Embark Studios has announced that the upcoming fifth Expedition for Arc Raiders will be the last one hosted until early 2027 while the development team reworks the feature.
According to the studio, player feedback highlighted several recurring issues that demand comprehensive overhauls rather than minor updates. Key concerns raised by the community included overly tight registration deadlines, unrewarding progression structures, and difficult onboarding for new players. Embark plans to reveal further details regarding the planned structural changes in September.
The fifth Expedition is scheduled to run from September 8 through September 29, expanding the event window from two weeks to three. Developers have removed the grace period feature entirely, meaning players must sign up while the event is live. Additionally, mandatory quest resets are now optional, allowing players to preserve their active questlines. However, choosing to opt out means players will need to acquire the Hullcracker Blueprint through an alternative route.
Participants in the final pre-hiatus event can earn up to 12 additional stash slots—subject to a overall cap of 60—along with mystery items and cosmetic pieces for the Zenith Outfit. Completing all five Expeditions grants the full Zenith Outfit. Bonus skill points are now capped at 15, though catch-up options remain active for those missing points from earlier runs. Stacked performance boosts will cap at three levels and remain active throughout the upcoming hiatus.
As part of the update, partially finished Caravans will be reset and converted into equivalent Ermal Vouchers, which can be spent on special offers, weapon trades, or sold for coins. Meanwhile, the game's Trials mode is taking a separate, shorter break; its current season wraps up on September 22 before returning on October 8.
The announcement follows a recent quality-of-life update that introduced distinct playstyle tracking for Solo, Duo, and Trio matchmaking pools. Arc Raiders has drawn praise for its approachable extraction shooter design and friendly player base, though Embark's continued reliance on synthetic AI voice generation remains a point of criticism.
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