ARC Raiders’ Frozen Trail Update Opens a New Frontier With Pendola Pass, the Frigate and Overhauled Progression

The Rust Belt is no longer enough. Embark Studios has given players their first substantial look at Frozen Trail, the major ARC Raiders update launching on October 8, and almost every major part of the extraction adventure is being expanded or reworked.

At the center is Pendola Pass, a frozen mountain settlement beyond the familiar Rust Belt where Celeste and Shani have traced the mysterious ARC signal that has been spreading across Toledo. That expedition leads to a fallen Emperor, an enormous airborne ARC vessel known as the Frigate, three new enemy machines and some of the harshest environmental conditions Raiders have faced so far.

Frozen Trail goes much further than adding another map. Embark is introducing the Outpost as an extension of the Raider Den, a fifth weapon quality tier with branching upgrades, two new firearms, grappling and tether-based gadgets, a functional camera, Weapon Stencils, new instruments and a complete progression overhaul that replaces Raider Decks with Reward Passes. The Skill Tree is also being reworked, new quests and a Map Condition are coming, and the retiring Cred currency disappears when the update launches.

Embark has been calling Frozen Trail its biggest update since launch. After the First Look, it is considerably easier to understand why.

Pendola Pass Takes Raiders Beyond the Rust Belt

Frozen Trail’s headline destination is Pendola Pass, an abandoned Italian mountain village and former Exodus transport hub located beyond the peaks surrounding the Rust Belt. Celeste and Shani have triangulated the strange signal heard across Toledo to this area, giving Raiders their first real reason to push beyond the territory they have spent the past year exploring.

The location combines remnants of ordinary civilization with infrastructure connected to the Exodus Project. Players will move through a deserted supermarket and town square while also investigating an observatory and a buried railway depot that once served as an important transportation hub. Embark says the map has been designed with substantially greater verticality, exploration and environmental discovery in mind, including threats both above and below ground.

The climate adds another dimension. Flash freezes can cut through the valley, potentially turning the environment itself into another problem during a raid. Embark has also confirmed that Frozen Trail introduces a new Map Condition, although the full mechanical details of that condition are being saved for closer to launch.

Pendola Pass follows Riven Tides, which arrived in April and expanded the western coastline with Panorama Azzurro and its Exodus port. Frozen Trail moves in the opposite direction geographically and tonally: away from the abandoned beaches and into a much colder frontier that Embark has been positioning as a genuine expedition into unknown territory.

A Fallen Emperor Is Waiting in the Mountains

The reason for taking that risk is enormous.

One of the Emperors has fallen inside Pendola Pass. Embark describes the event as unprecedented, and the machine’s remains contain rare technology that Raiders understandably want to recover. The objective sounds straightforward—reach the Emperor and find a way inside—but its destruction has also triggered a significant ARC response.

That makes the fallen machine more than another oversized landmark. It becomes both a source of valuable technology and the narrative catalyst for the dangers surrounding the new map. Raiders will be competing with each other for whatever can be recovered while ARC machines converge on the area.

This is a particularly effective fit for ARC Raiders’ extraction structure. Valuable locations already create natural conflict because multiple squads want the same loot, but placing something as extraordinary as a fallen Emperor at the center gives the competition a stronger narrative justification. Everyone knows something valuable is there. The problem is surviving long enough to take it home.

The Frigate Turns an ARC Machine Into an Entire Combat Space

ARC’s response to the fallen Emperor includes one of Frozen Trail’s most ambitious additions: the Frigate, a massive vessel dispatched to patrol Pendola Pass.

Rather than simply fighting the machine from the ground, Raiders will be able to board it. Reaching the vessel is only the beginning. Once inside, players need to move through enclosed passageways, unlock routes and fight both familiar ARC and new machines while operating hundreds of feet above the ground.

The Frigate is being positioned as a high-level ARC Operation aimed primarily at experienced players. Embark has repeatedly emphasized that it is intended to test combat, teamwork, risk management and decision-making rather than functioning as a conventional oversized boss encounter.

Other Raiders can enter the equation too. The confined environment creates the possibility of cooperation when circumstances demand it, but nothing prevents competing groups from turning on one another when valuable rewards are involved. That tension should be especially potent inside a structure where retreat options are limited and the surrounding machine is itself hostile territory.

Frozen Trail therefore expands the extraction format upward as well as outward. Players are not simply exploring another section of the ground map—they are infiltrating one of ARC’s largest active machines.

Bully, Skulker and Hydra Attack in Completely Different Ways

Three new ARC types will accompany the update, and Embark appears to have deliberately designed them around very different kinds of pressure.

