The ARC Raiders free weekend runs from October 8 at 9:00 a.m. UTC to October 12 at 8:00 a.m. UTC. That is 2:00 a.m. PT on Thursday through 1:00 a.m. PT on Monday. Embark’s October 2 post says the window covers Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, and it is the full game, not a sliced demo.
The catch is the new map. Frozen Trail, the update Embark calls its biggest since launch, opens the same day. New players can walk into Pendola Pass immediately only if they squad up with someone who has already unlocked it. Drop in alone and you are playing the game that already shipped, while the anniversary map sits behind someone else’s progress.
If your shooter weekend is already booked, Gears of War: E-Day early access is the other squad campaign running right now. This one is the extraction game, and the free days are the try-before-you-buy pitch.
What Frozen Trail actually adds
The September 23 release puts the update on October 8 at no extra cost for people who own the game. Platforms there are PC on Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and GeForce NOW. The free weekend post does not name Epic or GeForce NOW, so do not assume those storefronts are in the free window just because they get the patch.
Pendola Pass is a frozen stretch at the edge of the Rust Belt, built around a fallen Emperor, the big ARC machine the studio has been pointing at. Flash Freeze weather can roll across the map and push you into Avalanche Shelters, which protect you and also pull other players. The new way out is the Ballistic Gondola. You call it, you board fast, and it seats three. That is a smaller exit than a lot of squads will want.
A map condition called Redirection, only on this map, lets you pull a Harvester payload off its usual path. The transmitter that does it also calls ARC and other Raiders, so the loot is a fight you scheduled yourself.
Three new ARC show up with a huge airborne carrier players have named the Frigate. Bully is the aggressive one. Skulker hangs at the edge of a fight and darts in. Hydra sits on the Frigate, shoots at more than one player, and comes back. Embark’s first-look post frames the trip as Celeste and Shani sending you after a signal. Those are characters in the game, not a new studio credit.
Owners also get Outposts, a surface base you can expand, plus a Research Station that pushes some guns past the old quality cap. The first look names the trick: a full-auto Burletta, a scoped Renegade, a Rattler with incendiary rounds and a 64-round mag, on 15 weapons to start. New guns in that same post are the Stiletto, a light battle rifle, and the Bantam, a heavy snub revolver. A grappling hook, a camera, weapon stencils that do not change stats, and two tether gadgets (a launcher and a Yank Grenade) are the traversal and trick-item pile.
The Reward Pass is 60 levels. The free track is for anyone who owns the game. The premium track is 1,150 Raider Tokens in the in-game store, or it comes inside the Frozen Trail Collector Set. Embark says both tracks together pay out 1,350 Raider Tokens. The Collector Set also includes the Renzo outfit, the Dragon’s Breath weapon stencil, the Bob hairstyle, and 2,400 Raider Tokens. Trials Season 6 starts with the update. The release puts the game at more than 16 million copies sold in its first year, which is why they are spending the anniversary on one large patch instead of a price cut.
Who should jump in
Use the free days if you have friends who already play and can pull you onto Pendola Pass. That is the version of the game Embark wants you to see. If your group is all new, you still get the full extraction loop, looting and extracting against ARC and other players, but the snow map waits until someone in the squad has opened it.
When the clock hits 1:00 a.m. PT on October 12, the free access ends and the update stays for people who buy in. Four days is the whole offer.