ARC Raiders has several kinds of progression, and they do not all work the same way. Playing builds your Raider through levels, skill points, quests, crafting, and rewards. A knockout while topside puts the gear and scavenged items carried on that raid at risk, except for items in your Safe Pocket. Matchmaking is intended to balance encounters, but Embark has not published a complete account of its algorithm or promised a particular kind of lobby. Expedition is different again: it is a voluntary reset that becomes available at level 20.
How does progression work in ARC Raiders?
Progression in ARC Raiders is not just a level number. Experience contributes to levels, levels provide skill points, and those points shape your character through three skill-tree branches. Quests, workshop crafting, recipes, and daily Feats create additional ways to earn resources, unlock useful items, and develop your account. Embark’s Game progression help article describes these systems; it was last updated October 29, 2025.
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Levels and skill points
As you gain experience, you advance through levels and receive skill points to allocate in the skill tree. The three branches are Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival. You can distribute points among them to shape a build rather than being restricted to one branch. That makes leveling a character-development track: consider which branch choices suit your play style, but remember that ordinary leveling and Expedition persistence are separate questions.
| Progression track | What it does | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Experience and levels | Advances your Raider and grants skill points. | Experience contributes to leveling after extractions. |
| Conditioning | One of the three skill-tree branches. | Skill points can be distributed among branches; the cited help article does not specify a universally best build. |
| Mobility | One of the three skill-tree branches. | Choose points according to the kind of Raider you want to develop. |
| Survival | One of the three skill-tree branches. | It is a branch in the same point-allocation system as the other two. |
Quests, crafting, recipes, and Feats
Trader quests offer another progression route, with rewards that include weapons, gear, materials, and experience. They can therefore advance your character while also supplying practical items or resources. The workshop is where you craft gear, weapons, utilities, medical items, and components. Recipes can be found topside, so exploration can contribute to what you are able to make later.
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Daily Feats are a separate reward path: completing them earns Cred. Keep the distinction clear when planning what to do next. Levels and skill points develop the Raider; quests award their listed rewards; workshop progress depends on crafting and recipes; and Feats provide Cred. They complement each other, but one is not a substitute for the others.
In practical terms, a raid can support more than one progression goal: experience contributes to leveling, and successful exploration can turn up recipes for later workshop crafting. Quests and Feats are their own routes with different rewards, so check their objectives and reward types instead of assuming every activity advances the same track.
Do you lose your gear when you die?
If your Raider is knocked out while topside, the raid’s carried gear and scavenged items are lost apart from what is in the Safe Pocket. Embark’s Your first raid guide, last updated October 1, 2025, puts it plainly: “But beware: if your Raider gets knocked out while topside, you will lose everything except what’s in your Safe Pocket.” It clarifies that the loss covers other gear and items carried into the run as well as items scavenged during it.
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What the rule means before you deploy
- Think of your equipped gear and anything you collect topside as exposed to the risk of a knockout.
- Only items in the Safe Pocket are identified by Embark’s guide as exempt from that loss.
- Do not confuse losing a raid’s carried contents with losing items stored elsewhere in your account.
The practical decision is whether the value of a loadout is worth the risk of taking it into that raid. Carrying stronger or more valuable equipment may help you attempt a run, but the official rule does not promise that it will come back if you are knocked out.
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What does a Free Loadout do?
A Free Loadout gives you random basic equipment at no cost, so it can reduce the cost of attempting another raid when you do not want to risk your own gear. The trade-off is less room to bring loot back. It is an entry option, not protection for a normal loadout: the same first-raid guide says, “If you’d rather not put your own gear on the line, you can head topside with a Free Loadout.” That describes the choice as avoiding the risk to your own equipment, not as a way to keep a standard loadout after a knockout.
That trade-off matters if your aim is to return with scavenged items: free basic equipment lowers the cost of deploying, while the reduced space limits how much loot you can bring back. The guide does not say that Free Loadout protects items found during the raid, so the Safe Pocket exception remains important.
Does gear affect matchmaking?
Embark’s public explanation does not provide enough detail to say that gear either does or does not affect matchmaking. Its May 20, 2026 matchmaking note describes goals of fairness and unpredictability, and says the system tries to pair players with a similar likelihood of succeeding. It gives equal squad size, where possible, as an example of something matchmaking prioritizes.
The same note says the system considers how Raiders engage with one another, not what a player does with a downed Raider’s gear afterward. That statement is specifically about post-knockout behavior; it does not answer whether a loadout’s equipment is an input. Embark has not disclosed a full algorithm in the cited explanation, so claims that the game definitely matches by gear, or definitely ignores gear, go beyond what it establishes.
What to expect from the stated goals
- Fairness is a goal, not a guarantee. Embark describes the system’s intent, but does not promise evenly matched players or a peaceful encounter.
- Squad size can be prioritized where possible. This is not a promise that every lobby will contain only squads identical to yours.
- Encounters remain unpredictable. Matchmaking goals do not ensure that other Raiders will behave cooperatively or that a raid will feel identical to the last one.
In particular, do not treat the matchmaking description as evidence that bringing a cheaper loadout will place you in a safer lobby. The official explanation does not make that promise.
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A dated PvE matchmaking-toggle test
The official ARC Raiders site advertises a PvE matchmaking-toggle beta test running October 13 through October 20, 2026. That is a time-limited test, not evidence of a permanent mode or a standing matchmaking option. Availability and details may change, so consult the official ARC Raiders site for the announcement rather than assuming the toggle will remain available after the stated dates.
