Arc Raiders has a multi-quest storyline based around contaminated water, and it all starts with the Water Troubles quest. This quest sends you to the Dam Battlegrounds to collect a water sample--but if you don't know where to do so, it can be a bit confusing to figure out. We'll reduce the frustration for you a bit by explaining how to get the water sample.

You won't need to extract to complete this quest, so feel free to jump in with a free loadout if you prefer. This will ensure that you won't lose anything important if you happen to run into trouble while exploring the Dam Battlegrounds.

When you're ready to set off, here's how to complete Water Troubles.

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As part of Nintendo's latest earnings briefing, the company said it is open to spending some of its cash reserves on a variety of business functions, including buying game developers.

Nintendo said it wants to spend money to invest in strengthening its game development pipeline, and this includes acquiring companies to make them subsidiaries. Nintendo historically does not buy many companies, but it's something the company would consider under the right conditions.

Nintendo did not name any specific acquisition targets. Some of the companies that Nintendo has acquired in the past 10 years have included Shiver, Dynamo Pictures, SRD, and Next Level Games.

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Arc Raiders provides a lot of opportunities to search its large maps for well-hidden items, often testing your ability to read into vague hints about locations. It can be a lot of fun to track things down on your own, but it can also prove challenging at times. If you're struggling to find Major Aiva's Patch for the Echoes of Victory Ridge quest, we'll help you along with things.

Note that you need to extract from the topside with Major Aiva's Patch once you obtain it. With this in mind, it's a good idea to bring along an augment with a safe pocket so that you can ensure you don't lose your quest item even if you fall in battle.

When you're ready to get started, read on for where to find Major Aiva's Patch in Arc Raiders.

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CyberPowerPC Gaming Desktop Bundle

$600 (was $780)

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iBUYPOWER Element SE Gaming Desktop PC Bundle

$780 (was $1,040)

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If you've been wanting to dip your toes into the world of PC gaming but aren't sure where to start, you may want to check out Best Buy's early Black Friday sale. Several pre-built gaming PC bundles are discounted at Best Buy's online store ahead of the big shopping event, including an AMD-powered CyberPowerPC bundle with a Ryzen 5 5500 CPU and Radeon RX 6500XT that's just $600 (was $780), and an iBUYPOWER configuration running an Intel Core i5 CPU and Nvidia RTX 5060 that's on sale $780 (was $1,040). Both models also come bundled with a wired keyboard and a wired gaming mouse. If you're intimidated by the task of assembling a custom gaming PC, these prebuilt options aren't a bad place to start, and we've detailed each one below.

CyberPowerPC Gaming Desktop Bundle $600 (was $780)

If you're looking for an entry-level PC running AMD components, then this CyberPowerPC bundle is a solid option. It's powerful enough to run modern games at 1080p, and could even eke out 1440p or 4K performance if you run games at lower settings. The case measures in at 20.67 inches high, 8.98 inches wide, and 17.80 inches deep, and sports easy-to-access USB-C, USB-A, and audio ports. The open-view design on three sides of the case offers a nice view of the tower's RGB-lit interior. Here's the full hardware rundown.

Specs:

• AMD Ryzen 5 5500 Processor
• AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT GPU with 4GB GDDR6 VRAM
• 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3600MHz RAM
• 1TB Gen4 PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• GMA5600BSTV4 Case
• Elite M2 Black Wired 4-Button Mouse with RGB
• NOHI 2 Black Wired 104-Key Keyboard with RGB

See at Best Buy iBUYPOWER Element SE Gaming Desktop PC Bundle $780 (was $1,040)

The iBUYPOWER bundle offers a similar power and physical footprint to the AMD-powered model above, although this one features Intel and Nvidia components, including a 6-core Intel Core i5-14400F CPU and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5060 GPU.

