ARC Raiders has added a grappling hook, the snowy Pendola Pass map and a new route to late-game weapon upgrades in Frozen Trail. The October 8 update arrived alongside a free-play weekend, with the extraction shooter reaching 185,443 concurrent players on Steam, more than four times its September high.
Steam Charts records September's peak at 39,900, compared with 185,443 in its latest 30-day window. That is roughly a 4.6-fold increase in peak concurrency, not a count of new players or copies sold. The figures cover Steam, not the game's PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S audiences.
Embark offered the full game through its free-play event from October 8 at 09:00 UTC until October 12 at 08:00 UTC. That promotion has now ended, so the surge cannot be credited to the update alone. When checked on October 13, Steam Charts showed a lower 24-hour peak of 152,392, still well above September's high.
New routes and late-game upgrades
Embark's Frozen Trail content preview explains how the Grappling Hook lets Raiders climb difficult spots, abseil off buildings and swing across gaps. Pendola Pass takes players beyond the Rust Belt into a frozen mountain region, while the Frigate offers a boarding challenge with other Raiders competing for its loot.
The movement changes include a trade-off for existing loadouts. The Snap Hook's range drops from 20 to 18 metres, with higher durability consumption and power costs. Embark says it wants that gadget to serve as burst mobility, giving it a distinct role alongside the new Grappling Hook.
The Outpost gives returning players something else to work toward. Its fully upgraded Research Workstation unlocks a fifth quality level for 15 weapons, with branching enhancements that change how guns behave. Embark's examples include a fully automatic Burletta and a Rattler with incendiary ammunition and a 64-round magazine.
The 2.0 patch notes also confirm 22 new quests, a revamped Skill Tree and the replacement of Raider Decks with Reward Passes. Existing decks and unlocked rewards carry over into the Legacy Pass. Only one pass can be active at a time, so players choose where their newly earned Reward Points go; the Frozen Trail Pass has 60 levels split between free and premium tracks.