ARC Raiders has launched its “North Line” update today, November 13, and with it comes a community challenge to unlock a new map., Stella Montis, rather than just releasing it outright.
The ARC Raiders event, called Breaking New Ground, involves the community piling in resources to earn “merits,” working toward the eventual goal of unlocking the map. Here’s Embark:
“Access to Stella Montis must first be earned — the tunnels leading to the new region will only open once the global community completes Breaking New Ground.”
Well, there was a slight hitch here. The Breaking New Ground event launched with North Line at 4:30 AM ET. But by 5:48 AM, Embark realized they’d made a bit of a calculation mistake. Here’s what they said on Discord:
“Hey, Raiders! You have been progressing the unlock event much faster than we anticipated. We had no idea all of you would be so altruistic for the Stella Montis cause, and you are donating so much more than we could imagine. We want this event to be experienced by Raiders all over the world and therefore we are raising the bar to unlock Stella Montis expecting you to surprise us again.”
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What was happening was that ARC Raiders players were absolutely dumping resources into the merit system, and it seemed like the event might have been over before it started. Now, adjusting to that pace, Embark almost immediately raised the goal to unlock the new map. It’s not yet clear how long this is going to take, as it’s the early hours of the morning in most places in the US, and the peak of the game isn’t until later tonight. The peak of the game overall is over the weekend, usually Sunday night. But will it take that long? I doubt it, even with the goal increase. Players aren’t going to want to wait four full days for this.
As for North Line, along with Stella Montis, here’s what’s gone live with the new update:
- New Map: Stella Montis
- Community Unlock Event: Breaking New Ground, leading to Stella Montis unlock, then new Stella Montis quests
- New ARCs: Matriarch, Shredder
- New Weapon and Items: Aphelion Rifle, Trailblazer Grenade, Seeker Grenade, Pulse Mine, Deadline Mine, Gas Mine
This is the first update for ARC Raiders, an attempt to show that Embark is going to keep cranking out small and large additions to the game to retain its currently large playerbase. They’ve made some recent updates like lowering cosmetic prices and doing a duo priority matchmaking system. Now, there are these other new additions, more of which will open up once Stella Mortis is live, including those quests and one new ARC.
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