Arc Raiders players blast new Expedition system that requires you to play on specific days and ignores the money you've saved: "F you if you can't play"

• Copy link
• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• Flipboard
• Email

Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful

Want to add more newsletters?

Join the club

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter

A newly announced revision to Arc Raiders' season-wiping Expedition system has sparked blowback from players, particularly those who worry they won't be available to play during the five-day challenge teed up by developer Embark Studios, or those frustrated that the resources they've saved all season no longer matter.

For the Expedition sign-up opening April 28 and closing May 4, Arc Raiders players will not need to purchase bonus skill points with money or stash value, but can instead earn them by completing a "deal damage" challenge in a five-day window. The shift from saving money to dealing damage seems to have been more positively received, but the way it's been announced and implemented has proven unpopular among many.

It's currently unclear just how much damage players will need to deal to get all five potential skill points. If the challenge ends up being easy to complete, this could all blow over quickly. But based on the grinds that Arc Raiders uses elsewhere, many players aren't optimistic. And frankly, it doesn't help that players still don't know the specifics of the challenge, even after Embark's reveal. Communication around Expeditions has been spotty since launch, and players have only grown more frustrated with each successive wipe.

Article continues below

The complaints are two-fold. Firstly, because this Expedition change was once again announced right at the end of the season with no heads-up from Embark, players are scrambling to react. This time, assuming players had understandably been saving up money for the value-based skill point system used for the past several months, they can also throw those efforts and resources away. Apart from the Expedition caravan supplies, all that gathering doesn't matter.

"I saved up 3 million credits throughout this entire season to 'chill' on the last phase of the expedition," one player laments on the Arc Raiders subreddit. "It’s practically worthless now because of the lack of communication."

Then there's the issue of FOMO, with many players very much fearing they'll miss out on this five-day challenge due to other obligations – work, vacation, family stuff, health, who knows. Life happens, or maybe you just won't want to play those days, so tying an essential endgame activity to a small five-day window risks excluding players who were perfectly capable of completing the Expedition caravan throughout the wipe.

"I’m okay with a time limit but 5 days is just too tight," one player replies on Reddit, "it should be 10 or even 15 days 5 is ridiculous".

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

"Your player base dwindles and you use FOMO to get it back LMAO," writes another player. "That's certainly the strategy of all time. And you won't even give me a precise amount of damage to aim for, so I have to stay online as long as possible during those 5 days?"

"F you if you can't play on these days I guess lol," reads a top reply to the main Arc Raiders subreddit post about the Expedition change.

"Yeah, let's make the skill points purely based on the last 5 days instead of what you did the 2 months before that," says another.

One prophet writes: "Sure hope the damage dealt required isn't too high, or there are gonna be a lot of upset people."

Embark has made a point about changing the Expedition system further based on player feedback, and yeah, I'd say it's got some feedback to sift through. It seems to me that announcing this change much sooner, or using the same system for this Expedition and implementing the damage challenge in the next, could've saved devs and players some headache.

Arc Raiders studio contacted by crime scientist "intrigued by how players are interacting," dev says only 30% of players focus on PvP: "It kind of blew the whole extraction shooter open."

CATEGORIES

Austin WoodSenior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

View More

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

Logout LATEST ARTICLES

1. 1This week's Prime Video top 10 shows (April 17–April 19)
2. 2Ghost of Yotei's wolf-petting scene was a Sucker Punch dev "on all fours, getting his head patted by" Atsu's actor
3. 3Arc Raiders makes huge Expedition changes, bonus skill points now free but earned by dealing damage
4. 4Enjoying Valve's paid "vacation in Hawaii," engineer jokes he's "in a dark room like a vampire"
5. 5Doom co-designer still has the real chainsaw that inspired the OG FPS's iconic weapon