ARC Raiders Pauses Expeditions Until Early 2027 for Major Overhaul

Embark Studios has officially confirmed that it is pausing ARC Raiders' Expeditions system until early 2027, after the fifth Expedition window closes in September. The announcement comes in a new post on the official ARC Raiders news site and was first reported across multiple outlets on August 21, 2026.

Functionally, Expeditions are similar to prestiging in Call of Duty: high-level Raiders reset most of their character's progress in exchange for unique rewards, including skill points, consecutive XP and Scrappy boosts, repair value increases, mystery rewards and the Zenith Outfit. The community has grown increasingly frustrated with tight departure windows, the reward structure and accessibility for new players, and Embark says those issues "need more than incremental fixes."

In the studio's words, addressing those concerns "calls for bigger changes." The fifth Expedition will therefore be the last one for the foreseeable future, opening on September 8, 2026 at 1pm CEST / 11am UTC / 4am PT and closing on September 29. After that, Expeditions will return in early 2027 with what Embark describes as major improvements targeting "some of the biggest player pain points," with more details promised in September.

To soften the blow, Embark has already folded several quality-of-life changes into the fifth Expedition. Players can now opt out of resetting their quest progress and keep going from where they left off, with alternative paths to the Hullcracker Blueprint being added so completionists are not locked out. The departure window has also been extended from two weeks to three, and the "last call" grace feature has been removed. The full Zenith Outfit is now the reward for completing all five Expeditions.

During the pause, all consecutive buffs players have earned will carry over, and any partially completed Caravans will be converted into Ermal Vouchers of equal value, which can be used to buy Ermal offers with ARC Parts and firearms, or sold for Coin. The move also lines up with the larger roadmap: Embark's Frozen Trail update is still slated for October 8, 2026, and the studio's Trials season is set to wrap up on September 22 before going on a two-week pause until Frozen Trail.

Reaction so far has been mixed. PC Gamer and GamesRadar both note that, while many players welcome a fix for long-standing pain points, others are wary of breaking the endgame loop ahead of the Frozen Trail content drop. On social media and in the Arc Raiders subreddit, the prevailing mood is closer to a wait-and-see stance, with several high-end Raiders openly questioning whether Embark can deliver the redesign the system has needed since launch.

For now, the practical takeaway is simple: if you have been on the fence about departing for the fifth Expedition, this is your last chance in 2026 to do it, and any progress you have built up will wait for you on the other side.