Last week Embark explained to players that it would be scaling down the frequency of major updates in Arc Raiders, citing the need to slow down to provide concise and "more impactful" changes. But now, just one week later, we've got another patch with quite a few highlights: a new weapon, durability adjustments, and a new trader from Topside.
The trader is the standout addition in my book. Part of a group of nomadic envoys who roam Topside, his name's Ermal, and he'll turn up in Speranza every week with a bunch of new items and perks for raiders that are level 25 and over to get their hands on. This is what will be on offer on a weekly rotation:
- Cosmetics
- Blueprints
- Raider Tokens (the premium currency)
- Progression items such as items needed for current Raider projects
- Expanded Stash space (although this resets post-expedition)
- Expedition Vault access which allows raiders to store up to five items for retrieval post-Expedition
Players will be able to trade "high-value Arc materials and stockpiled rare weapons" in exchange for all of these items and perks. But all of this trading isn't cheap. One cosmetic costs a total item value of 500,000 coins, I'm talking Queen Reactors, Matriarch Reactors, and Rocketeer Drivers just to name a few.
I've been waiting for some real trading to arrive in Arc Raiders for quite some time. Although I was hoping for an official trading route to open up between players, instead of using third party sites, this is still a hugely welcome addition. And I'm not the only one who thinks this.
"Has anyone realised how good this new trader is," Head-Chance3425 says in a social media post. "This will completely turn the game in favour of killing Arc because rewards are madness. To be able to earn coins and skins just by killing big Arc is amazing. Not to mention stash, blueprint carryover, and other cool stuff. I think this is one of the best updates so far in favour of gameplay and I love it."
Arc Raiders has always been at its best when Arcs have been the primary target. It encourages raiders to work together to take down bots three times their size and I think it provides a more compelling reason to go Topside rather than to just hunt down fellow raiders.
