Back On Top is a Tian Wen quest in ARC Raiders. It sends you across four maps to mark buildings for possible raider outpost sites: Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, and The Blue Gate.
This quest feels messy at first, but the job is actually simple. You are not solving one long route. You are clearing a checklist. Go to the right map, find the right building, mark it, and move on.
That is the best way to think about it.
What Back On Top is really asking you to do
A lot of players make this quest harder than it needs to be. They treat it like a normal mission and start roaming too much. That usually wastes time.
Back On Top is easier when you treat it like a four-stop location quest. Each stop has one building that matters. Once you find that building and use the yellow interaction point, that map is done.
Here is the quest at a glance:
| Detail | Information |
| Quest Name | Back On Top |
| Quest Giver | Tian Wen |
| Quest Type | Multi-map marking quest |
| Maps Involved | Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, The Blue Gate |
| Goal | Mark one building on each map |
| Main Challenge | Finding the correct building fast |
The ARC Raiders Wiki also links Back On Top to earlier progression through Celeste’s Journals, Eyes In The Sky, and The Major’s Footlocker.
Why players get stuck on Back On Top
The quest is not complicated. The problem is usually one of these:
Most failed runs happen because players know the map name, but not the exact building they need to mark.
- the player knows the map, but not the exact building
- the player searches too wide instead of checking the right landmark
- the player turns the run into a loot trip instead of a quest run
- the player does not know what the correct structure should look like
So the real key is not “play better.”
The real key is recognize the right building faster.
Helpful ways to keep your quest progress fast and efficient:
All Back On Top locations in ARC Raiders
Below is the full map-by-map guide for all four Back On Top locations.
Quick map summary
| Map | Target Building | Main Area Cue |
| Dam Battlegrounds | Pattern House | North, near Generator Hall / West Broken Bridge |
| Buried City | Mural-painted building | Buried Properties |
| Spaceport | South Trench Tower | North, near Launch Towers |
| The Blue Gate | White lookout tower | South of Warehouse Complex, near Overlook Shaft |
Dam Battlegrounds — Pattern House
In Dam Battlegrounds, you need to mark Pattern House. Current guide coverage places it in the north of the map, with nearby cues like Generator Hall and West Broken Bridge.
Do not overthink this one. First get yourself into the northern side of the map. Then narrow your focus to the correct building area instead of checking every nearby structure.
If you are using Generator Hall or West Broken Bridge to guide your search, you are already working in the right part of the map.
What to look for:
- Pattern House on the north side of Dam Battlegrounds
- nearby references such as Generator Hall or West Broken Bridge
- the yellow mark point on the building itself
If your goal is just clean quest progress and not a full farming run, it helps to keep your setup simple and stay focused on the mark itself. That same progression-first mindset is also why something like ARC Raiders Expedition Project Boost fits better than forcing unrelated service pages into a quest guide.
Buried City — Mural-Painted Building
In Buried City, the target is the mural-painted building in Buried Properties. This one is easier once you know what makes it stand out. The map name alone is not enough. The visual look of the building is the real clue here.
If you are already in Buried Properties, stop scanning the whole area and start checking for the building that looks different from the rest. That is the fastest way to avoid wasting time.
The easiest way to confirm this location is to focus on the building’s painted exterior, not just your map position.
Simple recognition tip:
If a building stands out visually in Buried Properties and matches the mural-painted description, check it for the yellow interaction point.
Spaceport — South Trench Tower
In Spaceport, you need South Trench Tower. Current guides place it on the north side of the map near the Launch Towers.
This is one of the locations where larger area awareness helps. Instead of searching all over Spaceport, use the Launch Towers side as your anchor first. After that, focus only on the correct tower.
If you are already near the Launch Towers, you are close to the correct side of the map.
Best way to approach it:
- stay on the northern side of Spaceport
- use the Launch Towers area as your main location clue
- confirm the tower before looking for the mark point
The Blue Gate — White Lookout Tower
In The Blue Gate, the target is a white lookout tower. Current coverage places it south of Warehouse Complex and near the Overlook Shaft area.
This one is easy to miss if you search too broadly. Players often waste time here because they treat the full Blue Gate area like the target zone. That usually slows everything down.
A better approach is to keep your search narrow and look specifically for the white tower near the right landmark cluster.
If you find yourself checking too many buildings, pull your search back toward the lookout tower area near Warehouse Complex.
Common mistake:
Checking too much of The Blue Gate instead of going straight toward the lookout tower area south of Warehouse Complex.
Fastest way to finish Back On Top
This quest becomes much easier when you stop treating it like one big mission.
Treat it like this instead:
- one map
- one building
- one mark
- move on
That mindset keeps the quest clean.
GameSpot also surfaces a useful efficiency idea here: if your only goal is quest progress, use a simple setup and do not waste too much time on bad runs or awkward starts.
A practical way to handle Back On Top is:
- go in to mark, not to farm
- do not combine too many extra goals into the run
- if a spawn makes the target building awkward, do not force the whole match
- finish the easiest clean objective you can, then move to the next map with a simple plan
That approach is better than trying to turn every run into a perfect loot route.
If you are also trying to keep broader account progress moving while clearing multi-map objectives like this, ARC Raiders Leveling is the only other related page that fits naturally here without pulling the article away from user intent.
Stay consistent and avoid getting stuck on multi-map objectives:
Quick answers for Back On Top
Who gives Back On Top in ARC Raiders?
Tian Wen gives Back On Top. The quest is also connected in reference coverage to Celeste’s Journals, Eyes In The Sky, and The Major’s Footlocker.
Which maps are part of Back On Top?
You need to visit Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, and The Blue Gate. Each map has one building that must be marked.
What do you do in Back On Top?
You mark buildings for possible raider outpost sites. The job is to find the correct structure on each map and use the yellow interaction point to mark it.
What is the easiest way to finish Back On Top?
The easiest way is to treat it like a checklist, not a full adventure run. Focus on one map at a time, identify the correct building, mark it, and leave the extra goals for later. That is the cleanest way to reduce wasted time.
Final Tips
Back On Top is easier once you stop trying to remember the whole quest at once.
Just remember the real pattern:
four maps, four buildings, four marks.
That is all this quest is. Once you approach it that way, it becomes much easier to finish
