Arc Raiders’ Battle Pass Won’t Be Totally Free Anymore, But It’ll Pay For Itself

According to a report by Random News Portal… When Arc Raiders’ next major update, Frozen Trail, goes live on October 8, it’ll introduce lots of changes and additions, and while the update itself will be free, the new battle pass system that comes with it won’t be–at least not entirely.

To date, Arc Raiders has featured three battle pass-like Raider Decks in the game. Players could complete dailies to unlock Creds that then got them rewards like new cosmetics and in-game items. With Frozen Trail, Embark Studios’ new Reward Pass is replacing this system with one quite like it, only it’ll also have a paid premium track for unlocking additional rewards.

Anyone who owns the game gets the Free Pass, naturally, while the paid track will cost 1,150 Raider Tokens, or about $10 USD. Thankfully, Embark is taking the opportunity to sort the rewards responsibly, with the Premium Pass offering only cosmetic items. Players will get gameplay-altering items, like new weapons and gear, exclusively through the Free Pass. This approach avoids any type of pay-to-win debacle.

Maybe the best feature of the newly priced Reward Pass is that if you buy access to the Premium Pass, you’ll earn back more than you spent on it, pocketing 1,350 Raider Tokens for completing the pass, 200 of which are found in the Free Pass. Of course, your time isn’t free either, but since Arc Raiders was my Game of the Year last year, I’m happy to see that sort of player-friendly exchange rate debut in Arc Raiders, especially after it recently left my other live-service favorite, Fortnite.

Along with the new Reward Pass, Frozen Trail seems poised to reset Arc Raiders in a major way, with the frosty Pendola Pass map adding a lot to both gameplay and lore, taking raiders where they’ve never dwelled before and stumbling upon several new Arc threats: the Bully, Skulker, and Hydra. 

The Frigate is a new airborne carrier and raid-like event that’s designed to take several players most of a round to overcome through combat and puzzles. Aboard the Frigate, the Hydra awaits, capable of downing multiple players at a time and even respawning once it’s defeated. 

Weapon amplification will give players new ways to customize their weapons, disrupting the meta and challenging players to try new loadouts, while stencils act like weapon skins, offering new cosmetic changes to guns. 

As for gameplay items, Frozen Trail adds the banjo and harmonica instruments, a camera, and a grappling hook, which is sure to be a new community favorite.

Of course, another big Arc Raiders update means more quests, and now they’ll offer optional objectives for added rewards. Skill trees are also being overhauled to both add new skills and alter existing ones.

The update also adds Outposts, new customizable areas for raiders to call their own. As for an explorable Speranza, Embark’s Aleksander Grondal said that it’s still something the team is looking into, though no such addition will be available with the Frozen Trail launch.”So that’s been a question we have been asked a few times, and it’s something that we have looked at and discussed a number of times,” Grondal said during a roundtable interview. “And at the moment, there is none of that, but we could see a future where you could invite your friends into your Outposts, for instance, as something that we want to try. We see the need for a place to socialize and kind of hang out between the raids, but we really haven’t settled on exactly how we want to execute against that need yet; it’s something that is [at the] top of our list when we think about where to take Arc Raiders next.”

Pendola Pass is said to be the game’s most challenging map to date, which is notable given how tough Riven Tides is.

Grondal confirmed the team is still working on the idea of major updates roughly every six months, though the next big update following Frozen Trail doesn’t have a set date yet. In May, Grondal told me that some on the team were “a little bit uncomfortable” about the pivot to a new roadmap. I asked him how the team is feeling now that Frozen Trail is nearly here. He explained that it brings up a mix of emotions.

“If you take a look at where we were when we did the monthly updates and where we are today, we feel a lot better about what we’re putting out [and the] quality we’re putting into the updates. So I think the team feels good about that. Of course, it’s scary every time we do a big update. To me, the best way to describe it is that it almost feels like we’re shipping the game again, because I get flashbacks to last year when we were in this very same position trying to make the game complete.

“So it becomes almost scarier in a way because the updates are larger and, of course, more complicated to execute. I think, overall, the team is pretty happy and excited to share what we’ve been working on basically since May of this year, and yeah, I’m also excited.”

Frozen Trail comes to Arc Raiders on October 8 as a free update on all platforms. When it goes live, the new Frozen Trail Collector Set shop bundle will include a new outfit, weapon stencil, hairstyle, and 2,400 Raider Tokens, plus instant access to the Premium Pass. complete report is on below link. Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/arc-raiders-battle-pass-wont-be-totally-free-anymore-but-itll-pay-for-itself/