I enjoyed having the palate cleanser that was Arc Raiders limited-time PvE test for the short week it was here. It provided a chill alternative to the usual chaos and cheater-laden PvP, where I could fight some tough arcs, enjoy the map, and interact with players without the fear of getting ratted. And clearly I'm not the only one who enjoyed it, as Embark confirmed over 30 million PvE sessions were played during the test period.

But running the test was only half the battle, now Embark needs to decide whether it's worth adding a dedicated PvE mode to the game. Previously, the team has confirmed that it'll need some extra time to get its ducks in order ahead of making any concrete decisions, but now executive producer Aleksander Grøndal has given us a little bit more information concerning the decision process.

"Now that we’ve concluded the PvE matchmaking toggle test, we’re doing a deep dive into what that means," Grøndal says in an interview with MP1st. "Of course, we were a bit skeptical about bringing such a mode to the game for historical reasons, but now we need to discuss what we want to do going forward."

The idea of adding PvE to Arc Raiders has been slightly controversial, with some players arguing it misses the point of the game, may inflate the junk economy, or even take players away from PvP. I certainly don't think PvE should replace PvP, but that was never an option; I do believe, however, as with accessibility options, that giving players more choice is rarely a bad thing.

The PvE test also attempted to solve the issue of loot inflation by offering worse scrap in PvE lobbies. You also can't get the newest high end loot either , so I doubt it'll be a game-breaking issue. The bigger issue in my eyes is interest in Arc Raiders waning again, something that a PvE mode, among other things, could fix.

"I think the game has an appeal in its nature and that a certain player type wants to play the game without the stress, you know," Grøndal explains. "Perhaps this is more a signal that the game could support more player types, and we need to figure out how to support that. The challenge, of course, is how we do that without undermining the premise of the game itself.

"That is exactly what we need to consider now, but before we get to the content discussion, we need to understand what the need is here. Is it more a chill side mode you can play between more intense PvPvE rounds? Is it more a challenge mode that you can test your skills against AI? Or perhaps it’s a full experience with PvE only? These are some of the questions we need to dig into before we decide how to go forward. All options will have different implications on how we build future game updates."

Adding a permanent PvE mode certainly won't be easy. It'll mean more nuanced balancing and future updates will have to take PvPvE and PvE into account. While I'd certainly like to see it happen I wouldn't hold it against Embark for not wanting to take extra work on, especially since the devs have been so open about combatting crunch and how much work a live service game like Arc Raiders takes to maintain.

Good things rarely last forever, as is the case with the iconic UK biscuit Happy Faces and now Arc Raiders' PvE test. We knew it wasn't going to last long as Embark announced that it would only stick around for a week, but it disappearing from the game still sucks.

I loved the PvE test, it was a lot of fun and a very nice alternative to what can be a quite intense PvP experience. I played both over the last week, and while I got better loot in PvP, it was nice jumping into PvE every now and then just to have a chill experience killing arc and running around a pretty map.

So what's next? Well, now PvE is over Embark needs to figure out whether the whole ordeal was worth it or not and whether the team should bring it back. "More than 30 million rounds of PvE were played over the testing period," Embark says in an official blog post. "This gives us a huge amount of information to analyse. As such, we're going to need a short period of time to dive into the numbers and draw out the insights."

Arc Raiders has certainly experienced a revival since the release of its major Frozen Trail update alongside the PvE test. The concurrent player count jumped from 50,000 to 185,000, Steam reviews are back to Mostly Positive and its recent Steam blog post announcing the PvE test got 17,000 upvotes compared to Frozen Trail's 7,000. PvE has been a massive hit, and I'd call it a success.

But to ensure it gets the most up to date sentiments Embark is asking players to submit their opinions to the PvE-test-feedback channel in the official Discord, as well as completing a survey that will be sent out to a few players from October 22.

"We need a bit of time to understand what the data is telling us, and what our community is saying," the blog post continues. "On a surface reading, we know that the test has been polarising. As always, our decision on how to proceed will prioritize the overall health and enjoyability of the game.

"We don’t yet know what the outcome of the data analysis will be, but we expect to be able to follow up with further information in November."

I don't actually believe that this test is as polarising as Embark thinks it is. Because at the end of the day if this is what will bring players back to Arc Raiders then adding PvE is the only sensible way forward. Unfortunately, as it is with all live service games, once a game is out there in the wild it no longer belongs solely to the developers. PvE may not be the original intended experience, but if it's the one that will keep this game afloat then I say go for it.

I'm standing on top of a flying fortress hundreds of feet in the air, as around me, 15 or so players wage a losing battle against a swarm of flying robots armed with rockets and lasers. It's utter chaos. We fight further and further into the ship, unlocking platforms, defeating waves of enemies and giant turrets which pop out of the deck to gun down unsuspecting looters. But I think we're done.

Time is running short and we've once again stalled at this stage of the puzzle. All that's left now is to try and make it back to ground in one piece and live to attempt another day. This is the Frigate, one of Arc Raiders two new raid-style activities, and it's exactly what the game needed.

Rather than content you can complete the day the update comes out, Frozen Trail's Frigate and Fallen Emperor represent a deeper loot chase, tied into upgrading the new outpost and workbenches to fashion special weapons which fire explosive bullets or incendiary grenades.

More than that: they're properly fun. I've raided a lot in Destiny 2, completed its dungeons more times than I can count (including soloing some) and I'm quite impressed with the variety of these endgame challenges, how they demand cooperation from players, but also really tie into the features and loot chase that Frozen Trail added.

While the Arc Frigate is a pitched battle blasting endless waves of robots as you try to unlock its cargo hold with a bunch of other raiders, the Fallen Emperor is more of an individual challenge. This series of mostly randomised encounters sees you solving puzzles and painstakingly platforming your way through its labyrinth of hazards and Hydra turrets, which love to pick you off when you're dangling in some precarious position.

It's a race to perpetrate a bank heist in the corpse of a colossal robot, and if that doesn't get your juices flowing, I don't know what will. Part of the fun is Frozen Trail's new Grappling Hook item, an easy to craft traversal tool that lets you scale and swing in a much more enjoyable way than the game's existing Snap Hook—I always carry one now, just for ease of exploration.

The Fallen Emperor is also smart in terms of loot, designed like a kids' gameshow (did anyone here watch Jungle Run?). Players who want the guaranteed big score at the end are incentivised to rush there, lest another raider beat them, but since there are loot containers between each encounter and concealed in them, other players can filter in and still have a chance at getting rare items and rewards for encounters without making it to the end.

The same goes for the Arc Frigate—it's not just about who gets there first; these encounters are layered with loot, and often reward exploration as much as pushing for the end goal, especially as the new upgrades require a wide range of materials.

Though Frozen Trail has its bugs—my reward pass still isn't fixed—this is such a positive update for the game's direction. If the PvE-mode test is anything to go by, we'll soon be able to play Arc Raiders' endgame events like the Fallen Emperor, Frigate, Matriarch, or Harvester without fear of getting ratted and having our loot stolen while we're trying to fight big arc, work together, and puzzle stuff out.

I'm not a player who minds PvP or the way it elevates the tension and excitement of the extraction shooter genre, but I think there's a good case to be made for a PvE-only option when running PvE-centric endgame events, which often require cooperation. It's also uniquely frustrating getting ambushed after successfully completing one.

This happened to me after landing a huge loot haul on the Frigate and basically being the only raider to make it out alive—I was riding high, I wasn't cautious, and of course some punk with a Kettle was waiting at extraction. He even said "Hello" before he ratted me. It's a sucky way to end these cool events and it dissuades players from investing in their challenge, so hopefully any eventual PvE mode that does appear will include these.

Still, these new raid-style events have me so excited for the future of Arc Raiders. I can't help but fantasize about how fun and rewarding a Destiny 2 length raid in Arc Raiders would be, or something similar to Building 21 or Koschei Complex in DMZ—a dedicated mode with its own timer, challenges, and bosses. I can't wait to see what endgame content Embark cooks up next.

God, life is stressful. There's too much to do and too few hours in the day to do it. So when I get a couple of hours of free time in the evening I have to be pretty mindful of what I do, and let me tell you getting domed in Arc Raiders by some rando hiding in a bush is not at the top of my list.

It's a shame, because I love the world of Arc Raiders. I love its mystery, its grandiose landscapes, and its bizarre communal storytelling that you just can't get in most games. But there's finally a solution: the PvE test.

Embark teased the test a few weeks ago, finally admitting that due to a large portion of its audience favouring a more passive approach to the game, it would test out a temporary PvE toggle . While Frozen Trail released a few days ago, the PvE test has only gone live now, and it's a hell of a lot of fun.

Dropping into Pendola Pass has never been so chill, well, it's more chill than usual; as soon as I came out of my bunker I was met with hellfire raining down on me and the pinging of bullets as they shot past my face while a couple of players attempted to take down the newer arc, a Bully. 'Ok' I thought to myself, 'I guess I'll start here'.

The Bully isn't anywhere near as lethal as a Queen but it's tankier than I expected it to be for its size as it ate my Wolfpack grenade like it was nothing. I hadn't come equipped for a fight like this but thanks to the growing group of curious raiders we managed to take it down before long. It may sound boring to someone who loves the adrenaline dump of PvP, but for someone who just wants to explore the map, take down arcs, and perhaps help out their fellow raider along the way this experience right here is golden.

Instead of shuffling around bushes and hiding in the shadows I feel relatively free to wander about the surface and actually take in the surrounding views. You still have to be careful of arcs, but not having your blood run cold when you hear footsteps closing in to your location is such a welcome change.

In fact, it's quite the opposite now, hearing raiders close by reassures me that if things were to go wrong, someone would help—which is especially nice when arcs in the PvE mode will finish you off if they catch you moving while downed. After taking out a number of arcs on my way to the Observatory my hubris was bolstered, so when I saw the new Skulker, a seemingly small and insignificant enemy, I thought that it would be easy pickings. I was wrong.

Maybe I was just unlucky, but this Skulker had a couple of other friends with it, and it took way more ammo than I thought to take it down. I was pinned behind a couple of crates, quickly going through all my reserves and trying to come up with an exit strategy when I heard gunfire. I have no idea where it came from, perhaps it was an angel from above, but a stranger saw I was in need of assistance, helped take the Skulkers out, and then moved on.

They were gone before I could say thank you, so I decided to pay it forward instead. On my way to the extract I saw a bunch of arcs swarming an outbuilding, I didn't have much ammo left but I still wanted to help, so help I did. I started taking pot shots at some of the Wasps to distract them away from the shed and before long another raider popped their head out and together we took them out. Nothing was said, but after a thankful wave we went our separate ways and I extracted back to Speranza.

As I said before, I love Arc Raiders for its world, action, and crafting, but it also just feels really nice to help without the worry that the person you've just saved may shoot you in the back of the head and ruin any faith in humanity you had left. The PvE test is a welcome change of pace, and I'll be playing it almost exclusively while I still have the chance.

Arc Raiders' new outpost system arrived with the Frozen Trail update, and like many I'm sure, I pretty much ignored the entire furniture aspect of it. My mind was occupied with upgrading the outpost itself, building rooms, and trying to get an Emperor Modulator and Frigate Inductor to level my Gunsmith and Research Bench. I wanted those spicy new amplified weapon upgrades like explosive bullets or incendiary shells.

I assumed the whole building outpost furniture thing was a cosmetic feature, but I was dead wrong. Crafting furniture in your Arc Raiders outpost actually gives you hundreds of extra storage slots for items and weapons and it's fairly easy to unlock, you just need to:

• Reach level 18 to start the Sheltered Retreat project.
• Take a picture of the Ruined Homestead.
• Donate some materials including planks and sheet metal.
• Damage flying arc and a Bully for the final step.

