Breaking New Ground Phase 1 Guide — Stella Montis Materials, Merits, and Tips
This guide is a complete walkthrough for completing Stella Montis Phase 1 of the ARC Raiders community event commonly called the Breaking New Ground event. It covers objectives, the role of donations, how merits are earned and tallied, the best materials to hand in, efficient ways to farm the required resources, team coordination strategies for maximizing community progress, and post-phase follow-ups to make sure you get every reward available.
Whether you’re a returning raider who wants to prioritize speed, a completionist tracking merit targets, or a content creator looking to package event tips, this guide gives actionable steps, exact priorities, and in-game tactics so you can contribute meaningfully to the community push.
What is Stella Montis Phase 1
Stella Montis is a limited-time community event in ARC Raiders where players contribute resources to unlock shared milestones and rewards for the entire player base.
Phase 1 typically focuses on gathering raw materials, tech, and community donations in exchange for merits — a shared currency used to measure progress toward cumulative goals.
The event rewards often include cosmetic items, limited-time blueprints, upgrade materials, and community milestones that unlock more content later in the event.
Why Phase 1 matters
Phase 1 sets the tone for the entire event: early momentum unlocks future phases, and donations now directly affect later unlock thresholds.
Completing Phase 1 efficiently increases the chance the community reaches mid- and late-event milestones that yield the best rewards.
Early donors often receive exclusive recognition and merit bonuses that compound across phases.
How Phase 1 Works — Core Mechanics
Community Contribution Pool: Each donation feeds a global meter. When the pooled merits hit target thresholds, the event advances.
Donation Types: Donations fall into categories: Raw Materials (ore, biomass, polymers), Tech Components (circuitry, cores), and Event-Specific Tokens (rare drops or crafted items).
Merit Conversion: Each donated item converts into merits. Different types and rarities yield different merit values.
Phase Timer: A countdown runs for the phase duration. If the community reaches the target before time ends, Phase 1 completes early and rewards are distributed.
Personal Contribution Tracker: Your profile shows your personal merit total and progress relative to milestone rewards.
Key takeaways
Not all donated items are equal: prioritize items with the best merits-per-time (or effort) ratio.
Farming efficiency beats raw grinding: knowing where to get the highest yield materials per run is essential.
Community coordination multiplies effectiveness: share routes and swap targets to avoid material supply bottlenecks.
Priority Items and the Best Donations
Which materials give the most merit?
Event-specific rarities and tech components usually give the best merits per item.
Mid-tier materials often have balanced merit-to-farm-time ratios; they are the backbone of steady donations.
Low-tier common materials are worth donating when you're finishing a session or clearing inventory but are inefficient for merit-maximization.
Suggested donation priority (top to bottom)
Event Tokens / Rare Tech — rare, high-merit items; donate immediately when available.
Advanced Components (circuits, cores) — high merit and moderate farming cost.
Refined Materials (polymers, treated alloys) — solid merit-per-item and trackable in bulk.
Mid-tier Resources (ores, biomass packs) — donate in bulk; good filler.
Common scraps — donate only when you have a large pile and nothing better.
Why this order?
The event reward formulas are weighted: a few high-merit items can leapfrog many common items in total merit value.
Farming costs scale: rare items usually take more time per unit but give far higher merit, making them efficient for maximum impact if you can farm them reliably.
Merit Math — How to Prioritize by Value
Understanding merit math helps you choose between donating one rare component or many commons.
Simple merit example (illustrative values)
Rare Tech Component = 400 merits
Advanced Component = 120 merits
Refined Material = 30 merits
Common Scrap = 3 merits
If a rare takes 20 minutes to obtain and yields 400 merits, that’s 20 merits/minute. If refined materials can be farmed at 60 items per hour at 30 merits each, that’s 30 merits/minute — in that scenario, refined materials are more efficient. Always evaluate merits per minute rather than merits per item alone.
How to apply merit math in practice
Track your typical farming run times for different resources.
Calculate merits earned divided by minutes spent to find your highest merit-per-minute route.
Prioritize the items producing the most merits per minute given your personal farming efficiency and time windows.
Farming Routes and Supply Chains
Farming strategies change by map, drop rates, and your loadout. Below are general guidance and example routes; tailor them to your character's strengths and the current meta.
General advice
Use missions with high spawn density and short clear times for bulk materials.
Target high-value nodes or elites that drop tech components.
If the event includes special nodes or boss encounters that drop event tokens, rotate runs through those nodes exclusively.
