Embark Studios just dropped details on how Arc Raiders will handle one of the most controversial mechanics in extraction shooters: progression wipes. Instead of forcing everyone to restart from scratch every few months like Escape from Tarkov, Arc Raiders introduces the Expedition Project, an optional eight-week cycle that lets players choose when and if they want to reset their character. For anyone who’s ever lost dozens of hours of progress to a mandatory wipe, this could be revolutionary.
The Extraction Shooter Wipe Problem
Progression wipes are standard practice in hardcore extraction shooters. Games like Escape from Tarkov reset everything regularly, wiping your stash, your character level, your hideout upgrades, and everything you’ve collected. The reasoning makes sense from a design perspective. Wipes keep the economy balanced, prevent veteran players from becoming untouchable gods with infinite resources, and create exciting fresh-start moments where everyone competes on equal footing.
But mandatory wipes also create a huge barrier for casual players or anyone with limited gaming time. Spending weeks building up your character and inventory only to have it vanish can feel devastating, especially if real life prevented you from enjoying what you earned before the reset hammer dropped. This hardcore approach keeps extraction shooters niche and intimidating.
How the Expedition Project Works
Arc Raiders design director Virgil detailed the new system in an official blog post. Rather than forcing wipes on everyone simultaneously, the game introduces Projects as repeatable long-term goals with meaningful rewards.
Unlocking Your First Project
At level 20, players unlock access to their first major project: the Expedition Project. This substantial undertaking requires significant time investment over an eight-week cycle. During those eight weeks, you gradually work toward completing various stages of the project while continuing to play normally, gathering loot, upgrading your character, and building your inventory.
At the start of week eight, the finalization window opens for seven days. If you’ve fulfilled all necessary stages during the previous weeks, you can commit to completing the Expedition. This triggers a character reset where you lose your level, gear, inventory, and skills. However, you keep cosmetics, achievements, rankings, and anything tied to real money purchases.
Progress Never Disappears
Here’s the brilliant part. If your project isn’t ready when the finalization window arrives, nothing is lost. Your progress carries over to the next eight-week cycle, allowing you to continue working toward completion at your own pace. There’s no punishment for taking longer, no forced deadline, and no pressure to rush through content just to beat an arbitrary cutoff.
| Feature | Traditional Wipes | Expedition Project |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Forced, affects everyone | Optional, player chooses |
| Requirements | None, happens automatically | Complete project stages over 8 weeks |
| What You Lose | Everything | Level, gear, inventory, skills |
| What You Keep | Usually nothing | Cosmetics, achievements, rankings, purchases |
| Rewards | Fresh start only | Permanent unlocks, cosmetics, account buffs |
| Missed Deadline | Progress lost anyway | Progress saved for next cycle |
Rewards That Make Resets Worth It
Embark understands that optional resets only work if there are compelling reasons to actually do them. While specific details remain somewhat vague, the blog post confirms that completing Expedition Projects earns permanent unlocks, unique cosmetics, and growing account buffs.
These rewards create a prestige system where veteran players who’ve completed multiple Expeditions have visible proof of their dedication. The cosmetics serve as status symbols showing you’ve mastered the game enough to willingly start over. The account buffs provide tangible advantages during future runs, making each subsequent Expedition potentially easier or offering new strategic options.
Most importantly, these rewards persist across all future characters. You’re not just wiping to start fresh, you’re wiping to earn permanent account progression that makes your overall Arc Raiders experience richer.
The Lore Connection
Embark cleverly integrated the Expedition Project into Arc Raiders’ narrative. The game is set in a future where mysterious mechanized ARC robots have taken over Earth’s surface, forcing humanity underground into settlements like Speranza. Raiders are the brave souls who venture topside to gather resources and sell them for profit.
The tunnel networks connecting these underground settlements are vast but largely unexplored. Most survivors stay within known safe zones, but some Raiders dare venture even farther into the unknown. As the blog post notes, once the Rust Belt area has given all it can offer, certain Raiders choose to set out beyond the borders of what they know. Historically, this has always been a one-way trip.
The Expedition Project represents your character making that fateful journey into unmapped territory, explaining the reset through narrative rather than just game mechanics. It’s a surprisingly elegant solution that gives in-universe meaning to what could have been purely mechanical progression.
