Embark Studios has been coming under fire for its recent events schedule for ARC Raiders, with many players complaining that they haven’t been able to try out the new Bird City map condition for Buried City since they also have other real-world obligations. As if things couldn’t get worse, the map conditions schedule also saw issues resulting in it being completely cleared. However, these issues have since been resolved. As an added bonus, the frequency of the Bird City map condition is getting raised.
As caught by PCGamer, Embark Studios community manager Ossen took to the extraction shooter’s official Discord server to talk about the map conditions schedule, and the plans going forward.
“Last night, there was an issue with the map conditions schedule,” wrote Ossen. “We just pushed an update enabling this week’s schedule while also increasing the frequency of Bird City. No download required, but please restart your game to update. We will keep revising and try to find a schedule for all conditions so that all time zones get a chance to play.”
The new schedule still conflicts with the timings of players living in time zones where they would be at work or busy with other obligations. However, the frequency has definitely been raised since then, and it should be easier for players to hop into the new map condition.
Bird City was introduced in the most recent major update for ARC Raiders, which also introduced Embark Studios’ new approach to dealing with cheaters and repeat offenders. The new system involves a 3-strike approach, banning players for their first offense for 30 days. Subsequent offenses result in a 60-day ban, and a permanent ban respectively.
As for the map condition, it revolves around flocks of birds flying into Buried City and building new nests in empty chimneys. Players can subsequently scavenge these nests to obtain more loot. Bird City also brings more bird traps and ziplines throughout the map.
The update also brought with it a brand new challenge for ARC Raiders players who prefer raiding solo and have hit level 40 or beyond. These players now have a new Solo vs Squad matchmaking option, which pits them against squads of players. Opting into this matchmaking option gives players additional rewards like a 20 percent XP bonus, regardless if they are able to successfully extract or not.
Embark Studios had revealed its content plans for ARC Raiders last month, which go on all the way until April. Throughout the first four months of 2026, the extraction shooter will get new content like map conditions, player projects, ARC threats, map updates, new maps altogether, and a large ARC. March’s update, dubbed Flashpoint, will also bring with it changes to your faithful rooster Scrappy.
Design lead VirgiL Watkins had previously spoken about making more content for ARC Raiders, noting that the studio has plans to release “multiple maps” throughout the year. “I think it’s going to be across a spectrum of size to try to facilitate different types of gameplay. So you might see some that are smaller, and you might see some that are even grander than what we’ve got now,” he said.
ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
