Once upon a time, I saw achievements as something I absolutely had to do in every video game I played. As someone who has long chased that feeling of truly completing 100% of a game's content, earning each achievement felt like the icing on the cake. But achievements eventually became little more than bonus content when I got married and had kids, mainly because I have to be more selective about what I spend my time on now. Even so, I still get that rush when the trill of a Steam achievement greets my ears, and one of my latest in Arc RaidersI thought before was impossible. Still, I earned it (mostly by accident), and it's safe to say it's the most stress I've ever felt in a game.
There are 50 achievements in Arc Raidersand some of them are easy to get by just playing the game. Reaching a certain level, defeating a certain number of enemies, or completing quests for merchants can all earn player achievements, regardless of platform. But an achievement, I would say, stands out as the toughest, because the conditions for it must be perfect. And then Arc Raiders can be a tough game to master, completing its “In the Nick of Time” achievement almost feels like a fever dream.
Completing Arc Raider's 'In the Nick of Time' achievement sent my adrenaline through the roof
When I first saw the prerequisites for the “In the Nick of Time” achievement, I almost scoffed at it. To earn it, players must return to Speranza with less than 5 seconds left in the round, which on paper sounds impossible. At the time of writing, only 17% of players have completed the achievement on Steam alone, and compared to the rest of the achievements in the game, fewer players have earned it than anyone else. Needless to say, when I saw what was required to earn it, I essentially dismissed it, thinking, “If I complete it, it must be pure luck or coincidence.”
As it turns out, it was pretty much a coincidence. Every day my son goes down for a nap around lunchtime and my daughter has an hour of quiet time in her room. On this day I decided to spend my own quiet time playing a few rounds Arc Raiders. Well, sometimes my son just doesn't want to sleep, and this turned out to be one of those times. My wife tried to have some quiet time too, and since she's already with the kids so much as a (mostly) stay-at-home mom, I took it upon myself to help my son sleep so she could continue to relax.
The only problem is that I was in the middle of a round on Arc Raidersand I had already picked up some loot that I desperately needed to get back to Speranza.
I didn't want to just end the game, so I crouched in a large bush, thinking I'd be back in time to at least grab some more loot and head to an extraction point. After spending about 20 minutes getting my son to sleep, I returned to my computer to find that although I was safe, I now only had about 6 minutes left in the round – and the only extraction point left was at the other end of Arc Raiders' Dam Battlegrounds map.
I took off at full speed towards the extraction point, but when I was about halfway there I found myself in a situation where I felt trapped. I was on a structure too high off the ground to safely jump down, and far too many wasps and hornets were patrolling the area in front of me. I didn't have enough ammo to take them all on, nor did I have enough time. So I ran from left to right looking for a safe way forward, but there was now just under 3 minutes left in the round. So the only way forward would be to jump down and hope I survived the fall.
After spending about 20 minutes getting my son to sleep, I returned to my computer to find that although I was safe, I now only had about 6 minutes left in the round – and the only drop point left was at the other end of the map.
I jumped and lost the majority of my health, but I sprinted with everything I had towards the one remaining extraction point. Luckily, I managed to get away from the wasps and hornets that first spotted me, but another roadblock awaited me at the elevator. One of Arc Raiders' deadly Leapers were patrolling the area around the elevator, and I now only had about 2 minutes left in the round. I waited a moment for Leaper to walk away a bit before calling the elevator, but it wasn't enough. Calling the elevator alerted the Leaper, as well as all nearby wasps and hornets, and they began targeting me and shooting at me as I desperately searched for some cover while I waited for the elevator to arrive.
The shooting continued and I was obviously alone. Every other solo player in the round had already either extracted or died, making me the machines' only target. I sprinted around, I dodged, I rolled, I ran from the shadows. Until I finally heard the elevator come. Now, with only 10 seconds left on the clock, the doors finally opened, and I booked it. As I started the “Return to Speranza” sequence at one of the terminals, I heard Leaper load up a shot, but it was too late. The doors were closing, and after all that stress I heard one of the most satisfying sounds – the process of a Arc Raiders Steam achievement called “In the Nick of Time.” And it was all because my son had trouble sleeping that day.
- Released
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30 October 2025
- ESRB
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Teen/violence, blood