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Embark’s Matchmaking Troubleshooting – PC/Console guide, last updated February 27, 2026, identifies crossplay and region/server selection as useful checks for slow queues. It also advises syncing your device clock if you cannot find a match or can join standard maps but not map conditions.
- Check Crossplay. If Crossplay is off, try enabling it; Embark identifies this as a common cause of slow matchmaking.
- If you are in a party, check every member’s setting. The most restrictive player’s Crossplay setting applies to the party, so one person’s setting can affect the group’s queue.
- Check matchmaking region and server choice. Embark recommends setting server choice to Automatic rather than selecting a region that may limit available matches.
- Sync your device clock if the issue persists. This is especially relevant if you cannot find a match or can access standard maps but not map conditions.
These are troubleshooting steps, not a guarantee that a queue will resolve immediately. If the problem continues after checking them, use the official support guidance for your platform and consult current service information; the cited help article does not give a universal queue-time target.
What resets when you do an Expedition?
Expedition is a voluntary, planned reset—not the ordinary consequence of being knocked out. Embark’s Expedition Project help article, last updated October 30, 2025, says the project unlocks at level 20 and lets you choose when to reset progression. It describes an eight-week cycle: seven weeks to prepare, followed by a week in which finalization is available. If you miss that window, the article says you can keep working until the next finalization window.
The help article separates what is reset from what carries over. Read the lists as the rules stated in that article, rather than assuming every form of progress belongs to the same category.
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| Resets on Expedition | Carries over |
|---|---|
| Level | Cosmetics and purchased items |
| Skills | Raider Tokens and Cred |
| XP | Raider Deck progress |
| Inventory | Codex entries and unlocked maps |
| Stash items | Bonuses from earlier Expeditions |
| Crafting progress |
Decide whether the reset suits your plans
Because level, skills, XP, inventory, stash items, and crafting progress are on the reset list, an Expedition departure is a substantial restart of character-linked progress. The carry-over list preserves several longer-term account elements, but it does not mean your current Raider build or stored gear remains intact. Consider both lists before finalizing rather than treating departure as a routine raid choice.
Expedition completions can provide unique cosmetics and account buffs for the following cycle. The help article says consecutive completions increase the buff up to a limit. It does not state a precise buff value in the cited material. The article’s cycle description was last updated in 2025, so check current game announcements or patch notes for the exact active departure window before making a date-sensitive plan.
The eight-week description gives you a planning rhythm, not a reason to rush a departure: the first seven weeks are for preparation, and finalization is available during the following week. Missing that week does not, according to the help article, erase your chance to work toward an Expedition; you can continue until the next finalization window. Confirm the current window in game or in current announcements before committing.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should you think about the three different risks?
Progression, raid survival, matchmaking, and Expedition can affect each other, but they answer different questions. Use the distinction that matches the decision you are making:
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- Choosing what to level: spend skill points across Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival to develop a Raider, while using quests, crafting, recipes, and Feats as separate progression routes.
- Choosing what to carry: treat the raid loadout and scavenged items as at risk if you are knocked out, with the Safe Pocket as the documented exception; use a Free Loadout if you prefer not to risk your own gear.
- Choosing how to queue: do not assume equipment guarantees a particular lobby. Use Embark’s stated matchmaking goals as context, and follow its crossplay, region, and clock checks if queues or map conditions are failing.
- Choosing whether to depart: treat Expedition as an intentional reset with a separate carry-over list, not as a consequence of losing one raid.
Those distinctions make the most important planning question clearer: is the risk you are managing a single run, a queue problem, or a deliberate reset of longer-term progression?
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Frequently Asked Questions
How does progression work in ARC Raiders?
Experience contributes to levels, which grant skill points for Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival. Trader quests, workshop crafting and recipes, and daily Feats add separate progression and reward routes.
Do you lose your gear when you die in ARC Raiders?
Embark’s first-raid guide says a Raider knocked out while topside loses carried loadout gear and scavenged items, except for items in the Safe Pocket. It describes a raid’s carried contents, not deletion of your entire account inventory.
What does the Safe Pocket keep?
The cited guide identifies items in the Safe Pocket as the exception to knockout loss. It does not specify pocket capacity or list which item types fit, so check the in-game descriptions rather than assuming every valuable item can be protected.
Does gear affect matchmaking in ARC Raiders?
The public matchmaking explanation does not settle whether equipment is an input. It discusses fairness, unpredictability, squad-size prioritization where possible, and how Raiders engage one another, but does not publish a complete algorithm.
What resets when you do an Expedition?
The help article lists level, skills, XP, inventory, stash items, and crafting progress as reset. Cosmetics and purchased items, Raider Tokens and Cred, Raider Deck progress, Codex entries and unlocked maps, and earlier Expedition bonuses carry over.
When can you start an Expedition?
It unlocks at level 20. The help article describes an eight-week cycle, with seven weeks to prepare and a finalization week; if you miss the window, you can continue working until the next one.
How can I troubleshoot a slow matchmaking queue?
Check that Crossplay is enabled, including the most restrictive party member’s setting, verify the matchmaking region and use Automatic server choice, and sync your device clock if you cannot find a match or map conditions.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: ordinary progression builds your Raider, a topside knockout risks the gear and loot carried on that run except for Safe Pocket contents, and Expedition is a separate voluntary reset. Matchmaking is not a promise of a particular lobby or gear-based pairing; use Embark’s queue checks for Crossplay, server choice, and device clock, and verify current Expedition dates before planning a departure.
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