Shani in ARC Raiders: Head of Security and Speranza's ARC Expert

What Shani does in Speranza

Her title is head of security, and the in-game Codex makes the job sound even bigger. Officially she monitors Topside threats and runs the Tubes and all Raider Hatches; in practice, it says, little in Speranza escapes her. She works from a room full of screens and maps ARC behavior with radars, scanners and makeshift equipment. The machines keep optimizing themselves, so it's an uphill fight that leaves her little time to rest or sleep.

She also relies on a network of scouts who gather intel on the surface and, unlike most Raiders, rarely pick open fights. The Codex entry on Speranza's Security detail says it leans on Raiders for patrols and reconnaissance and pays them from a shared purse to keep an air of independence, though some people still question their reports.

Her early quests are the plumbing of that job. Hatch Repairs has you patch leaking hydraulic pipes on a Raider Hatch, Off the Radar brings back antennas that died in the storm, and Clearer Skies cleans up after a swarm of disoriented Wasps crashed near one of Speranza's skylights.

How Shani talks

She talks to newcomers like a site supervisor. Picking Up the Pieces sets the terms right away: "If you're hoping to stay with us, I'll need you to pull your weight in the repair efforts." In Trash Into Treasure she tells you there's no such thing as junk to a Raider, and nobody is going to hand you things on a silver platter. Her pitch for LiDAR scanners in A Lay of the Land is pure Shani: "You do want to keep a roof over your head, don't you?"

She's careful with blame. When a key turns up in a barrel truck during the water sabotage story, she won't jump to accusations "just yet," and The Stench of Corruption follows her hunch that it's an inside job. She has a fighter's streak too. Into the Fray opens with "It used to be their world, up there," and finishes with her guessing that Speranza still has "quite a bit of fight left in us."

Apollo, for one, sees how much she carries. A Codex line from him says people think Celeste runs the place, and they're not entirely wrong, but without Shani everyone would be toast, because nobody knows more about Speranza or ARC. In one of his quests he jokes that she sleeps under a reinforced table these days, if she sleeps at all.

Shani's quests: the signal and other warning signs

The strange signal is the thread running through Shani's quest line, though it's rarely the only warning sign she's chasing. It shows up early and never really goes away.

• Off the Radar, where you repair a Field Depot antenna, leads straight into Celeste's A Bad Feeling and its talk of a signal unlike anything Speranza has picked up before.
• Down to Earth and Dormant Barons go after ARC hardware: odd crates dropped by damaged Probes, then the husks of First Wave Barons whose internals "might hold the answer to keeping ARC at bay."
• Mixed Signals is the turning point. Shani notices that Surveyors seem to be transmitting data back into orbit, and she can't help thinking it's tied to the signal.
• A Lay of the Land and Eyes in the Sky put LiDAR scanners on high points around the Rust Belt to monitor the tremors.
• At Blue Gate, Reduced to Rubble and With a Trace turn up a recently collapsed highway and a downed machine that nobody from Speranza brought down. "This goes far beyond a single person," she says.
• With a View has her tracking streaks of light across the sky. She has seen too much to believe they're natural, and she knows a hunch alone won't convince Celeste.

Threads Shani is still pulling

Shani rarely gets an answer she likes. The water sabotage looks like an inside job, and a scout team she sent to the Spaceport goes quiet for two days in Dust on the Wires. Her newer quests dig into MANTIKOR, a group that old logs say shut down an earthquake-resistant housing project and repressed mutinies, with the entries stopping a few weeks before the Exodus. The Exodus lore page has more on that era, and the full quest list is on the quests page.

Shani's part in Frozen Trail

Embark's Frozen Trail preview credits the breakthrough to Celeste and Shani together. With the Raiders' help, they triangulated the strange signal ringing across Toledo to Pendola Pass, an old Italian village and Exodus transport hub where one of the Emperors has fallen. The October 8 launch post adds that the Ballistic Gondolas are running because Shani gave the go-ahead.

She is also the cautious voice on those gondolas. Apollo's quest To The Skies says Shani is content with the gondolas as they are for getting up and down the mountain, while engineers from Ferrovia are more willing to take a risk. In his dialogue he admits to building prototypes where Shani can't spot them, and concedes she has a point, since a prototype or two has exploded.

Community quest trackers also list her as the giver of two Pendola Pass quests, Tracks of the Beast and Belly of the Beast, the second of which sends Raiders inside the Emperor. Our quest catalog doesn't confirm a giver for either yet, so treat that as provisional.

Shani and the other traders

With Celeste it's a working partnership with honest disagreement: Shani plans the operations, and Celeste wants proof before acting on a theory. With Tian Wen it's warmer than you might expect. In Back on Top Tian Wen says Shani asked for help setting up new outposts Topside and, for once, she's actually glad. The Codex adds that Shani may be choosing to overlook Tian Wen's black-market dealings for now, given how many Raiders rely on her guns.

Apollo admires Shani and works around her in roughly equal measure. Their quests also share Speranza's earthquake problem: his Paving the Way ends with data he hopes Shani can decrypt, and her Deciphering the Data picks it up with old magnetic decryptors at the Spaceport.

In the shop, the 2.0 patch notes switched Shani's offers to Coins and filled them with cameras, Light Sticks and other social items. Current stock is on the traders page.

Who is Shani in ARC Raiders?

Shani is Speranza's head of security and resident ARC expert. She monitors threats from the surface, oversees the Tubes and Raider Hatches according to the in-game Codex, and helps Celeste plan operations Topside.

Which trader gives the first quest in ARC Raiders?

Shani. Her quest Picking Up the Pieces has no prerequisite in the quest data and leads into Clearer Skies and Trash Into Treasure.

What is Shani doing in Frozen Trail?

Embark says Celeste and Shani triangulated the strange signal to Pendola Pass, and that the Ballistic Gondolas started running once Shani gave the go-ahead.

What does Shani sell after the 2.0 update?

Her offers now cost Coins and include cameras, Light Sticks and other social items. Stock can change, so check the trader screen before you plan around it.