Bring a build optimized for speed and resource pickup — AoE clears and movement buffs are ideal.
Example farming routes (high-level)
Short-run route (15–20 minutes): High-density patrol mission -> elite node -> extraction; repeat. Good for refined materials and biomass.
Mid-run route (25–40 minutes): Two linked missions with quick transit; focusing on elite camps yields better tech drops.
Long-run route (40–60 minutes): Boss rotation route — designed for high chance at rare tokens; best when running with a team to speed kills.
Inventory tips
Keep space for rare drops; clear commons before running token-focused missions.
Use boosters (if available) that increase tech drop rates or resource yields.
If the event grants temporary stash expansions or donation boosts, schedule runs around them.
Best Builds and Loadouts for Farming
Tailor your raider build to the task: speed clearing, survivability for boss runs, or loot magnetization.
Speed farm build
Mobility augmentations: sprint regen, dash cooldown reduction.
AoE damage: weapons or skills that clear groups in seconds.
Loot augment: pickup radius increases or auto-collect mods.
Boss/token run build
High single-target DPS with burst cooldowns.
Team synergies: bring a support raider who can buff drop chance or sustain team health.
Survivability mods to avoid downtime during long boss fights.
Solo vs group
Solo speed farmers should focus on movement and self-healing.
Groups should coordinate roles: one tank/survivability, two damage dealers, one utility/support for buffs and extra loot.
Team Coordination and Community Strategies
Community coordination is the secret weapon for event success. The faster the community organizes, the sooner the merit thresholds fall.
Local guild/clan coordination
Set up donation windows where members farm the highest-merit items and donate together to trigger a milestone.
Use simple rotation systems: while one team runs high-value token missions, another runs refined material routes to keep donations steady.
Time-zone staggered pushing
Establish time windows across time zones to keep donations flowing 24/7.
Assign “shift leaders” who coordinate runs and post progress in community channels.
Event sharing and communication
Share reliable routes and drop-rate tips in public channels.
Coordinate which rare drops each player is farming so the community as a whole maximizes merit-per-minute.
Avoid common coordination mistakes
Don’t flood donations with low-merit items while rare items are available — save inventory and donate at strategic times.
Avoid repeating the same low-yield route across the entire community when higher merit routes exist; diversify.
Donation Timing and Psychological Triggers
Timing your donations can be impactful:
Donate in waves — big donations at milestone thresholds create momentum and encourage others to follow.
Hold back small amounts to top off donations when the community is 90% to a milestone — this can give you a sense of direct influence and motivate others.
Psychology of milestones
Communities respond to visible progress. Share screenshots of meters and personal contributions to incentivize more donations from others.
Event rewards that are visible and tangible (cosmetics) increase participation. Push visible rewards to the front of community chats.
Step-by-Step Phase 1 Walkthrough
This section is an actionable step-by-step plan you can follow today to maximize your contribution.
Preparation (before you farm)
Clear inventory space and apply any available loot or drop-rate boosters.
Shop or craft the highest-yield consumables for speed farming.
Coordinate with at least one friend or squad to split farming tasks.
Session plan (2-hour example)
0:00–0:10 — Quick warm-up mission to confirm drop tables; adjust loadout.
0:10–0:50 — Run repeated short-run route for refined materials (steady merits).
0:50–1:10 — Transition to elite contractions for advanced components.
1:10–1:40 — Boss/token rotation with team for rare tech drops.
1:40–1:55 — Donate high-merit items in a single wave.
1:55–2:00 — Log post-session: snapshot meters, note personal merit gains, share in community chat.
Donation execution
Don’t donate instantly after every run. Consolidate donations into waves for psychological and momentum effects.
If the event offers a personal milestone reward for X merits donated, plan donations to hit that threshold precisely.
Long-term campaign strategy
Repeat efficient runs over multiple sessions, balancing rare token pushes with bulk refined material donations.
Adjust tactics as the community approaches higher thresholds — switch to highest merit items if the remaining threshold is small.
Maximizing Reward Efficiency
Personal reward vs. community reward: balance donations so you earn personal milestones while also driving community targets.
If the event has personal merit-gates with diminishing returns, diversify donations across several categories.
Claim rewards immediately when milestones unlock to avoid inventory overflow.
Inventory and economy management
Don’t sell everything to vendors. Save a focused set of high-merit items for donation windows.
Track what the community still needs; sometimes lower-merit items are the bottleneck late in the phase.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Pitfall 1: Donating low-merit items early and missing high-value drops later.