The Bully is the most direct. It aggressively closes distance, refuses to give ground and attacks relentlessly once it reaches a target. Embark describes it as quick, oppressive and machine-learned, forcing players to use cover, manage timing and maintain accuracy while something large is actively charging their position.

The Skulker takes the opposite approach. It stays around the edge of a player’s vision, waits for opportunities and attempts to strike when attention is directed elsewhere. If it loses its opening, it can retreat from sight and reappear later, making awareness as important as raw damage output.

The Hydra is exclusive to the Frigate and functions as a stationary three-section turret. Each of its stacked segments can operate independently, allowing the machine to pressure an entire squad with multiple weapon systems at once. Fighting one is designed around diverting its attention, rapidly moving between cover and attacking during limited openings.

Together, the three machines address different weaknesses in established Raider behavior. Bully punishes players who cannot control aggressive pressure, Skulker punishes tunnel vision and Hydra tests coordinated positioning. That variety is important for an update explicitly intended to challenge players who have already spent months learning the existing ARC roster.

The Outpost Moves Raiders Back Toward the Surface

Frozen Trail also begins changing where Raiders live.

The existing Raider Den remains part of the game, but Celeste is establishing an Outpost between the Rust Belt and the mountains for those heading toward Pendola Pass. Embark describes it as the first step toward reclaiming parts of the surface rather than remaining permanently hidden underground.

Players will be able to customize the Outpost with modules and furniture, making it more personal than a purely functional menu environment. More importantly, it introduces the Research Workstation, which becomes central to several of Frozen Trail’s new progression systems.

Embark has already indicated that the Outpost is only the beginning of a larger feature. The long-term plan is to expand it into a more personalized space where a player’s choices and progression increasingly reflect what kind of Raider they have built.

That gives Frozen Trail a broader narrative implication as well. ARC Raiders launched with humanity surviving beneath the surface while Raiders periodically risked trips Topside. The Outpost represents a small but deliberate change in direction: humanity is beginning to establish a foothold closer to the territory controlled by ARC.

Amplified Weapons Introduce a Fifth Quality Tier

The Research Workstation also powers one of the update’s most important endgame systems: Amplified Weapons.

Frozen Trail adds a fifth weapon quality level to 15 existing guns. Reaching that tier unlocks branching upgrades capable of changing weapon behavior rather than simply increasing familiar statistics. Embark’s examples include turning the Burletta fully automatic, mounting a scope on the Renegade or transforming the Rattler with incendiary ammunition and a 64-round magazine.

That is a substantial change to the late-game weapon economy. Extraction shooters frequently encounter a problem where experienced players identify a relatively small group of optimal weapons and stop experimenting with the broader arsenal. Embark explicitly says Amplified Weapons are intended to counter that tendency by allowing established guns to develop into much more specialized versions.

The branching structure is particularly important. If upgrades force players to make mutually exclusive choices, the same base gun can evolve into very different builds depending on the intended role. That provides another long-term pursuit beyond simply finding the highest-rarity version of an already familiar weapon.

Only 15 weapons receive Amplified paths initially, but Embark plans to expand the system after Frozen Trail.

Stiletto and Bantam Add Two New Guns

Players who would rather use something entirely new receive two additional firearms.

The Stiletto is a light-ammo battle rifle positioned as an accessible early-game alternative to the Renegade. It is inexpensive to craft and designed around accurate ranged shooting. Players can fire it quickly, but excessively rapid trigger inputs degrade accuracy, creating a weapon that rewards controlled pacing over panic firing.

The Bantam occupies a very different role. This compact heavy-ammo revolver is designed to hit both ARC and rival Raiders hard while offering a dedicated hip-fire capability. Embark openly describes it as a way to indulge the cowboy fantasy, which should give the weapon a more distinctive handling identity than another conventional sidearm.

Neither needs to replace established meta weapons to justify its inclusion. Frozen Trail’s wider progression changes make arsenal variety more valuable in general, particularly if Amplified Weapons successfully encourage players to rethink categories they previously ignored.

The Grappling Hook Could Change How Players Read the Environment

The Grappling Hook may prove even more disruptive than either new gun because it directly changes movement.

Raiders can use the gadget to reach difficult positions, rappel down buildings and swing across gaps. Pendola Pass has been designed with more verticality than previous maps, so introducing a tool capable of exploiting that verticality creates obvious possibilities for unconventional routes, escapes and ambushes.

The important question will be how freely the Grappling Hook can be deployed. Extraction maps rely heavily on predictable access routes because understanding where an enemy can realistically appear is part of learning the environment. A sufficiently flexible grappling system can disrupt those assumptions and make previously safe elevations vulnerable.

