Enelica building in Buried City: Arc Raiders walkthrough

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Enelica building in Buried City: a focused walkthrough for the Paving the Way quest

You are ten minutes into an Arc Raiders run, your squad has just cleared a patrol, and the quest log points you at the Enelica building in Buried City. If the name does not ring a bell, that is fair. Enelica is a corporation used in the game’s worldbuilding, and the building itself is a small utility structure with a single interaction: walk in, read a note on a notice board, walk out. The hard part is that Buried City is a busy, vertical map full of similar concrete blocks, and the Enelica building is easy to miss if you arrive from the wrong street.

This guide covers the second leg of the Paving the Way quest, the move from the easier Dam Battlegrounds step into the rougher Buried City step. It explains what the quest asks of you, where the building sits, what a clean run looks like, the obstacles that typically break the step, and how this segment fits into the rest of the chain. The aim is a repeatable method on a free loadout, with the small details that other guides tend to skip.

What the Enelica building actually is in the quest

Inside Paving the Way, the Enelica building is not a dungeon, a puzzle, or a hidden vault. It is a normal map landmark with one interaction. The objective is to enter an Enelica building, then “search for a notice board with a note from the researcher.” Interacting with that board completes the step. The building exists so the quest can anchor you to a specific tile and deliver a piece of Enelica lore through a readable prop.

Enelica shows up in other Arc Raiders content, which is why the name is stamped on more than one building across multiple maps. In Buried City, the structure used by the quest is one of the two large apartment blocks at the south of the Piazza Roma district, reached through the interior stairs or the external zipline. The layout is the same on both blocks, so as long as you reach a top-floor notice board, you have the right place.

Two practical consequences follow. First, you do not need a key, a code, a special weapon, or an extraction item, which is why a free loadout works. Second, the step is short on objectives and long on survival, so most of your prep should go into reaching the building alive rather than into any in-building mechanic.

Where to find the Enelica building in Buried City

The Enelica building used by the quest sits at the south of Piazza Roma, the dense cluster of tall residential and commercial buildings that fills the southern half of Buried City. The relevant structure is one of two large apartment blocks that share a courtyard and face each other across a narrow street. Both have flat roofs with helipad-style markings, both have interior stairwells, and both have an external zipline on one side that runs from ground level to the roof.

To find the right one, work through this sequence:

Approach Piazza Roma from the west or southwest, through the alley that runs between the lower townhouses. This route keeps you in cover and avoids the open central plaza, which is a common ambush point.
Look for the two tall apartment blocks at the top of the rise. They are visibly taller than the surrounding commercial buildings and have a pair of rooftop water tanks each.
Pick the block whose external zipline is intact. If the nearer zipline is destroyed, the other block still works for the quest.
Climb the interior stairs or take the zipline. The zipline is faster but more exposed, so the stairs are the safer default.
On the top floor, the notice board is mounted in the central hallway on the wall opposite the stairwell landing. The board has a faded Enelica header and a paper note pinned to it.

You do not have to enter every room, and you do not have to loot anything on the way up. Reach the top floor, interact with the board, and extract through any exit you like.

How the Buried City step compares to the Dam Battlegrounds step

The first Enelica step of Paving the Way takes place on Dam Battlegrounds, at the Water Treatment Control building, and the second step is here, in Buried City. Mechanically, the two steps are identical. The differences are environmental, and they change how you should plan the run.

Aspect	Dam Battlegrounds step	Buried City step (Enelica building)
Map region	Water Treatment Control, south of the central dam	South of Piazza Roma, two apartment blocks
Approach	Ground level, wide open entrance from the south	Vertical, stairs or zipline to the top floor
Main risk	Arc patrols in the open approach, occasional Raider fire from the dam wall	Rocketeer patrols on the rooftop, ambushes in the interior stairwell
Visual landmark	Enelica wordmark on the south wall of the building	Pair of rooftop water tanks on tall apartment blocks
Loot priority	Optional, the area has good generic loot but nothing required	Optional, the apartments contain scattered residential loot, no quest items
Extraction	Multiple surface extraction points around the dam	Standard Buried City extractions, usually south or west of Piazza Roma

The Dam Battlegrounds step is mostly a horizontal problem, while the Buried City step is a vertical one. On Dam, you read a board and you are done. In Buried City, you have to commit to climbing a building, which means trading open ground for cramped stairwells and a rooftop with a known hostile patrol.

