Embark Studios is pausing Expeditions in Arc Raiders once the fifth one has run its course in September, and will not reinstate the system until early 2027. The studio set the pause out in an update published on Friday and reported by PC Gamer.
Expeditions are the extraction shooter's prestige-style reset. High-level players surrender much of their character progress in exchange for benefits they cannot obtain any other way, which makes each departure a significant commitment. Embark has been adjusting the system almost since it began, most recently with a set of changes to the fourth Expedition announced in June; PC Gamer's Morgan Park predicted at the time that a larger overhaul was coming.
We have been carefully reviewing your feedback on Expeditions, and while we've made ongoing improvements along the way, we've come to realize that some of the issues you've raised, like the tight departure windows, the reward structure, and accessibility for new players, need more than incremental fixes. They call for bigger changes.
The fifth Expedition is therefore the last for the foreseeable future. Embark said Expeditions will return in early 2027 with what it described as major improvements aimed at the biggest player pain points, and that it will share details of those changes in September.
Players partway through the system do not lose ground, according to the studio. Consecutive buffs already earned persist through the pause, and any partially completed Caravans will be replaced with Ermal Vouchers of equal value.
The same update lays out the fifth Expedition itself. Its departure window opens at 4 am PT and 7 am ET on September 8, and the post covers how to get in and what the run pays out.
Reaction has been mixed rather than relieved, PC Gamer reported. Responses on X ran more hostile than those on the Arc Raiders subreddit, and much of the community has taken a wait-and-see position, acknowledging that Expeditions needs work while holding reservations about whether the rework will land. Some players are content with the system as it currently stands and do not want it changed at all.
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