Embark Studios has announced that the newest Expedition hitting ARC Raiders – starting on April 28th – will kick off with the release of the Riven Tides update. While players will still get to earn more skill points through the Expedition, rather than focusing on stash value to reward players, this time around, the rewards will be based on the damage done by players.
The studio discussed this change in its blog post, where it noted that “monetary value isn’t the most exciting experience.” It went on to state, “By introducing damage-based objectives and trials instead of stash value, we’re providing more freedom and variety in how you can complete the Expedition, encouraging the use of loot rather than hoarding it throughout the Expedition Window.”
Rewards for the Expedition are split into three distinct tiers, with the first one featuring the Patchwork Outfit, an Expedition indicator icon, the Janitor Cap cosmetic for Scrappy, 12 stash spaces, and between 0 and 5 skill points as permanent rewards. Departing on your second Expedition will earn you evolved versions of the outfit and icon, along with the Beanie cosmetic for scrappy, 12 more stash spaces, 0-5 skill points, and the chance to catch up on missed skill points.
The third Expedition will get you further evolutions for the outfit and the icon, the Turban cosmetic for Scrappy, 12 stash spaces (totalling up to 36), 0-5 skill points, and another chance to catch up on missed skill points.
“Finishing the third Expedition will unlock the entire Patchwork outfit, and the fourth Expedition will introduce the first step of a brand new one,” explains Embark Studios. “Looking ahead, we will continue gathering data and feedback to make adjustments and improvements to future expeditions. We hear you on rewards, and we are committed to making them more meaningful and reflective of what players actually achieve. We also understand that losing full progression is a concern for many, and we will be iterating on what gets reset and what carries over into future expeditions.”
Design director Virgil Watkins went into more detail about this change, as well as the skill tree as a whole, in an interview with Game Maker’s Notebook. He referred to the skill tree as “a tough problem space for us, and I don’t think by any means we nailed it.”
“There are definitely skills in there that are under-serving their purpose,” he continued. “Whenever possible, I don’t love things that are like small statistical changes, but they do serve a purpose. As opposed to like, ‘Oh, I have a whole new ability now, or I can do this thing now that I couldn’t do before.'”
Whether this means that Embark Studios is going to bring in some radical changes to the skill tree in ARC Raiders remains to be seen. However, the fact that Watkins has acknowledged it as being a relatively dull tree does inspire hope that we might eventually see skills that do more than just provide small stat boosts.
ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
