Arc Raiders' Escalation has been revealed, a roadmap for the first four months of 2026 that outlines much of what players can expect in the game's future updates and patches. Arc Raiders has been an incredibly active game since its initial release, with new content being added regularly, but this is the first time we've got a sense of what to expect long-term, with a long-term plan between January and April. Below we'll cover everything we've seen in the Escalation roadmap for Arc Raiders, what we know, and what players need to prepare for – because it seems like things are about to get all the tougher.
What's in Arc Raiders Escalation Roadmap?
Escalation, AKA the current 2026 roadmap, has now been revealed, and is broken up into four months of content for Arc Raiders, laid out as follows.
- January: "Headwinds"
- New matchmaking option for Level 40+ players
- New Minor Map condition (probably the datamined Arc Raiders Toxic Swamp update)
- Player Project
- February: "Shrouded Sky"
- New map condition
- New Arc threat
- Player Project
- Raider Deck
- Map Update
- Expedition Window (see our guide on Arc Raiders Expeditions for more info)
- March: "Flashpoint"
- New map condition
- New Arc threat
- Player project
- Scrappy update
- April: "Riven Tides"
- New map
- New large Arc
- New map condition
- Expedition window
- Also announced:
- New quests
- New feats, trials and events
- New gameplay items
- New cosmetics
- Quality of life updates
- "And more"
The promotional image tied to Escalation shows some imagery for each month – smog for January, a stormy night for February, computer terminals for March and some sort of beach for April – which helps narrow down what we can expect, assuming that these are suggestive of the content to come.
New Arc Raiders map revealed
April announces that a full new map will be coming to Arc Raiders, and while it doesn't say what it is, the promotional art gives three major clues: the fact that sandy coastline is shown behind April, that the "new map" entry is marked with an icon of a beach umbrella, and that the month's content itself is labelled "Riven Tides", all of which seems to be heavily implying that the new Arc Raiders map is likely to be a beach or coastal map, though that hasn't been officially confirmed at time of writing. Either way, it looks like it'll be the first major map since the Arc Raiders Stella Montis underground region was added in November 2025.
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