ARC Raiders recently announced a change to how you earn the +5 skill points for expedition departure. Instead of the previous model—where your stash value (coins + items) needed to exceed 5 million—it’s now tied to completing a challenge.
Putting aside the frustration of this being announced late in the current expedition, effectively invalidating weeks of progress for players chasing that 5 million stash value, I have a more immediate issue: what am I supposed to do with my time between now and April 28th, when the challenge window actually opens?
Before this change, I was enjoying the loop of heading topside and extracting with whatever value I could pull from a run. Sometimes that meant grabbing a few quick items for coin; other times it meant filling my inventory from a key room. Either way, everything had value. It all converted to coins—whether sold directly or held in my stash—and coins gave me a clear, consistent way to measure progress during an expedition window.
Now that coins no longer factor into expedition departure, I’m sitting on millions of coins and stash value with very little incentive to keep building. Completing quests or challenges right now doesn’t make much sense when I know I’m about to voluntarily wipe my character in the next expedition. Previously, those rewards still contributed to stash value. Now, it’s just stuff that disappears.
That’s the core problem: everything I do right now is effectively meaningless in the context of the upcoming reset. Yes, the wipe is optional, and I could choose not to reset and continue building up my stockpile to take down ARC and other players. But the resets are part of what makes the game feel fresh. Starting over, rebuilding, and chasing progression again—that’s a big part of the appeal.
We do at least know what the upcoming challenge will be: dealing damage within a two-week window. The requirement is 100k damage to earn the full +5 skill points. That might sound like a lot, but in practice it’s something most active players will likely complete without much trouble. Personally, I already have a stockpile of weapons, ammo, and grenades, and my inventory is basically capped with everything I’d want. There’s nothing I really need to prepare.
I don’t dislike the idea of a challenge-based system. My main issue is the timing and structure. Players spent weeks working toward one goal, only to have it swapped out at the finish line. On top of that, the new system isn’t something I can progress at my own pace—it’s time-gated. That’s a big shift from the previous model. I also don’t love moving away from a universal standard like coins and stash value, where virtually everything you did in a raid contributed toward your goal.
In reality, I’m still playing because I enjoy the game—but my behavior has already changed. I’m much more likely to skip picking up loot or save my keys for specific events like night raids. Why bother chasing higher-value loot anymore? For basic supplies like ammo and shield rechargers, I’m just buying them from traders instead of crafting—what else am I going to do with 3+ million coins?
I’ve also stopped doing as many “naked runs,” which used to be one of my favorite activities. There was something satisfying about going in with nothing, building up a full inventory, and extracting successfully. But that loop only felt rewarding because everything ultimately converted into coins and stash value. Now, those runs feel mostly pointless unless I’m targeting something specific, like a blueprint.
The community reaction has been mixed—if not outright negative—since the announcement. Most of the feedback mirrors my own: frustration with the goal being changed late and the addition of a time-limited requirement. Initially, the challenge window was going to be just five days, which has since been extended to two weeks. There will also be catch-up skill points available after departure, allowing players to earn coins and purchase missed skill points, which at least gives coins some relevance again.
Ultimately, what I want from Embark is consistency. Set the expedition model, define the requirements at the start, and stick to them for the duration. If changes need to happen, roll them into the next expedition—not the current one. Ideally, every play session should feel like it’s contributing toward that goal, rather than falling into the trap of time-limited events that sideline player effort.
At least they finally updated the stash screen and expedition screen to show your total stash value just in time for it not to matter :)
Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.