Future Projects and Events
The Expedition Project is just the beginning. Embark’s announcement confirms that additional projects will be added over time as part of updates, holidays, and special events. These future projects will vary in scale and reward structure, potentially offering different types of progression beyond just character resets.
Imagine seasonal projects tied to in-game events, short-term challenges that reward exclusive cosmetics, or community-wide goals that unlock content for everyone. The Projects framework creates a flexible system for keeping the game fresh without relying solely on the traditional content update treadmill.
Why This Matters for the Genre
Extraction shooters have struggled to break into the mainstream despite offering unique tension and satisfying risk-reward gameplay. Games like Escape from Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown have passionate fanbases but remain niche partly because of their unforgiving nature. Mandatory wipes represent one of the biggest accessibility barriers.
Arc Raiders is clearly positioning itself as the extraction shooter for a broader audience. The game already features quality-of-life improvements like fair matchmaking that tries to match solo players against other solos. The third-person perspective feels more approachable than hardcore first-person perspectives. Add optional wipes to that list, and you have an extraction shooter designed to welcome players rather than punish them.
If the Expedition Project succeeds, expect other developers to take notice. The system proves you can maintain the fresh-start excitement hardcore fans crave while respecting the time investment of casual players. It’s a win-win that doesn’t feel like a compromise.
Arc Raiders Release Details
Arc Raiders launches October 30, 2025 on Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. Before launch, Embark is hosting one final server slam playtest from October 17-19, giving everyone a chance to try the game regardless of platform. Progress won’t carry over to the full release, but participants receive a free backpack cosmetic to use after launch.
The game is currently sitting in fifth place on Steam’s most wishlisted games list, a remarkable position for an extraction shooter. That popularity partly reflects Embark’s careful marketing and transparent communication, but it also shows genuine excitement for a game that’s trying to innovate rather than just copy what’s already out there.
Pricing and Editions
Arc Raiders recently dropped its price to make the game more accessible at launch. Pre-orders are available now across all platforms, though specific pricing details vary by region and storefront. The game will be a premium purchase rather than free-to-play, which should help maintain a healthier community free from some of the issues that plague free-to-play shooters.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Arc Raiders release?
Arc Raiders launches on October 30, 2025 for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, plus PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. A server slam playtest runs October 17-19 before launch.
Are wipes mandatory in Arc Raiders?
No, Arc Raiders features optional wipes through the Expedition Project system. Players choose when and if they want to reset their character rather than being forced to wipe on a set schedule.
What is the Expedition Project in Arc Raiders?
The Expedition Project is an eight-week repeatable challenge that unlocks at level 20. Completing it allows you to voluntarily reset your character in exchange for permanent unlocks, unique cosmetics, and account buffs.
What do you lose when completing an Expedition in Arc Raiders?
You lose your character level, gear, inventory, and skills. However, you keep cosmetics, achievements, rankings, and anything purchased with real money, plus you gain permanent rewards for completing the reset.
What happens if I don’t finish my Expedition Project in time?
Nothing bad happens. Your progress carries over to the next eight-week cycle, allowing you to continue working toward completion at your own pace with no penalties.
Is Arc Raiders free-to-play?
No, Arc Raiders is a premium purchase game available for pre-order now. Pricing varies by platform and region, but it recently had a price reduction to make it more accessible.
What platforms is Arc Raiders coming to?
Arc Raiders launches on Windows PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S simultaneously on October 30, 2025.
Conclusion
The Expedition Project represents exactly the kind of smart innovation the extraction shooter genre needs. By making progression wipes optional and rewarding rather than mandatory and punishing, Embark Studios addresses one of the biggest complaints casual players have about extraction games without alienating the hardcore audience that loves fresh-start moments. The eight-week cycle with flexible completion windows respects player time investment while still providing the economic resets and challenge refreshes that keep extraction shooters balanced and exciting. Add in permanent rewards that carry across characters, narrative justification through in-game lore, and the promise of future projects with different scales and rewards, and you have a progression system that feels genuinely thoughtful. Whether Arc Raiders succeeds commercially remains to be seen when it launches October 30th, but the Expedition Project alone proves Embark is willing to question extraction shooter orthodoxy and try new approaches. For an industry that often copies successful formulas without iteration, that willingness to experiment deserves recognition. If you’ve ever been curious about extraction shooters but intimidated by mandatory wipes and hardcore mechanics, Arc Raiders might finally be the entry point you’ve been waiting for.