Overview
- Embark Studios, which announced the shift Wednesday, will now ship two major ARC Raiders updates a year with the next large drop, Frozen Trail, slated for October.
- Frozen Trail is billed as the biggest post‑launch release with the game's largest map, a new ARC operation, revamped progression and skill tree, added weapons and items, and new story on the ARC threat.
- Regular live patches continue, and a quality‑of‑life update next week adds a late‑game Trader, lets players buy more stash space, and allows up to five items or blueprints to carry between Expeditions, the multi‑run mode that usually resets your gear.
- The studio says the change creates time for deeper work on core systems including progression balance, the in‑game economy, fair play, and stronger anti‑cheat, with reports pointing to a planned kernel‑level solution.
- Player response has been sharply negative, and Embark says it is investigating Expedition reward bugs that leave raiders without promised skill points.