ARC Raiders 2.0 forces teams to board a massive flying frigate

Pendola Pass is a snowy Italian mountain village and transport hub in the northern part of Rust Belt Ridge. Its main landmarks are a supermarket, an observatory, the town square and a buried train depot. In the story, the companion character Celeste picks up odd warning signals from the region and sends Raiders to investigate.

Some streets feel familiar, with the abandoned villages and industrial sites of earlier maps. Then you round a corner and see the Emperor, a colossal ARC walker lying dead across the mountainside, so big that nearby buildings look like toys. Rare technology is hidden inside the wreck, but getting in requires progression that early players hadn’t finished yet, so it’s a long-term goal rather than a first-night stop.

The Frigate is one of ARC’s largest ships, sent in after the Emperor fell, and it appears as a new map condition alongside another one called Redirection. You hear it before you see it: a deep mechanical roar, then clouds parting around its engines.

Getting on board is simple in theory. Circular platforms called Reclaimers shuttle between the ground and the ship, with a protective shield around you as you rise. In practice, the Frigate bombs the approach, and missiles hit the ground while you run for the platform. Once inside, teams work through passageways and a puzzle while ARC machines keep up the pressure.

The encounter is designed to make Raiders either cooperate or turn on each other hundreds of feet up. In early sessions, whole lobbies called a truce and moved together, and many players still went down because they arrived underprepared. The catch is the ride itself: the first squad aboard holds the high ground over everyone following, so a hostile team can turn the landing zone into a trap. Bring healing, bring a plan and expect betrayal.

Three new machines join the fight:

• Bully: an aggressive hunter that soaks up bullets, spots you from far away and checks out nearby gunfire. Its cannon hits like a shotgun, and if it can’t see you it lobs grenades over cover.
• Skulker: a smaller enemy that hangs around the edges of a fight and keeps you nervous.
• Hydra: the third new ARC type, listed in the patch notes.

Two new weapons arrive, the Stiletto and the Bantam, along with Amplified Weapons. The gadget list is long: a Grappling Hook and Tether Launcher for climbing, a Yank Grenade, basic and advanced Cameras, a Mountaineer’s Detector, and, for morale, a Harmonica and a Banjo.

The biggest system change is the Reward Pass, which replaces Raider Decks. Cred is gone, swapped for Reward Points that go automatically toward whichever pass is active. The first one, the Frozen Trail Pass, has 60 levels split across a Free and a Premium track. Your old Raider Decks now live in a Legacy Pass, with earned rewards kept, and you can switch back to it any time. Only one pass can be active at once.

Feats now come in three tiers. Easy ones give 15 Reward Points, Medium ones 25 and Hard ones 50, and each also counts toward three weekly milestones worth 250 points apiece.

The skill tree was rebuilt because the developer felt it wasn’t offering interesting builds. The middle of each branch is now a single choice between two skills, and the end of each branch lets you pick two of three, once you’ve invested enough points. More tweaks are promised as the team watches how people use it.

There’s more for base builders too. A new Outpost unlocks through a project quest (bring your Camera) and opens a Research Bench, while 100 furniture designs can be learned and crafted. The update also adds 22 quests, 14 cosmetic Weapon Stencils (which you lose with the gun if you’re downed), two more stash levels for a maximum of 328 slots, a reworked map selection screen and a new default gamepad layout.

If you dip in once or twice a week, the Reward Pass is the change you’ll feel most. Feats and weekly milestones now feed one track, so short sessions still move you forward. Pendola Pass gives you a fresh map to learn with friends, and the Frigate is the place to go when you want a big, chaotic fight with an uncertain ending.

A practical tip: don’t rush the Frigate on your first night. Learn the Bully’s habits on the ground, collect a grappling hook and healing items, and ride up with a full squad. Weekly milestones reset each week, so spread your Feats out rather than burning through them in one sitting.