The size of the case is standard, similar to the one above, standing at 17.3 inches tall, is 8.3 inches wide, and 19.4 inches deep. This one offers a sleeker form factor, with sharp corners and a transparent glass top. Here's what you'll get:

Specs:

• Intel Core i5-14400F 6-Core CPU
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 GPU
• 16GB DDR5 5200MHz RAM
• 1TB NVMe SSD
• Standard Wired Keyboard with RGB
• Standard Wired Gaming Mouse with RGB

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These are both solid options for starting with prebuilt gaming PCs, but they're not the only products Best Buy has available with Black Friday discounts. You'll of course need a monitor to go with your new gaming PC, and the Alienware 31.6in. QD-OLED curved 4K UHD monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate is on sale for $1,000, taking $200 off the original price. For something a bit more affordable, the Alienware 32in. QHD curved monitor with a 180Hz refresh rate is going for $260 (was $320).

The tech retailer is also offering a few more high-end prebuilt gaming PC's on sale. The Acer Nitro 60 gaming desktop is currently going for $1,400 (was $1,900), and includes an Intel Core i7-14700F processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD. This one is notably not a bundle, so you won't get a keyboard or mouse along with it. Then there's another iBUYPOWER Slate Gaming PC bundle that does include a mouse and keyboard going for $1,650 (was $1,900). It's much more powerful than the one highlighted above, sporting an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor and AMD Radeon RX 9070XT graphics card.

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Peak's newest biome is finally here. A flurry of new badges is also available, greatly expanding the number of cosmetics you can use to decorate your scout. The Roots update adds 11 new badges to the hiking hit.

The badges include climbing through the new biome, eating new types of consumables, and using new items to help save your friends’ fragile lives. The list of new accolade challenges includes:

• Climb past the Roots
• Climb past the Roots without ever having more than 25% spores
• Escape a spider's web and survive
• Cure yourself from a zombie bite
• Try all 5 types of Shroomberry in a single expedition
• Pull an unconscious friend 30m with the Rescue Claw
• Block 100 total damage with the Fortified Milk
• Eat 3 hot dogs in 5 seconds or less
• Resurrect friend using unholy means
• Bounce up to 40m off a mushroom
• Cook and eat a Mandrake

As you can see, the new update brings plenty more to do while climbing. Achievement hunters who previously collected all badges will now have even more challenges with the Roots update.

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In 2010, Visceral Games and Electronic Arts unleashed Dante's Inferno, an action-adventure game that was their answer to God of War. The story was very loosely inspired by Dante Alighieri's classic text, The Divine Comedy, as Dante sought to retrieve the soul of his wife, Beatrice, from Hell while facing Lucifer and the forces of evil. Now, 15 years after the game's release, new details have emerged about the canceled sequel, Dante's Inferno 2: Purgatorio.

IGN has an extensive report about Purgatorio, which includes a comprehensive breakdown of the story. The follow-up was envisioned as the inverse of the first game, as Dante was meant to scale Mount Purgatory to reunite with Beatrice and reach the Garden of Eden on top. However, each layer of the mountain represented one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and Dante had to both purge himself of those sins and defeat the embodiment of each one.

Dante also would have found himself in the middle of a war between Heaven and Hell, which he inadvertently set off by allowing Lucifer to escape Hell and invade Purgatory. St. Lucia--Dante's guardian angel from the first game's DLC--and the poet Virgil would have returned to guide Dante on his journey. To reach his goal, Dante would have to defeat some lethal archangels who considered him to be their enemy.

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As part of Nintendo's latest earnings report, the company disclosed plans for the original Switch now that the Switch 2 is in the market and putting up big sales numbers. The original Switch will continue to be sold, Nintendo confirmed, but the company will focus on the Switch 2 going ahead.

"While our business focus will shift to Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch has maintained a steady sales pace even after the June launch of its successor. While taking consumer demand and the business environment into consideration, we will continue sales of Nintendo Switch hardware," Nintendo said.

In total, Nintendo has sold 154.01 million Switch consoles worldwide through September 30, and that's just 10,000 units short of passing the DS to become Nintendo's best-selling platform of all time.

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Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz: The Board Game

$38.88 (was $55)

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Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz, the well-reviewed board game based on BioWare's beloved sci-fi RPG, is on sale for $38.88 (was $55) at Amazon. Priority Hagalaz has received few discounts since launching last fall. The current deal is very close to the all-time lowest price from Prime Day in July ($37.49). The officially licensed strategy game was designed for cooperative play and sticks with the franchise's identity by being a narrative-focused experience.

