The cold is no more, at least in Arc Raiders—it's rainy and cold as all hell here. The frost melting means that Arc Raiders' first major community event, the Cold Snap, has finally come to a close as the latest patch notes come into effect.
"The snow begins to thaw—tomorrow (today, rip), Speranza gets a little warmer as the Cold Snap event comes to an end," community manager Ossen says in the official Discord. "This is your last call to complete the Flickering Flames project, and earn the Hi-Tech Hiker outfit and Space Wrench Raider Tool.
If you hadn't logged in since before the Cold Snap event began, sadly, it'll be too late now. But this isn't the first time Embark has handed out some nice loot to players free of charge. There's currently a golden pickaxe up for grabs alongside 1,000 raider tokens as part of the Cold Snap event. The devs also handed out raider tokens before when servers experienced a "wobble", and some players were unable to log on for a weekend. So chances are there'll be plenty of other opportunities to cash in some free loot from Embark.
Alongside the free raider tokens, Embark also released some official art to commemorate Cold Snap, so at the very least, we'll have something to remember this chilly mode by:
I can't say I'll miss the Cold Snap too much—I'd grown slightly weary of the tick damage blinding white snow, but had fun for a while, especially since, as a map event, it did count as a source for extra loot. But it's gone, so now I am greedily looking forward to the next event Embark has planned for Arc Raiders: it's swamp time.
This is somewhat of a presumption, but a couple of players have found a toxic swamp event lined up for next week's trial: "Toxic Swamp confirmed for next week! You can see it yourself. Put your date on 19.01.2026. You will notice trials next week. One of them is 'Toxic Swamp'. So it's not a new map, but rather a new condition!" It sounds like it could be pretty fun, but I have my hopes set on something bigger.
Toxic Swamp confirmed for next week! You can see it yourself. Put your date on 19.01.2026. you will notice next week trials. One of them is "Toxic Swamp". So it's not a new map, but rather a new condition! from r/ARC_Raiders
My Arc Raiders 2026 wishlist is practically one big pipe dream, but another event like the Cold Snap is included as something I'd love to see in the upcoming year. Instead of it being snowy, though, it'd be cool to go the other way with it and perhaps include a heatwave event, although that may be best placed for later in the year.
A scorched map isn't entirely out of the question either, as players have been looking at Arc Raiders' map and wondering what the devs will do with what seems to be a volcano in the bottom left corner for a while now. This isn't to say it's a definite plan, but the possibility is certainly there, and it's something I'd love to see.
The map modifiers of limited-time events are what spice Arc Raiders up enough to encourage me, and I'm sure many others, to hop back in for more matches despite having enough loot to last a lifetime.
Plus, like any good adrenaline junky, I'm always looking for the next impossible task in Arc Raiders. That's currently taking down the Matriarch with just my group of friends. But in a few months, it could well be trying to extract out of a match while a volcano is erupting, that would certainly be a sight to behold.
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