After that, you can complete the project and move in, recycle all of the boxes under blankets to get some planks, and start crafting some furniture.

Select an empty furniture slot in your main outpost, or by building a new room to put some in.

• Each piece of furniture you craft has a listed number of slots.
• Right click on the piece of furniture and choose "Decorate" to place items on it.
• There are shelves and gun racks that attach to the walls, but also standing pieces of furniture you can place items on.
• As with your stash, you can place full item stacks on furniture, too.
• To quickly return all the items stored back to your stash, just right click on the furniture piece and choose "clear all attached items".

You can find more blueprints for furniture out in the world, usually in residential areas—I've found tonnes in Pendola Pass's Old Town. If you fully take advantage of the three rooms your outpost offers, filling them with furniture, it'll give you a whole heap of extra storage.

The only problem right now is that you can't change your outpost's rooms and layout once constructed, so pick wisely.

Arc Raiders' Frozen Trail update adds a series of upgrades that let you create "Amplified" weapons, but to do this you'll need a Level 4 Gunsmith bench, which requires an Emperor Modulator to craft.

To get this item, you first have to acquire an Emperor Gateway Conduit blueprint to craft the key required to open The Emperor on the Pendola Pass map. You can apparently find this as a rare drop in Arc Couriers and on other maps, but you can also get it the same way you acquire the materials to craft it:

• Arc Conductive Coupler
• Arc Insulated Coupler
• Arc Plated Coupler

You get all three of these as random drops in the Redirection event on Pendola Pass. Wait for one of the Damaged Emperor Relays on the map to activate, grab the beacon from it, place it down in a quiet open area, and stand back. Harvester payloads will drop in—loot the big central one sticking out the ground for a chance to get one of these materials. You could also try entering The Emperor when someone else unlocks it.

How to complete The Emperor dungeon

Once you have your key to open The Emperor, you're ready to attempt the dungeon by opening the door in the west of Pendola Pass, though you'll need to bring a decent amount of equipment:

• Snap Hook: This is mandatory in my opinion for the platforming puzzles. You could even bring a Grappling Hook as backup in case it breaks, which is a real possibility your first time.
• Anvil or Renegade: You'll need this to destroy the yellow nodes in the more puzzly encounters.
• Hullcracker: This is for destroying the Hydra turrets inside The Emperor. You could also use a Rascal, though it'll slow you down a bit.
• Plenty of healing and shield rechargers: There are many hazards inside the dungeon, so you'll want plenty of healing.
• A Looting augment: You'll want plenty of space to pack in loot, plus a couple of safe pockets for more valuable items, including the modulator.

In terms of a play-by-play of the specific encounters, this walkthrough by crazymrpipz is really good and I can vouch for its accuracy having completed the dungeon myself, though I'll also lay out the encounters below.

The initial section with the corridor, the Hydra turret, and the electrified elevator you make safe by destroying the yellow nodes is always the same, but at the top of the elevator, The Emperor has multiple possible encounter layouts:

The Emperor layout one

The Emperor layout two

There might be more layouts than this, but the Hydra room seems to be a fixed encounter no matter what. After this point you will:

1. Descend down a tube, carefully dropping from platform to platform.
2. Enter into another room filled with pillars, but this one is a maze.
3. Ascend up a couple of tubes by Snap Hook-ing between boxes, avoiding the electrified ones, and climbing ladders to reach a door.

You will enter the final room, drop down onto a lower platform and descend a ladder to the base, though when you touch the floor, the big door at the far end will open and a load of Arc enemies will appear. Hiding is a good idea to see if they leave as opposed to fighting them all. Afterwards, you can loot the containers and also destroy the yellow nodes on either wall to reveal even more loot payloads which pops out of the racks.

One or two of these will contain Emperor Modulators, so make sure to stow one in your safe pocket. After that, you can either leave via the big hatch that opened, or the side doors if you destroyed the yellow nodes.

Arc Raiders has made lots of new tweaks and additions with Frozen Trail's 2.0 update, but one long-requested change of significant note is that you can turn off the light on your backpacks.

To do this, you need to:

1. Select the "Raider" menu.
2. Enter "Customization" on the bottom left of the screen.
3. Go to the "Style" menu at the top.
4. Choose "Backpack" on the left side.
5. Toggle the Emissive option to "off".

As you'll see, while looking at the backpack, the light will disappear and reappear as you toggle this, though where exactly the light is varies from pack to pack. This should help you be a little sneakier, though it might make your character a bit harder to spot in some of the game's darkest areas.

I remember being a kid and wishing I had shoes that lit up. I know now that I was a fool. If I festooned myself with garish lights, how would I scavenge for supplies in a frozen wasteland without being spotted by strangers who may or may not kill me before I can use my grappling hook to get away? This isn't a real problem I have, nor is it a real problem Arc Raiders players will have anymore, since your backpack now has an emissive toggle.

That's one of many little overhauls that arrived in Embark Studios' popular extraction shooter Thursday, and you can read all about the rest in the 2.0 patch notes. If you've not been tuned into the extraction world as of late, you did indeed read that right: Arc Raiders has gotten a big shakeup with the Frozen Trails update, which comes bearing snowy mountains and grappling hooks.

But that's not what's exciting about patch notes—the best part of combing through each little bullet point is seeing all those long-awaited bug fixes and little quality-of-life changes like the aforementioned emissive toggle for backpacks. That and tidbits like "added mouth animation for when players are talking in proximity chat," which I can only hope looks as silly in-game as it does in my imagination.

Some other big, but also small changes include the fact that you can open the map when you're downed now, new contextual animations for a variety of things (your character should look more exhausted when sprinting for a while), and an increased max stash size: 328 without expedition bonuses.

Snowy and desolate as it might look, Arc Raiders seems to be picking up momentum with the new update. Its average player count has gone way up recently, probably due to the free weekend that's going on right now, so it seems like as good a time as any to dive back in if you're so inclined. If that's you, try out our guides on how to arc raid with the best of 'em.

Arc Raiders' Pendola Pass is packed to the gills with loot. No matter where you search, you're likely to come away with some rare items, whether you're smashing open iced up doors to get into sealed rooms, or climbing into hard-to-access spots with the Grappling Hook and yoinking everything not nailed down.

But some of the best loot spots I've found are the Storm Huts. Pendola Pass has a special weather condition called Flash Freeze where a snow storm randomly moves in and you start taking damage after a while, similar to the previous Cold Snap map condition. You'll also hear an emergency broadcast over loudspeakers explaining that the temperature outside is deadly, and special shelters are being opened up.

These are the Storm Huts and they won't appear on your map until the Flash Freeze occurs. Even if you find one, the door will be sealed, so they're only accessible when the cold hits. You might be thinking, well, I can shelter in any building, right? True, but these Storm Huts are also little loot rooms and they're one of the only places so far that I've found some of the more vague outpost crafting materials, like the Epoxy Bucket, Insulation Roll, and the Radial Press. I even got a Mountaineer Detector, a Riven Tides-style metal detector for snow I've never seen anywhere else so far.

They also usually contain some other crafting bits, useful raider items like extra healing and ammo, and there are also a couple of gun cases which usually contain a rare or uncommon weapon. The only kicker is that these locations only appear on the map when the Flash Freeze occurs, even though they're there all the time.

So, next time you find yourself in sub zero, rather than running into the nearest building and hanging out for a while, see if you can rush the nearest Storm Hut and while away the bad weather doing some looting.

You'll need to find the new plank and sheet metal items in Arc Raiders for the new Sheltered Retreat project, after you've taken a picture of the Ruined Homestead, and are ready to start committing resources.

There are a few ways to get both items:

• Celeste sells planks and sheet metal for three seeds a piece.
• You can find loads of planks in residential and old world areas, particularly in the houses in Old Town in the southwest of Pendola Pass, as well as research items and furniture blueprints, too.
• You can find loads of sheet metal in technological and industrial areas, such as the Assembly and Loading Bay in Stella Montis, where every yellow drawer container (pictured above) seems to be a guaranteed drop for sheet metal.
• You can also find planks and sheet metal in other areas, though less frequently.

Thankfully, you don't need much for the project, so you might want to simply spend the 24 seeds required to just buy them all from Celeste.

The Tracks of the Beast quest in Arc Raiders involves travelling along some train tracks and pinging the new Pendola Pass enemies, the Bully and the Skulker.

First off, head to the northern tracks area in the north of the new map—this area encompasses the entire north, so it's easy to complete. After that, head to Almaterra Station to the south, preferably following the train tracks, since there are often Bully and Skulker enemies in this area for the next step.

Ping a Bully

The challenging part of Tracks of the Beast is you have to do all of the steps in a single round. The Bully is the first enemy you have to ping and it's kind of like a big arc horse-dog robot:

• There's usually a Bully in Old Town in the southwest of the map.
• I've also encountered one on the tracks north of Almatera Station.
• Also at the Railroad Junction to the east.

Ping a Skulker

The harder enemy to track down is the appropriately named Skulker, a little turret on four wheels that rolls around and emits a beep beep noise:

• I've found a lot of Skulkers in the ravine between the Railyard and the Commissary Supermarket.
• I've also encountered them by the Gondola exfil north of Old Town.
• Or in the northern tracks area north of Almatera Station.

There are plenty around the map, they're just quite sneaky and small, so you have to keep an eye out and listen for the beep beep. They're also hard to damage before they've deployed their turret, though a heavy ammo weapon can still kill them.

Once you've pinged both and completed the other steps, you're all done. You could attempt the optional steps to destroy three Skulkers and extract a Skulker Targeter, but frankly, it's hard enough to find one, so I wouldn't worry about that just yet.

Arc Raiders' To the Skies quest involves finding a few arc parts to repair one of the Prototype Gondolas being used to shuttle raiders to Pendola Pass.

First things first, to complete To the Skies you're going to need a variety of arc parts:

• 1x Arc Performance Steel: Salvaged from big arcs like Bastions, Bombardiers, Leapers, or Baron Husks.
• 1x Pop Trigger: Salvaged from small exploding Pop robots or couriers.
• 1x Arc Thermo Lining: Salvaged from Pops, Fireballs, or Baron Husks.
• 1x Arc Synthetic Resin: Salvaged from intact Arc Probes or Baron Husks.

There are a number of other ways to get the materials above, generally by salvaging arc enemies, so if you don't have one of each yet, keep your eyes peeled.

The first step is to scan a crashed Arc Probe and an Arc Courier. These spawn on almost every map and you can find them by following smoke plumes and looking for their icon when you're close on the map. Your best bet for finding lots is the Electromagnetic Storm map condition (you can see the current event schedule here). To scan them, simply interact with the icon at the head of each.

Repairing the Gondola Prototype

After this, you'll have to find and repair the Gondola Prototype on any one of four maps—I did it on Spaceport, so that's the one I'll show you. Grab those listed arc materials and head to the spot above, just east of the eastern exfil elevator, north of Communications Tower and south of East Plains Warehouses.

There, you'll find the Gondola Prototype resting on its side on some crates by a raider structure. Now just install those four parts and interact to activate the Gondola Prototype and complete the quest, though you might want to back away from it a bit.

Arc Raiders' new Boarding the Frigate quest is about finding a way up onto the giant flying Arc fortress during the new Arc Frigate map modifier. Since this is a colossal arc event, you'll want to bring plenty of ammo and healing. A Grappling or Snap Hook will come in handy, too.

You can get onto the frigate (as shown in the video) by finding one of the circular Arc drones that it spits out when it arrives on the map, climbing or grappling on top of it, and then interacting with it to disrupt the drone. This will cause it to fly back to the frigate, allowing you to climb aboard.