Fix: Prioritize and queue donations. Keep event tokens until a donation wave.
Pitfall 2: Farming inefficient routes repeatedly without checking merits-per-minute.
Fix: Track actual run times and adjust routes accordingly.
Pitfall 3: Overcommitting to solo boss runs that take too long for little merit return.
Fix: Switch to short, high-density runs or join a team for boss rotations to increase speed.
Pitfall 4: Not communicating with your clan or community.
Fix: Post goals, run times, and needs in community channels; coordinate simple schedules.
Event Metrics to Watch
Global Merit Meter: The main bar that shows community progress toward milestones.
Personal Merit Counter: Your total merits and how close you are to personal milestones.
Item Merit Values: Keep a small note of merit values for rare, advanced, and refined items.
Drop-rate snapshots: Track changes in practical drop rates across different nodes or servers.
How to use metrics
Recalculate your farming priorities if the community shifts toward a different resource bottleneck.
Use personal merit trends to measure whether a route is improving (more merits per run) or getting worse (lower yields or longer runs).
Post-Phase Tips and Next Steps
After Phase 1 completes:
Claim everything you earned and archive screenshots of milestone confirmations for your guide or social posts.
Reassess inventory: craft or store materials useful for Phase 2.
Share a short postmortem in your community: what worked, what bottlenecked, and propose optimized routes for the next phase.
If Phase 2 requires different materials, pivot early: begin farming the required resource right away to maintain momentum.
Community Contribution Templates
Use this short message template to coordinate runs in chat channels:
Template for a donation wave:
"Wave in 15 — I’ll donate refined materials (x50) & advanced components (x10). Need 2 people on token runs. Meet at server X, start at 18:00 UTC."
Template for route sharing:
"Fast route (15m loop): Zone A -> Elite Camp -> Node B -> Extraction. Avg yield: 30 refined, 0–2 advanced per run."
Template for recruiting:
"LF 3 for boss rotation (token farm). Bring burst DPS and movement mods. 30–45m run; will donate on completion."
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the fastest items to donate in Stella Montis Phase 1?
The fastest items to donate with the best merit impact are refined materials when you can farm them in high density runs, and advanced components if your group can reliably clear elite nodes. Event-specific rare tokens return the highest merits per item but require longer or more difficult runs.
Should I save rare drops or donate them immediately?
Save rare drops for donation waves unless holding them risks overflow. Coordinated donations at milestone thresholds have a greater psychological and strategic impact for the community.
How do I calculate merits-per-minute?
Track average time for a run, count merits earned per run, then divide merits by minutes. Compare routes using that metric to find your most efficient farming path.
Is solo farming better than group farming?
It depends. Solo runs can be faster for high-mobility players and short-run farming. Groups are better for boss-token runs and when you need to speed-clear elite camps that drop advanced components.
What if my community isn’t coordinating?
Start small: recruit 3–5 dedicated players to run one high-merit route repeatedly. Use screenshots of progress to incentivize wider participation. Staggered shifts from different time zones help keep a steady donation stream.
Do boosters or consumables affect drop rates for event tokens?
Usually, boosters that increase loot yield or drop chance will help. Use them on runs focused on rare-tech or advanced-component farming to amplify merits-per-minute.
How many hours should I commit to finish my personal merit goals?
This depends on your personal target and drop rates. Use merits-per-minute to estimate hours needed. Set realistic sessions (1–2 hours) and scale based on short-run efficiency.
Will donating low-tier materials ever be useful?
Yes — late in the phase, the community can be bottlenecked by small items. Keep a stock of commons to top off community progress when necessary.
Closing Strategy Summary
Prioritize high merit-per-minute farming rather than high merits per item.
Coordinate donations into visible waves to drive community momentum.
Balance solo speed farming with team boss runs for rare tokens.
Track your personal merits and run-time metrics to maximize efficiency across sessions.
Communicate concise plans and routes to your clan and community; shared knowledge scales.
Suggested Social Post Copy (for sharing your progress)
Short post: "Pushing Stella Montis Phase 1 tonight — 2-hour slot: refined material runs + boss rotation. Need token runners. Let’s hit the milestone! #ARCRaiders #StellaMontis"
Progress update: "Donated 1.2k merits in this wave — community meter moved 8% — keep it up!"
Final Checklist Before Your Next Donation Session
Clear inventory and equip movement/AoE mods.
Confirm best route for merits-per-minute.
Coordinate donation wave time with community or clan.
Apply boosters (if available) and start a timed session.
Post final merit snapshot and next wave plan.
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