Mass Effect fans can also save nearly 50% on the 800-page Complete Comics omnibus.

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz: The Board Game $38.88 (was $55)

Created by Modiphius Entertainment in collaboration with BioWare and EA, Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz is a strategy board game designed for 1-4 players. Players control iconic Mass Effect characters like Commander Shepard, Liara, Wrex, Tali, and Garrus on a mission to infiltrate a Cerberus cruiser on the planet Hagalaz, while fighting off enemy soldiers and attempting to complete objectives before a deadly storm bombards the ship.

Just like the video games, Priority Hagalaz mixes tactical squad-based combat with branching narrative choices and multiple possible endings. The box comes with everything you need to play, including the rulebook, plastic minis of each playable squad member, character sheets, cards, tokens, dice, and more.

Priority Hagalaz is recommended for players ages 14 and up. A typical match lasts anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes.

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If you're looking for more ways to pass the time before Mass Effect 4, you might also want to check out this deal the Mass Effect: The Complete Comics. The 800-page paperback omnibus collects every issue of the Mass Effect comic book run into a single volume, and you can grab it for just $22.81 (was $40) at Amazon.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 releases on November 14, and Treyarch has released more information about the multiplayer content players can expect at launch. This includes the full list of multiplayer maps, game modes, and operators available in Black Ops 7 before the launch of Season 1.

For maps, Black Ops 7 launches with 18 multiplayer maps. This list consists of 16 core 6v6 maps, while the additional two are large-scale 20v20 maps designed for Black Ops 7's new Skirmish mode. Most of the maps are brand new, but the game does include a few popular remasters from Black Ops 2. The full list of launch maps can be seen below.

Black Ops 7 launch maps:

• Blackheart
• Cortex
• Exposure
• Imprint
• The Forge
• Toshin
• Colossus
• Den
• Flagship
• Homestead
• Paranoia
• Retrieval
• Scar
• Express (Returning from Black Ops 2)
• Hijacked (Returning from Black Ops 2)
• Raid (Returning from Black Ops 2)
• Mission: Edge (Skirmish)
• Mission: Tide (Skirmish)

Additionally, Nuketown 2025 arrives as a pre-season map. This is a variant of Treyarch's iconic Nuketown map, which is reimagined with the aesthetics of a near-future design. Nuketown 2025 is not available at launch, but it will arrive before the start of Black Ops 7's first season of content.

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Arc Raiders has a surprisingly touching story underneath all of the fun shooting and looting. At some point, Celeste will request that you visit a location and pay respects to a fallen soldier by placing a helmet on a memorial pole as part of the Keeping the Memory quest. For this sad but easy quest, you'll need to visit the Wreckage on the Dam Battlegrounds map and complete the quick task. If you're having some trouble finding the helmet, though, we've got you covered.

Note that you won't need to extract anything to complete this quest, so you can load in with a free loadout to reduce any concerns about losing your precious resources. When you're ready to set out, read on for where to find the helmet for Keeping the Memory.

Where to find and place the helmet for Keeping the Memory

To find the helmet, you'll need to head to the Wreckage on the southern portion of the Dam Battlegrounds map. This can sometimes be a fairly high-traffic area since it's also a good spot to farm mushrooms, so be on the lookout for other raiders while questing here.

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You'll take on a lot of quests that send you to the Dam Battlegrounds in Arc Raiders, including one from Tian Wen who wants you to search for Major Aiva's Mementos in some apartment buildings. This is a straightforward quest on paper, but because there are multiple buildings to explore and the ever-looming threat of ARC and other raiders, it's best to know right where to find these mementos so you can get out quickly.

Since you need to extract with Major Aiva's Mementos, it's a good idea to equip an augment that lets you store an item in a safe pocket. Once you pick up the mementos, you can toss it in that safe pocket and take it home with you even if you end up dead before you can extract.

With that out of the way, let's find Major Aiva's Mementos and wrap up The Major's Footlocker quest in Arc Raiders.

