ARC Raiders enters its biggest moment since launch this week. Embark Studios’ Frozen Trail update arrives Thursday, October 8, and to mark the occasion the studio is opening the game up for free on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation from October 8 at 09:00 UTC until October 12 at 08:00 UTC. The free window grants access to the full game, which normally sells for $19.99 USD on Steam, and it is immediately followed by a limited PvE matchmaking toggle beta running October 13 through October 20.
The details come directly from Embark’s official announcement and the ARC Raiders blog. Released on October 30, 2025, the award-winning PvPvE extraction shooter is approaching its first anniversary, and Embark is framing the free play period as the chance for newcomers to team up against the ARC machines with friends before the paid experience resumes. Players jumping in fresh during the free days will also get immediate access to the new Pendola Pass map when they team up with Raiders who have already unlocked it.
Frozen Trail itself is billed as the largest update since release. The headline addition is Pendola Pass, an icy region beyond the peaks that envelope the Rust Belt, where an old Italian village and Exodus transport hub sit preserved in freezing air. The update layers on new ARC enemies, the colossal ARC Frigate, a new Redirection map condition, additional weapons and gadgets, Weapon Amplification, a reworked skill tree, and customizable Raider Outposts. Embark laid out the full content roster in its Frozen Trail First Look preview ahead of the October 8 release.
Progression gets an overhaul at the same time. Reward Passes replace Raider Decks as the core chase system, and Frozen Trail launches with two of them: a 60-level Frozen Trail Pass with free and premium tracks, and a Legacy Pass that folds previously earned Raider Deck cosmetics and Raider Tokens into a single free track. The premium track can be unlocked with 1,150 Raider Tokens earned in game, and Embark notes it contains no gameplay advantages over the free pass.
One week later, Embark begins testing its most requested experiment. The PvE matchmaking toggle beta runs October 13 to October 20, letting players switch between the classic PvPvE experience and a pure PvE session with zero player-to-player damage, with solos, duos, and trios sharing the same servers. PvPvE matchmaking ratings will not be affected during the test, several high-tension map conditions such as Night Raids and the Frigate will be excluded, and loot values in PvE sessions are lowered to offset the safer environment. Embark describes the beta as limited, with the toggle removed when the test concludes.
Between the Frozen Trail drop, four free days of full-game access, and the PvE test that follows, October is the busiest stretch ARC Raiders has had since its 2025 release. Frozen Trail goes live October 8, the free play window closes October 12, and the PvE beta takes over immediately after. See you Topside.
Lena Nakamura begins every review with one question: what is this game doing that nobody else would attempt? She covers roguelikes, narrative experiments, striking art direction, and games willing to risk failure in pursuit of something original. Familiar ideas do not bother her, but safe execution does. If a game is beautiful, strange, and slightly impossible to explain, Lena is already interested.
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