Embark is explicitly encouraging creativity with the gadget, suggesting it is intended as more than a scripted traversal tool. If that freedom extends across existing maps as well as Pendola Pass, players may need to relearn considerably more than Frozen Trail’s new environment.

Tethers Let Raiders Weaponize Movement

Two additional gadgets approach movement from the opposite direction: instead of helping the user travel, they interfere with someone else.

The Tether Launcher creates a wire between two points capable of rooting targets in place. Embark says players can even attach Raiders to ARC machines and allow the machine’s movement to drag them away, immediately opening the door to the kind of emergent interactions ARC Raiders tends to produce when physical systems overlap.

The Yank Grenade applies the same general principle with explosive force, violently pulling a nearby target when it detonates. Flying ARC can be dragged toward the ground, while enemy Raiders can be ripped out from behind cover.

Both gadgets fit the game’s existing emphasis on equipment that produces situations rather than merely causing damage. The most interesting outcomes will probably come from combinations players discover after launch: using elevation, environmental hazards, ARC movement and other gadgets to turn the tether physics into traps Embark never explicitly demonstrated.

Raiders Are Also Getting an Actual Camera

Not every new gadget exists to kill somebody.

Frozen Trail adds a fully functional camera inspired by the screenshots players have already been taking with binoculars. It includes zoom, aperture controls, manual and automatic focus racking, and a selfie mode with dedicated emotes.

Photographs are saved into the Codex, allowing players to retain images from their raids rather than relying entirely on external screenshots. For a game whose environmental design is one of its strongest qualities, formalizing photography as an in-world activity makes considerable sense.

The camera also reinforces the idea that Topside is becoming somewhere players inhabit rather than merely a series of arenas to loot. Frozen Trail already adds a customizable Outpost and new instruments; photography extends that philosophy by supporting a form of interaction with the world that produces no immediate combat advantage.

Of course, standing still to adjust aperture settings in an extraction shooter remains a very effective way to give another Raider a free shot.

Banjo and Harmonica Expand Topside’s Less Violent Side

Players interested in making noise deliberately will receive two new instruments: the Harmonica and Banjo.

The Harmonica joins the general pool of new Frozen Trail content, while the Banjo blueprint is included with the Collector Set DLC. Instruments have become part of ARC Raiders’ social identity, giving strangers another way to communicate or create moments that do not immediately end in gunfire.

That may sound minor beside the Frigate or weapon progression overhaul, but unpredictable social interactions are an important part of extraction games with open proximity between potentially hostile players. The possibility of cooperation only matters because betrayal is also possible, and harmless interactions such as music make those decisions more interesting than simply treating every silhouette as an automatic target.

Frozen Trail is expanding both extremes simultaneously: more dangerous PvE at one end and more expressive social tools at the other.

Weapon Stencils Add Personalization That Can Be Stolen

The new Weapon Stencils introduce another cosmetic layer, allowing Raiders to reskin their guns with personalized designs.

There is an appropriately extraction-shooter complication: the customization does not protect the weapon. If another Raider kills you and takes the gun, they also take the personalized weapon you brought into the raid.

That makes stencils slightly different from traditional account-bound weapon skins. A customized gun becomes part of the physical object entering Topside, reinforcing the sense that equipment is genuinely being risked every time a player deploys.

It also creates the possibility of trophies. A Raider carrying a weapon taken from another player may effectively be walking around with evidence of the previous owner attached to it.

Reward Passes Are Replacing Raider Decks

One of Frozen Trail’s biggest structural changes happens outside combat. Raider Decks are evolving into Reward Passes, dividing progression into Free, Premium and Legacy tracks.

The Free Pass progresses through XP and includes 200 Raider Tokens, five new outfits, new gameplay items and 20 additional cosmetic rewards spread across Scrappy outfits, furniture, charms, attachments and emotes.

The Premium Pass adds premium variations for its outfits, exclusive colorways, Weapon Stencils, hairstyles and 1,150 Raider Tokens, alongside other premium rewards. Embark has not included pricing for the Premium Pass in the First Look, so its exact value proposition cannot yet be evaluated.

The Legacy Pass is free for every Raider and consolidates the existing Raider Decks. Current progress is not being discarded, and previously available rewards remain accessible through the new structure. That is particularly important given how much time some players have already invested into older Decks.

Cred Disappears on October 8

There is one thing that does not carry forward: Cred.

Embark confirmed earlier in September that the currency is being retired when Frozen Trail launches. Any Cred left on an account on October 8 will expire, so players should spend it through Shani or use it on outstanding Raider Deck rewards beforehand.

The change is directly connected to the new Reward Pass structure. Existing claimed rewards remain owned, and uncompleted Raider Deck progression migrates into the Legacy Pass, but the currency itself does not survive the transition.

