ARC Raiders Says It Still Has Plans to Revamp the Game's Skill Tree

ARC Raiders developer Embark Studios has reiterated its plans to not only revamp the game’s controversial Expedition, which is essentially an optional server wipe, but also to adjust parts of its skill tree. With ARC Raiders‘ second Expedition on the horizon, those who once again participate will be even closer to maxing out the skill tree, but Embark says it doesn’t want players to have the ability to do that.

Historically, games like Escape From Tarkov have periodic server wipes to ensure veteran players don’t constantly dominate those who are new to the game, keep the gameplay loop fresh, test new gameplay systems, and more. However, ARC Raiders ditches the traditional server wipe system and has opted to take a much more casual approach by making them optional. Known as the Expedition, Raiders can donate a bunch of materials to build their caravan, which will then leave the Rust Belt for good and completely reset the player’s progress, including quests, blueprints, workbenches, gear, and more.

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Embark Plans to Revamp ARC Raiders’ Skill Tree

Those who embark on ARC Raiders‘ Expedition are rewarded for their efforts, with the main attractions of the reset being additional skill points and extra Stash space. However, Embark says it doesn’t actually want players to be able to max out their skill tree and plans to revamp the system in the future. During a new interview with PC Gamer, design lead Virgil Watkins told the outlet that “skill points won’t hold forever.” He goes on to explain how Embark doesn’t want players to be able to max out the entire skill tree, saying, “That’s not the way it’s designed… At some point, we’re very likely going to revamp parts of the skill tree.”

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This comes as Watkins also reiterated Embark’s plans to revamp the Expedition, as fans made it abundantly clear they weren’t happy with the rewards for ARC Raiders‘ first reset. The developer told the outlet that the system is “a bit of an experiment,” before going to explain how the studio doesn’t want to force resets on every single player, but is now “on this road of ‘how do we make it interesting enough for the largest amount of people to participate in this?” Watkins also says that the current system, which largely revolves around rewarding players for how rich they are at the time of Expedition’s departure, is only in place because that was “just what we had time to develop.”

“Because of other things that were actively in development, we didn’t have time to shift the system to what we intend to do next, and we want to tie more game loops into it, and not just make it about currency value,” the developer said. So while it looks like the optional wipe will be undergoing a revamp in the future, Embark has attempted to ease the community’s complaints by making some new changes for ARC Raiders‘ second Expedition. The main one being that players now only need 3 million coins/Stash value to earn all 5 skill points upon resetting.

The second Expedition will open this Tuesday, February 24, alongside ARC Raiders‘ new Shrouded Sky update. The highly anticipated patch will see the addition of a new Hurricane map condition, which will drastically alter gameplay, similar to last year’s Cold Snap condition. There will also be a new ARC threat, a new Raider Deck, a map update, and more.