‘Arc Raiders’ Next Major Update Is Being Overshadowed By Something Much Bigger
by Sage Ashford
Arc Raiders is just a week away from releasing their next big update for the year, The Frozen Trail. After being the runaway success no one expected in 2025, it’s been an interesting 2026. As fans began asking them to fix many of their biggest problems with the game, Embark Studios instead chose to go an entirely different direction. They chose to do two major updates per year. It’s an announcement that didn’t exactly go over well, but now we’re just a few days from Frozen Trail, and fans are still excited.
The update brings a new map in Pendola Pass, a large new area that takes place at the site of a downed ARC Emperor. There, players will have to know when to find shelter to avoid Flash Freeze storms, while also finding their way around the map’s frozen doors.
At the same time, players will finally get their own Raider Den settlement, where they’ll be able to customize their workbenches further, adding furniture and other trinkets. Interestingly, it’s not walkable yet. They’ve also added four new enemies, new questlines and weapons, and a completely modified skill tree, in addition to all new equipment to travel around with.
It’s a sizable new update, but it all immediately became second place to a recent new announcement: from October 13th-20th, Embark will beta-test a PvE toggle for players. Almost since the game began, people have been asking for such a mode, but originally they said there were no plans. Now, barely a year into the game’s existence, Embark is testing it out, based on current player engagement metrics.
Reaction has been largely positive, as tons of players are interested in coming back to enjoy the game without the threat of being shot in the back by other humans. However, there has been a sizable portion of fans who’ve been pushing back against the idea of the toggle in many of Arc Raiders‘ fan communities. Some are concerned about the amount of easy loot players will be able to get in PvE mode, while others believe adding a PvE mode will ruin the delicate balance of the current game, pushing everyone interested in PvE into PvE mode and leaving PvEvP mode as an experience only PvP players want.
What’s particularly interesting, though, is everyone’s ignoring the fact that this is technically just a one-week beta. And that’s likely because everyone’s already accepted the fact that this is likely going to be more than successful enough to warrant Embark Studios making the mode permanent.
I bought Arc Raiders back in January, and spent around 30 hours playing it for the month. I never had much interest in PvP, which meant I had to play into the game’s aggression-based matchmaking system and avoid conflict when possible. But, ultimately, the game doesn’t feel like it’s designed for that sort of play, and it always felt weird walking by some players who’d offer advice, while others shot me in the back as I was ordering extraction or just trying to grab some garbage loot on the outskirts of the city.
I’m sympathetic to the PvP fans, and I do think they should make some changes to make it work if the PvE toggle becomes permanent. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. This was a change that felt inevitable from day one: nearly every older extraction game has eventually had a PvE mode, largely because it’s an easy way to get in players who like the gameplay loop but don’t want to face other players. With Arc Raiders likely looking to last for several more years, this is almost certainly the quickest way to bring back old players and new ones alike.
