ARC Raiders is testing new PvE map conditions, but there's a catch

In an upcoming Chinese build of ARC Raiders, fans notice a previously unannounced map state and a potentially unique modifier that puts a greater focus on player versus environment (PvE). The enormous success ARC Raiders managed to help sustain the game well after its initial launch back in August 2025. While still popular from a player's point of view, Embark is about to enter a new phase for the game and with that could be major content changes.

Following the release of its last scheduled monthly update, Riven Tides, Embark announced a massive change in content releases for ARC Raiders. The monthly content cycle ends in favor of two major content launches per year, helping Embark further achieve their goals for the game, while ensuring that these content releases are much larger in scale and more impactful as a whole. To illustrate this point, Embark also revealed that the upcoming Frozen Trail update for October features an “extensive new frontier” with the largest map the team has ever designed. The extra time to create could also see new features and modes added to the game.

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What is the Rebellion Incident map state in ARC Raiders?

Although not as popular in China as it is in the West, Embark is currently testing a Chinese version of ARC Raiders in collaboration with Tencent, which will have its own separate and updated version of the game. However, during these tests, fans noticed a couple of unique new map conditions called Rebellion Incident and Double King/Queen. The latter state appears to place two massive ARC machines which Arc Raiders' Queen on the map for players to battle with, likely forcing more co-op and hopefully promoting more PvE style.

Guess the games from the emojis.

Light (120s) Medium (90s) Hard (60s)

Speculation is that Rebellion is a lower difficulty style mode with a higher amount of resources than normal. At the start of the mode, players cannot damage or attack each other, but they can actively choose a “rebellion” option that allows them to attack at the cost of being marked by the lobby. On the surface, it sounds similar The division's Dark Zone, a PvPvE area where players can be villainous towards fellow players, but cause enough trouble and a manhunt will be placed on them. In this ARC Raiders mode, the PvP player will apparently be marked in red on the compass/map when they betray another player.

However, that doesn't seem to be all, as players providing information from the Chinese version have also teased the “Safe Zone” and Dual Boss” map conditions. In addition, the person known as Babao also revealed that some testers have mentioned new units such as a healing grenade as well as acid grenades. It is worth mentioning that the version of this game has not been hinted at in Western content, but there has been no version of this game. unreasonable to think that any of it could make it to the others versions sometime, especially with promises of impactful and large-scale updates twice a year.

What kind of weapon is that?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

What kind of weapon is that?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)

In the end, it's not uncommon for PvE-focused modes like this to find their way into the predominantly PvP-heavy extraction genre. Besides The escape from Tarkov Bungie has a PvE zone and plans to add PvE-specific experimental modes Marathon during Season 2: Nightfall. Largely in an effort to appeal to a different sect of players and to get its core player base going, Bungie announced two separate modes, with the first offering a “light touch” of PvE, while another mid-season is a pure co-op-style PvE experience. Marathonnormal offers.