22 December 2025

ARC Raiders Expedition Resets Workshop Stations

By newsgame

The first ARC Raiders Expedition has finally launched, and players are finding out that their unlocked Workshops have disappeared. In many live-service games —Escape from Tarkov, Once Human, or ARC Raiders, for example —periodic wipes are par for the course. They reset all players to level one, remove most of their items, and basically start everything over. Different games do it slightly differently, but ultimately, it’s a balancing mechanic that ensures that everybody will always have something to do. Otherwise, the more advanced players would unlock everything, explore everything, and then sit around twiddling their thumbs or wander off to another game.

One of the biggest downsides of periodic wipes is that it tends to punish the casual players who maybe don’t have time to make much progress before the rug is pulled out from under them. It can be disheartening to reset over and over, seeing only the beginning of the game multiple times. ARC Raiders decided to mix things up by introducing Expeditions, a periodic wipe that players can opt into. In other words, those who don’t feel ready to reset don’t have to. To get raiders to participate, developer Embark Studios added incentives like permanently increased Stash space, extra Skill points, and cosmetics, as well as temporary buffs for freshly reminted players. Additionally, the dev stated that some unlocked items, like Workshop Stations, would be kept after an Expedition.

ARC Raiders Expedition Guide Server Wipe Explained-1

ARC Raiders: Wipe Explained (Expeditions Guide)

Every 60 Days, ARC Raiders will go through a wide server wipe, and here’s how to save your progress for your next Raider using the Expeditions.

ARC Raiders Players’ Workshop Stations Have Disappeared

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On December 22, the first ARC Raiders Expedition finally took off after a brief delay. It’s meant to be an exciting time for raiders, but many are instead angered to discover that their Workshop Stations, which they thought would remain available, must be rebuilt and releveled. Only the starting Workbench is available upon first logging in after an Expedition. In the days leading up to the first Expedition, Embark amended the list, which appeared in-game, of what would be kept and what would be reset for those who participated. “Unlocked Workshop Stations” no longer appears on the list of “This Will Be Kept” like it used to.

Many players are pointing out that “Workshop” was always on the list of “This Will Be Reset” and are attributing the current conundrum to simple miscommunication. Whatever the case, ARC Raiders players who signed up for the Expedition are finding that none of their crafting stations, other than the starting Workbench, are unlocked upon logging in. They all must be rebuilt and leveled up again. At the very least, “Unlocked Workshop Stations” did indeed used to be under the “Kept” list and was later removed, and many players expected, because of the list, that their workshop stations would remain unlocked and be immediately available to use after the Expedition.

It is important to note that, all the way back in October, when Embark explained the Expedition Project in detail, the developer did list the Workshop as part of what would be lost. “Players will lose anything inherent to their character’s progress. Levels, skills, items/inventory, workshop, crafting capabilities, etc.” This was reiterated in subsequent blog posts, with the most recent, dated December 12, clarifying that “potential workshop upgrades will be available as soon as you reset,” implying that their levels at least wouldn’t survive the wipe. This didn’t, however, give some ARC Raiders players the impression that workshop stations would need to be unlocked again entirely.

No matter why “Unlocked Workshop Stations” was removed with little fanfare from the list of items that would be kept, no matter if it was simple miscommunication, many players are upset to find that they have to unlock their workstations again. For a lot of raiders, being able to keep them was part of what helped them decide that participating in the Expedition might not be that big a loss. And upgrading the workbenches in ARC Raiders requires some items, like the infamous Rusted Gear, that are difficult and time-consuming to find.

Breaching a Security Breach Locker ARC Raiders

There are always bound to be hiccups in a new game when an untried mechanic is rolled out for the first time. This debut ARC Raiders Expedition seems to have been implemented with minimal issues, with the potential miscommunication about workshop stations being the only player complaint surfacing so far. That said, with or without unlocked workbenches, some players are still uncertain whether participating in the ARC Raiders Expedition is even worth it, given the number of items lost, as well as the extreme cost in parts to build the Expedition Caravan and the 5 million Coins required to unlock all five available Skill points.