The Week ARC Raiders Came Back

Ten days ago ARC Raiders was a game people had quietly stopped logging into. Then Frozen Trail launched on October 8, and the Steam numbers went from a September peak of roughly 39,900 to 185,443 concurrent players — the strongest showing since early spring, and a seven-month high. A free weekend and a 50% discount across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S did part of that work. Update 2.0 did the rest.

The surge has already cooled — by October 12 the peak had settled to 152,547, and the PvE beta that opened on October 13 nudged it back to 164,228. That is the shape of the story right now: a game that got one very good week and now has to prove it can hold the room. Embark's own framing has been honest about that.

Here is what actually changed, what the community is arguing about loudest, and what players are genuinely out looking for.

What Frozen Trail 2.0 Changed

Embark has stopped shipping monthly content and moved to two deep updates a year, so 2.0 is meant to carry the game for a while. It is the biggest drop since launch.

Two of those deserve a second look. The skill tree rebuild removed 13 skills and now forces real choices: midway through each branch you pick one of two skills, and at the end of a branch you can take up to two of three. Respecs cost 2,000 Coins per point, so a bad build is expensive to unwind.

And the Reward Pass replaced the old Cred currency with Reward Points that feed your active pass automatically — Cred is gone as of October 8. The premium track costs 1,150 Raider Tokens and returns 1,350 across both tracks if you finish it, and every gameplay item sits on the free track. Cosmetics only on the paid side, which is the rare battle pass structure that is hard to argue with.

Update 2.1.0 and the PvE Window

On October 12–13 Embark pushed Update 2.1.0, which did two things: it cleaned up a pile of known Frozen Trail issues, and it opened the PvE toggle beta test, running October 13–20.

The 2.1.0 fixes read like a list of things that were actively annoying people. Vaulting onto destroyed ARC parts could launch you or your debris into the air — now stable on Matriarch, Vaporizer, Hydra and Firefly remains. Footstep audio could go silent after repeated shoulder swapping (fixed). Field Repair sometimes refused to work after unlocking and needed a restart (fixed). Frigate cargo drops could knock you out unintentionally (adjusted). Loadout weight sometimes read differently in Speranza than in-round (fixed). ARC Frigate hatches now inflict burning damage over time when they open, which is a gameplay change dressed as a bug fix.

The Carrion Set also hit the store alongside 2.1.0. Embark has not published the set's contents or its price, so check the in-game store before spending Raider Tokens on it.

Hot Topic #1: The PvE Argument Is Not About PvE

The PvE toggle disables player-on-player damage. The ARC is still hostile, loot is still the objective, extraction is still the goal — but nobody can shoot you for your backpack. What players discovered in the first days is that removing gunfire changes far more than the danger level.

The case against it came first, and it was sharper than expected

Players who expected to enjoy a calmer mode described it instead as "enter, loot, bye" — a shop simulator with no conversations and no negotiation. One called it "bland, soulless," and argued that the paranoia of the normal mode is the product: the uneasy pause when two armed strangers cross paths, the decision to lower your weapon, the mercy you extend because both of you know the alternative. Remove the possibility of violence and those moments lose their edge. Streamer Loochy put the structural version plainly — PvE "got kind of boring after a few rounds," because ARC Raiders does not currently have an endgame strong enough to sustain PvE on its own.

The griefing reports matter more than the aesthetic complaints

Without damage, other players still have bodies, and they have used them. The recurring reports: Raiders blocking doorways, ladders and exits to trap people inside — sometimes demanding loot before clearing the path. Bull Rush, a skill meant for shoving enemies, used to shove Raiders off ledges, away from containers, and off extraction points. "Loot goblins" camping locked rooms and Harvester events, waiting to take what someone else opened. Players refusing to revive a downed teammate while waiting beside the body. And a repeatedly flagged loot reduction in the PvE playlist — one player measured roughly a third of the normal loot options before switching the toggle back off.

The case for it is not small either

A survey of more than 1,100 player comments found support the author described as overwhelming, and the loudest voices were returning players. People who quit months ago came back specifically for a mode where they could finish abandoned quests, take down tougher ARC with friends, and explore maps without a stranger ending their run at the extract. Several said they would happily buy cosmetics if PvE stayed permanent. Steam data backs up the interest: the October 13 spike to 164,228 landed on the day the test opened.

Hot Topic #2: The Stash Squeeze

Ask Raiders what actually stops them playing and you will not hear about the PvE toggle. You will hear about stash space. The math is unforgiving: your stash opens at 64 slots and grows 24 per upgrade, and the full run to level 10 costs 675,000 Coins in total — a figure the community has been quoting at each other for months. Frozen Trail added two tiers on top of that, lifting the maximum to 328 slots before Expedition bonuses and Nomadic Envoy space. It is welcome, and it is also the difference between "I have room" and "I have room for one more run."

That pressure shapes how people play, because Coins come from exactly one kind of activity:

Selling items found Topside is the primary way of gaining Coins.

That is the whole loop. Every Coin in your stash came from hauling something out of a raid and selling it to a trader, cracking an ARC Courier, or cashing in valuables. Trinkets — jewellery and curiosities with no crafting use — are the best single source, which is why experienced Raiders never dump them casually.

The other half of the squeeze is that breaking items down is not one system. Recycling happens only in Speranza; in-raid you salvage instead, and salvaging yields fewer or lower-quality materials. A Ferro I recycled at home gives 2 Metal Parts and 1 Rubber Parts; the same rifle salvaged mid-raid gives 2 Metal Parts; sold outright it is worth 475 Coins, and a Ferro IV goes for 2,900. So the working rule the community has settled on:

• Sell anything you have no recipe, quest or project for.
• Recycle at home when you need specific materials — never in the field if you can avoid it.
• Salvage in a raid only to free a slot for something better. You are trading value for space on purpose.
• Check station costs before you sell machine parts. Workbench upgrades need specific ARC components, and the counts trip people up.

What Raiders Are Actually Chasing

Here is the part that surprises people coming from other extraction games: Coins do not circulate between players. There is no currency trade, no mailbox full of Coins, no market listing. You earn them by selling loot, and you spend them at traders and on stash upgrades. Which means when a player decides to skip a grind, what they go looking for is not currency — it is items, blueprints and the specific materials that gate progression.

FAQ

Three Things to Do This Week

1. Try the PvE toggle before October 20. Whether you love it or hate it, this is the window where your opinion actually feeds the decision.
2. Sort your stash with the sell / recycle / salvage split in mind. Sell what you have no recipe for, recycle in Speranza when you need specific materials, and salvage in-raid only to free a slot. Do not let 675,000 Coins of upgrade math go to waste on a stuffed locker.
3. Decide what you are chasing before you spend. Permanent capability — a blueprint, a station tier, a project material — is a different purchase than a single weapon, and it deserves a different budget.