Threats, loadout choices, and squad setup for the run

Because the quest step has no gear requirement, your loadout should be tuned to Buried City’s threat profile rather than to the building itself. A solo player or a squad picking a free loadout should think in terms of close-quarters weapons, a way to break line of sight indoors, and at least one tool for dealing with a Rocketeer on the roof.

Primary weapon: a close-to-mid range automatic rifle or submachine gun. Buried City fights happen in alleys and inside buildings, where long-range precision weapons underperform.
Secondary: a sidearm with a quick reload. You spend a lot of time in stairwells, and a sidearm is faster to draw in a tight corner than a long gun.
Utility: at least one healing item, and either a grenade or a deployable cover. Stairwell chokepoints reward area denial more than raw damage.
Mobility: a grappling hook or a zipline tool, if you have one. Useful for skipping the ground floor and going straight to the roof, but not required for the step itself.

For squad composition, a balanced group of two to three players usually clears the step faster than a solo run, because one player can hold the bottom of the stairwell while another goes for the board. A solo player can still complete the step, but they should plan to fall back down the stairs as soon as they interact with the board, instead of staying on the roof to fight.

Step-by-step walkthrough

The following walkthrough assumes a free loadout and a single Buried City run. It is structured so that you can stop after the quest step and extract, or continue to clean up the area if your squad has resources to spare.

Land in a Buried City insertion point that gives you a clean approach to Piazza Roma from the west or southwest, avoiding the central plaza.
Move through the lower townhouse alleys in cover, listening for Arc audio cues and watching for Raider patrols on the rooftops above you.
Reach the base of the southern apartment blocks and choose the stairwell or the zipline. Default to the stairs for stealth, the zipline for speed.
Clear or sneak past the stairwell in one continuous push. Pausing on a landing is the most common way to get flanked, because Arc units funnel up the stairs behind you.
On the top floor, locate the notice board in the central hallway. Interact with it to read the note and complete the quest step.
Decide your exit. You can drop back down the stairs for a quieter extraction, or take the rooftop zipline across the street to break the line of sight if a Rocketeer is mid-patrol.
Extract at any available Buried City extraction point. Because the quest step does not require you to carry anything out, you can leave at the first safe opportunity.

If you are running Paving the Way back to back with the Dam Battlegrounds step, it is reasonable to do the Dam step first, extract, repair, and then queue into Buried City. The quests do not require both steps in the same match.

Common obstacles and how to deal with them

The Enelica building in Buried City is a short quest step, but the run around it is full of failure modes that are easy to underestimate. The list below is not theoretical. Each item is a pattern that recurs in normal Buried City play, and each one will cost you a run if you ignore it.

Rocketeer patrols on the roof. A Rocketeer is a heavy Arc unit that walks a fixed circuit across the apartment rooftops. If you ride the zipline to the top while one is overhead, you will be a very easy target. Wait for the Rocketeer to move toward the far edge of the block before you commit to the climb.
Ambushes in the stairwell. Raiders and Arc both like to camp inside the lower floors of these apartment blocks. Listen at the door before you push in, and throw a grenade up the stairs if you hear movement.
Wrong block. There are two apartment blocks and they look almost identical. The quest accepts either one, but if you go up the wrong block you may end up on the side without a working zipline, which forces a slower extraction.
Open central plaza. The fastest-looking route to Piazza Roma cuts through the central plaza, which is a kill zone. Take the alleys instead, even if it adds two minutes.
Extraction camping. After you read the note, you are a known quest runner, and other Raiders may watch the closest extraction point. Use a less obvious extraction or rotate to a different district before you queue up.
Audio overload. Buried City is loud, with Arc drones, Raider gunfire, and environmental creaks. Headphones help, but muting your squad voice channel for a few seconds before the climb makes it easier to pick up a Rocketeer’s footfall on the roof above you.

None of these obstacles is unique to this quest. They are the normal Buried City experience, and learning to read them is the real skill the step is testing. The Enelica building itself is a prop. Surviving the two minutes on either side of the prop is the actual challenge.

How this step fits into the wider Paving the Way quest

Paving the Way is a short quest line that moves the player between three named districts: Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, and Blue Gate. Each district has an Enelica building, and the quest uses them as breadcrumbs to walk the player through a piece of Enelica lore before the quest resolves. The Buried City step is the second of those three visits, and it is the one most players stumble on because the building is vertical and the rooftop is dangerous. Readers who want more background on History of the Internet can use the History of the Internet while reviewing this point.