The ship is absolutely massive, and as you make your way through it with other raiders, it'll spit out Rocketeers, Vaporizers, and Hydra turrets will pop out on the top level as well. To finish off the quest, you'll have to damage all three, though you don't have to get the killing blow on any of them. Rocketeers and Vaporizers (if you somehow haven't encountered them before) are big flying arcs that fire rockets and lasers, respectively, while the Hydra is a multigun turret that's pretty deadly.

Presumably, you can also damage these enemies elsewhere to complete this step, though I haven't encountered a Hydra anywhere else except on top of the frigate so far, so that's likely your best bet. If you're struggling to navigate the ship, you can open new platforms with switches and by shooting the yellow nodes sticking out, though a Grappling Hook will also help skip some stages.

Arc Raiders' new Sizing Things Up quest sees you help Celeste analyse the Emperor corpse splayed across Pendola Pass, but like Clean Hands, some of its locations are tricky to track down.

The first step is to "take a picture of the Emperor's leg by the bridge outside Old Town," and you can see me doing just that in the video above. As with taking a picture of the Ruined Homestead in the Sheltered Retreat project, you'll need the camera Celeste gave you, or to craft another at the workbench or buy one from Shani.

The spot you need to take the picture is directly east of Old Town on the bridge that runs parallel to the Emperor's southern front leg (the Emperor is the giant robot dominating the west side of the map.) Take a picture of the leg's lower portion to complete this step.

Analyse the exposed area on top of the Emperor's leg

Now, skip the second optional step and "analyse the exposed area on top of the Emperor's leg near Railroad Junction." As above, here's another video of me doing that, but you can find the spot directly south of Railroad Junction, where you can see the base of the Emperor's leg on the map—simply climb up and interact with the marked point.

Reach the base of the Emperor and search the payload

Your last step is to "reach the base of the Emperor" and "Search the Buried Harvester Payload". Here's one final video showing both of those, but seeing as the Emperor is the giant robot on the west side of the map, you can simply head to the base of its corpse, directly east of the Fallen Emperor marker on the map, just by the P in Piazza Della Rupe. There, you'll find a chest at the very front and centre (the Harvester Payload).

Interact with it to drop the Arc Conductive Coupler and stow it in your safe pocket. Extract with the item for Celeste and that's the quest done.

Arc Raiders' skill rework has added new abilities such as the wall run at the top level of the mobility tree, and Nomadic Crafting at the top of the survival tree—just a shame it doesn't say what the items you can make actually are.

The items that Nomadic Crafting unlocks are as follows:

• Shotgun ammo
• Light ammo
• Medium ammo
• Heavy ammo
• Grappling Hook
• Zipline
• Shrapnel Grenade

This adds to all of the crafting items you already unlock via the earlier In-Round Crafting and Traveling Tinkerer skills in the survival tree, including traps, hatch keys, and all the usual craftable bits and pieces.

Clean Hands is a new quest in Arc Raiders Frozen Trail update which sees you searching for a Nomad Camp under the Railyard in Pendola Pass.

You can enter this camp via a pipe (shown in the video above) that's between the Railyard (towards the centre of the map) and the Transit Tunnel to the west of it—though I'd advise maybe not doing it when there's an Arc Frigate hanging about like i did.

Once inside, climb up onto the middle section of the walkway and interact with the highlighted yellow bag container to "search for the polluted item", producing an Equatorial Sundial. Pick this up and stow it in your safe pocket.

Bring the Equatorial Sundial to the top of the Old Town church

The next step is to "Bring the Equatorial Sundial to the top of the church in Old Town". Again, here's a video showing the location, but the church is easy enough to spot in the center of the Old Town; an area in the east of the map by the Arc Emperor corpse.

You'll want to:

1. Climb the spiral staircase in the southeast corner of the church all the way to the top.
2. Use the zipline to ascend into the tower.
3. Interact with the railing to hold up the sundial.

The final step is extracting with the item, so simply stow it in your safe pocket. If you haven't extracted on Pendola Pass yet, you have to activate a gondola console (marked on the map) and then head to the location where it drops to leave, a little like calling in a supply drop.

The first step in Arc Raiders new Sheltered Retreat project to build your outpost is to "take a photo of any farmland house around the Ruined Homestead on The Blue Gate map."

You can find the Ruined Homestead in the south of the region, just by the Olive Grove where everyone used to fight over lemons and olives for Scrappy. First, though, you'll need a camera item. Unlike in the past, when you could just interact with a structure to take a picture, you now need an actual piece of gear to do it. You can get a camera by:

• Purchasing one from Shani for 1.9k.
• Crafting one at the basic workbench for:
  • 8x Plastic Parts
  • 1x Wire
• Certain quests, like the new Sizing Things Up also give you a camera upon accepting them.

Of course, having to bring a camera also means you can no longer use free loadouts to complete quests involving photos. I suggest storing your camera in your safe pocket until you need it.

Now, head to the Ruined Homestead, equip the camera, use right mouse button to aim, and then left mouse button to take the snap. Any of the main farm buildings in that area seem to count, so it's easy enough to finish this stage.

The grapple hook is a legit game changer

Yeeeeeeeeehooooooooooo!

Yeah yeah, sure, Arc Raiders is getting some new guns, but the real star of my session was the grapple hook. Embark made an honest-to-god grapple hook: Not the kind that zips you straight to where you aim it (that already exists), but a simulated rope that's quite rare in videogames.

The grapple hook is only a green tier gadget, but very versatile. A single hook lets you:

• Climb straight up to the top of most buildings
• Swing from rooftop to rooftop like Spider-Man
• Safely descend from tall buildings
• Annoy the crap out of flying Arc bots

What makes the grapple hook so useful is that it sticks to just about anything. Wherever the hook lands becomes a pivot point that you can either climb toward, descend, or swing against. You can also redeploy the hook midair, without a cooldown or use limit, meaning you can chain swings together.

Above: Scaling a building with the grapple hook is about as fast as climbing a ladder, which is surprising.

It's a level of pendulum-based freedom that videogames rarely afford—let alone in a multiplayer environment—and makes the hook immediately fun to play with. The first match I had one, I ended up ignoring most of Pendola Pass' new locations and instead tried to see how long I could stay in the air with just the hook. I broke my ankles more than once, but in a short time I felt like the hook had tripled my movement options in Arc Raiders, and that's exciting. I really want to see how it performs on the other maps. Frozen Trail also adds a launcher that tethers two objects together and a grenade that yanks Arc bots to the ground, but I didn't test those thoroughly.

I'm delighted by Arc Raiders' embracing of physics-based tools and impressed that Embark isn't afraid to let these emergent gameplay ingredients be a little jank. You can tell while using the grapple hook why other videogames are so restrictive with similar mechanics: Sometimes you'll climb all the way up the rope only to not grab the ledge at the top, or the rope itself gets tangled between a protruding balcony, or you slide off the giant Emperor bot in Pendola Pass that Embark clearly doesn't want you to climb. It takes trial and error to use it well, and it's way more interesting than it is frustrating.

The skill tree rework is big… on paper

Arc Raiders' reworked skill tree is a mix of old and new abilities, with certain branches on the tree forcing you to pick one ability over others. Such as:

Conditioning 10

Vault Spring: Lets you jump at the end of a vault
OR
Vaults On Vaults On Vaults: Vaulting no longer costs stamina.

Mobility 30

Sprinting on Fumes: Stamina never fully drains while sprinting.
OR
Wall Run: Sprinting at a wall allows you to run up it for a few steps.
OR
In The Flow: Chaining together mobility moves while sprinting increases the speed, and reduces the stamina cost.

We were given a pile of XP points to dump into the skill tree. I focused on Mobility and Conditioning, and while it was nice to sprint for a long time without stopping, I can't say the new abilities led to me playing Arc Raiders any differently than before. The majority of the nodes on the tree are still incremental stat boosts that make the basics easier. It's a meaningful progression track in the long-term, but not instantly transformative so far.

To be fair, that may be exactly how it should be. Loot and crafting is the focus of Arc Raiders, and if the skill tree offered dramatic upgrades that make you a bigger threat, like better shields, it'd undermine other systems like the research tables and blueprints. This is an improvement, but I'm not clamoring for any one skill.

Pendola Pass is beautiful, but familiar

I've played 80 hours of Marathon since the last time I booted Arc Raiders, and that game's tremendous maps left an impression on me. Each one not only looks and feels different, but has unique, gameplay-specific hooks that makes my destination a huge decision from the jump. Arc Raiders does this in smaller ways, but I've yet to discover the big hook of Pendola Pass.

If it's snow, then sure: The white blanket is visually unique, flash freezes are sort of a threat (though I didn't even encounter one by accident) and raiders appear to leave trails one could follow.

If it's the new Bully Arc enemy, it's certainly an annoying new threat, though I plan to stay out of its way 90% of the time like I do the Leaper. When it comes to the stuff I do most in this game—plundering research facilities, stores, and residential districts—Pendola Pass feels like retreading chunks of existing maps.

Pendola Pass is welcome variety, but so far, it makes me wish Embark would take more Stella Montis-sized chances with its maps. Perhaps the real draw is getting inside the Emperor itself—I didn't manage it during the preview period, but it's apparently possible.

Embark is doing some monumental spring cleaning in the lead up to its major Arc Raiders' update Frozen Trail. There's been an overhaul to its anticheat approach, the news of a potential PvE test, and a change to loot hotspots. But amid all of this, we're also getting a rework to one of Speranza's most important residents: Celeste.

Diana Gardner has been the voice of Celeste, Speranza's de facto leader, since the beginning, but Stefan Strandberg, the chief creative officer at Embark, explained in a blog post how Celeste has "never fully represented the depth of Diana’s performance." As her "limited expressive capabilities" held the character back and broke immersion for players, failing to communicate "the stakes and stories we want to tell."

"Sometimes high fidelity, dynamic facial expressions are important to anchor the gravity of the story, and this is something that has constrained us up to this point," Strandberg adds.

So, with this in mind, Embark has set about reworking Celeste, with Gardner becoming her new face. "This is the first time we have used full motion capture, including a more detailed and accurate face, that allows us to map expressions and emotion in more detail. This means that more of Diana’s performance and identity comes through the screen."

This does mean Celeste will look different on October 6 when Frozen Trail releases, but rest assured all "you’re watching is the authentic performance of an incredibly talented actor, the real Celeste on screen for the first time."

It won't just end here though, as this is the start of a new wave of visual reworks for Arc Raiders as the team also intends to take a look at other characters. "In future updates, we plan to bring more characters in line with their real-world actors," Strandberg explains. "Not only will this mean more faithful representations of actors, it’ll be felt by players themselves."

Arc Raiders has always had one of the most exceptional worlds to explore, but it has unfortunately fallen short when it comes to characters. They are by and large just quite dull, sure the designs kind of look cool, but they've have always just been quest giving machines rather than convincing citizens of a game. This is not helped by its use of AI when it comes to beefing up voicelines.

So it comes as no surprise that Embark is seeking to remedy this, by "finding more ways to integrate real human performances into every interaction". Because that is the only way to tell a successful and convincing story.

Want to play Arc Raiders but don't want to pay for it? Sorry to say, this is not your lucky day—but October 8 will be. From then until October 12, Arc Raiders will be free to play on all platforms to mark the launch of Frozen Trail, the biggest Arc update since the game's launch in 2025.