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Early Black Friday deals are slowly trickling in, including a limited-time offer on NordVPN. The VPN company is offering its several of its subscription plans for up to 77% off, with an additional 3 months tacked on for even better value. Using a VPN is a good way to buff up your privacy capabilities and maintain access to region-locked content while traveling. If you've been on the fence, NordVPN's discounted prices make now a great time to consider a subscription.

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NordVPN is offering all 24-month and 12-month versions of its Basic, Plus, Complete, and Prime subscription tiers at significant discounts, with an additional three months included. That's 15 total months of VPN service for far less than you'd normally pay.

The 24-month Prime plan offers the best value. It includes full access to the VPN, plus additional incentives such as 1TB of cloud storage, advanced identity protection, and the NordProtect service, which has a robust suite of insurance, Dark Web monitoring, and credit freeze assistance options. The 24-month Prime plan normally costs $836.73, but with the discount, new subscribers can sign up for just $186. That's a whopping $650 savings, and it includes the bonus three months, for a total of 27 months.

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No one likes contaminated water, so it's best you fix things up when you find out the water supply is tainted in Arc Raiders. The Source of the Contamination quest asks you to figure out what's causing the issue--and while it may seem pretty simple at a glance, it can be a little tricky to figure out the exact spot where things are going wrong with the water. Below, we'll fill you in on where to find the Flood Spill Intake on the Dam Battlegrounds map and how to solve this mystery.

Be aware that you don't need to extract with any items during this quest. Since you'll merely need to visit the location below and interact with an item, it's not a bad idea to handle things with a free loadout so you're not risking any of your hard-earned resources while exploring here.

Where to find the Flood Spill Intake at the Water Treatment Center

The Water Treatment Center is found just to the left of the middle of the Dam Battlegrounds map. It's a popular spot where a lot of raiders tend to visit to loot and fight, so it's probably best for you to approach it from the swamp if you're trying to keep things quiet. This is also a good call in general since the Flood Spill Intake is on the exterior of this POI.

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Obsidian Entertainments are masters of the open-world RPG and, among the developer's many achievements, is an outstanding history of creating compelling and memorable characters. If you've played The Outer Worlds, you'll no doubt be able to attest to this, as the sci-fi RPG is packed to bursting point with interesting and nuanced figures you'll encounter on your adventures and will stick with you long after you've stopped playing.

In the lead-up to the release of The Outer Worlds 2, we asked GameSpot fans on Instagram to take a space-walk down memory lane and vote for who their favorite characters from the original game are and, unsurprisingly, there as a big selection of characters that got a lot of love. We put together a list of the top three most-popular characters according to percentage of votes for them. So, let's join those fans on their reminiscing and reflect back on the characters that have proved most popular, as we get excited to meet more in The Outer Worlds 2.

Parvati Holcomb

Parvati Holcomb is one of the first party members you meet in The Outer Worlds. She is a sweet, but naive mechanical engineer working under Reed Tobson in Edgewater who deeply, emotionally connects with her work, and requests to join your party after seeing and falling in love with the Unreliable.

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Quests in Arc Raiders send you topside with a variety of mission types, but if you've completed outings like Marked for Death and Market Correction for Tian Wen, you know she's often asking you to check out caches. That trend continues in Industrial Espionage, which tasks you with delivering a gun to a weapon cache. If you're struggling to figure this one out, don't fret--here's how to complete the Industrial Espionage quest in Arc Raiders.

Where to take the gun in the Industrial Espionage quest

Important: Tian Wen will provide you with a Burletta gun when accepting Industrial Espionage. You are required to bring this weapon with you into the Buried City to complete the quest. If you happen to sell, recycle, or otherwise lose the Burletta, you'll need to craft a new one using the Gunsmith Level 2 workbench or purchase another one from Tian Wen.

While you'll need to have a Burletta in your inventory to complete the quest, you are not required to extract afterward. So, if you die after completing it, you'll still be able to turn it in back at Speranza. With this in mind, it's perfectly acceptable to embark with a free loadout if you'd like to play it safe on this quest run.

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Something is gross about the water around here, and it's time to fix it. One of the quests you'll receive in Arc Raiders asks you to head into the Spaceport tunnels and turn a valve to switch up the water supply. Switching the Supply is a relatively straightforward quest, but the valve you need to interact with can be surprisingly challenging to spot if you're not quite sure where to look. That's what we're here for, though, so we'll tell you how to complete the Switching the Supply quest in Arc Raiders.