If you have already done the Dam step, the Buried City step will feel familiar. Same kind of notice board, same kind of note, same single-interaction objective. The environment changes, not the design. Once you finish the Buried City step, the quest will send you to Blue Gate for the third and final Enelica building. That step is more open and closer in feel to the Dam Battlegrounds step, which is one reason the Buried City step is often the hardest in the chain.

Worth noting: the quest can be completed across multiple sessions. The game does not require you to finish all three steps in one sitting, and you can extract after any step without breaking the quest. Accepting that fact makes each individual step less stressful, and frees up attention for the small details that actually make the run faster.

It also helps to think of the three Enelica buildings as a single training arc with three different textures. Dam Battlegrounds teaches you to spot a small corporate structure in a wide open landscape. Buried City teaches you to handle vertical terrain and a known rooftop threat. Blue Gate teaches you to keep your head on a swivel in an industrial site with heavier Arc presence. Each step hands you a different problem wrapped in the same notice board interaction, and that repetition is the point.

What to do if you cannot find the Enelica building

If you reach Piazza Roma and the two apartment blocks do not feel right, you are probably looking at a different cluster. Buried City has more than one set of tall residential buildings, and the southern pair is the one used by the quest. The fastest way to recover is to open your map, look for the labeled Piazza Roma district, and aim for the south edge of that district, not the center.

Players also sometimes climb the wrong end of the right block. The notice board is in the central hallway on the top floor, not in a corner apartment, and not in the stairwell itself. If you find yourself on a balcony or in a kitchen, you are one room away. Walk back into the hallway and look for the corkboard with the Enelica header.

If the building is genuinely unavailable, for example because the zipline is destroyed and the stairwell is blocked by debris, the quest is not broken. Fall back, repair at a friendly bench if you can, and try a different approach angle on your next run. The objective does not require you to climb in a specific way, only to reach the top floor and read the note.

One last fallback that a lot of players overlook: if you are running with a squad, ask your team which apartment block they are heading to. Buried City squads often split up by accident on a vertical map, and a quick call on voice chat before the climb will save you from realizing halfway up that your squad is on the wrong roof.

Reference numbers for the Enelica building in Buried City

The table below is a compact reference for the practical numbers you need before you commit to a run. None of it is hidden, but it is easy to forget between sessions.

Detail	Value	Notes
Quest	Paving the Way	Second of three Enelica steps
Map	Buried City	South edge of Piazza Roma
Building type	Large apartment block	One of two identical structures
Climb options	Interior stairs, external zipline, grappling hook	Stairs are the safest default
Main rooftop threat	Rocketeer patrol on a fixed circuit	Wait for it to move to the far edge before climbing
Interaction	Read a note on a top-floor notice board	Completes the step immediately
Loadout requirement	None	Free loadout is fine
Extraction requirement	None	Leave through any Buried City extraction
Typical clean run	8 to 12 minutes insertion to extraction	First attempts are usually 15 to 20 minutes

Treat the table as a checklist before insertion. If you know the building, the climb options, and the rooftop threat, the run reduces to a short movement problem.

Tips for repeating the run efficiently

Most players run the Enelica building step more than once, either because they want to learn the route or because their first attempt was cut short. The list below is a small set of habits that make each repeat cleaner than the last.

Mark the southern apartment blocks on your map as a personal waypoint the first time you find them, so future runs do not waste time re-discovering them.
Use the audio cue when you interact with the board. The game plays a short confirmation sting, and that is the moment to leave, not the moment to look around.
Do not stop to loot on the same run as the quest step. Looting adds two to three minutes, and that is enough time for a Rocketeer to circle back to the roof.
Pair the run with another nearby quest, such as a Buried City errand in Piazza Roma, to amortize the travel time.
Extract as soon as the quest step is done, even if your squad wants to keep going. A clean extract on a free loadout is better than a flashy fight that ends in a squad wipe.

Players who internalize these habits tend to clear the step in under ten minutes of in-match time, including insertion and extraction. The first run is slower because you are learning the alley layout, and the third or fourth run is usually the one where the route clicks.

What to do after you complete the Buried City step

Once you read the note on the top floor and the quest updates, the immediate decision is whether to extract or to keep playing. There is no mechanical reason to stay, but there is a strategic reason: Buried City is a high-value map, and you have already done the hard part of getting into Piazza Roma. If your squad has good loadouts and the lobby is calm, it can be worth running a quick secondary objective or scavenging the apartments before you extract.

