Burner is getting eliminated on the way to extraction — a risk that is completely mitigated by storing the item in your safe pocket the moment you pick it up.
For higher-value runs where you have stacked materials alongside the Burner, the Close Scrutiny map condition events can be active simultaneously with Firefly spawns. If you are also working on Assessor loot during those runs, the Arc Raiders Close Scrutiny guide covers the Assessor mechanics in full. Similarly, if you recently earned a Dolabra from Close Scrutiny farming, its focused ADS beam is one of the better weapons for targeting the Firefly’s fuel tank precisely — see the Dolabra guide for the weapon’s full capability breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Firefly Burner a guaranteed drop from the Firefly?
The drop rate is very high and effectively consistent. Community reports across multiple updates have confirmed that almost every Firefly kill yields one Firefly Burner. It is not technically a 100% guaranteed drop listed in any official source, but in practice you should expect one per kill during normal farming sessions.
Which map is best for farming Firefly Burners?
Spaceport is the most consistently recommended map due to its open terrain, which makes Fireflies easier to spot and engage at range. Blue Gate and Buried City are also solid options. Fireflies spawn on all maps, so personal familiarity with a map’s layout can outweigh the general recommendation.
Can the Firefly Burner be crafted or bought from a vendor?
No. It is a direct ARC drop only. There is no crafting recipe that produces it and no vendor in Speranza that stocks it. The only source is killing the Firefly and looting its remains.
What are the best weapons for killing the Firefly?
The Ferro and Anvil are the top recommendations due to their heavy ammo damage and armor penetration. Seeker Grenades and Wolfpack grenades are excellent cost-effective alternatives, particularly for players who want to engage from cover. Aim for the yellow gas canister on the underside for maximum efficiency.
Do I need more than one Firefly Burner?
Yes, if you plan to both complete the Weather Monitor System and craft Trailblazer grenades. The Project requires at least one, and each Trailblazer grenade costs one Burner per craft. Farming multiple Burners per session is advisable if you want to progress both uses simultaneously.
Can Fireflies spawn during any map condition, or only during specific events?
Fireflies spawn during regular raids with no special condition required. They are also present during Hurricane conditions and other map modifiers. They are not exclusive to any particular event — though Matriarch and Harvester events reliably increase the number of Fireflies present in a given area.
Wrapping Up
Getting the Firefly Burner in Arc Raiders comes down to one task: find the Firefly, hit its yellow gas canister with a heavy weapon or well-aimed grenade, and loot the remains before you extract. The drop rate is reliable, the spawn locations are consistent on Spaceport and Blue Gate, and the required loadout is accessible to players at most progression stages.
Once you understand what the Firefly Burner is, where to look for the enemy, and how to take it down without getting torched, farming becomes straightforward. Safe-pocket your Burner the moment you have it, plan your extraction route — the Arc Raiders extraction guide covers every exit option available — and repeat until your Weather Monitor System and crafting goals are met.
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