Key takeaways
- The lift shaft. Fast, loud, and effectively a kill box if anyone is waiting on the ground floor. Use it going up, rarely coming down.
- Internal stairwells. Chokepoints with no flanking option. The exterior service stair on the north face is slower but far safer.
- Sound discipline. Metal grating and catwalks carry footsteps across multiple floors. Walk, don’t sprint, once you’re above the loading level.
- Third parties. Gunfire at the base pulls players from the surrounding POIs. Assume a squad is inbound roughly a minute after any sustained fight.
- Extraction timing. Once an extraction is called it runs on a visible countdown, and the tower roof is one of the most watched landmarks on the map. Call it from the loading level or the outer fence, not from the deck.
Run the Launch Tower bottom-up, hit the maintenance floors and control rooms on the way, and leave the roof deck for last — that’s the short answer, and it’s the version that produces the best value per minute. The tower is a vertical POI, so the real risk isn’t loot density, it’s that every floor funnels into the same two internal stairwells and one lift shaft. Get the route order right and you’ll usually be leaving with a full safe pocket while other squads are still fighting over the roof.
The route in five stages
Treat the tower as five separate jobs rather than one big loot run. Each stage has its own risk profile, and the smart play is to decide at the end of every stage whether the next one is still worth it.
| Stage | Where | Time budget | Containers | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Approach | Outer fence to tower base | 60–90 sec | 3–5 ground crates | Medium — open ground, ARC patrols |
| 2. Loading level | Ground floor and vehicle bay | 90–120 sec | 6–8 | Low to medium |
| 3. Maintenance floors | Levels 2–3, service corridors | 2–3 min | 8–12 | Medium — tight sightlines, easy ambush |
| 4. Control rooms | Levels 4–5 | 2–4 min | 5–7 plus safes | High — the most contested space in the tower |
| 5. Roof deck | Top deck, antenna and gantry | 2–3 min | 4–6 plus one keyed container | Very high — no cover, one way down |
If you only have time for two stages, take the loading level and the maintenance floors. That’s roughly 80% of the reliable value for about 40% of the exposure.
Loot locations that actually pay
Ground floor and vehicle bay
The bay is the safest loot in the tower and the most underrated. Look for tool crates along the wall benches, industrial shelves near the vehicle lifts, and a cluster of containers tucked behind the parked hauler on the far side. This level is where you’ll find most of the crafting materials that stack well in your stash — the boring stuff that funds everything else.
Maintenance floors (levels 2–3)
These floors hold the highest container-per-minute ratio in the building. Walk the perimeter corridor rather than the central catwalk: the perimeter has lockers, wall cabinets and two small utility rooms, while the catwalk is a straight line with nothing on it and no cover. The single best spot is the pump room on the second floor — it usually spawns a dense cluster of four to six containers in a space small enough to clear in under a minute.
Control rooms (levels 4–5)
Higher risk, higher ceiling. The control rooms carry the electronics, optics and rare weapon components, and the safes here are the reason most squads climb at all. Two rules: check the windows before you commit, because control rooms are visible from the roof deck, and never take the internal stairwell between level 3 and level 4 without listening for footsteps first.
Roof deck
The roof is the payday and the trap. The keyed container near the antenna mount needs the matching access key, and without it the deck is just four or five mid-tier crates on a flat, exposed surface. Loot the roof only if you arrived first, you know your extraction point, and you’re not carrying a fight up the stairs with you.
What to carry out and what to leave
| Loot type | Where it shows up | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Electronics and optics | Control rooms, safes | High — best value per inventory slot |
| Rare weapon components | Control rooms, keyed container | High |
| Crafting materials | Loading level, maintenance floors | Medium — take only if slots are free |
| Consumables and ammo | Everywhere | Low — top up, don’t hoard |
| Bulk salvage | Vehicle bay | Low — drop it the moment you need a slot |
The slot economics matter more than the individual item values. Two high-value electronics items will almost always beat six stacks of salvage, and salvage is the thing that gets you killed because you went back for it.
Gear loadout for a tower run
| Slot | Recommended | Why | Cheaper alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | Medium-ammo rifle | Works at corridor range and across the roof deck | Light-ammo SMG |
| Secondary | Shotgun | Ends stairwell fights instantly | Heavy pistol |
| Shield | Medium | Survives one ARC burst and one player ambush | Light shield plus extra heals |
| Utility | 2 smoke, 2 heals, 1 shield recharge | Smoke is the only reliable way off the roof under fire | 3 heals, 1 smoke |
| Safe pocket | Nothing but the best two items you find | Guarantees the run isn’t a total loss | — |
Leave the long-range sniper build in the stash. The tower’s longest sightline is the roof deck itself, and standing still on the roof to line up a shot is how tower runs end.
Extraction risks
- The lift shaft. Fast, loud, and effectively a kill box if anyone is waiting on the ground floor. Use it going up, rarely coming down.
- Internal stairwells. Chokepoints with no flanking option. The exterior service stair on the north face is slower but far safer.
- Sound discipline. Metal grating and catwalks carry footsteps across multiple floors. Walk, don’t sprint, once you’re above the loading level.
- Third parties. Gunfire at the base pulls players from the surrounding POIs. Assume a squad is inbound roughly a minute after any sustained fight.
- Extraction timing. Once an extraction is called it runs on a visible countdown, and the tower roof is one of the most watched landmarks on the map. Call it from the loading level or the outer fence, not from the deck.
Pick your route by squad size
- Solo: loading level plus maintenance floors, then out. Skip control rooms unless the tower has been quiet for several minutes.
- Duo: full clear up to the control rooms, split the roof only if you arrived before any gunfire started elsewhere.
- Trio: one on the roof, two working the control rooms, then a single combined push to the keyed container. This is the only setup where the roof is reliably profitable.
- Under-geared or new: ground floor only, two or three raids, learn the stairwell layout before you carry anything expensive upstairs.
FAQ
Is the Launch Tower worth running at all?
Yes, if you stop at the maintenance floors. The value per minute in the middle of the tower is excellent; the value per minute on the roof is poor unless you’re first there.
Do I need a key?
Only for the roof container. Everything else in the tower is open, which is why the roof is often skipped by experienced players.
What kills most tower runs?
Not the ARC. It’s a player squad arriving at the base while someone is still three floors up with no fast way down.
Layouts, container counts and item values shift with balance patches and seasonal updates, so treat the timings above as planning budgets rather than fixed numbers, and re-check the current map rotation before you commit to a tower-focused session.
