The ARC Raiders PvE toggle is live, and for one week you can queue into raids where other Raiders can’t hurt you. Embark’s Update 2.1 dropped Tuesday on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and the test runs until 2am PT on Tuesday, October 20. After that the toggle comes out and matchmaking goes back to normal, unless the data and your feedback convince Embark to keep it.
What changes in a PvE raid
Flip the toggle and player damage goes to zero. That covers guns and throwables too, so stun and fire items won’t touch another Raider. Barricades and ziplines still work like normal, so someone can still block a door on you, they just can’t shoot you for it.
There are tradeoffs. Overall loot value is lower in PvE servers, and solos, duos, and trios get mixed into the same sessions more often. The big map conditions are off the PvE list: Night Raid, Locked Gate, Hidden Bunker, and the two new Frozen Trail conditions, Frigate and Redirection. ARC can also pick you back up after you go down. You get an eight-second grace period, then anything that catches you crawling is fair game.
Your normal PvPvE matchmaking rating isn’t affected by PvE runs, and the regular mode keeps its usual matchmaking during the test. Embark says matchmaking times could stretch in smaller regions and late at night, and a survey goes out once the week is over.
The Frozen Trail fixes in 2.1
The rest of the patch cleans up last week’s Frozen Trail launch. The big one: you can no longer get eliminated while you’re already inside the Ballistic Gondola extracting on Pendola Pass. Frigate hatches now burn you when they open, the Frigate cargo drop got adjusted so it stops knocking players out by accident, and its curved surfaces won’t trap you anymore.
The Grappling Hook got a real pass. Auto-vault at the top of a climb is more reliable, the line no longer snaps when you hook the Gondola during lift-off, and it stops treating light objects as anchors. On the balance side, stamina consumables and the Fight or Flight skill can’t skip the Sprinting on Fumes penalty anymore, and Broad Shoulders and Field Repair now work without a restart. Reward Pass progress tracking was fixed, Gondola markers show up from 175 meters instead of 120, and Xbox Series S gets lower memory use on Spaceport, Buried City, and Dam Battlegrounds. Pendola Pass nights are darker too.
The Carrion Set also landed in the in-game store. It’s a cosmetic store set, and the patch notes don’t list a price.
Trials Season 6 is running
Embark also confirmed that Trials Season 6, Frozen Trials, started with Frozen Trail on October 8 and runs to January 12, 2027. Weekly objectives lean on the new Skulker and Bully, and the top prize is the Maestro Outfit, with extra cosmetics for climbing to Hotshot and Cantina Legend.
If you bounced off ARC Raiders because of other squads, this is the week to try it again, and Embark is clearly watching how many people do.