Arc Raiders is finally getting its big Flashpoint update this week, on Tuesday, March 31, to be precise, and both Arc and raiders are getting beefed up alongside a new map condition and some much-needed crafting improvements. Of course, this is all in addition to the new quests, store bundles, and quality of life adjustments you expect from a big new update.
The dubious highlight of the Flashpoint update is the new Arc type, the drone-like Vaporizer, which uses "devastating laser attacks and idiosyncratic attack patterns" as it stalks raiders from the sky. Players will also have to face their fears against Shredders, which have broken from their confinement and will now appear in Rust Belt maps like Blue Gate, Buried City, Spaceport, and Dam Battlegrounds during map conditions.
It's not all bad news for raiders, though, as Flashpoint is also adding three new high-powered weapons for players to fight back: the Canto submachine gun, the Dolabra energy shotgun, and my personal favorite, the Surge Coil, "a deployable device that periodically electrifies its surroundings, shocking anything that drifts into its orbit." The Surge Coil alone sounds like it'll make both PvE and PvP way more chaotic, which is when the game is most fun for me.
I'm also pleased to report that "the bond to your raiding rooster has been deepened" in Flashpoint, with Scrappy soon to be able to accept more types of loot and dole out "more valuable items" in exchange. There's also a new project called High Gain Antenna in which you're tasked with collecting resources to build, you guessed it, a high gain antenna. Celeste and Shani need it to identify "strange shapes in the sky during the hurricane," and naturally, they'll reward you for your efforts, but Embark says players should complete the project out of moral obligation. "What they're tracking is a threat to all of us - time to do your part," it says.
Finally, "crafting improvements" are imminent, appeasing legions of Arc Raiders players who find the game's crafting system to be tedious and time-consuming. Specifically, the new system will let you fulfill missing items directly through the menu through so you aren't hopping across different menus all the time. Instead, you'll be able to recycle, refine, or purchase sources in a single window. And just like that, the collective Arc Raiders community threw their hands in the air and let out a mighty 'LET'S GOOOOO.'
