ARC Raiders Expedition Guide

ARC Raiders Expedition Guide TL;DR

• Expeditions are optional, prestige-style wipes that reset your Raider for unique rewards.

• You unlock the Expedition Project at level 20 and must build a caravan.

• Caravan steps require specific materials, and on a Load Stage, your stash value gets evaluated, deciding how many skill points you’ll get.

• Everything you contribute is non-refundable, but saved if you skip a window.

• On departure, you lose stash upgrades, items, coins, level, skill points, den/workshop progress, quests, and blueprints.

• You keep account-style progress and gain the real rewards: permanent stash slots and bonus skill points, plus minor temporary buffs.

Target-farming weapon Blueprints could take you upwards of hundreds of hours. To save lots of time, you can always buy ARC Raiders Blueprints on Playhub. Quick and safe delivery guaranteed.

How Expeditions Work in ARC Raiders

Thematically, your current Raider sort of retires, departing on the Expedition beyond the Rust Belt, leaving everything behind. This results in your progress resetting, since you’re essentially another person, but you get some extra permanent and temporary rewards. If you’ve played Tarkov or CoD, this should be a familiar concept for you.

Once you hit Raider’s level 20, an Expedition project will become available for you. You’ll be tasked to contribute resources to build your caravan and the resources needed for the travels ahead. The opportunity to leave is time-limited, with Expedition windows opening roughly every two months, and each expedition will require you to build a new caravan, but if you choose to not depart in set window, your project process will be saved. 

So, what the entire system is is a huge time and money sink. Whenever you get tired of having the best loot in the game and having everything unlocked and upgraded, you may choose to leave it all behind and start kind of fresh. I say kind of because what gets you rich is your understanding of the game, and you obviously still know everything you need to get rich quicker than the last time.

ARC Raiders Expedition Project Materials 

Once again, to depart on the Expedition, you’ll need to build a caravan from scratch and gather supplies and coins for your venture into the unknown. Here’s the full list of everything to be scavenged and contributed to your project:

Note that everything you put on your expedition is non-refundable. If you choose not to depart on Expedition, your contribution will be saved for later windows. If you’re struggling with finding loot spots, check out our loot locations guide.

What You Lose, Keep, and Get Going on the Expedition in Arc Raiders

Once your caravan is built and you are ready to depart on an Expedition, the game evaluates your stash value at the moment of the sign-up window. Afterwards, your current Raider is gone, and a fresh Raider is created. The following parts of progression are reset for the new Raider:

• Stash upgrade progress - you’ll have to buy every upgrade again

• Inventory items - yup, all of your bobcats and hullcrackers

• Blueprints - all of them, unless your friend keeps some things for you

• Coins - obviously

• Player level - grind grind grind grind, but with exp bonuses

• Skill points - but your Expedition-related bonus ones are available right away

• Raider Den progress

• Workshop progress - all of your upgrades are gone

• Quest progress - gotta do them all (again)

Personally, I hate the fact that the quest progress is getting lost. Most of them are tied to specific lore events and what seem like thematically one-time tasks by vendors, but somehow you’re forced to repeat them again and again every time you choose to wipe your account. Another huge drawback for me is that your blueprints are gone, and many o players are already doing scammy techs where you give your bps to your friends to retrieve after the wipe. BTW, if you decide to wipe, here’s a handy blueprints farm guide. 

Not all of your progress is gone after the Expedition, though. Here’s what you keep indefinitely:

• Unlocked maps, so that you can jump in Stella Montis with a free loadout right away

• Codex entries

• Raider Tokens

• Cred

• Merits - imagine if you lost your progress mid-event

• Raider Decks progress. since the rewards are mostly cosmetic

• Active leaderboards placement

• Trials

• Cosmetics

• Personal event progress, duh

• Bonus skill points earned from Expeditions

• Bonus stash slots earned from Expeditions

Skill points and stash slots are why most players do it in the first place, so let’s cover them in detail.

ARC Raiders Expedition Rewards

Temporary buffs

These take effect from the moment you depart until the next Expedition. They seem very minor to me and not worth chasing at all. Something needs to be added or buffed here IMO:

• Repair buff: 10% per completion, up to 30% max

• XP boost: 5% per completion, up to 15% max

• More materials from Scrappy: 6% per completion, up to 18% max

XP boost is somewhat significant; other things? Not so much, who cares about extra metal and plastic from Scrappy?

Permanent rewards

Permanent rewards are to stay on your account forever - they do not go away if you skip future departure windows. There were different rewards in each Expedition:

The first Expedition was way more demanding, asking you to somehow amass whooping 5 millies. You’d also get an exclusive outfit and other rewards. Here are all of the Expedition 1 permanent rewards:

• Expedition 1 Indicator icon

• The Patchwork Raider outfit

• Scrappy Janitor Cap

• +12 stash space

• Bonus skill points based on stash value at departure: 1 skill point per 1,000,000 stash value (items plus coin), up to 5,000,000 total value, capping at 5 skill points

The second coming of Expedition brought a much more lenient asking price and a generous opportunity to catch up on EXP 1’s skill points just for 300 k each. Here is the complete list of Expedition 2 permanent rewards:

• Expedition 2 Indicator icon

• Patchwork Raider outfit (evolved), with 4 additional toggles and 2 new color options (Beige Orange and Yellow)

• Scrappy Beanie

• +12 stash space

• Bonus skill points based on stash value at departure: 1 skill point per 600,000 stash value (items plus coin), up to 3,000,000 total value, capping at 5 skill points

Overall, rewards are all about the special cosmetics, extra stash, and skill points. It’s worth noting that you could catch up on skill points you haven’t claimed in the first Exp going on the second just by paying 300 k coins for each, totalling 10 points on max investment.

Is It Worth Doing an Expedition in Arc Raiders?

Now, that’s a highly debated topic, as evident from numerous Reddit posts. You’ll find apologists for the system as well as people opposing it, and I think it all comes down to your situation and preferences. You’ll lose numerous things that are hard to get back:

1. Blueprints

2. Quest progress (and will have to redo them again, which is a pain IMO)

3. Bench upgrade progress

Depending on how you like to play, the decision to wipe your acc could either be a blessing or a curse. If you enjoy being a loot goblin scavenging for wires and metal scraps, sure, Expedition is probably for you. Otherwise, what are you getting in return? An outfit(don’t you have enough of them already?), and a hat for your rooster? Either way, Expedition is a great way to freshen up your experience and challenge yourself by starting from scratch.

Find more ARC Raiders guides here:

• Best Builds

• How to Farm Blueprints

• Best Skins