After having run into the bug with the Scanner not respawning on the upper level once, I’ve made changes to how I approach the encounter and have not had the issue since. After lowering the Puppeteer’s shields by dunking the second nuke, I head to the opposite side of the lower levels through the booby-trapped tunnel, grab any Operator, Scanner or Suppressor buff that may spawn there and deposit it in a Terminal located in the lower area. With all three buffs safely stowed in Terminals the mobs that carry them will no longer spawn, meaning that they [i]should not[/i] cause a soft lock by failing to despawn during a damage phase. While I’ve only run the Puppeteer encounter so many times and therefore cannot one hundred percent [b]guarantee[/b] that this prevents soft locks caused by buff holders not spawning, the good news is that you do not have to rush back up to do a damage phase after taking down the boss’s shields; any time you spend before heading up to the Anomaly does not count against the length of the damage phase, giving you all the time you need to safely take down any buff carriers and stow their buffs in the Terminals [i]on the chance[/i] that it will prevent such soft locks. (΄◉◞౪◟◉｀)