Before heading off, however, keep in mind that you won't need to extract with anything to complete this quest. So, you can bring in a free loadout just in case things don't go as you're planning. Spaceport is an active and dangerous map after all, so it's best not to take any unnecessary chances.

With that out of the way, let's switch the supply.

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Lego Game Boy (421 Pieces)

$60 | Available Now

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Lego's brick-built Game Boy replica is bound to be one of the most popular gift ideas for retro gaming enthusiasts this holiday. The 421-piece recreation of Nintendo's legendary 1989 handheld is wonderfully designed, fun to build, and looks great on a display shelf. It comes with two buildable games, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and Super Mario Land, which can be loaded into the handheld's Game Pak slot. Swappable lenticular screens recreate moments from each game as well as the Game Boy's boot screen. The $60 price tag makes it one of the most affordable Lego sets made for adults. The Lego Game Boy launched October 1 at the Lego Store and major retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, and Target.

I spoke with Lego Group Senior Designer Carl Merriam over email about the design of the newest Lego Nintendo display model. Questions and answers are attributed to GameSpot and Lego, respectively.

GameSpot: I've always been fascinated by the logistics of designing a LEGO set. How do you start? How do designers determine how many pieces each build should have? How do you choose the shapes and sizes of the pieces? Did the Game Boy go through multiple iterations before finding the right design? Can you provide a general overview of how a designer gets from the idea to a finished product?

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Arc Raiders sends you on plenty of item retrieval or combat missions, but one quest you'll encounter simply asks you to raise a flag for the sake of unity. If you've obtained the A Symbol of Unification quest, you'll be ready to get out there and start bringing folks together. Luckily, we're here to help you do so with an explanation of where to find the flag and how to raise it. Let's dive in.

Where to find the flag for the A Symbol of Unification quest

Where you're headed to complete A Symbol of Unification isn't typically overflowing with other players--but the areas you may need to pass through--such as the Wreckage and Scrap Yard--could be, as they're common spots for mushroom farming. With this in mind, just be sure to prepare accordingly. You don't need to extract to complete this quest, so it's not a bad idea to toss on a free loadout while working on it just in case you run into trouble and don't make it back to Speranza alive.

When you're ready to bring a bit of unity to the raiders, you'll need to load into the Dam Battlegrounds map and head to the Formical Outpost at the bottom right of the map. This outpost is up on a tall hill, so be prepared for a bit of a trek.

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Arc Raiders is filled with quests that require you to get things back up and running topside to help those down below get prepared to take the world back from the ARC. One such quest called Straight Record comes from Celeste, who sends you topside in the Dam Battlegrounds to turn on an old EMP. This task will require you to not only find the old EMP but also turn on multiple switches to get it going again--so if you're struggling to find them, we've got you covered. Here's how to complete the Straight Record quest in Arc Raiders.

Where to find the old EMP trap for the Straight Record quest

Completing the Straight Record quest does not require you to extract. As such, feel free to spawn into the raid using a free loadout to avoid any loss of resources in the event that you perish from enemies or other players while trying to get it finished.

Your first goal in Straight Record is to find the old EMP trap in the Victory Ridge area. This spot is located in the upper left side of the map just slightly southwest of the West Broken Ridge POI. Reaching this location shouldn't prove too difficult, though you may need to fend off a raider or two also doing the quest--or work together, if that's more your speed.

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Most quests in Arc Raiders send you to complete a couple of tasks on any given map, but a few quests require you to traverse long distances to clear multiple requirements. Perhaps the most substantial of these is A First Foothold, which asks you to visit four locations across Blue Gate. Each of these is on a completely different side of the map (north, east, south, west). It's a lengthy quest that may prove dangerous, but we're here to help you figure it out.

Luckily, you won't need to visit all of these locations in a single raid, meaning you can always knock out the tasks across multiple visits if you prefer. You also don't need to extract for any of them to count, so feel free to handle this with a free loadout that you don't mind losing if things get hairy.

Here's how to finish all four requirements to complete A First Foothold.

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