Frozen Trail is here, and it's the biggest ARC Raiders update since launch. Update 2.0 went live on October 8, 2026 and takes Raiders beyond the Rust Belt for the first time, up into the frozen mountains of Pendola Pass.
It's a lot: a new map, a flying ARC warship you can board, three new enemies, two new guns, a fifth weapon tier, a home base, a rebuilt Skill Tree and a new progression system. Here's everything new, and what actually matters for your next raid.
- Released
- Oct 8, 2026
- Version
- Update 2.0
- New map
- Pendola Pass
- New quests
- 22
Frozen Trail at a Glance
- New map Pendola Pass
- New map conditions Frigate and Redirection
- New ARC Bully, Skulker and Hydra
- New weapons Stiletto and Bantam
- Amplified Weapons a fifth quality tier for 15 guns
- The Outpost a customizable base with a Research Workstation
- Skill Tree revamped
- New items Grappling Hook, Basic and Advanced Cameras, Tether Launcher, Yank Grenade, Mountaineer's Detector, Banjo and Harmonica
- Quests 22 new quests and quest XP
- Reward Pass replaces Raider Decks
- Weapon Stencils new
- Stash raised by two levels, up to 328 slots
New Map: Pendola Pass
Pendola Pass is a narrow, frozen valley beyond the mountains that ring the Rust Belt. You get there on the Ballistic Gondolas, and there's an old supermarket, a lifeless town square, an observatory and a buried train depot to scavenge.
The reason everyone's going, though, is that one of the Emperors has fallen there. Rare ARC technology sits inside the collapsed husk, and the ARC response is scrambled and dangerous. Add flash freezes cutting through the valley and it's the most hostile map in the game.
New Map Conditions: The Frigate and Redirection
The ARC Frigate is the headline. The ARC answered the fallen Emperor by sending one of their largest vessels to patrol the Rust Belt. You board it by riding a Reclaimer drone, fight through its decks, destroy its Power Cores and ride its cargo back down. It's one of only two sources of Amplification Modules. Our ARC Frigate guide covers the full run, and the Boarding the Frigate quest walkthrough covers Celeste's intro quest.
Redirection is the second new condition, and it rotates on Pendola Pass. Like the Frigate, Embark kept it out of the PvE toggle test, so expect a contested raid when it's active.
New ARC: Bully, Skulker and Hydra
Bully New ARC
A new machine-learned enemy that charges your position and keeps up the pressure with a set of lethal attacks. Use cover, time your response and hit your shots, because it's quick on its feet.
Skulker New ARC
The opposite of the Bully. It lies in wait at the edge of your vision, strikes with a flurry of blows, then retreats out of sight. Look away for a second and you'll feel it next time it shows up.
Hydra New ARC
A turret split into three stacked, independent sections, built to handle whole squads at once. It guards both the Frigate and the fallen Emperor. Spread out, split its attention and hit it hard when the opening comes.
Images: Embark Studios
New Weapons: Stiletto and Bantam
Stiletto Battle rifle
A light-ammo battle rifle and an early-game alternative to the Renegade. It's cheap to craft and accurate at range, but spamming the trigger costs you accuracy.
Bantam Revolver
A snub-nosed heavy-ammo revolver with a unique hip-fire capability. It takes over the uncommon hand cannon role, because the Anvil moved from Green to Blue rarity in this update. The Anvil Splitter also stopped being a mod and became an upgrade option for the Amplified Anvil.
Images: Embark Studios
Amplified Weapons and the Outpost
Celeste now offers Raiders exploring Pendola Pass a home away from home: the Outpost. You unlock it through a project (bring a camera, since the first step asks for a photo of a farmland house), expand it with modules and decorate it with furniture. Frozen Trail adds 100 Furniture Designs, most of them found Topside.
The Outpost's Research Workstation is the key to Amplified Weapons. Fully upgraded, it unlocks a fifth quality level for 15 guns, with a branching path of abilities that can change how a weapon behaves. Embark's examples include a fully automatic Burletta, a scoped Renegade and a Rattler with incendiary rounds and a 64-round magazine. You'll need Amplification Modules, which come from the Frigate and the fallen Emperor.
New Gadgets and Items
Grappling Hook Gadget
Climb to hard-to-reach spots, abseil off buildings and swing over gaps.
Tether Launcher Gadget
Wire two points together to root enemies in place, or tether a Raider to an ARC and watch them get dragged off.
Images: Embark Studios
- Yank Grenade Pulls a nearby target with violent force when it explodes. Great for slamming flying ARC into the ground or yanking Raiders out of cover.
- Cameras A working camera with zoom, aperture, focus and a selfie mode. Photos save to your Codex, and several older quests now ask for photos.
