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How ARC Raiders Quest Progress and Extraction Rewards Work

ARC Raiders separates XP, Cred, event rewards and Expedition resets. Here’s when extraction mattered, what progress an Expedition reset, and what changed for the fifth cycle.
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Quest progress and extraction rewards are not one universal system in ARC Raiders. Raider XP advances levels and grants skill points; challenge-earned Cred unlocks Raider Deck rewards; and some event bonuses are explicitly conditional on extracting with an item. Expedition resets are a separate, voluntary progression choice. The clearest extraction-gated example documented by Embark is the June–July 2026 Forgotten Relics event—not a rule that every quest reward requires a successful extraction.

First, separate the progression systems

It is easy to treat “progress” as one meter, but ARC Raiders uses different systems for different outcomes. Raider level and skill points, Cred and Raider Deck rewards, event rewards, quest progress, and Expedition resets do not all advance or pay out in the same way. The distinction matters when deciding what you risk by staying topside, what a challenge contributes, or whether to opt into a reset.

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Raider XP advances levels and skills

Embark’s official gameplay FAQ describes XP as progression gained through activities topside. XP advances Raider levels, and each level grants a skill point that can be spent on abilities. This is the level-and-skill progression track; it is not the same as Cred or a Raider Deck unlock.

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Cred unlocks Raider Deck rewards

The same FAQ describes Cred as something players earn by playing and completing challenges, including small objectives topside. Cred is then spent to unlock rewards in the Raider Deck. A challenge may therefore be relevant to Cred progression, but the FAQ does not say that every quest grants XP, Cred, or a particular item. The reward depends on the relevant activity or challenge, so do not assume all objectives pay out through one shared system.

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Events can add their own progression rules

An event can attach an additional reward track or condition to play. The documented Forgotten Relics event, for example, converted XP into event Merits and also offered extra Merits for extracting with relics. That event-specific rule sits alongside ordinary level and Cred progression; it does not redefine how all quests work.

When does extraction affect a reward?

Extraction matters when the particular objective or event says it does. Embark’s June 16, 2026 Live Update 1.33.0 provides a clear example: during Forgotten Relics, XP earned from playing on any map automatically became Merits toward event rewards. Raiders could also find relics, each with a Merit value based on its rarity. To claim those additional relic Merits, a Raider had to successfully extract with the relic in hand.

That creates two different event-progress paths. Playing generated the automatic XP-to-Merits contribution; carrying a found relic out successfully was the condition for claiming that relic’s added value. The distinction is practical: finding a relic was not, by itself, enough to secure its event Merits. The item had to be in hand at a successful extraction.

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This is an explicit rule for Forgotten Relics, not evidence that all quest rewards are extraction-gated. The official material reviewed does not establish a complete current table of ordinary quest rewards or all outcomes after extraction success and failure. Read the objective’s own wording for its condition; do not generalize from an event rule to every quest, challenge, or reward.

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What else Forgotten Relics rewarded

The June 16 update also tied event progress to the Converging Paths project, which ran from June 16 to July 27, 2026. The update listed a Saltwalker Outfit and toggles among event progress rewards. It also listed a Saltwalker color variant, a Sextant backpack charm, and Raider Tokens among project rewards. These are details of that dated event, not a promise that the same rewards or project remain available in October 2026.

What happens to quest progress in an Expedition?

An Expedition is a voluntary progression reset, not the same thing as failing to extract from a run. Embark’s original Expedition Project announcement, published October 9, 2025, described a player-chosen reset. The Help Center says the Expedition Project unlocks at level 20. If you choose to depart, some character-bound progression is reset, while several account and collection elements carry over.

The important qualification is that quest progress is not governed by a single, unchanged rule across all Expeditions. The original announcement and the Help Center describe the general reset system, but the later fifth Expedition announcement added an option to keep quest progress. That later choice should not be mistaken for proof that every earlier Expedition offered it, or that every future Expedition will use identical settings.

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Progress the original design said would reset

In its October 2025 announcement, Embark described losing character-bound progress when choosing to reset, including levels, skills, inventory, and workshop or crafting capabilities. The Help Center’s reset list also names level, skills and XP, inventory, stash items, and crafting progress. Taken together, these sources describe a reset of the character’s accumulated power and possessions, rather than a wipe of every account record.