That makes the period before October 8 unusually important for returning players. Someone who has accumulated Cred but has not logged in recently could otherwise lose the entire balance without gaining anything from it.

Frozen Trail is therefore not simply adding a progression layer alongside the old system. It is replacing part of the game’s existing economic structure.

The Skill Tree Is Being Reworked Too

Embark has also confirmed a Skill Tree rework, with both new and improved skills arriving alongside Frozen Trail.

The studio has not yet published the complete redesigned tree or enough numerical information to evaluate specific builds, but the stated objective is to give players greater agency over what kind of Raider they become. That complements the Outpost and Amplified Weapon systems, all of which move progression toward more deliberate specialization.

It will be particularly important to see whether existing Skill Points are redistributed automatically, refunded or otherwise handled when the update goes live. Embark has not fully detailed that transition in the First Look, making it one of the areas likely to attract questions during the upcoming developer stream.

The final Frozen Trail patch notes should also reveal the less visible balancing and quality-of-life changes that accompany the new skill structure.

Frozen Trail Reflects Embark’s Move Toward Fewer, Larger Updates

The scale of the update is partly the result of a deliberate change in ARC Raiders’ development cadence.

Earlier in 2026, Embark announced that it would move toward fewer but larger updates rather than maintaining the previous frequency of substantial releases. Smaller projects, events, Traders, store rotations and technical improvements have continued between them, but major content is now being concentrated into larger drops.

Frozen Trail is the first major demonstration of that approach. It follows Riven Tides, which launched on April 28 with a new coastal map, ARC Turbine enemy, gadgets, Map Condition and another Expedition window, but Frozen Trail reaches into far more systems at once.

Embark says nearly every part of ARC Raiders has benefited from lessons learned during the months since launch. The result is an update combining a new destination with changes to progression, weapons, cosmetics, traversal, social systems and high-level PvE.

Whether that makes the longer gaps between major updates worthwhile will ultimately depend on how well those systems function after October 8, but Frozen Trail clearly has more ambition than a conventional seasonal content refresh.

Expedition 5 Ends Before Frozen Trail Arrives

Players preparing for the update also have one earlier deadline to remember.

The fifth Expedition departure window closes on September 29 at 10:00 CEST, and Embark has confirmed there will be no Last Call period this time. Completing a Caravan is not sufficient on its own; players still need to actively sign up for departure before the window closes.

Expeditions are then being temporarily paused while Embark revisits their underlying systems. The studio wants to make them more rewarding and enjoyable before continuing with future iterations.

Update 1.45.0 also changed Expedition behavior so starting one no longer resets quests automatically. Players can choose whether their quest progress should be reset when departing, addressing one of the recurring points of feedback around the prestige-style system.

Combined with the retirement of Cred and arrival of the Legacy Pass, September is effectively becoming a transition period between ARC Raiders’ current progression structure and the one Frozen Trail establishes.

The Next Questions Go Directly to the Developers

Embark is not finished revealing the update. A Frozen Trail developer Q&A will be streamed on Friday, September 25 at 6:00 p.m. CEST, with players able to submit questions based on the First Look.

There is still plenty worth clarifying. The exact behavior of flash freezes and the new Map Condition remains unknown, the reworked Skill Tree has not been shown in full, Reward Pass pricing is still missing and the precise reward structure of the Frigate remains deliberately vague. The Amplified Weapon system also raises questions about crafting costs, Research Workstation progression and how quickly players can realistically reach the fifth quality tier.

Those details will determine whether several of Frozen Trail’s headline systems merely sound ambitious or actually transform the long-term game.

For now, the First Look establishes the broader direction clearly enough: Embark wants October 8 to feel like the beginning of another phase of ARC Raiders, not just the day another map enters rotation.

October 8 Pushes ARC Raiders Into Its Next Frontier

ARC Raiders launched on October 30, 2025 with a simple but effective tension at its core: go Topside, risk what you own, recover what you can and hope both the machines and other Raiders allow you to return to Speranza.

Frozen Trail does not abandon that structure. Instead, it expands almost every variable surrounding it.

Pendola Pass provides a harsher and more vertical place to explore. The fallen Emperor gives Raiders a reason to enter it. The Frigate creates a new high-level challenge above it. Bully, Skulker and Hydra complicate the ARC threat, while grappling hooks and tethers expand what players can physically do in a fight. The Outpost, Amplified Weapons and Skill Tree rework deepen long-term progression, while cameras, instruments and customization provide more ways to build an identity outside pure combat.

That combination is what makes the update significant. Frozen Trail is not simply asking players to learn another loot route.

On October 8, ARC Raiders is asking them to cross the mountains and find out what happens when the Rust Belt is no longer the edge of the world.