The freebie offers full access to the game, including the new content added in Frozen Trail—a new map, enemies, weapons, gadgets, and more—with no limits beyond the calendar. If you dig it enough that you decide you do want to pay for it (and I'd say there's a good chance you will, it's pretty great), Arc Raiders is also on sale for half-price—that's $30/£26/€30—during the Steam Autumn Sale, which also ends October 8.

Embark is bringing forth a monumental effort ahead of Arc Raiders' anticipated major Frozen Trail update scheduled for next week . The devs have teased a bunch of new features like a temporary PvE mode, loot hotspots that change places, and a chance to build a base Topside, among a huge bevy of new items and arcs. And while I've been suitably hyped for all of this the issue of rampant cheating has still been in the forefront of my mind, Embark has now addressed this too.

"Cheating undermines what makes Arc Raiders challenging and fun, and disrupts the experience for everyone playing fairly," executive producer, Aleksander Grøndal says in a blog post. "At Embark, we take it incredibly seriously, and spend a lot of time and money in the ongoing fight against unfair play.

"The market for cheats is constantly evolving. Cheat makers profit from selling to players, often bundling malware with their software, and every time we improve our defenses, they adapt and find new ways around them. We adapt too. Our growing anti-cheat team is continually working to detect and block new cheats, close the pathways they exploit, and add obstacles that make cheating harder and less worthwhile. It's work we're committed to for as long as our games are live."

But Embark has shared its journey of combatting cheating in Arc Raiders for a long, long time now. Periodically peeping its head above the parapet to let players know that the anticheat does, in fact, exist and it's doing stuff. This hasn't, however, made a dent so far and certainly has fallen short of quelling the incessant rage of players. Grøndal admits that "simply saying we’re working on it isn’t enough", so he's trying something different this time around:

"In recent months, we’ve improved our ability to identify and sanction accounts that use cheat software, as well as accounts involved in economy exploits. We’ve also continued working to make it harder for repeat offenders to simply create a new account and return to the game.

"Permanent bans are now standard for all known cheat programs and, as a matter of policy, any account caught using cheats is permanently banned. No warnings, no second chances."

Accounts linked to those which have been banned for cheating will also now receive a permanent ban and Embark is set on more freely using hardware bans when "we have enough evidence that a single machine is being used for cheating".

Long term, Embark is growing its in-house cheat detection models which are "built around machine-learning" and other data. Alongside its Denuvo anticheat and Anybrain, Embark is also preparing to include Elytra, an anticheat which is being used at a "small scale" in The Finals but apparently shows "promise".

I'm not prepared to get too excited for any immediate change as we'll actually have to see what difference, if any, this makes to Arc Raiders rampant cheating. But it's certainly a very good sign that Embark is willing to take drastic measures to revamp the game, especially ahead of Frozen Trail.

"Video game cheating is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it will never fully go away," Grøndal adds. "What we can do is make cheating as difficult, costly, and short-lived as possible.

"We built Arc Raiders with love and dedication to the craft, and seeing it exploited by cheaters makes us as angry as it makes you. We are making progress, and we’re continuing to work to identify cheating more effectively, act on it more quickly, make it harder for repeat offenders to return, and improve the experience for Raiders who are playing fairly."

The final expedition skin—at least for now, as Embark works out what it wants to do with the system—looks decent enough. It even has a cape, though I wouldn't say no to a couple more colour schemes. We won't see the new character prestige system until 2027, but even as someone who's taken part in every expedition, I'm glad it's getting some much-needed changes.

Why do all five expeditions? I genuinely enjoy the process. Using your in-game smarts and knowledge of item locations to prep optimally is a fun puzzle, especially if you're also starting from scratch (due to having done the previous expedition) so you have minimal resources to work with.

A part of me thinks that a mandatory character reset might be best for the health of the game at this point, but players aren't going to be happy if they're forced to part with the item hoards they've spent over a year accumulating. I'll be curious to see how Embark handles it, but for now at least, this is the last expedition outfit. Here's to more exciting stuff arriving with the Frozen Trail update next week.

I have a lot of fond memories about Arc Raiders' release. The world was beautiful, terrifying, and expansive. It provided some of the best community interactions I've had in a game to date, and it was just a refreshingly good time to share with friends. But that didn't last as long as I and many others would have hoped, with executive producer Aleksander Grøndal admitting that Embark overestimated its capacity for work.

"Transitioning to live service is going to be fucking hard. Everyone said that to me. I've even said that to other people. I was mentally prepared for it to be hard—but I wasn't completely prepared for how hard it was," Grøndal says in an interview with Game Developer. "When you build a game up until launch, you build and you test and you build and you test and you fix things and measure results. So the way that we've been building video games was based on that idea—but now the demands of the players are really high, we feel like we really can't go much faster."

Arc Raiders is sadly a very good example of suffering from success. Sure, the devs had an inkling of how big this game could get, but I don't think anyone could've predicted the heights Arc Raiders would reach. Embark also made no secret of the fact that it simply wasn't as big or well-equipped as other live-service competitors like Activision Blizzard or Riot, but the team still tried to keep up the pace that was expected of them.

This is a recipe for disaster, with Grøndal explaining how "the team [was] super tired" but that they still tried to put "out content as fast as we can but it's not enough, and perhaps it wasn't necessarily interesting enough as well." Trying to keep pace with players that were completing events, sussing out arcs, and exploring maps faster than Embark could add them led to a very long and very stale period, which then saw a huge drop-off in players.

"I'm proud of what we achieved during the first four months of this year," Grøndal adds. "But at the same time, I think we have to be honest at looking at some of the impacts of that. We didn't have the time. You also have a lot of the cost of just maintaining the game—implementing bug fixes, exploits, and other constraints. We were constantly overshooting our capacity and so it was hard to plan when there's so much to do. There's a lot of maintenance and cleanup [that takes up so much of your time]."

It didn't just have a negative impact on the game, as the devs also began to feel the pains of overextending. "The team were super unhappy. To be fair, they were running really hard milestones and that wasn't fun and challenging, so we had to do something. The players were also complaining and I don't think the consistency was high enough."

The cycle only stopped when the team asked themselves "why are we doing this?" and re-evaluated their long-term plan for Arc Raiders. "Everything pointed towards the fact that we were doing it better before shipping, so we need to play to our strengths [...] and what we produce will be better, more interesting, and higher-quality across the board. It also gives us time to work things out instead of just shipping, shipping, shipping. We can actually iterate."

Grøndal also stresses that they needed to put an end to the ongoing burnout. "It's super important [to protect people]," he says. "I can tell you a personal story. I was burned out. We'd just shipped a Battlefield game [when I was at EA] and I kept pushing so hard that I had to take a break for five months and go on sick leave because I was completely broken. We talk about burnout and it's obviously bad, but being burned out feels super shitty to be honest. It's terrible. I don't recommend it to anyone. Also, it means we lose good people who might be out [of work] for a very long time."

There's always going to be more to do in a live service game like Arc Raiders. And while there are some very serious reworks needed and problems to address—like its anticheat—I'd never want anyone to prioritise content over their health. It's just a game, after all, and more often than not well-rested and happy people create better things. It may take longer to get new content, but a more relaxed and committed approach to Arc Raiders will make for a better game in the longrun—we're already seeing the fruits of that tack with Frozen Trail.

"It's very important for us to create a framework that allows us to be creative while having a good work-life balance," Grøndal adds. "If we think long-term about this product—not just in small increments but big-picture stuff—we need all of these great people. Those are the people who built Arc Raiders in the first place." I couldn't agree more.

I am very excited at the prospect of an Arc Raiders PvE-only mode. I have been ever since I got a tiny taste of what it could be like in Shared Watch, and even before that while playing in friendly lobbies. I know some aren't happy at the prospect of a mode with no PvP, but the only thing I can't believe is that Embark hasn't made this change sooner.

I've always thought that Arc Raiders was at its best in its early stages when players had to work together to take down high-value arcs. This kind of cooperation led to some genuinely hilarious scenarios or just nice encounters with strangers; something I hadn't experienced in an online multiplayer game for quite some time.

At one point I remember being huddled in a bunker with another trio while trying to take down a Rocketeer on Spaceport. While we did manage to kill it, we were then caught out when a second Rocketeer turned up and we had almost no ammo left. It was a slightly bizarre situation to be found in with strangers. But it led to some very impressive strategy and coordination, and certainly a memorable experience, as we broke off into duos and ran in opposite directions, taking it in turns to distract the Rocketeer so we could all make a successful break for the extraction point.

I think this novelty is what brought a lot of players into Arc Raiders; it's certainly what kept me around for so long even after I'd completed expeditions and all the quests. But as more people left the number of fun encounters dropped and soon most of my interactions in Arc Raiders were just with liars, assholes, or cheaters. And that's not a great way to spend your free time.

If there had been a PvE mode this is when I would've transferred over to that. I probably would have even played Arc Raiders relatively frequently in said mode from there on, as I'm sure others who enjoy the simplicity of fun social interactions and taking down arcs would have as well. But with no other option than increasingly sour PvP lobbies I decided to retire my raider for the time being.

That's not to say PvP is absolutely no fun. Again, early on I had an absolute blast playing in trio PvP lobbies. The tension and strategic play was fantastic and felt really unique to Arc Raiders' ecosystem. Having to be cautious of both arcs and fellow players made games more hectic but that meant there was a better payoff when you all managed to extract in one piece with some hefty loot.

It could also lead to equally hilarious scenarios. I still remember when my trio spotted another team from a mile off in Dam Battlegrounds who were clearly trying to flank us and just acting really suspicious. The only problem was they had absolutely no cover but also didn't seem to realise that if they could see us it meant we could also see them. Their surprise attack was quickly felled and then we had to explain to them how line of sight worked as we guided them to extract so they could go home to Speranza.

The weird and funny social moments that Arc Raiders did so well isn't exclusive to PvE or PvP lobbies. But PvE offers a guarantee that PvP can't: your games won't get ruined by assholes who lie or extract camp. And with no sign of the huge anticheat overhaul PvP would need to get fixed I can't see things changing anytime soon, so with that in mind I'd prefer something rather than nothing, because the world of Arc Raiders is simply too cool to watch waste away.

Embark has even admitted that a large chunk of Arc Raiders playerbase is PvE orientated, so I'd hardly be surprised if fair chunk of players came back just out of curiosity about what PvE lobbies could look like.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that this PvE test will even lead to a permanent addition. But I'll still be checking in to get a taste of what it could be like because a low-intensity Arc Raiders interlude sounds like great fun right about now.

Arc Raiders players are gearing up for what is set to be one hell of an update in Frozen Trails. It has already been promised as the answer to a lot of Arc Raiders' current issues, but now we also know it's way bigger than any of us expected it to be, with new weapons, gadgets, and arcs. But I'm less concerned with all of those and more interested in its update to raider outposts.

"Celeste is offering Raiders who heed her call to explore Pendola Pass a home away from home: the Outpost," an official blog post explains. "Nestled between the Rust Belt and the perilous mountain range, the Outpost is the first step to reclaiming parts of the surface."

Players will now have the chance to expand their base of operations with the outpost. Until now, we've only had one room to call our own, which is very small and has very limited customisable options—sadly, you can only fit so many ducks inside. But the outpost provides way more space.

Here we'll be able to customise this new base with different modules, furniture, and other changes to the interior. These new modules will also come in handy for the new weapon amplification which gives gear unique abilities like flammable ammo or rapid-fire in preparation for the new map Pendola Pass, which is set to be the most punishing area to date:

But honestly I'm less bothered about the outpost's end game benefits as these'll be modules that you'll also be able to build down in Speranza. I'm just hyped to have more space and an actual chance to customise a base, and it's a feature Embark'll expand in future patches: "The Outpost is the start of a feature we hope to develop much further, eventually giving players a deeply personal space that allows them to become the Raider they want to be." That's certainly a good incentive to get me to start playing again.

