Arc Raiders is the newest title from Embark Studios, and it's one that certainly has a lot of our attention, as the recent Server Slam was massive for the game.
With expectations high, there are some questions into how the game is going to handle wipes, and other standard features in extraction shooters.
Here's what we know about their Expedition Projects.
Arc Raiders: What Are Expedition Projects? Explained
Speranaza is the location where our player hub is, and if you've noticed that during the Server Slam, the world itself is very desolate and ravaged.
Before diving into this world, you're going to want to know how Embark is going to handle what they're calling Expedition Projects. These will essentially be optional wipes for players, and they'll be able to do this once they've essentially completed their character for the current season of progression.
However, we aren't too sure how they intend to counteract the feeling of new players diving into a game that is filled with fully kitted players. Embark Studios has noted the following:
Expedition Project
Which brings us to the Expedition Project. The tunnel networks connected to Speranza are vast but largely unexplored or inaccessible. Most survivors stay within their settlements, but like the Raiders who dare venture topside, there are those who dare venture even farther. Once the Rust Belt has given all it can offer, some Raiders choose to set out beyond the borders of what they know. As of now, this has always been a one-way trip.
In the full game, players will have access to a feature called “Projects”. At level 20, the first major project players will have access to is the Expedition Project. Upon completion, this project makes a character reset available. If a player completes a reset, they will be able to do so again so long as they complete another of these projects.
The Expedition Project will operate on a repeating cycle of roughly 8 weeks. During the course of these 8 weeks, players can contribute toward and make progress on their Expedition Project, which will overall be a somewhat large time investment. At the start of the 8th week, the ability to finalize the project will become available & will remain available for that entire week. If a player has fulfilled all of the necessary stages of the project, they will be able to commit to completing the Expedition during this period.
Should a player’s project not be ready during the window to complete the Expedition project, their progress will be kept, allowing them to continue working on the project until the next finalization window.
Other projects may be added over time as part of updates, holidays, and other events. These will range in scale and reward structure.
What is kept, what is lost?
So, what do you keep through an Expedition vs. what is lost?
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.
Now, aside from players who like the thrill of starting fresh, why would you willingly give up all of your hard-earned progress? Incentives.
Benefits and incentives
We are still finalizing the exact benefits and rewards, but they will generally follow along these lines:
- Permanent account unlocks for each completed Expedition
- Unique cosmetic rewards for each completed Expedition
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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.
One point to drive home is that we are being very careful about the nature of these benefits. Completing a reset should never give a player a power or combat advantage over anyone who has not completed a reset.
Initially, these benefits will center around cosmetics & bragging rights, quality-of-life, and smoothing out some aspects of progression for those who have gone through a reset.
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