News - Arc Raiders takes a turn toward The Long Dark with today's Cold Snap update—beware the frostbite.

Today marks the release of the Arc Raiders Cold Snap update, which outfits the popular sci‑fi extraction shooter with glittering snowfall. Oh, how gorgeous the flakes sparkle above the Spaceport gantries. How beautiful the frozen lakes of the Dam Battlegrounds look. It’s certainly a bit nippier all of a sudden, isn’t it? Best take shelter in that bunker before your fingers and toes turn Uncommon green and Rare blue. As described last week, the Cold Snap update buries the game’s four default maps in the white stuff. The press release explains that snowstorms sweep across Speranza as winter conditions take hold of multiple raid locations, reducing visibility, freezing lakes, and making the open surface more dangerous than ever, turning every raid into a high‑stakes survival run. Specifically, you will now have to worry about frostbite, or at least a slow health drain mechanic called frostbite, while roaming outdoors. You won’t run the risk of losing any appendages to gangrene, at least not this patch, the release suggests. Raiders must rethink their loadouts, ensuring they can heal themselves or their teammates and plan their extractions with care, finding shelter if needed. The temperature drop is accompanied by a modest blizzard of add‑on content. There’s the Goalie Raider Deck, the second of the game’s Raider Decks, which is yours for free on December 26, and will be permanently accessible with no time limits. It includes new items and player feats to perform for Raider tokens, cosmetics, and such. Pride of place goes to the hockey‑inspired Raider outfit with a matching hockey stick Raider tool. I myself used to play (grass) hockey and have, in fact, played hockey in blizzards so thick you could barely see the opposing goal. This was during my grim Yorkshire childhood, when everybody knew that the only way to make kids grow up right was to nearly murder them with bad weather. I still have my old stick, propped over the door in humiliating mimicry of a World War heirloom. I’m pretty sure it’ll break if I touch it, let alone brain a rival scavenger for a bagful of batteries. Expect two time‑limited seasonal events during Cold Snap. On December 16, there’s the Flickering Flames Event, which features 25 levels of new gear, customization elements and Raider tokens. These are earned via Merits, gained from XP in rounds. On December 26, prepare for the Candleberry Banquet Project, which has you collecting Candleberries to earn rewards, and is broken into five stages, each with a new banqueting scene. Finish stages to earn further rewards, including Merits for the Flickering Flames event. God, remember when all you had to do in games was gather coins and not die. Last but not least, this December brings the opportunity to prestige your current character—sorry, I mean, send them on an expedition. This lets you pay a bunch of resources to reset much of your progression, including your player level and inventory. Why would you do this? Because starting over freshens up the experience and makes you feel like Maximilian Gamer, Destroyer Of Worlds. Also, you’re awarded a few perks in return to help you begin a fresh character, such as increased XP gain, bonus skill points, and more stash space. Expeditions give you eight weeks to prepare, and the first one leaves on December 21.