Five million space credits was a steep requirement, but that threshold may change with the next Arc Raiders Expedition.
After its first major Expedition, Arc Raiders’ developers admit that key progression goals may have missed the mark.
Arc Raiders Dev Reflects On First Expedition Feedback
In an interview with PCGamesN, design director Virgil Watkins discussed the philosophy behind Expeditions in Arc Raiders. Expeditions allow players to earn temporary bonuses such as faster XP gain as well as permanent rewards like additional skill points and expanded stash space, but only at the cost of fully resetting their account.
According to Watkins, “a little over a million players” completed the Expedition. Of those, around 35 to 40 percent managed to unlock all five available skill points. While these figures highlight strong engagement, Watkins acknowledged that the first Expedition was far from perfect:
“One of the bigger topics [of feedback] was the requirements for the final stage to get the skill points, and probably going out a bit too late with that information, because we wanted to hold off until we could calibrate it around the actual economy of the player base, rather than trying to guess really early on."
He added:
“So then, when we chose the number, which was the five million credits for the full thing, [we set] that as an aspirational goal that some players might achieve. But then I think a lot of players took that as like, ‘Well, now I have to do that to get it.'”
Beyond the numerical threshold, Watkins also addressed criticism aimed at the fundamental design of Expeditions themselves:
“We completely acknowledge that it isn’t the most engaging thing to just go for money, [and it has] the potential outcome of disincentivizing using your gear, which is kind of what people look forward to towards the end of a reset cycle. So yeah, we’re looking at revisions on that.”
With these comments, Embark is directly responding to a core concern raised by the community. The current Expedition structure encourages players to hoard valuable loot instead of actively using their best equipment, a behavior that runs counter to what many players expect at the end of a reset cycle.
A Grind That Changed Arc Raiders
The first Expedition in Arc Raiders was a mixed bag in terms of player feedback. While some players enjoyed the grind toward five million credits, others were far less enthusiastic. Even if you had no intention of completing the Expedition yourself, the change in player behavior during the final weeks before the reset was hard to miss.
Players were frequently running free loadouts and when they did bring gear, it was often cheaper and more expendable equipment. The Expedition strongly influenced how people approached the game. Many played extremely safe to avoid losing valuable items, reducing fun interactions with other players. Overall the whole game turned into a massive grind towards one number. Valuable and exciting items were reduced to their worth, because in the end you sold almost everything either way.
Resets in extraction shooters are nothing unusual in general. However, when a reset system actively works against the core identity of the game, it may be time for adjustments. Incentivizing players to avoid interaction with others or rewarding them for hoarding their best loot undermines what makes the genre compelling in the first place.
Unexpected encounters and the constant possibility that any player you meet could be sporting a powerful Bobcat are central to what makes Arc Raiders so engaging. When that tension disappears, so does a large part of the game’s appeal. Hopefully, the next Expedition will better align with those expectations and reinforce, rather than suppress, the elements that make the game fun.
Did you take part in the Expedition? Let us know in the comments!