Despite hesitation, Embark is finally giving a purely PvE version of Arc Raiders a try. It's interesting how they're approaching it as a toggle: Essentially all else about the match will be the same, except that players can't damage each other. Loot will be slightly less valuable than PvPvE sessions to account for the lower risk taken.

Embark has been open about its belief that Arc Raiders' PvP is integral to the experience, but this PvE test exists to "respect that our players have different needs than what we first envisioned." There is no guarantee that anything permanent will come of the test, or that future PvE modes will resemble this toggle.

"We have to respect that some players want to enjoy the game in their own way, and we can’t ignore what the data is telling us," the blog says.

The data Embark is referring to is pretty fascinating if you've followed Arc Raiders' unique community split between friendly and hostile players.

The Arc Raiders population split, according to Embark:

• 37% Friendly co-op players (this player group has grown consistently since launch).
• 27% Mixed players.
• 34% Pure PvP players (this player group has remained stable since launch).
• Over 70% of Friendly players and even 40% of PvP players express a desire for fewer hostile encounters and 51% of the surveyed playerbase has expressed an interest in a dedicated PvE option.
• There are clear friction points, with friendly players often attempting to avoid PvP entirely, and we hear frustration from certain groups of players around ratting and camping.

Here's the big stuff

• Pendola Pass: A snowy mountain region north of the Rust Belt flanked on all sides by a gigantic Emperor corpse. Embark says Pendola is its "most ambitious map to date" and has a unique "Flash Freeze" condition that punishes those who stay outside too long.
• New ARC types: The Frigate is a "massive airborne carrier" that apparently can't be totally destroyed. Embark framed this as a "high-stakes challenge for experienced Raiders." The Bully is a cousin of the Leaper—a four-legged belligerent that uses "hit-and-run tactics" to whittle away at raiders. The Skulker is a small, ground-level pest that keeps its distance and "takes pot shots" at players. The Hydra is a stationary turret that can target three players simultaneously.
• Outposts: Personal spaces outside of Speranza that players can build up and expand with decor, furniture, trinkets, and upgrade benches. You can't walk around your outpost, at least for now. "That is something we're thinking about as we look to evolve this feature," added executive producer Aleksander Grøndal in a press Q&A.
• Weapon Amplification: Using the new research bench, guns can be upgraded to a new "amplifaction" tier that grants them unique abilities, like flammable ammo or rapid-fire. Fifteen guns will have amplifications at first.
• Guns: The Stiletto is a light ammo battle rifle designed as an "early game alternative to the Renegade," and the Bantum is a quickfire revolver meant to compete with the Anvil.
• Reworked skill tree: Embark says it has reworked skills to be more impactful and force players to make choices about their playstyle. Not every skill can be acquired on a single raider, apparently.
• Gun skins: Raiders can now find "stencils" that serve as multi-use skins you can apply to guns. If you lose that gun, you'll need to reapply the stencil. Blueprints for stencils can also be found or unlocked through the new research station.
• Gadgets: A grapple hook, banjo, and camera tool will bring nonviolent flair to an Arc Raiders lobby near you.

Let 'em cook

Embark said "let us cook" back in May and has reappeared with a three course meal. Frozen Trail is the first fruits of Arc Raiders' new six-month gap between major updates. The 2.0 patch gives a comprehensive pass on nearly every facet of the extraction shooter, reworking skills, introducing customizable homes, and delivering core add-ons like a new map, guns, and ARC enemies.

Having not played much Arc Raiders in 2026, this is getting me jazzed to get back to paramedic duty. As a casual raider with zero expeditions or accolades, I found it hard to keep up with all of Arc Raiders' happenings back when things were changing every month. This new schedule, where major updates are rarer but allowed to be larger, is already more my speed.

It wasn't the flashiest announcement of the day, but I'm really eager to try out that grapple hook. Judging by the reveal video, that's a proper mobility tool—the kind that can anchor to a point and swing you in any direction! You can even hook Arc bots with it and go for a ride. Sounds like a beautiful disaster waiting to happen.

Frozen Trail is out October 8 as a free update. Grøndal also went into more detail about the reworked skill tree during a press Q&A.

Embark Studios announced a "pause" on Expeditions in Arc Raiders until early 2027 so it can rework the system to address longstanding issues and complaints that can't be handled with "incremental fixes." In a recent interview with PCGamesN, though, Arc Raiders executive producer Aleksander Grøndal said the studio might go even further by ditching Expeditions entirely.

Expeditions are essentially Arc's equivalent of prestiging in Call of Duty: High-level players invest time and resources into a "caravan" that ultimately—within the context of the game's fiction—enables their character to leave the Rust Belt forever. Practically speaking, it's a full reset of levels, skills, and inventory, in exchange for certain unique benefits conferred upon the player's new character. It's a major undertaking, and many Arc players haven't been happy with the amount of grind involved for a relatively minor payoff.

Announcing the pause in August, Embark said many of the issues raised by players, "like the tight departure windows, the reward structure, and accessibility for new players, need more than incremental fixes. They call for bigger changes." The fifth Expedition, set to depart at the end of September, will be the last until Embark has the overhaul finished—or just cans the whole thing, as the case may be.

"Was the system perfect? No, probably not," Grøndal told PCGN at Gamescom. "We want to make some significant changes to the Expedition system. But I think right now we're focused on, 'Yeah, they are what they are,' but the intent is to have them change.

"Maybe we'll scrap the whole system altogether. That is on the table, too. Right now, the team is trying to figure out what the next steps for Expeditions are."

When Embark will make its final decision on the fate of Expeditions remains, well, undecided, although nothing's going to happen until the Frozen Trails major update drops in October. But whatever happens, it seems clear that players should expect major changes.

We're just a month away from Arc Raiders' major update Frozen Trails which promises new arcs, maps, and a movement overhaul. It sounds pretty impressive, and I'm excited to have a new reason to head Topside. But before we can enjoy the tundra Embark has one more small update for players, and it's live right now.

"Update 1.45.0 is going live right now and with it a number of fixes, a new Raider Project, the start of the fifth Expedition, the Hornet Hunter Set and changes coming to Cred," a blog post reads. "This will be our last Live Update before October 8, but we won't be going quiet in the meantime, a smaller update is still planned before then."

The new Raider Project sees players help Apollo continue work on an experiment which will let us follow the mystery phantom arc signals over the mountain range and beyond the perimeter for the tube system. Completing the required tasks will allow Apollo to finish his work.

This slots into the following Frozen Trails update as the new map is actually located over the mountains just beyond any raiders' current reach. When players get there they'll be able to track down the exact location of the arc signals and find out if Shani's concern was warranted or not. It's probably going to be warranted.

Other than a new project players will also be able to enjoy all the new community-made rubber ducks. There's a colourful confetti duck, one dressed as a very smart penguin with a bowtie, and an X-ray duck. You can grab these in the usual places in Bird City and display them in your den.

The most important part of this update, however, isn't the new project or ducks (debatable), it's actually the heads up about Arc Raiders' changing Cred system.

"We are retiring Cred as a currency, as we’ll be introducing a more expansive reward system launching with the Frozen Trail Update," the post explains. "All existing Raider Deck rewards will also be available in the new system. You will keep any rewards you have already claimed at the time of the update."

Cred will remain usable up until October 8, though, so if you have any spare lying around Embark encourages you to "use any remaining Cred before then". Come October 8 any remaining Cred on your account will expire and will become unusable. So the message is: use it or lose it.

Everyone has a price. Maybe it's $100, maybe it's $1,000, maybe it's for someone to see your innate value as a human being, or maybe it's $1,000,000. Popular streamer TimTheTatman recently revealed what it would take to get him to go back to Arc Raiders, and spoilers, it's not the third option.

There was apparently an ad deal floating around for the Arc Raiders and Subway collab, which TimTheTatman was approached for, but did not entertain. "I did say no to six-figures with Arc Raiders, I did," he revealed in a stream earlier this week. "I said 'No thank you'. And it was the Subway Arc Raiders ad. I said I just can't do it, I'm sorry."

This was met with the exact response you'd expect with people being baffled that he'd ever think of turning down such a lucrative offer. "That's kind of the funny part of being in a streamer position," TimTheTatman continued. "People say 'you're a fucking sellout' but then in the same breath I said I passed on six-figures from Arc Raiders and people are like 'you're fucking stupid'."

He revealed that he does actually have a price to play Arc Raiders again: they'd just have had to add another zero onto the offer. "If that Arc Raiders deal was seven-figures—hey boys welcome back to Arc Raiders and Subway, right, you see what I'm saying? 100% we're going back. But it's just for me, the game frustrated me so much—I got frustrated so much with that game, I just don't want to play it ever again. Even to a point where six-figures isn't going to get me back on it."

I can't say I'm surprised. Arc Raiders is in a bit of a rough spot right now, especially for streamers, what with all the cheating and stream sniping. Embark Studios' executive producer Aleksander Grøndal recently admitted the shortcomings of Arc Raiders and promised that its upcoming major update Frozen Trails will reset the game and provide enough incentive to get players to come back, though—even if they don't get a six-figure deal to do it.

If there's one thing you should never underestimate, it's a gamer's love for completing little tasks. Whether it's battle passes, meaningless fetch quests, or in Arc Raiders' case, its expeditions. There's just the right amount of dopamine involved for a neuron activation, so you best bet that they'll rip through them at an unthinkable speed.

I'll concede that Embark Studios probably couldn't have foreseen the full extent of this love prior to Arc Raiders release, but still, the outcome is the same: gamers out-growing their once-beloved game because they managed to complete all their tasks way too fast.

"We didn’t really expect that amount of players to show up and play ARC Raiders," executive producer Aleksander Grøndal explains in an interview with GamesBeat. "That surprised us. We were a bit unprepared. That’s one of the hard lessons we had to learn. When January came and some of the problems started with the game."

January saw the first crack in Arc Raiders' armour, as the novelty began to wear off and players became more keenly aware of how limited its content was alongside growing concerns about cheating and stream sniping. Unfortunately, despite some hard work from the team, the latter two points still remain contentious.

"We have very dedicated people playing the game," Grøndal adds. "We had some challenges around how much content there is in the game, how much progression there is in the game. We had some, but the players wanted more.

"We bet on trying to update it fast and giving players more things to do over time. That was our strategy, to try to meet those demands from players. The issue with that was the team just couldn’t keep pace with the players. The players grew frustrated, because some of the things we shipped were perhaps not as good or as meaningful as they were hoping. That was another awakening for us."

Embark has been very upfront about how its dev team errs on the smaller side for a live service game, which means it just couldn't keep pace with competitors like Call of Duty, Overwatch, or even Valorant, all of which have enough employees to keep the content mills constantly churning.

As live service games have become more common, each one is competing with others for the industry's gold dust: player attention. But Grøndal concedes that "this is the challenge with running a live service" and that Embark can't "beat anyone on quantity". Instead, the goal has always been to provide players with higher quality stuff that "has the Embark finesse to it."

The issue with quality over quantity is that players actually really like quantity. Many will say that they prefer for stuff to look good, but that's not really a live service game's draw, instead its draw is to provide something for players to do whenever they want. Players were promised a 10-year plan, and they haven't seen that manifest in Arc Raiders yet.

So what's the solution? A better anti-cheat would be a good start, but really, Arc Raiders just needs to find its footing and get back to a good live service cadence if it wants to bring players back. As for when this could happen, it seems like Embark is gearing up for something of a comeback in October with its upcoming Frozen Trails major update.

