The Headwinds update arrives to Arc Raiders very soon - tomorrow, in fact - and not only does the latest tease give us the release date, it suggests a much-requested feature is coming too. You may finally be able to head in a formal team of up to four, rather than working as more informal allies.
Indeed, the official Arc Raiders social media accounts have posted that Headwind goes live on January 27. Besides that neat little bit of loot, there’s an image, containing one raider facing three others, except the encounter doesn’t seem adversarial. Perhaps they're actually a team? A squad, perhaps?
That's the meaning people are taking from the picture, void of any other context. Scanning for finer details, you can see the person whose feet we're looking at is in casual discussion with the two others closer to them. The fourth is harder to read, and could definitely be seen as someone about to light everybody up, since they have their gun drawn and ready to fire.
Headwinds.27.01.26 pic.twitter.com/bGxfSnL2NuJanuary 24, 2026
"The fourth player is definitely NOT on their team in that image - it's like a Western showdown," says one fan on Twitter. "Possible that it could be a 'Join Squad' feature - the three are asking the raider to join and make four," another suggests.
This seems plausible if it is, in fact, a squad feature. A way to properly become a team while on your current excursion, splitting spoils however many ways. Arc Raiders already allows people to enter rounds together in pairs or groups of three, whereas this might alter the complexion of the maps: higher rewards, but bigger threats.
The frequency of loot is a question mark among the community, since the current levels are just enough to sustain trios. "They'd need to significantly increase loot spawns, it already feels like slim pickings playing with three," states another fan. We'll see what comes when Headwinds rolls out tomorrow as the first release of the Arc Raiders Escalation Roadmap. It's also thought that the update will include the much-anticipated Arc Raiders Toxic Swamp map modifier, revealed in datamining and leaks for some time now.
