Arc Raiders’ Frozen Trail update adds two raid-style endgame activities, giving players a wave-based assault aboard the Arc Frigate and a puzzle-and-platforming challenge inside the Fallen Emperor. PC Gamer’s Sean Martin described the encounters in coverage published on October 18, highlighting their cooperative demands and the loot chase tied to upgrading the new outpost and workbenches.
What Frozen Trail adds to Arc Raiders
The two activities offer different kinds of pressure rather than simply sending players after tougher enemies. The Frigate is a large-scale fight through a flying fortress, while the Fallen Emperor is a more individualised test of movement, puzzle-solving and timing inside a colossal ARC machine’s remains.
Both runs feed into longer-term progression. According to Martin’s account, players can collect loot and materials during the encounters to upgrade the new outpost and workbenches, which help unlock special weapons with explosive rounds or incendiary grenades. Rewards are not limited to the final room: containers along the way give players reasons to explore and can offer useful finds even if they do not reach the end.
| Activity | What players face | How the run plays |
|---|---|---|
| Arc Frigate | Waves of ARC machines and large turrets aboard a flying fortress | Players push through the ship and unlock its cargo hold |
| Fallen Emperor | Randomised encounters, puzzles, hazards and Hydra turrets | A maze-like route focused on platforming, timing and loot |
Two encounters, two different kinds of raid
Arc Frigate turns the fight into a group push
The Arc Frigate asks a group of Raiders to board a fortress suspended high above the ground, fight through successive enemy waves and open access to its cargo hold. The challenge is more than a straight shootout: players must advance through the ship, unlock platforms and deal with turrets that emerge from the deck while the clock is running down.
That combination of an objective, heavy resistance and loot makes coordination matter, even in a PvPvE game where other Raiders may not stay allies. It also gives the encounter a different rhythm from extraction missions built around choosing objectives and making it out, a familiar tension in games such as DMZ.
Fallen Emperor mixes traversal with a loot race
The Fallen Emperor shifts the emphasis to a labyrinth of hazards and mostly randomised encounters within a gigantic robot corpse. Players solve puzzles and platform through the space while Hydra turrets threaten exposed Raiders, making a mistimed move costly even when no enemy is directly in front of them.
Its rewards encourage more than a rush to the finish. Martin noted that players can find loot between encounters, while those who make it to the end can compete for the largest score. The new Grappling Hook also helps with traversal across both activities, offering a craftable alternative to the existing Snap Hook for climbing and swinging through the environment.
PvP can still cut a successful run short
The encounters’ cooperative focus does not remove the extraction shooter’s risk. Martin reported being ambushed at extraction after completing a Frigate run with a large haul, and argued that PvP attacks can sour an otherwise successful endgame challenge. That is his assessment from playing the update, not evidence that every run ends the same way.
He also pointed to the possibility of a PvE option for endgame events, where players could focus on ARC enemies and puzzles without worrying about another Raider stealing their rewards. His coverage does not establish that such a mode is confirmed or that these activities will all be included in one. For now, Frozen Trail’s two headline runs offer distinct routes into Arc Raiders’ endgame: one through a crowded assault on the Frigate, the other through the Fallen Emperor’s hazards and scattered loot.
