ARC Raiders Update 2.3.0 went live on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, and it is the last of the weekly fix patches Embark has been shipping since Frozen Trail launched on October 8. The official Live Update 2.3.0 notes on arcraiders.com are short on headline features but long on changes that touch your stash, your loadout and the two new Pendola Pass hot spots, the Fallen Emperor and the Frigate. If you only skim one thing today, skim the Expedition Vault change, because it quietly moves items around in your stash the next time you log in.
Console players will see the download as update 1.000.066, according to MP1st's console breakdown. On PC, Embark's own instruction is simply to restart the game to pull the patch. Our earlier Update 2.2.0 guide and Frozen Trail launch guide cover the season context if you are coming back after a break.
What Is in ARC Raiders Update 2.3.0?
Embark's opening line sums it up: 2.3 is "rolling out right now with the Noxious Set, a number of fixes and a new player project." Under that sit around a hundred individual line items across ARC behavior, items, maps, UI and stability. Here is how I would group them by how much they change your next raid:
- Changes that affect your stash right away: the Expedition Vault shutdown and the Bronze Statuette refund.
- Changes that affect your loadout: Heavy Shield, Flame Spray, Firefly Burner and Adrenaline Shot.
- Changes that affect where you loot: the Emperor and Frigate loot redistribution, the expanded blueprint pool, and the Emperor Key blueprint drop nerf.
- Changes that fix annoyances: Grappling Hook launches, zipline entry, stuck spots on Pendola Pass, Spaceport and Stella Montis, and a pile of crash fixes.
- New things to do: the Souls Offering player project and some camera and Codex additions.
The Expedition Vault Is Disabled: What Happens to Your Items
This is the line that will generate the most support tickets this week: "We will be disabling the Expedition Vault and you will receive Bronze Statuettes as compensation for the purchased slots. Everything you had in the Vault will be moved to your stash."
Quick refresher on what the Vault was. When Ermal, the Nomadic Envoy, arrived in May, Embark's Meet the new Trader post described the Expedition Vault as "five slots that can be used to carry over your most valued items across the Expedition." Raiders paid real ARC parts and gear for those slots so their favorite blueprints would survive an Expedition reset.
Expeditions themselves have been on pause since the fifth one departed at the end of September, with Embark pointing to a return in early 2027. GameRiv's report on the Expedition pause covered the first wave of Bronze Statuette compensation for invested Caravan materials. With no Expedition on the calendar, a storage feature built around Expedition resets had no job to do, so Embark is folding it back into the normal stash.
What this means for you in practice:
- Your Vault items are not deleted. Embark says everything in the Vault moves to your stash.
- Check your stash space before your first raid. If you were already near the cap, those returning items could push you to the limit. Clear junk or sell duplicates before queuing so you do not end a raid unable to bank loot.
- Bronze Statuettes are the refund. Embark ties them to the slots you purchased, not to the items you stored. Embark has not published a per-slot conversion, so do not expect a fixed number until people compare notes.
- Statuettes trade with Ermal. Bronze Statuettes are used in trades at the Nomadic Envoy, which is the same vendor that sold the slots in the first place.
Balance Changes: Heavy Shield, Flame Spray, Firefly Burner and Adrenaline Shot
Embark only touched a handful of numbers, but every one of them changes a buy decision.
Heavy Shield: 80 to 90 Base Charge
Embark's dev note is unusually candid. They buffed the Heavy Shield's durability drain in the 2.0 update, the data showed that change landed, but "the usage rates for this shield are still relatively low." So it gets another bump, this time to base charge. The stated goal is to "slightly increase survivability against most weapons, without creating too large a margin between the Heavy and Medium Shields."
My read: ten extra points will not make the Heavy Shield a must-run, but it does narrow the gap in fights where you are trading shots at medium range. If you were already carrying one for Frigate pushes or Emperor runs, today is a small win. If you run Medium for the mobility, nothing here forces you to switch. Embark says it is watching combat balance closely, so do not be shocked if this moves again in three weeks.
Flame Spray: More Damage, Half the Durability Drain
Flame Spray goes from 10 to 13 damage per second, a 30% jump, and its durability drain is cut in half. Embark also fixed fire passing through walls, which was a real complaint from people getting cooked around corners. Put together, Flame Spray should last noticeably longer per repair and hit harder in close quarters. It is a strong pick for clearing tight interiors like the Emperor's corridors or the Frigate's cargo hold, where you are often fighting small ARC at short range.
Firefly Burner Now Works on Impact
This is the biggest feel change of the patch. Previously you threw the Firefly Burner and then had to shoot it to vent fire. Now it "activates on impact when thrown, traveling while leaving a trail of fire before exploding after about 3 seconds." That turns it from a setup tool into a proper throwable. Lob it down a hallway to zone a pushing squad, or toss it at a group of small ARC and let the trail do the work.
