ARC Raiders’ Best Skill Hit with a Heavy Nerf in Latest Update
Alongside the recent update for ARC Raiders that added the Cold Snap condition to the game, Embark Studios released a major patch that adjusted the current sandbox, fixed bugs, and seemingly nerfed a highly popular skill. ARC Raiders has been on a tear since its launch on October 30, as the extraction shooter has managed to attract a massive audience and proved to be a huge hit for Embark Studios. To continue fostering that community, Embark has been releasing new content on a monthly basis, keeping the experience feeling fresh.
Outside of the North Line update back in November, which added the unique Stella Montis map and community unlock event, December’s content update for ARC Raiders brought snow and frostbite as new map conditions. Caught outside for too long, players will take incremental damage, though the risk is worth the reward as Cold Snap missions typically offer better loot. In addition, players can take part in the Flickering Flames event, which includes a new Merit-based reward track, as well as a new Raider Deck which launches on December 26. The event also brought with it a new update, though it has seemingly had a negative effect on one popular skill.
All Flickering Flames Event Rewards in Arc Raiders
Here’s how to get all the rewards available in the Flickering Flames event, including outfits, emotes, and more.
ARC Raiders Unintentionally Nerfed Security Breach
The Cold Snap patch for ARC Raiders brought many positive changes, including bug fixes, map adjustments, and buffs to many aspects of the game. However, it also made a subtle change to how Security Lockers work, removing their static spawn locations and instead are now dynamically spawned. For these lockers, players first need the Security Breach skill, a capstone ability from the red tree to open these lockers, which typically housed some valuable and rare loot. Prior to this change, players would base their runs around getting to these lockers in order to score some solid loot before extracting.
With this change to the security lockers in ARC Raiders, the potential value presented from maxing out the red Survival skill tree may not be as high as it once was for the cost that’s required to get there. While the fact that these are being dynamically spawned definitely benefits the game as a whole, as extraction shooters are based around unpredictability, there’s no denying that it’s possible players will sometimes not find many, if any at all, during runs now. While some of the other skills may not be as exciting, they’re certainly safer options than using the many points required for a skill that now may not always be helpful during runs anymore.
Thankfully, this update has also given ARC Raiders players the ability to respec their skill tree, so for those who want to move off the capstone skill for the Survival tree can now do so. The price for respeccing is essentially 2,000 coins for one skill and, since players can’t make individual changes, the full cost of a reset is entirely dependent on how many skill points have already been added. So, for those who have reached the maximum level of 75, a full skill tree reset will cost 152,000 in total.
While the potential loss of strong loot in security lockers is certainly disappointing, now is the best time to jump in and play the game. Following the update, blueprints are spawning at a much higher rate in ARC Raiders than ever before. While the patch notes did indicate that Stella Montis got a boost to item and blueprint spawn rates, it may have instead impacted the game on a global level. It’s unknown how or if Embark will deal with this, as players are certainly loving the change, but considering how rare blueprints are supposed to be, it could be something the studio will want to adjust to prevent them from being too easy to obtain.
On the other hand, considering how the eBay listings for ARC Raiders blueprints have blown up as of late, perhaps leaving the buffed spawn rate for at least some of them is a viable option. While there isn’t much Embark can do about real-world trading and its potential dangers with scammers, keeping a boosted blueprint modifier active in the game certainly undercuts the resellers, as players have a better chance at finding good stuff rather than looking to spend money to quickly acquire it.
- Released
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October 30, 2025
- ESRB
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Teen / Violence, Blood