Firefly is a brand-new ARC flying machine introduced this February. It typically appears in open areas and will immediately attack any raider it spots, dealing more damage than regular enemies. Escaping Firefly solo is a significant challenge, as you must quickly strategize your attack while avoiding being burned to a crisp.
It can be described as a floating flamethrower, continuously spraying flames at its target. The flames ignite the ground and surrounding environment, causing continuous fire damage. To make it less of a headache, IGGM recommends understanding its weaknesses and characteristics before defeating it, targeting those weaknesses to maximize damage with minimal damage taken.
Attack Yellow Gas Tank
When Firefly prepares to attack, a yellow gas tank will appear. After a few shots, the tank will ignite, causing significant damage. However, its attack won’t stop until further shots cause the tank to explode and disappear completely.
Accurately hitting the yellow fuel tank is not easy, and even if you hit it every time, it will still take multiple shots to make it explode. However, we can still conclude that the yellow fuel tank is their weak point. Because with enough shots, Firefly’s yellow fuel tank will definitely explode, which is indeed a faster way to eliminate them than shooting other parts of their body.
Attack Thrusters
As mentioned above, shooting fireflies does very little damage and is insufficient to kill them because they are armored all around their outer shell. This armor is very thick, and using weapons loaded with heavy ammunition, such as Ferro and Bettina, will be more effective at taking them down. If you have ARC Raiders blueprints, that’s best to craft them directly. Otherwise, medium and light ammunition weapons can be used, but it will take more time.
The thrusters are another weak point of Firefly and one of the best targets. Firefly has two thrusters, one at the front and one at the back. The front thrusters are also armored, but the back ones are not, so IGGM recommends attacking its back thrusters first.
When Firefly attacks, pay attention to its tail. When it slightly raises its back to expose its thrusters, simply aim and shoot upwards to knock it away without breaking its armor. This method also applies to all curved flying machines, making it very advantageous for shooting thrusters from a distance.
After its back thrusters are destroyed, Firefly may either crash and explode or continue pursuing you. Don’t panic. Continue shooting its front thrusters. Since one of its thrusters is destroyed, its maneuverability and flight altitude are reduced, making it easier to aim and destroy the other thruster. Once it crashes to the ground, regardless of whether it explodes or continues its flamethrower attack, its combat power is negligible, and it no longer poses a threat to you.
Using Seeker Grenade
Targeting Firefly’s two weaknesses requires aiming, which may take some time. Here’s a more efficient method: use Seeker Grenades. It can lock onto a single nearby ARC and cause explosive damage upon impact, making it the bane of small flying machines, including Firefly.
However, due to Firefly’s heavy armor, when using Seeker Grenade, the target location might not be the most effective, preventing an instant kill, such as attacking its back. Therefore, try throwing it higher so Seeker Grenade can aim at its relatively vulnerable top or the thrusters when Firefly flies towards you.
A single Seeker Grenade can eliminate the troublesome Firefly, making it undoubtedly the best choice. Do you already have this weapon to quickly defeat Firefly? If you find searching for it on the map too slow, you can also directly buy ARC Raiders blueprints from IGGM to craft it.
What to do when encountering Firefly in open areas?
When ranged attacks cannot deal enough damage, you can use a close-quarters combat method: run below it, turn around, jump onto it, and continue attacking.
Firefly generally doesn’t spit fire while spinning, nor when it turns and re-locks onto you; it flies very low, low enough that the flames can damage the raider; its attacks aren’t continuous but intermittent, attacking once, then once more, followed by a series of attacks, then pausing, then another series of attacks. You can exploit these characteristics.
When you encounter it in open terrain without cover, don’t run away. Run towards it and take cover below it during its first two attacks. It will then stop spitting fire as it turns and re-locks onto you. Quickly turn and jump onto it; Firefly will then become cover, preventing it from attacking you and avoiding the subsequent barrage of attacks.
However, once you’re on top, the thrusters are difficult to see because of the level line of sight. This means you must break its armor penetration to damage it. You can use ARC Raiders blueprints for sale to craft Hullcracker, which fires explosive ammunition with very high ARC armor penetration. Use it to shoot the yellow fuel tanks to quickly destroy them and escape.
To exploit Firefly’s weak point—the thrusters—you can jump onto Firefly and aim at them with Seeker Grenades. Jump down immediately after aiming, otherwise you’ll take significant damage from the explosion. This approach offers a higher survival rate than simply running away without fighting back. However, if you can jump down in time and dodge the explosion by rolling, you’ll take less damage.
Understanding these techniques will allow you to handle Fireflies calmly in open areas, defeating these once-feared ARCs in the shortest time and acquiring Firefly Burners with minimal cost. You can use them and Trailblazer blueprint to craft Trailblazers, expanding your arsenal and enhancing your strength.