On the other hand, if you are on a free loadout, the right call is almost always to extract. The quest step is worth more than whatever you might find in a side room, and the marginal loot does not offset the risk of a late-match squad wipe. The same logic applies if you are running Paving the Way for the first time and you want to save the Blue Gate step for a fresh session, when your loadout and your attention are both in good shape.

If you do decide to keep playing, a useful rule of thumb is to set a personal timer. Give yourself two or three minutes of bonus play after the quest step, and then rotate to extraction regardless of what the squad is doing. The timer turns a vague “should we stay?” debate into a clear decision, and it usually gets you out before the late-match chaos starts.

How the Paving the Way chain fits the wider Buried City loop

Buried City is one of the maps where Arc Raiders expects the player to come back often. Quest density is high, loot is decent, and the vertical terrain rewards players who actually learn the layout. Paving the Way is not the only quest line that touches Piazza Roma, and many of the surrounding quests send you to the same apartment blocks for different reasons. Once you know how the Enelica building sits, those other objectives become easier to plan, because you already have a mental map of the south of the district.

That overlap is worth using. If you are running several Buried City quests in a session, ordering them so that the Enelica building is your second or third stop, rather than your first, tends to produce cleaner runs. You arrive with context, you know the alley approach, and you are less likely to waste time on the wrong block.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a specific loadout for the Enelica building in Buried City?

No. The quest step does not require any specific weapons, items, or keys, which is why most walkthroughs suggest a free loadout. A close-range automatic and one healing item are enough for a normal difficulty run.

Can I do the Enelica building in Buried City on a solo queue?

Yes. The step is short enough to be solo-friendly, especially if you take the stairwell instead of the zipline and extract immediately after reading the note. A solo player should plan to fall back down the stairs rather than fighting on the roof, because the Rocketeer patrol will usually notice you up there.

Is the Enelica building the only one in Buried City?

No. There is more than one structure with the Enelica wordmark in Buried City, but the one used for the Paving the Way quest is the southern apartment block in Piazza Roma. You do not need to visit the others for this quest.

Do I have to do the Dam Battlegrounds step before the Buried City step?

The quest presents them in the order Dam, then Buried City, then Blue Gate, and the in-game journal expects you to follow that order. The game does not hard-block the Buried City step if you have not done the Dam step, but the quest text is written as if you have, and many players find the flow easier when they follow the intended order.

What happens if I read the note but do not extract?

Nothing changes mechanically. The quest step is complete the moment you interact with the board, and dying after that point does not undo the progress. You can keep playing, queue into a different match, or log out, and the quest will still show the Buried City step as done.

Is there a faster way to the top of the building than the stairs?

The external zipline is faster but more exposed. A grappling hook, if you have one equipped, lets you skip the interior entirely and land directly on the roof. The stairs remain the safest default for most players, especially on a free loadout.

What if the zipline is destroyed or missing?

Use the other apartment block. The two blocks are part of the same quest step, and the notice board on either one will complete the objective. If both ziplines are gone, fall back to the interior stairwell.

Why does the game not mark the Enelica building on the map?

The quest is designed to teach the player to navigate by landmark rather than by a floating waypoint, which is consistent with the rest of Arc Raiders’ exploration design. The two southern apartment blocks in Piazza Roma are tall enough to be visible from most of the southern half of Buried City, which is the intended visual anchor.

Does the Enelica building step give unique loot?

No. The quest step does not grant a specific item, and the building does not contain a unique loot room. The reward for completing the step is the usual quest completion credit toward Paving the Way, which is what unlocks the Blue Gate step.

Can I do the Blue Gate step in the same match as the Buried City step?

Not in a single match, because the three steps are spread across three different maps. You can, however, complete two of the steps in a single play session by queuing back to back, which is a reasonable approach if you want to finish the quest line quickly.

How long does the Enelica building step usually take?

For a player who already knows the route, a clean run from insertion to extraction lands somewhere between eight and twelve minutes, depending on how many Arc and Raider contacts the lobby spawns on the way in. First attempts are usually longer, often fifteen to twenty minutes, because the player is still learning the alley approach and the right block to climb.

For a walkthrough of the earlier Dam Battlegrounds step and the broader Paving the Way chain, PC Gamer’s Paving the Way guide covers the Water Treatment Control building and the Blue Gate follow-up in the same format used here.