Grøndal has said it will bring a rank redesign, more arcs, updates to storage, and a new map as it tries "to answer a lot of those questions that have been posed to us from a mechanical and content perspective."

But until then, all players can do is wait and have some hope that better things are to come.

We're getting dribs and drabs of news about Arc Raiders' upcoming major update which is scheduled for October. A new "high-level" challenge has been promised to returning players, alongside a frozen map full of new arcs, plus there'll also be the small addition of a photo mode.

"Time to remember your raids, cameras are coming to the Rust Belt in October," a new social media post reads. By the looks of things this will let players record all the weird, wonderful, and downright stupid antics they get up to during Arc Raiders sessions. The only problem is, well, that the games just aren't as enjoyable as they used to be.

Arc Raiders has had its issues with cheaters for almost as long as it's been out. While PvE lobbies are still ok, PvP is a swamp of bad actors right now, and it's only been getting worse the more decent people leave, meaning cheaters take up a bigger portion of the playerbase. Some are even throwing themselves in front of friendly fire just so they can trigger a self-defense clause and murder without consequence, you just can't win against these guys.

So with all things considered, players aren't exactly overjoyed about photo mode when the house is on fire. "Using number keys as a heal bind [has] been bugged since near launch," one player says, detailing how borked their hotkeys are. "But sure, let's add a fucking camera!"

"We finally need proof that we can believe what we have been promised, not just some gimmick to string us along," another player adds.

The frustration with Arc Raiders is clear, but I have to say I don't think it's fair to completely write the October update off before we've been able to play it for ourselves. I think it actually makes sense that Embark hasn't given too much away far in advance, hype would peter out quickly otherwise. I'm actually really excited to see the October update for myself, I'd love for it to spur on another stretch of raiding.

That isn't to say, however, that the October update doesn't have a lot to prove. On release Embark promised a grand 10-year plan for Arc Raiders. It hasn't even been a year since then, and that promise seems to be teetering on the brink. October might be the developer's final chance to convince players that this game really does have enough to take it further, because I fear patience is running thin.

Arc Raiders' upcoming fifth Expedition will be its last for a good while, as developer Embark Studios is going to "pause" them until early 2027 so it can rework the whole thing.

Expeditions in Arc Raiders are a pretty big deal. Functionally, they're similar to prestiging in Call of Duty, giving high-level players a way to reset much of their character's progress in exchange for unique benefits. It's no small undertaking, and the Arc Raiders community hasn't been entirely happy with how it all works, particularly with regard to the grind.

Embark's been fiddling with Expeditions systems pretty much since they began, and following changes to the fourth Expedition announced in June, PC Gamer's Morgan Park predicted that a bigger overhaul was on the way. As usual, he was right on the money,

"We have been carefully reviewing your feedback on Expeditions," Embark wrote in today's update, "and while we've made ongoing improvements along the way, we've come to realize that some of the issues you've raised, like the tight departure windows, the reward structure, and accessibility for new players, need more than incremental fixes. They call for bigger changes.

"In order to address those concerns, we need to pause the Expeditions for a while. The fifth Expedition will be the last one until early 2027, when Expeditions will return with major improvements, tackling some of the biggest player pain points. So, if you’ve been on the fence about departing—now is the time! We will share more details on what those changes will look like in September."

Any consecutive buffs already earned will persist through the pause period so no progress is lost, while any partially completed Caravans will be replaced with Ermal Vouchers of equal value.

Reaction to the pause seems mixed: It's a bit more hostile on X than in the Arc Raiders subreddit, but nowhere is there what I would call a widespread sense of relief that big changes are coming. Instead, many players are taking a wait-and-see approach, acknowledging that Expeditions needs work while still harboring reservations about Embark's ability to actually get it right—a challenge complicated by the fact that some players are quite happy with the system as it is, and don't want it changed. Such is the way of things, alas.

Today's update also lays out the details on the fifth Expedition, including when the window opens (4 am PT/7 am ET on September 8), how to get in, and what you'll get for your troubles.

I love a good Arc Raiders map condition. Whether it be hunting for rubber ducks in Bird City, or trying to survive frozen temperatures in Cold Snap, each one offers up a much-needed revamp on what can sometimes be a stale selection of maps. The only problem is that some conditions can be pretty inaccessible.

Initially map conditions followed the same global release for everyone. This wasn't much of an issue when the game released t as there were only a handful of conditions to tack onto maps, but as more appeared it's become increasingly difficult to play some of them. Take Bird City for example—I love it, but when it first released it was almost impossible to play because it was only live when I was at work (boo) or sleeping (yay).

Embark tried to fix this by upping the frequency of said map conditions but this only worked so well, with there still being regions which would see less of certain conditions compared to others. Luckily, it seems like this is all behind us now as Embark has pushed out a solution in its latest update which means fairer map condition distributions for all.

"We have been working to make sure that the way we schedule map conditions is aligned with your playing habits," Embark says in the new update blog post. "To that end, we’re introducing Regional Map Condition Scheduling. Starting with 1.42.0, map conditions will have their schedule offset based on regions, instead of a single, global schedule.

"This means that the schedule will shift to fit specific regions' peak hours to better match your experience. This way, it’ll be less likely to miss out on a map condition regardless of where you are."

You can check out the new schedule for yourself using the map conditions tracker. And as you'll be able to see, there's masses of conditions ticking away every hour during peak times for you to pick from now, so you won't have to stay up way past your bedtime to collect matriarch reactors or limited edition rubber ducks.

Embark has finally released some solid information on Arc Raiders' next major update, Frozen Trails. We've got details on all the big and small features players can expect to see, including a snowy map, new arcs, new weapons, and more ways in which Embark wishes to improve "the core Arc Raiders experience".

The biggest feature which Frozen Trails brings with it is the map itself which is unsurprisingly frozen. It'll take players beyond the mountains as they're tasked with investigating a strange signal emanating from the tundra. There's abandoned homes, villages, research facilities, and an observatory to explore and strip for loot. But, just as it is with any other Arc Raiders map, players will have to fight for the good stuff: "You’ll encounter threats above and below ground, and navigate environments that no Raiders have seen before."

Some of these threats will likely come in the form of the new arcs which have been teased for a while now. "Our team has been hard at work developing new ARC threats that will arrive alongside the new map, each designed to challenge the ways you’ve learned to move, fight, and adapt," executive producer Aleksander Grøndal explains in a blog post.

All we know about these arcs so far is that they'll range from "small and nifty problem-makers" (which means they'll probably be similar to the likes of Pops or Ticks), to "an enormous machine that will halt you in your tracks."

It's all relative but when I hear enormous in Arc Raiders I think of the Matriarch, which could mean we'll be getting another map-uniting threat to go up against. Perhaps we'll finally see a glimpse of the rumoured Baron or Duke. But enormous could also just mean a Bastion or Vaporizer-sized arc which would still be a lot of fun to fight and likely just as terrifying.

"Creating new ARC is one of the more involved parts of development," Grøndal continues. "From early concepts and animation to behaviour and machine learning systems that give them their distinctive 'spark of life', every enemy goes through months of iteration to get right. We think it’ll be worth the wait, and we can’t wait to see what you think."

But these new arcs aren't just here to terrify players, it's all about creating another "new high-level challenge" for long time players to sink their teeth into. As more time passes and the regulars get better and better, it's crucial that Embark ups the ante, so in enters "an enormous new Arc Operation designed for experienced raiders looking to push themselves even further."

"Without giving too much away, this new activity is built around many of the ideas that have become increasingly important to us throughout development: meaningful decisions, dynamic encounters, and moments that demand cooperation and careful judgment," Grøndal says.

"Success won’t come easily. You’ll need to balance combat, teamwork, risk, and survival in what we believe will be one of the most intense experiences ARC Raiders has offered to date – one that rewards those willing to rise to the challenge." More on this will be revealed later, closer to its release in October.

Without getting to see Frozen Trails first-hand, all players can go by right now are promises and vibes. But without getting ahead of myself, it seems like Embark is hitting the mark of what players need from this next major update. It's not enough to offer up new maps, arcs, and weapons on their own, players need variety and making small tweaks which will force players to expand upon their habitual playstyle sounds like the refresh Arc Raiders needs.

The new Arc Raiders Phantom Targets project is all about helping Shani track and trace some mysterious arc that seem to be popping up across topside. During the first phase, she asks you to "upgrade antennas found on top of any Cargo Elevator," and you'll have to find three and tinker with them to complete the objective.

In case you don't recall what a Cargo Elevator is in Arc Raiders, I'll explain where to find them below so you can complete this stage.

How to upgrade the Cargo Elevator antennas in Arc Raiders

What this objective calls Cargo Elevators refers to the extraction points you can find on Dam Battlegrounds, Spaceport, or Riven Tides—the ones that look like a little bunker with four doors that lower to let you inside.

What you need to do is climb onto the roof of one of these and fix the antenna (the scaffolding with the radar dishes on), then proceed to do it at two other extraction points. This does seem slightly bugged at the moment in that the icon you interact with on top of the elevator doesn't go away after you activate it.

However, if you open your map and check the quest progress, you'll see that it still counts towards the total of three elevators that you need to upgrade. You also don't have to do all three elevators in a single run, or on the same map, so you can break it up across any of the regions mentioned above. Once that's done, complete the first step in the project to get:

• Combat Mk.3 (Aggressive)
• Heavy Shield
• Vita Spray

Not too shabby a haul for such a quick and easy quest.

Embark has been on a bit of a matchmaking kick recently. It announced some weeks ago that Arc Raiders would be getting a more thorough system which takes into account specific player behaviour across solo, duo, and trio lobbies as well as a more nuanced look at self-defence. Both are solid updates to the game in theory, but in practice it's become clear that you just can't balance for assholes.

Update 1.36 added a more stringent matchmaking system which takes into account every player action across various lobbies. But because this new system was so reactive, it also meant that all it took was downing one aggressive raider to throw players from the comfort of PvE lobbies into the hellscape of PvP. Now, I actually enjoy PvP lobbies, but they aren't for the faint of heart, so before long Embark was backed up with complaints from players who were mistakenly hurled into these death matches.

To try and help, Embark decided to add a self-defence clause to the matchmaking system which meant that players would stay in nice PvE lobbies even if they shot and killed another raider if they weren't the primary aggressor. I don't actually know how the system figures this out—I guess it takes into account whether a player is damaged before shooting or not—but regardless this update fixed one issue and started another.

Before long, Arc Raiders rats realised that this self-defence patch basically gave them a free pass to run rampant in PvE lobbies, killing and looting everyone they could find, as long as they didn't shoot first.

But how do you convince a pacifist player to put a bullet in your head? Maybe you say mean things about their mum, perhaps a little jab at their unstylish last-season skin? Or you could just jump in front of their gun while they're shooting at something else—that last one works the best.

"It was bound to happen, we had two free kits with hairpins healing everyone and picking them up. I realised one kept trying to jump in front of my Equalizer and I decided to use what I thought was a Queen beam to make a break given I 'shot first'." Player craybe managed to capture the exact moment a rat jumped in front of his gunfire. "I then get hit by the quick wheel bug when going for a snap to make distance. So, beware these dickheads on Queen and Matriarch as they will surely multiply to mess with your ABMM."

The rat then proceeds to pretend as if they're the victim, telling the rest of the lobby that they'd been shot and pointing some naive do-gooders towards craybe. They kill him before he can plead his case or get away.

"I had three queen cores up my butt (he means in his safe pocket) so no huge loss and I was more amused to see them use the strategy after calling out that we had a sniper north of us, and all the false friendly crap. All they got was a busted Equalizer and a Bettina I barely use. I'm more annoyed the snap turned into a smoke at the end of the clip."