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The distinction between a character-bound item and account-level progress is useful when evaluating the choice. A reset can remove the materials, stored items, and crafting progression built up on the character while leaving selected account records, unlocks, or cosmetic ownership intact. The sources do not provide a detailed condition for retaining every individual quest item, so do not infer that a specific item survives unless the current in-game or official Expedition information says so.

Progress the Help Center lists as carried over

Embark’s Help Center article, last updated October 30, 2025, lists cosmetics and purchased items, Raider Tokens and Cred, Raider Deck progress, Codex entries, unlocked maps, and prior Expedition bonuses among the items that carry over. It also mentions cosmetics, awards, achievements, and rankings as preserved in the original project announcement.

These lists clarify that an Expedition reset is not equivalent to deleting the account or losing every accumulated reward. They also make clear that some progression is persistent while other progression is tied to the current character. Because the Help Center article predates the later quest-retention option, its general reset list should be read together with newer Expedition-specific instructions, rather than treated as a complete statement of the fifth Expedition’s quest choice.

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The fifth Expedition added a quest-retention choice

In its August 21, 2026 announcement, Embark said that players in the fifth Expedition could choose not to reset their quests and continue from where they left off. In other words, the expedition reset did not force every participating player to abandon quest progress: quest retention was an explicit option for that cycle.

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The fifth Expedition window ran September 8–29, 2026. Players had to sign up during that window and complete the Expedition challenge to earn its rewards. Completing the Caravan alone did not count as signing up. Players who signed up departed when the window closed. As of October 13, 2026, those dates are historical; they are not an open signup period.

How to decide what progress or reward is at stake

Before treating a task as “quest progress” or assuming extraction is required, identify the system the objective belongs to and read its stated completion condition. This avoids confusing a level gain with a Deck reward, or an event-specific extraction condition with a rule for ordinary quests.

  1. Identify the reward track. If the outcome is Raider level or a skill point, it belongs to XP progression. If the stated payout is Cred for a Raider Deck unlock, it belongs to challenge and Cred progression. If it names an event currency or project reward, use that event’s own rules.
  2. Check the exact condition. Look for language that requires finding, carrying, delivering, or extracting with an item. For Forgotten Relics, the specific condition was successful extraction with the relic in hand. Do not assume that a condition applies to other objectives.
  3. Separate run risk from Expedition choice. A failed extraction in a run and a voluntary Expedition reset are different decisions. The sources establish an extraction requirement for relic Merits in Forgotten Relics, and separately describe the progression affected by choosing an Expedition.
  4. Before an Expedition departure, check that cycle’s current terms. Confirm what resets, what carries over, whether quest progress can be retained, and whether signup is separate from completing the Caravan or another challenge. The fifth Expedition’s retention option and signup rules were cycle-specific details.

This checklist cannot substitute for a current objective description where the reward condition is not documented. The official sources available here do not provide a comprehensive October 2026 list of ordinary quest completion rewards, a full success-versus-failure payout table, or retention rules for every quest item. For a specific quest, its displayed objective text and current official update are more reliable than a blanket claim about extraction.

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What is known about Expedition timing after the fifth cycle?

Embark said in the fifth Expedition announcement that Expeditions would pause after that cycle until early 2027 while the team worked on major improvements. This was the studio’s stated plan on August 21, 2026, not a confirmed return date or a published description of what the improvements would contain. The fifth cycle ended on September 29; no later schedule or feature details are established by that announcement.

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For players weighing whether to wait for another Expedition, the safe conclusion is limited: a pause and an intended early-2027 return were announced, but timing and changes can be revised. Check newer official patch notes or announcements before planning around a specific launch date or assuming the next Expedition will use the fifth cycle’s quest-retention rules.

The practical answer

ARC Raiders does not have one universal extraction rule for every kind of progress. XP advances Raider levels and skill points, while Cred earned through play and challenges unlocks Raider Deck rewards. In Forgotten Relics, ordinary event Merits accrued automatically from XP, but the extra Merit value of a relic required a successful extraction with it in hand. Expedition resets are voluntary and affect selected character-bound progression; the fifth Expedition separately offered a choice to retain quests.

Use the specific quest, challenge, event, or Expedition instructions to determine what is at risk. The strongest supported rule is the narrow one: extraction was required for relic Merits in Forgotten Relics. It is not evidence that every quest reward requires extraction.

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