ARC Raiders Devs Rethink Key Feature After Unsatisfying Debut

ARC Raiders players are feeling unsatisfied following a key feature implementation, now under review by its developers.

The year 2025 was a fantastic year for major AAA video game releases, with the likes of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Silent Hill f, and Ghost of Yōtei, to name a few. However, there were also plenty of surprise hits.

Leading the charge of the 2025 surprises were Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, ARC Raiders and Hollow Knight: Silksong. I know, we all knew that the Hollow Knight sequel was going to be great, but it was seemingly lost in limbo for so long that some feared it might not be released in 2025. So in that respect, it was a nice surprise.

For today’s topic of discussion, it’s all about the third-person extraction shooter from Embark Studios, ARC Raiders. The premise of ARC Raiders is simple. Explore a map, grab as much loot as possible and escape with that loot.

Simple enough. Yet, there is a major spanner in the works, and that’s other online players. Those other ARC Raiders players all want to take that precious loot from you.

If you have loot they want, the likely scenario is that they’ll shoot on sight and take everything from you. I’m sure, if it were possible, they’d steal so much of your loot, they’d happily pinch you tiny Y-Front pants, leaving you butt naked in the mud.

The aggression of other players is why, if possible, it’s wise to play ARC Raiders with at least one friend, so that you can watch each other’s backs and keep your proverbial Y-Fronts intact. If you do survive a game with all the loot, you’ll not only have snazzy new gear, but your character will earn plenty of new unlockables.

One of the key features of ARC Raiders is ‘Expeditions.’ Essentially, this encourages players to wipe their characters, to restart with minor permanent buffs. In a way, kind of like the ‘Prestige’ rank in the Call of Duty series.

Expeditions is not a permanent feature of ARC Raiders but rather something that occurs on certain occasions. The Expedition that is taking place right now began on 18 December 2025 and ends on 18 February 2026. Then, it will begin a new one on 22 February.

Much like the ‘Prestige’ rank in Call of Duty, wiping your character clean in ARC Raiders is optional, and players are incentivised to do that. However, many players were left feeling disappointed with the rewards.

During an interview with PCGamesN, ARC Raiders’ design director, Virgil Watkins, has suggested that clearer clarification should have been communicated to players or at least, provided the important information much sooner.

Embark Studios Is Considering Better Incentives

Around 35% to 40% of players are said to have received full skills points following the reset, but many players received much less. The reason being, is that it may not have been made clear that to receive the full skill points, players needed to have reached the final stage of the game.

Watkins also said that the developers at Embark Studios are looking at new ways to incentivise players to wipe by offering “more variety” with its rewards.

“We completely acknowledge that it isn’t the most engaging thing to just go for money, [and it has] the potential outcome of disincentivising using your gear, which is kind of what people look forward to towards the end of a reset cycle,” explained Watkins. “So yeah, we’re looking at revisions on that.”

I guess we’ll just have to wait to see whether wiping characters will be worth it when the next Expeditions phase arrives. ARC Raiders is out now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.