Embark Expedition Changes Will Frustrate Arc Raiders Players

Developer Embark Studios has once again announced tweaks to the Arc Raiders The expedition window, and players who have spent months saving up millions of credits feel abandoned.

The developer behind the ongoing extraction shooter has published a long list of changes for its prestige feature, which allows players to restart bonuses depending on their performance, in a blog post on its website today. Instead of needing the last-season switch of 3 million credits worth of stash value for the maximum amount of bonus skill points, Embark has removed the credit limit for the third Expedition and now rewards points based on damage dealt.

The studio said it made these changes because “grinding for money isn’t the most exciting experience,” a point many fans agree with. The catch is that players now have a five-day window from April 28 to May 4 at midnight to join and complete the challenge if they want to get all five available skill points. While those using the catch-up mechanic to gain skill points from previous Expeditions will still receive them through the stash value, those in the third window who have spent their time collecting resources since the last Expedition that ended on March 1 may not have been able to collect at all.

“Above all, we want expeditions to be fun and not an endless grind,” Embark continued. “We believe these changes create a fair and engaging challenge that keeps everyone active throughout the 5 days.”

It’s the fact that such a big change came without warning that most players fired up. Adding insult to injury is the lack of clarity on how much damage is required to reach the score of five skills, leaving players to wonder if they’ll be able to get all five – or any of them – in time.

“It’s good that every time an expedition comes, they wait until the last possible second to let people know what to expect and what has changed,” one Reddit user said. commented.

“My friends and I happen to be on vacation for a 4 out of 5 day window,” another said SAYS. “Are we cooking yet?”

The fear that players will not have the free time to dedicate to Arc Raiders during the window seems to be the prevailing concern of the community, but others have suggestions for how to correct the situation. Some players who like the idea of ​​damage instead of stash value say they’d be open to the change if Embark announced it for Expedition four instead of Expedition three.

“I really don’t understand why they can’t do the same as the last expedition for this, and then in the next expedition it tracks the damage the whole time to get the skill points,” one person proposed. “It looks like they wanted to remove the 3 mil requirement, but decided it was too late and now put in this half-ass 5-day requirement.”

This idea seems like it could be strong but changing part of the expedition before it starts doesn’t really make sense?

It’s also weird not knowing how much damage you’ll need to dish out. Will that be announced before the expedition ends?

Good idea, bad execution https://t.co/MS41HUobfm

— EmbarkBulletin (@EmbarkBulletin) April 17, 2026

“I accumulated 3 million credits throughout the season to ‘cool’ the last round of the expedition. It’s worthless now because of the lack of communication,” another player. added. “I like the new change but it needs to be implemented at the BEGINNING of the season… People have lives, are on vacation, or have important things scheduled… like wtf, Embark. A 5 day window doesn’t make sense.”

Arc Raiders is facing a critical point in its post-launch rollout as players wait for the Riven Tides update. Set to go live later this month, the content drop is expected to be the biggest yet, with a roadmap shared earlier this year says it will include the first new map in months. Embark has yet to comment on how it will respond to those disappointed by the new Expedition changes.

We gave Arc Raiders a 9/10 review when it launched in October 2025. New updates added new enemies and map conditionsas well as balance changes for some of the most powerful weapons taking over the PvP scene. For more, you can onward to the BAFTA Game Awards 2026where Embark manages to win for multiplayer. You can also check our interview with CEO Patrick Söderlund.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He is known for his work on sites such as The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).