Embark Studios has confirmed that the fifth Expedition in ARC Raiders will be the last players see for a while, with the seasonal loop going on hold after it closes on September 29. The studio laid out the plan in an official Expedition 5 update published August 21, saying the break lets the team rebuild the system rather than keep shipping incremental tweaks.
The decision follows months of player criticism aimed at how Expeditions work. Embark wrote that issues such as the tight departure windows, the reward structure, and accessibility for newcomers “need more than incremental fixes,” and that the format will return in early 2027 with changes aimed at the biggest pain points. The game itself is not going anywhere: ARC Raiders remains live as a free-to-play co-op survival shooter on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and we have been tracking the year’s biggest releases in our Summer 2026 Game Release Calendar.
What changes in the fifth Expedition
The fifth Expedition window opens September 8 at 11am UTC and closes September 29 at 8am UTC, giving players three weeks rather than the two-week spans of earlier runs. Embark is also making a few adjustments players asked for. Quest progress reset, previously mandatory between runs, is now opt-in, so anyone who wants to keep their quest line moving can do so. There is no “last call” grace period this time, which means anyone hoping to depart has to sign up during the window itself.
Completing the fifth Expedition still pays out the full Zenith Outfit, mystery rewards, and up to 12 extra stash space capped at 60. Bonus skill points from Expeditions now cap at 15, with catch-up still available for players who missed points in earlier runs. The studio also confirmed that consecutive buffs players have already earned will persist through the pause, so no progress is lost.
What the pause means for the game
During the break, Expeditions are suspended but the rest of ARC Raiders keeps running. Embark said Caravans will be reset, and any partially finished Caravan will be swapped for Ermal Vouchers of equal value that players can spend on Ermal offers, ARC Parts, and firearm trades, or sell for Coin. Trials, the separate competitive mode, gets its own shorter hiatus: the current season ends September 22 and returns October 8.
The move lands in a year when studios are openly reconsidering how much live-service structure players will tolerate, a trend we examined in our Xbox restructuring analysis. For Embark, the bet is that a longer, quieter rebuild of the Expedition loop is better than continuing to ship a system players have repeatedly told the studio feels restrictive. The team promised to share more about the reworked Expeditions in September, before the fifth run closes.
If you have been on the fence about committing to a departure, the message from Embark is clear: the fifth Expedition is the one to do it in. After September 29, the next chance to run an Expedition will not come until early 2027.