Adrenaline Shot Is Usable at Full Stamina
You can now pop an Adrenaline Shot even when your stamina bar is full, which removes the awkward "sprint first, then inject" routine before a long run. The trade-off is that the effect no longer stacks. Using a second shot refreshes the duration instead of piling on. If you were double-dosing for a long escape, plan around a single shot and time the refresh.
Loot Changes: Emperor, Frigate and the Blueprint Pool
Fallen Emperor and Frigate Loot Now Rewards Going Deeper
Both of Frozen Trail's marquee spaces got the same philosophy. In the Emperor, "containers near the entrance now yield lower-tier rewards, with higher-tier loot placed deeper inside." On the Frigate, Embark "adjusted loot distribution so areas further in have a higher chance of higher-tier rewards."
That is a direct answer to quick-in, quick-out looting at the doors. If you have been farming the first rooms of the Emperor and leaving, expect worse returns from now on. The upside is that the full run is worth more. Embark also expanded the exploit prevention in locked rooms inside the Emperor and tweaked the killboxes at the top of the compactor to stop some unfair deaths, so going deeper should be less of a gamble than it was in week one.
The Frigate also got:
- Long-range pings while it is entering the area, and pings that now mark the exact spot instead of just labeling "Frigate."
- New visual hatches that show how far the Frigate puzzle has progressed, plus clearer audio cues on power core vents and hatches.
- Collision fixes so players can no longer hide inside geometry or get stuck on the wings.
- Stability and memory fixes for larger groups exploring the cargo hold, and better lighting so the interior is not pitch black.
Six Weapon Blueprints Can Now Drop in Any Major Map Condition
The Dolabra, Bobcat, Equalizer, Jupiter, Tempest and Vulcano blueprints can now drop in any major map condition instead of being tied to specific ones. Embark "slightly lowered the drop chance of that pool to account for the increased value." In plain terms, you have more chances to see them across more raids, with each individual roll a little less likely. If you were stuck waiting for a particular map condition to rotate in, this should smooth out the hunt.
Emperor Key Blueprint Drops Less From Redirection Pods
The Emperor Key blueprint now drops less often from Redirection pods. To compensate, those pods have "a small chance to find ARC parts and high-tier ARC loot." If you already own the blueprint, this is a net gain since the pods are more useful to you. If you are still hunting it, it just got slower.
Furniture Design Drop Rates Fixed
There was a bug where furniture Design drop rates were inverted, meaning rarer designs dropped more often than common ones. That is fixed. Rare designs now drop less often. If you noticed Outpost decor coming in suspiciously fast, that is why, and it will feel slower from today.
Grappling Hook, Zipline and Movement Fixes
The Grappling Hook was the star of Frozen Trail and also the source of plenty of comedy deaths. Update 2.3.0 addresses most of the launch bugs:
- It now works inside the Matriarch's shield while the shield is active.
- Tether items now affect players swinging from the hook.
- Snags on geometry should no longer fling you at extreme speeds or into the air.
- The hook reattaches to debris when its target breaks apart, which helps when grappling ARC parts.
- Reeling an ARC while the rope is wrapped around an obstacle now pulls toward the wrap point, not straight at you.
- You can no longer reel while firing is blocked, which was corrupting the Dodge Roll animation.
- A stuck hand animation after swapping from a thrown hook is fixed.
Map Fixes on Pendola Pass, Spaceport and Stella Montis
Pendola Pass took most of the attention. Embark fixed multiple collision issues around the Fallen Emperor that let players get stuck or slip out of bounds, including a missing ceiling collision. Players could also clip through the gondola extraction, and that is patched. A shelter's chairs that blocked looting were removed, Storm Hut containers were repositioned (fixing a Medical Bag you could loot through a wall), and an uninteractable ammo box now works.
Downed Raiders also no longer keep bleeding out after being loaded into the Ballistic Gondola, which was a nasty way to lose a teammate at extract. Spaceport got a fix for a small fence gap that trapped players, and Stella Montis had several stuck spots cleaned up.
Souls Offering Player Project and the Noxious Set
The new player project is Souls Offering. Embark's flavor text says Celeste is encouraging Speranza to "pause and honor the fallen" as stories from Pendola Pass reach the cantinas, and that "all who pause in reverence share in their Soul's Offering." It reads like a community-wide project in the same vein as earlier player projects, timed nicely for the Halloween and Day of the Dead window. Check the Projects tab in Speranza for the specific contributions and rewards, since the notes do not list them.
The Noxious Set also arrives with this update. Embark mentions it only in the intro line, and with store updates continuing weekly, look for it in the in-game store rather than as a drop.
