How Progression Wipes Work in ARC Raiders
Embark Studios aims to address the biggest issue with extraction shooters: mandatory wipes. While some have grown to the idea, many, including myself, hate the thought of losing everything and starting over again. All those hours down the drain, especially if you’re someone with a full-time job. Wipes can be a very frustrating aspect of extraction shooters, and feeling like you’ve made no progress is understandably a massive turnoff for the genre.
Well, it looks like ARC Raiders is going to have a solution for that, as wipes will be completely optional.
ARC Raiders Wipes Are Optional, Not Mandatory
Embark Studios is changing the extraction shooter game by eliminating the mandatory wipe of all accounts after a specific period. Yep, you read right, wipes in ARC Raiders will be completely optional. The reason being? It’s because the studio understands that not everyone has all the time in the world to play. Many of us work and have other priorities that come before gaming, and when we do game, it’s usually for a few short hours, if we’re lucky enough to have that time. There is nothing more frustrating than coming home to realize you’ve lost everything because you weren’t aware of an impending wipe.
Seems that won’t be an issue for ARC Raiders, but wipes will still exist; they’ll just be optional. Wipes, or as Embark dubs them, the Expedition Project, will be completely optional for players who hit level 20 during the Expedition Cycle. If they choose to wipe, they’ll lose all of the following:
- Players will lose anything inherent to their character’s progress. Levels, skills, items/inventory, workshop, crafting capabilities, etc.
- Players will keep cosmetics (earned or purchased), awards, achievements, rankings, etc. Essentially, anything rooted solely in the metagame or involving real money will be preserved.
- For convenience, after completing an Expedition players will be able to skip the majority of the onboarding and tutorial steps they went through as a new player. This being things like unlocking certain features, maps, etc. as they play through the early game. These will just be available from the start of a fresh reset.
But any cosmetics (earned or purchased), awards, achievements, rankings, etc. Essentially, anything rooted solely in the metagame or involving real money will be kept.
Expedition cycles will run for 8 weeks, culminating in a “finalized” phase. If a player meets the project completion criteria, they can proceed with the wipe.
So, I suppose the next question everyone has is, what is the point of wiping if it’s optional? Well, there will be some incentives, though Embark is being very careful with the benefits, as they don’t want them to give any players any clear combat advantage. They’ll mostly be about bragging rights, which can be shown off with some unlocks.
- Permanent account unlocks for each completed Expedition
- Unique cosmetic rewards for each completed Expedition
- Account “buffs” that are applied for the duration of the following Expedition cycle
- And sequential completions of the Expedition Project increase the magnitude of these buffs, up to a limit.
Seems like a fair system if you ask me. Players with limited time can rest easy knowing their progress is preserved, while those who prefer playing “fresh” can still do so and earn rewards for it. Of course, that’s all subject to change, now and between launch, and of course, later in the game’s life. But I am liking the idea of this, so here’s to hoping that it actually plays out well.
ARC Raider officially launches on October 31, 2025, on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. As a reminder, a Server Slam playtest is scheduled for October 17, giving players another chance to play ARC Raiders until October 19, 2025.
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