ARC Raiders Reveals First 2026 Trials Challenges

With the new year now in full swing, developer Embark Studios has officially released the first set of ARC Raiders Trials challenges for 2026, giving players new tasks to complete in return for some potentially lucrative in-game rewards. As 2025 came to a close, ARC Raiders players embarked on their very first Expedition and completely reset their characters and progression, which means the second season is now here, along with the second week of Trials challenges for Season 2.

For those who may have only just picked up ARC Raiders in a recent Winter Sale and have no idea what Trials are, they are just one of the many in-game opportunities given to players to earn gear and items to take Topside. Each Trial, which change every Monday, has a specific objective for players to complete. These usually involve destroying a specific ARC type, exploring certain areas, or interacting with objects and items while Topside. Players can attempt their Trials every match, but points do not stack each game. There are three stars that can be earned per Trials, with each one achieved by earning 1000, 2500, and 4000 points on a challenge. The rewards for each star are a random Uncommon, Rare, and Epic piece of loot.

ARC Raiders Dev Reveals How Playstyle Factors Into Matchmaking

Embark Studios’ CEO reveals how gamers’ playstyles are factored into the matchmaking in ARC Raiders.

Fans have often complained that the Trials challenges can be repetitive, so Embark decided to mix things up with last week’s set of ARC Raiders Trials by requiring players to throw snowballs at Rocketeers. This objective added a whole new type of challenge for players, as the Rocketeer is one of the most deadly enemies in the game, with the ability to decimate players in just a few hits. Thankfully, players quickly used their initiative by stunning the ARC with a Showstopper grenade before blasting it with snowballs while it was incapacitated. This was still most definitely one of the riskiest challenges of the week, but it was certainly a fun way of keeping players on their toes. Now, just one week later, players need to stock up on their snowballs once again, as the latest set of Trials challenges requires players to throw them at Bastions this time around.

How To Complete ARC Raiders Week 11 Trials

Damage Snitches
Throw snowballs at Bastions
Damage Bastions
Search Supply Drops
Harvest plants

The latest set of ARC Raiders Trials challenges are officially live for the week of January 5 to 12. Players who are looking to rack up as many points as possible will need to damage Snitches, throw snowballs at Bastions, damage Bastions, search Supply Drops, and harvest plants. Similar to last week’s challenge, players will need to head into the Cold Snap map modifier to stock up on snowballs to then throw them at Bastions. This deadly enemy type has a fast rate of fire and can be found on Buried City, Blue Gate, Dam Battlegrounds, Spaceport, and Stella Montis. As was the case with the Rocketeer, the best way to approach this challenge is to stun the Bastion with a Showstopper grenade before unloading as many snowballs as possible at it.

For the remaining challenges, damaging Snitches can be done on all maps, but they spawn much more frequently on the likes of Spaceport or Blue Gate. The number of ARCs is also increased in Night Raids, so it’s worth jumping into the map modifier for a better chance of seeing more Snitches. When it comes to searching Supply Drops, players will need to find the small call stations scattered around the map. These are much more frequent on Dam Battlegrounds and Buried City. Finally, harvesting plants can be done by collecting Mushrooms, Agave, Great Mullein, or Moss. Again, these spawn on the majority of maps, but are more frequent on Spaceport.

It’s shaping up to be a big week for ARC Raiders players, as developer Embark Studios has returned from its Christmas break and is gearing up to release the first patch of 2026 on Tuesday, January 6. The studio has already confirmed that it will be nerfing the most overpowered item in the game: the Trigger Nade, and has also hinted at a possible fix for players exploiting macros to fire the Kettle at an extremely high rate of fire. Fans shouldn’t expect any new content from the new ARC Raiders update, but with the new year now in full swing, Embark may soon reveal what its plans are for the next 12 months.