UI, Camera and Codex Additions
Smaller quality-of-life changes worth knowing:
- Camera: Color Push and Black and White filters added to the Advanced Camera, a refined film grain on Classic Film, and less depth-of-field blur on the Basic Camera for clearer selfies.
- Camera bob option added to Gameplay settings. If head bob made you queasy, go turn it off.
- Codex: a new "Times Revived By A Stranger" stat, a fix for the Bilguun's Hideout entry on Spaceport not unlocking, and clearer tooltips about where saved photos live.
- Reward Pass: Daily Feats are renamed to Feats and Weekly Bonus to Milestones, with a cleaner layout and timers.
- Weapon Amplification: branch points now list exactly which amplifications they block, instead of a generic exclusivity message.
- Daily Quests now refresh correctly in menus after expiring.
- End of Round screen now shows attached Weapon Mods and applied Stencils properly.
- A controller fix for the mouse cursor getting confined to a small area after using the radial wheel.
Stability and Performance
Embark updated the AMD FSR plugin to version 4.1.1 and added a workaround for a ray tracing GPU crash on AMD RX 7000 series cards. Xbox Series S gets reduced audio memory usage to cut out-of-memory crashes, especially around the Frigate. There is also a failsafe for the post-round tunnel sequence: if the end-of-round survey screen fails to load, you are now returned to the front end instead of being stuck. A rare voice chat crash is fixed as well.
Known Issues in ARC Raiders 2.3.0
Embark listed these as still open. A couple can block quest progress, so read them before you commit materials:
- The Raider Tool shows the default skin even when another skin is equipped.
- Extracting with partial progress on the To The Skies quest may make it impossible to complete.
- When Everything Falls objectives such as "Photograph Port A" may not complete for some players.
- Losing or selling quest items, like the Equatorial Sundial for Clean Hands, can leave that quest uncompletable. Do not sell quest items.
- Some Xbox players may see instability or crashes.
- ARC Reclaimers can occasionally fail to dock on the right spot on the Frigate.
- Vaulting on an ARC Reclaimer can push you off.
- Some weapon models can grow dramatically in size mid-raid.
- Falling while using the Grappling Hook can bounce you high into the air.
- There is a stuck spot near the Railroad on Pendola Pass.
When Is the Next ARC Raiders Patch?
Embark spelled out the new rhythm: "Since Frozen Trail has released, we have been including fixes in our weekly updates. After today we will go back to the regular schedule of fixes every three weeks and store updates on a weekly basis." Counting three weeks from October 27 puts the next fix patch around Tuesday, November 17, though Embark has not committed to an exact date. Store updates continue every week in between.
That also means 2.3.0 is likely the patch you will be living with for a while, so it is worth re-evaluating your kit now. A Heavy Shield plus Flame Spray loadout for interior pushes is more viable than it was last week, and a Firefly Burner in your quick slot is finally an aggressive tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did ARC Raiders Update 2.3.0 come out?
Embark released Live Update 2.3.0 on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. On consoles it appears as update 1.000.066. Embark's instruction is to restart the game to download it.
What happened to the Expedition Vault in ARC Raiders?
Update 2.3.0 disables the Expedition Vault. Everything you stored in it is moved to your stash, and you receive Bronze Statuettes as compensation for any Vault slots you purchased from Ermal. With Expeditions paused until early 2027, the Vault no longer had a purpose.
Will I lose my blueprints from the Expedition Vault?
No. Embark says everything in the Vault will be moved to your stash. The only thing to watch is stash space, because those items now count against your normal capacity. Clear room before your first raid so you can still bank loot.
How many Bronze Statuettes do I get for my Vault slots?
Embark has not published an exact conversion. The notes only say Statuettes are compensation "for the purchased slots," so players who bought more slots should expect more. You can spend them at Ermal, the Nomadic Envoy.
Is the Heavy Shield good now in ARC Raiders?
It is better. The base charge went from 80 to 90 on top of the durability drain buff from the 2.0 update. Embark says the goal is a small survivability increase without making Heavy far better than Medium, so it is a solid pick for slower interior pushes rather than a new default.
What changed with the Firefly Burner?
It now activates on impact when thrown, leaving a trail of fire as it travels before exploding after about 3 seconds. Before 2.3.0 you had to shoot it to make it vent fire.
Why is the Emperor loot worse near the entrance?
Embark redistributed loot so containers near the Emperor's entrance give lower-tier rewards and the best loot sits deeper inside. The Frigate got the same treatment. It rewards full runs over door farming.
When is the next ARC Raiders update?
Embark says fix patches return to a three-week cycle after 2.3.0, with store updates weekly. That points to roughly mid November for the next fix patch, with Tuesday, November 17 as the likely window, though Embark has not announced a date.
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