Frozen Trail finally puts the 'raid' in Arc Raiders

I'm standing on top of a flying fortress hundreds of feet in the air, as around me, 15 or so players wage a losing battle against a swarm of flying robots armed with rockets and lasers. It's utter chaos. We fight further and further into the ship, unlocking platforms, defeating waves of enemies and giant turrets which pop out of the deck to gun down unsuspecting looters. But I think we're done.

Time is running short and we've once again stalled at this stage of the puzzle. All that's left now is to try and make it back to ground in one piece and live to attempt another day. This is the Frigate, one of Arc Raiders two new raid-style activities, and it's exactly what the game needed.

Rather than content you can complete the day the update comes out, Frozen Trail's Frigate and Fallen Emperor represent a deeper loot chase, tied into upgrading the new outpost and workbenches to fashion special weapons which fire explosive bullets or incendiary grenades.

More than that: they're properly fun. I've raided a lot in Destiny 2, completed its dungeons more times than I can count (including soloing some) and I'm quite impressed with the variety of these endgame challenges, how they demand cooperation from players, but also really tie into the features and loot chase that Frozen Trail added.

While the Arc Frigate is a pitched battle blasting endless waves of robots as you try to unlock its cargo hold with a bunch of other raiders, the Fallen Emperor is more of an individual challenge. This series of mostly randomised encounters sees you solving puzzles and painstakingly platforming your way through its labyrinth of hazards and Hydra turrets, which love to pick you off when you're dangling in some precarious position.

It's a race to perpetrate a bank heist in the corpse of a colossal robot, and if that doesn't get your juices flowing, I don't know what will. Part of the fun is Frozen Trail's new Grappling Hook item, an easy to craft traversal tool that lets you scale and swing in a much more enjoyable way than the game's existing Snap Hook—I always carry one now, just for ease of exploration.

The Fallen Emperor is also smart in terms of loot, designed like a kids' gameshow (did anyone here watch Jungle Run?). Players who want the guaranteed big score at the end are incentivised to rush there, lest another raider beat them, but since there are loot containers between each encounter and concealed in them, other players can filter in and still have a chance at getting rare items and rewards for encounters without making it to the end.

The same goes for the Arc Frigate—it's not just about who gets there first; these encounters are layered with loot, and often reward exploration as much as pushing for the end goal, especially as the new upgrades require a wide range of materials.

Though Frozen Trail has its bugs—my reward pass still isn't fixed—this is such a positive update for the game's direction. If the PvE-mode test is anything to go by, we'll soon be able to play Arc Raiders' endgame events like the Fallen Emperor, Frigate, Matriarch, or Harvester without fear of getting ratted and having our loot stolen while we're trying to fight big arc, work together, and puzzle stuff out.

I'm not a player who minds PvP or the way it elevates the tension and excitement of the extraction shooter genre, but I think there's a good case to be made for a PvE-only option when running PvE-centric endgame events, which often require cooperation. It's also uniquely frustrating getting ambushed after successfully completing one.

This happened to me after landing a huge loot haul on the Frigate and basically being the only raider to make it out alive—I was riding high, I wasn't cautious, and of course some punk with a Kettle was waiting at extraction. He even said "Hello" before he ratted me. It's a sucky way to end these cool events and it dissuades players from investing in their challenge, so hopefully any eventual PvE mode that does appear will include these.

Still, these new raid-style events have me so excited for the future of Arc Raiders. I can't help but fantasize about how fun and rewarding a Destiny 2 length raid in Arc Raiders would be, or something similar to Building 21 or Koschei Complex in DMZ—a dedicated mode with its own timer, challenges, and bosses. I can't wait to see what endgame content Embark cooks up next.