I'm glad that nothing too valuable was lost, but it's still a sucky situation. It could very well just be rose-tinted glasses, but I do feel as if Arc Raiders' matchmaking was better when the game first released and players knew very little about how it actually worked—cheesing the system was harder and assholes were easier to identify and kill back then.

Now, you don't know who you can trust and who's out to stab you in the back, so keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious behaviour raiders—the rats walk among us.

The biggest thing to happen in Arc Raiders recently (if you don't count the Expedition near miss) was Embark's decision to rework the matchmaking to be more attuned to players' actions in solo, duo, and trio queues. The only problem with having better matchmaking is having to wait a bit longer in queue for the game to actually fulfil this promise.

"Starting today, we'll be testing adjustments to our matchmaking algorithm aimed at improving the quality of your matches," a dev explains in an official blog post. "One thing to note: the algorithm may take a little longer to find a match, since it's now working harder to find you a better one."

Hopefully, after waiting a bit longer than usual, you'll run into raiders with a similar mindset to yours when you head Topside, those that match your playstyle and squad size "making for more fair and enjoyable raids". This is thanks to the matchmaking taking into account an individual's behaviour while in different squad sizes, meaning you can be a bloodthirsty murderer in solos and a happy-go-lucky team player in squads.

So far it seems as if the biggest issue players have isn't with the matchmaking, but what it takes to get there. As always "there is room for improvement—especially during low-population hours, in certain regions, or in specific map conditions."

Ever since matchmaking was first discussed for Arc Raiders, there were those that asked why all of this was necessary when Embark could just manually split PvE and PvP via different gamemodes. If only it were that easy. But it's clear that all this effort is going into matchmaking because Embark wants players to be comfortable in their games up to a point.

Even in predominantly PvE lobbies there is still a chance of you coming across a PvPer in disguise, or just someone having a bad day—that's what keeps the suspense high and players on edge.

Regardless of intent, though, Embark clearly has its work cut out when it comes to perfecting matchmaking, and with the promises that "we're working to improve those cases" let's just hope the next stage will be speeding up the queuing process.

Clearing your raider for Expedition is a pretty big deal in Arc Raiders. It involves tons of prep and a dedication that you're willing to start the next season with a fresh character and stash (alongside some perks that the Expedition offers your new avatar). It's not something that everyone is willing or able to do, which is why this latest bug left players in such disarray.

The bug in question impacts those who manage to finish the 100K damage challenge: Once completed, players would be automatically signed up for the upcoming fourth Expedition, whether they wanted to be shoved out into the wasteland or not.

Thankfully Embark is intervening now, before anyone's exiled Topside. "We want to err on the side of caution," Embark explains in a message to players via social media. "We will revert the Departure sign-up for players whose sign-up behaviour appears representative of this issue. This may be done in several waves, starting tomorrow, Friday, July 17, 2026 5:00 PM."

But even with the intervention scheduled for the weekend the devs still advise players to "check the in-game Expedition tab and verify that it shows the correct information for your case," just in case your raider is still ready to be sent off.

"If you had previously been signed up for departure automatically and this does not revert by the end of day tomorrow, please reach out to our support team as soon as possible. If you have changed your mind and want to depart, you can still opt in to do so. Additionally, Last Call will be available as usual for those of you who aren’t able to sign up for Departure before the deadline."

It seems like Embark are on top of the situation, but there are still some players who are deciding to take extra precautions: "I'm taking a screenshot of my intentional signup, damage completion and Expedition vault contents so I can open a ticket when they fuck this up," one declared on Reddit. I guess it is better to be safe than sorry.

The first hotfix since Arc Raiders' 1.36 update has rocked up, and while it may be small it does tackle some important issues, namely a new duplication exploit which has popped up recently and saw mountains of explosives spawn even faster than the throwables glitch.

"We have just pushed a hotfix on all platforms to mitigate a duplication issue, an official blog post explains. "As we stated before regarding the use of exploits, we will continue issuing bans on accounts that have been gaining significant advantage."

All's well that ends well, right? If only it could be so easy. Like most things that happen on the internet, this hasn't satiated all players, as some question why Embark can fix this glitch but not one that is seen to be considerably worse.

"This hotfix proves embark can respond overnight, so why is weapon duping still here?" player Loose_Fish5725 asks. "A dupe that literally anyone could abuse gets discovered, spreads like wildfire, and gets patched in less than 24 hours. Meanwhile, we've had duplicated Bobcats and weapons circulating for weeks. Entire kits are being duplicated, sold, and recycled, destroying the economy, yet that's somehow a lower priority?"

The weapon dupe glitch in question is like many others but the issue is with it flooding Arc Raiders lobbies with 'fake' weapons and ruining the economy as rare weapons become pretty common. If you've seen players with hordes of Bobcats on your travels that'd be why.

"The speed of this fix proves the developers can react quickly when they choose to," the player continues. "That's why it's frustrating watching the in-game economy continue to suffer while the most impactful exploit remains unresolved."

The reality of the situation, though, is likely quite simple. Embark was probably able to fix the new duplication glitch because it was new and came from the most recent patch. Older duplication glitches are harder to deal with simply because it's been around for longer and is relentless in how it just keeps popping up.

It's also easy to ban accounts with ridiculous stack value, but it's harder to correct the internal economy when much of the duplicated gear has been spread across accounts that found items fair and square during matches and not by duplicating them. That's all to say that Embark will likely be fighting duplication glitches for the rest of the game's lifecycle, the important thing is to try and stay on top of it.

There's been more duplication exploits in Arc Raiders at one point or another than I can shake several suspiciously identical sticks at. It's the get rich quick scheme that a lot of raiders opt in to, there's been multi-million rubber duck hauls and prisons made of just ziplines. It seems like there's no end to the creativity of a dupe exploit, but Embark has confirmed that it's been cracking down on them.

"Like with anti-cheat, we are always working against duplication exploits. We’re keeping a close eye on the game economy, and constantly catalogue, investigate and seek to counteract exploits," Embark explains in the latest patch notes. "Recently, we’ve fixed some exploits related to duplication. We always want to make sure fixes are widely effective, so we make sure to monitor and evaluate our success before sharing that progress with you."

The most interesting part of this is the graph Embark includes as part of their update on tackling cheaters. It shows the percentage of players "with unusually high 'profit per minute'". Looking at the graph, you can see that things got particularly bad towards the beginning of June, which may have coincided with the 1.33.0 update that tested a ban on free loadouts.

Since then, however, things have gotten better. The percentage of players that may be guilty of using duplication exploits has apparently dropped to under 1%, the lowest it's been in months.

As for the regular old cheating Embark also notes that work on snuffing that out has been going well: "Over the past few weeks, we’ve completed our rollout of Denuvo Anti-Cheat. It is now enforced for all players, and the results we’ve seen so far have been promising. Thanks to the efforts of our anti-cheat team, we are continuously getting more effective at identifying and acting against cheaters."

Embarks recent efforts to rid Arc Raiders of cheating have seemingly gone quite well over the last few months, as it's treated as a "top priority" for the team to handle. All I can say is, good. Cheating in Arc Raiders was a right pain, and one of the reasons I stopped playing as much as I used to. So let's hope it's only up from here.

Understanding matchmaking in Arc Raiders has been something of a white whale for players, especially since we first got confirmation that aggression-based matchmaking did actually play a part in creating lobbies. Since then Embark has been more open about what actually goes into its matchmaking and is more responsive to players who asked for changes, with its latest update adding perhaps the most sought after change.

Following on from the matchmaking survey Embark put out in May, Arc Raiders has "implemented one of the most requested matchmaking features," according to the latest patch notes. "We now track your playstyle separately for Solo, Duo, and Trio rounds, and match you accordingly.

"Say you are a friendly solo player, but your two squadmates always want to dominate trios in PvP. Before, being friendly solo could push you into more cooperative trio rounds, and playing PvP-focused in a trio could push you into more PvP-focused solo rounds—so changing squad size meant matchmaking took a bit to adjust."

This has actually been an issue I've encountered. My friends are split down the middle with different playstyles, with some being cooperative and others bloodthirsty killers. That's always meant that we've rarely played together as everyone likes keeping their solo lobbies just the way they are, and can't be arsed with having to retrain the matchmaking after briefly switching styles.

"Now there's no overlap," the patch notes explain. "You'll be able to go from friendly questing and plant-picking in Solo rounds to adrenaline-fueled PvP trio games (if that's how you usually play in those respective cases), by simply changing your squad size. The same holds for Duo—all three are tracked on their own."

I absolutely love this from Embark and is yet another example of how the devs have been slowly and consciously improving the quality of Arc Raiders, especially since the initial hype died down. It's so good, in fact, that I really wish we'd gotten this change sooner, but it's better late than never. At least I've got a new reason to drag my friends back into Arc Raiders now.

You can tell Embark is still figuring out what to do with Arc Raiders expedition wipes, because they keep changing every season.

The studio announced this week that the fourth expedition is completely changing the main incentive for wiping from permanent extra skill points to a mixture of premium currency and blueprints.

Indeed, time has shown that players care more about blueprints than the opportunity to be a little bit quicker than the competition. In the new format, each completed departure objective guarantees you 150 Raider Tokens and one blueprint that will carry over through the wipe.

There are a total of five departure objectives, so you can rack up 750 Raider Tokens through grinding—equivalent to roughly $7 of premium currency. In case you're wondering, that's around half the price of a single standard store bundle in Arc Raiders. The blueprints earned are randomly pulled from a pool that includes some really valuable stuff:

• Heavy Gun Parts Blueprint
• Complex Gun Parts Blueprint
• Padded Stock Blueprint
• Extended Barrel III Blueprint
• Muzzle Brake III Blueprint
• Stable Stock III Blueprint
• Vertical Grip III Blueprint
• Venator Blueprint
• Rascal Blueprint
• Osprey Blueprint
• Trailblazer Blueprint
• Anvil Blueprint
• Bettina Blueprint
• Hullcracker Blueprint
• Tempest Blueprint
• Vulcano Blueprint
• Dolabra Blueprint
• Aphelion Blueprint
• Combat Augment Mk 3 Flanking Blueprint
• Tactical Augment Mk 3 Defensive Blueprint
• Looting Augment Mk 3 Safekeeper Blueprint
• Looting Augment Mk 3 Survivor Blueprint
• Wolfpack Blueprint
• Powered Descender Blueprint
• Snap Hook Blueprint

As Arc Raiders diehard Tim Clark pointed out to me, this is actually the second way Embark has enabled blueprints to make the trip through wipes. You can already purchase up to five expedition vault slots from Ermal that will preserve anything stored in them, so if you make full use of the challenges and vault, then you can get a headstart on the next wipe with 10 blueprints.

Sounds like a decent change for folks that have been keeping up with expeditions this whole time, but if you haven't already started on the first three, then this information isn't all that useful. Embark seems to know that this is a core problem with its unique wipe mechanic—because they have to be done in order and only once per season, if you haven't already been doing them you're less and less likely to ever engage with the option. To that end, it sounds like expeditions will undergo bigger changes in the future:

"We understand the frustration of new players that are only now starting to do their Expeditions. We need to find the right balance of rewarding our veteran players but also give new players fair and fun ways to catch up and not feel like they are always behind. This is a continuous effort and we'll keep you updated as we have more to share," the blog post reads.

The window for the fourth expedition opens on July 7th at 1pm CEST/11am UTC/4am PT and closes on July 21st at 10am CEST/8am UTC/1am PT.