- Banjo and Harmonica Two new instruments for Topside jam sessions.
With the Grappling Hook in the game, the Snap Hook was repositioned as a burst-mobility tool. You can still chain a few uses at full power, just not back to back.
| Snap Hook | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Range | 20 m | 18 m |
| Durability per hook | 2% | 4% |
| Power cost | 50 | 60 |
Revamped Skill Tree
The Skill Tree got new skills, a new layout and more meaningful choices. The middle of each branch is now a binary choice between two skills, and the end of each branch offers three skills, of which you can take up to two once you've invested enough points. Some existing skills got buffs to fit: Fight or Flight gives about 25% more stamina per level, Stubborn Mule regenerates about 33% more stamina, and Back on Your Feet heals 40 instead of 30.
Reward Pass Replaces Raider Decks
Raider Decks evolved into the Reward Pass. The first one, the Frozen Trail Pass, has 60 levels across a Free and a Premium track. The Free track includes 200 Raider Tokens and five new outfits, and the Premium track includes 1,150 Raider Tokens and exclusive cosmetics.
Cred is gone, replaced by Reward Points that go toward whichever pass you have active. Your old Raider Decks live on in the free Legacy Pass with everything you already unlocked. Feats are now split into Easy, Medium and Hard, and three weekly milestones pay out 250 Reward Points each.
Weapon Stencils
Stencils let you reskin weapons with 14 patterns: eight found Topside, five in the Frozen Trail Premium Pass and one in the Collector Set DLC. They work like blueprints and use Stencil Parts found Topside. Remember that stenciled guns can still be looted off you when you go down.
Balance Changes Worth Knowing
- Explosives vs. ARC Explosive weapons like the Hullcracker now deal over 50% more damage to armor plates and around 30% less to fragile parts.
- Jupiter A double-damage bug was fixed. It's now stronger against armor and slightly weaker against weak spots.
- Heavy Shield Durability decay dropped from 0.20 to 0.15 and the movement penalty from 15% to 10%.
- Queen and Matriarch Higher-tier loot moved from the leg armor into the legs themselves.
- Riven Tides Overall loot value up by about 15%.
- Solo vs. Squads Removed from matchmaking while Embark re-evaluates it.
- Traders Tian Wen no longer sells the Anvil or Hullcracker, which now rotate through the weekly Nomadic Envoys. Launcher Ammo and Energy Clips have a daily purchase limit.
- Movement New scrambling up steep slopes, and you can now open the map while downed.
Since Launch: Update 2.1, the PvE Test and Trials Season 6
It also kicked off a PvE matchmaking toggle beta, running October 13 to 20, with no player damage and lower loot value on PvE servers. The Frigate, Redirection, Night Raid, Locked Gate and Hidden Bunker are excluded from it. Trials Season 6 is running too, from October 8 to January 12, 2027, with the Maestro Outfit as the grand prize.
Fuel for the Long Raids
Frozen Trail gives you a new map to learn, new ARC to figure out and a brand-new grind for Amplified Weapons. That's a lot of late nights on Pendola Pass.
A lot of Raiders keep a shaker of G FUEL Energy Formula next to the desk for sessions like this: zero sugar, 140 mg of caffeine per serving and 40 servings per tub. For the breaks between raids, G FUEL Supreme Hydration brings electrolytes with zero caffeine.
Frozen Trail picks
New arrivals
FAQs
When did the ARC Raiders Frozen Trail update come out?
Frozen Trail (Update 2.0) went live on October 8, 2026. Embark called it the biggest update since launch.
What is new in ARC Raiders Frozen Trail?
Frozen Trail adds the Pendola Pass map, two new map conditions (Frigate and Redirection), three new ARC (Bully, Skulker and Hydra), the Stiletto and Bantam, Amplified Weapons, the Outpost, a revamped Skill Tree, the Grappling Hook and other gadgets, Weapon Stencils, 22 new quests and the new Reward Pass.
What happened to Raider Decks and Cred?
Raider Decks moved into the free Legacy Pass and keep your unlocked rewards. Cred was removed and replaced by Reward Points, which go toward whichever Reward Pass you have active.
How do Amplified Weapons work in ARC Raiders?
Amplified Weapons are a fifth quality tier for 15 existing guns, unlocked with the fully upgraded Research Workstation at your Outpost. They add a branching path of abilities and upgrades. You need Amplification Modules, which come from the ARC Frigate and the fallen Emperor on Pendola Pass.
Is Solo vs. Squads still in ARC Raiders?
No. Embark removed Solo vs. Squads from matchmaking in Update 2.0 while it re-evaluates the mode's role in the game.