ARC Raiders keeps wipes optional with Expedition Project

ARC Raiders wipe system explained: Embark will not run mandatory server wipes. Instead, Expedition Project allows players to trigger a voluntary reset, clearing character progression and giving them a rotating set of rewards. Cosmetics, achievements, and other account-bound entitlements persist.

How wipes work in ARC Raiders

ARC Raiders will not use automatic server wipes, inherent to the extraction shooter genre. Instead, Embark is introducing the Expedition Project, a prestige-style, voluntary player progression reset that becomes available after reaching level 20 and completing the corresponding project.

Each Expedition cycle lasts about 8 weeks. For 7 weeks, players will be able to progress through the project, but there will be no option to finish it. In the last week, the finalization window opens, allowing players to finish the Expedition and trigger the wipe. Embark states that it requires a “somewhat large time investment”. The player’s Expedition progress carries over to the next cycle if they haven’t finished it.

A reset wipes character-bound progress, including levels, skills, items, and inventory, as well as workshop and crafting development. Cosmetics (both earned or purchased), awards, achievements, rankings, and anything tied to real-money purchases persist. Post-reset, players will be able to skip most of the initial onboarding they have already cleared.

Incentives for wipe include permanent account unlocks, unique cosmetics, and account buffs that apply during the next Expedition cycle and scale with consecutive completions up to a limit. Embark emphasizes that completing a reset should not confer a power or combat advantage on players who do not reset; instead, benefits are focused on cosmetics, quality of life, and smoother progression.

ARC Raiders gains momentum

The ARC Raiders community has responded broadly positively to the Expedition Project news. The voluntary wipe works like prestige: it adds bragging rights without conferring real gameplay advantages, so there is no power creep and no forced progression reset.

Casual players, and anyone who cannot treat a game like a second job, keep their progress across cycles and can choose to reset only occasionally. Hardcore players get extra status and the chance to feel gear-poor again, chasing the early-wipe thrill common to extraction shooters. In practice, both groups get what they want.

Ahead of release, Embark scheduled a three-day Server Slam open test for October 17-19, with progress not carrying over to launch; participants will receive a cosmetic backpack. This week, the studio capitalized on a brief Call of Duty chat-filter hiccup with an ironic post that went viral, adding momentum in the final run-up to the game’s launch.

ARC Raiders is a third-person PvPvE extraction shooter from Embark set on a future Earth overrun by ARC robots, launching October 30, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Extraction shooters remain a niche slice of live service games, but have picked up clear momentum in recent years. Battlestate says Escape from Tarkov 1.0 will finally launch on November 15, 2025 (including Steam), while indefinitely delayed Bungie’s extraction shooter, Marathon, runs a closed technical test from October 22 to 28, adding features players asked for previously.