I am nothing if not a coward and a rat. Not in the sense that I'd be lurking around any extracts in Arc Raiders waiting to jump someone—I could never do something so evil—but in the way that I like to scuttle around in the shadows, staying out of fights, and attacking arcs from odd angles so they can't hurt me back. Like I said: a coward and a rat.

But some people don't have to stoop to such levels, as you can see with one Arc Raiders player, rI1975, who recently took us through a masterclass on how to destroy a Bastion with no Deadline mine in just 16 seconds.

"Too often I see people with hullcrackers or anvils just spending multiple minutes fighting Bastions, wasting ammo and time," rI1975 adds. "It's much easier than you think."

I see your surgical take down of a Bastion and raise you my inherent fear of getting too close, missing a shot, and then getting squished? As other players pointed out in the comments this video makes it look way too easy.

One player manages to summarise my amazement: "You need to be wearing the doctor's outfit with this kind of surgical skin". While others just seem in awe of the accuracy and fearlessness of this player.

All it took to take the Bastion down in the end was three shots to its knee with a hullcracker, knocking it down, three shots to its core at the back to blow it open, and one brutal kill-shot into the internals of the Bastion itself. While it was a close call, from when the first shot hit it did indeed all only take 16 seconds to take it down.

Since Embark recently added the Nomadic Envoy, who only trades for big arc parts, learning how to quickly flatline Bastions is a useful skill, especially as they drop a tonne of cores, and so are one of the most efficient ways to grind valuable big arc parts.

I have certainly relied on Deadlines to take down bigger arcs since they were introduced, but the hullcracker is also a fantastic weapon that shouldn't be taken lightly, as the video above demonstrates. It was actually my favourite weapon from all the way back in the preview and has continued to be a stalwart in my stash ever since.

To PvP or to PvE? This is a question that's plagued Arc Raiders ever since its launch, with players split between their love for banding together and killing arcs, as opposed to their love for tearing each other limb from limb and taking the scrap to trade for more scrap—it's a tough choice.

Embark has hinted at Arc Raiders being a more friendly extraction shooter, with CEO Patrick Söderlund explaining that it's not about "shooting other players", even if they didn't expect such a passionate PvE crowd to emerge. Since then there's been a PvE-forward event which saw players band together against the machines, plus more information shared about the matchmaking that supposedly splits off the more aggressive players.

But one player has had enough. Forward_Problem_7550 took to Reddit with an idea for a 'Rival Gangs' PvP mode, and honestly, I like the sound of that: "Sick of hearing about PvE. Give the PvP players what we actually want."

The Rival Gangs idea would see players jump into a high difficulty map modifier which would provide them with increased loot value and less active return points and hatches. But the catch is raiders would need to be equipped with at least 30,000 raider coins worth of weapons: "Hostilles have been spotted in the area. Only well-equipped Raiders are getting clearance to head Topside."

The concept of turning PvP into a map modifier is a very appealing option to have, especially if you could go in, wreak havoc, and not have any of it damage your matchmaking standing. The idea that you'd need a minimum amount of gear would also be a sound idea, not just to give players more of an incentive to take out other raiders, but to ensure there's somewhat of a level playing field and that everyone has something to lose. Having a minimum loadout value entry requirement is something that Marathon has also toyed with for its Ranked mode and Cryo Archive map.

But this is all just the hopes and dreams of a fan. Even with all the good will, we likely won't be seeing the Rival Gangs map modifier in Arc Raiders. Although that's not to say something similar couldn't make an appearance later down the line—it's certainly within the realms of possibility.

Are PvE-only lobbies a thing in Arc Raiders? Will one measly kill mark me as a hostile player in future matches? These are questions Embark tackles head-on in a new matchmaking-focused blog post. This is by far the most the developer has spoken in detail about its unique aggression-based matchmaking system since we first learned about it, and it's a genuinely interesting read.

"We take multiple factors into account when forming a lobby. One of the strongest is your playstyle across previous rounds, especially as it relates to how you engage with other Raiders," the post reads. "It's important to understand that playstyles aren't binary. This isn't 'friendly' vs. 'shoot on sight.' It's a continuous scale."

Embark says that while some players are always friendly and others are bloodthirsty maniacs, "most raiders fall somewhere in between—maybe friendly until threatened, maybe opportunistic, maybe cautious, maybe unpredictable on a bad day."

What Embark wants to make exceedingly clear is that Arc Raiders' matchmaking does not exclusively match you with those who play exactly the same. "Our system tries to place you with players who sit closer to you on that scale, while still keeping Topside from becoming completely predictable."

To communicate that point, Embark included an illustration of the range of playstyles you're likely to encounter based on your behavior. The graph, which does not represent "real matchmaking telemetry," shows that you're most likely to play with players in adjacent ranges of aggression—as in those who are slightly less or slightly more PvP-hungry than you are. With my extremely small kill count, that explains why the majority of my matches have no PvP at all. But if you're in that middle majority, spicy lobbies are a lot more common.

Embark has recently made two changes to its behavioural judgments based on feedback:

1. Defending yourself is no longer treated the same as starting a fight. Previously, your playstyle didn't capture whether you started a PvP encounter or merely defended yourself. This meant cautious Raiders could be treated as more PvP-focused than they actually are. Now, the two are treated differently.
2. Low-activity rounds carry less weight in your playstyle history. Rounds with little Topside interaction—like spawning and surrendering—used to impact player's estimated playstyle more than expected. Reducing their weight helps the system reflect how you genuinely play when you're out there making choices.

The studio also took this opportunity to clear up common misconceptions about how matchmaking works in Arc Raiders:

• There are not only two kinds of lobbies—friendly and aggressive. It's a scale, not two buckets. Most players land somewhere between the extremes, and matchmaking is more likely to pair you with Raiders whose playstyle is similar to yours on that scale—without guaranteeing a specific outcome every round.
• One shot or kill does not immediately put you in "PvP-focused" lobbies. Matchmaking isn't meant to overreact to single moments - it looks at patterns over time, and changes tend to be gradual rather than instant.
• There are no "PvE-only" lobbies/servers where other Raiders will never attack you. Topside always carries risk. You may trend toward meeting Raiders with similar preferences, but there's no guarantee you'll never be attacked by another Raider.
• Your end-of-round feedback does not affect matchmaking. The survey is valuable for us when we look at trends and make design decisions, but it isn't used as a "next lobby" lever.
• Your loadout does not affect matchmaking. Matchmaking isn't driven by your kit, and we don't scale lobby difficulty based on how much your loadout costs.
• Patches and updates don't reset your matchmaking profile. Your playstyle history carries over across patches. You may notice slightly rougher matches in the first few minutes after an update—that's just because the pool is small while players are still updating - but it recovers quickly as more Raiders come online.
• Looting knocked-out players doesn't affect your matchmaking. Matchmaking looks at how you engage with other Raiders, not what you do with their gear afterward.
• We don't matchmake based only on the squad leader. Each member influences the squad profile - the leader has no special weight compared to their squadmates.
• Turning crossplay on or off does not impact the level of cooperation/PvP in the round. Changing crossplay changes who's in the matchmaking pool (and thanks to that, the matchmaking time), but it doesn't guarantee the tone of your encounters.

Good to know, though I doubt this reassurance will totally squash the superstition around Arc Raiders' invisible social machinations. Guides lead Sean Martin singled out the "One shot or kill does not immediately put you in a 'PvP-focused' lobby" claim in our work chat:

"I don't believe them lol. I literally killed like two people defending myself over the weekend and my next match was hell."

I think we've all had days like that.

Arc Raiders' has had somewhat of a long struggle with cheaters. It's plagued the extraction shooter pretty much from day one, with the few players who are guilty of it ruining the game for the masses as they'd use wallhacks or extra-sensory perception to ruthlessly hunt down other players.

Over the months since Arc Raiders' launch, Embark have attempted to combat cheaters by targeting Steam family sharing, dishing out strict consequences for those caught in the act, and systematically dolling out ban waves. Embark even recently published a short blog post on the subject, announcing that the studio is still taking the fight to cheaters with their kernel-level anticheat and are looking at more ways to eliminate this behaviour from the game. Which leads us to Denuvo.

Part of the latest Arc Raiders patch notes which introduced the new weapon, durability buffs, and a trader from Topside, also included a segment about Denuvo anti-cheat: "As mentioned in our Ensuring Fair Play article, we want to continue improving our anti-cheat solutions and more accurately detect foul play across the Rust Belt. Following a positive rollout in The Finals, Denuvo anti-cheat will also come to Arc Raiders starting May 19th, initially to a limited player pool, with plans to expand after close monitoring."

It's not uncommon for the mention of Denuvo to ruffle feathers. This anti-cheat is renowned for claims of it plaguing games with performance nerfs and stutters alongside it having ample access to your PC as it's a kernel-level anti-cheat. Embark has addressed some of these concerns, however, as it promises: "We will not be using Denuvo's Digital Rights Management (DRM) service, and are working to ensure minimal impact on performance."

It doesn't seem to be much of an issue anyway though, as most Arc Raiders players seem more concerned about riding their lobbies of cheaters and who will be the first hit with this new anti-cheat rather than concerns about the anti-cheat itself: "If this actually nukes ESP/ wallhack users the game might genuinely recover."

Theories of who exactly the "limited player pool" will encapsulate are floating around with some debating whether it could be distributed by region or PvP lobbies. The consensus so far seems to be that PvP lobbies are where anti-cheat is needed the most, because players using cheats against other players is far worse than using cheats to kill Arcs quicker.

"PvP lobbies are where the majority of cheaters will end up anyways," one player says. "There are still cheaters in PvE lobbies, but none of us PvE players care if they have aimbot or can see our inventory or position anyways, as long as they don't kill us."

Hopefully, this next step in Embark's journey towards fairer play will deliver visible results for players who are tired of being hunted for sport by cheaters. But it doesn't sound as if Embark is dusting its hands of the situation, more so that this is just another step on the road to recovery: "With Denuvo anti-cheat and Anybrain, we are working to strengthen Arc Raiders' systems even further. Keep sending us reports of any information that you believe might help us to do so, it's highly appreciated."

The first Arc Raiders patch since Embark shook up its update schedule has arrived. Major updates are only coming twice a year, but regular balancing changes continue unabated. That's what we have in patch 1.29.0: Embark is targeting a handful of bugbears while also introducing a new anti-ARC grenade launcher.

Perhaps the biggest change for active players is a partial reversion of weapon durability. Speranza weaponry isn't holding up like it used to. The idea was to force players to use more resources to keep their gear true, but the overwhelming response is that's actually annoying. Embark acknowledged in the patch notes that the lowered durability of some guns was "too much," and so it's toughening up some of the most common guns in the game.

Specifically, the Ferro, Anvil, Canto, Osprey, Renegade, Torrente, Bettina, and Jupiter can be shot more before they break. The percentage increase is different for each gun, ranging from 18% to 54%. The biggest durability boost by far goes to the Renegade, going from 175 to 269 shots. All of the numbers below assume a tier 1 weapon.

Embark classified these as the "worst offenders," but also said it will "monitor for any pain points that come up around durability in the coming weeks, and continue to adjust accordingly."

Then there's the Rascal, a new pocket-sized grenade launcher that functions as a lower-tier option for anti-Arc offense. Embark's official description:

"Lightweight, compact, and easy to carry, this unconventional launcher packs a punch despite its… quirks. While it’s slower to reload, and a bit unpredictable on the aim, the Rascal shines as a reliable side-arm for those who want anti-ARC firepower without the risk of lugging around a Hullcracker."

Patch 1.29.0 is also packing quality-of-life stuff, like the ability to view your teammates' info after an unsuccessful match, as well as the Nomadic Envoy, a new trader with Elie covered in detail today.