ARC Raiders Update 2.3.0: Vault Changes, Shields and Loot
Update 2.3.0 buffs Heavy Shield and Flame Spray, changes Emperor and Frigate loot, and launches Soul's Offering. Check the Vault closure and remaining quest issues.
ARC Raiders update 2.3.0 is rolling out on October 27 with Heavy Shield and Flame Spray buffs, revised loot placement inside the Emperor and Frigate, and the launch of Soul's Offering. Embark also says the Expedition Vault will be disabled, with stored items returned to your stash and compensation for purchased slots.
Restart the game to download the update. Before your next raid, check the equipment changes and the quest problems that remain on the official known-issues list.
October 27, 2026. Based on Embark's Live Update 2.3.0 notes. Hero artwork is an original fan illustration.
Key takeaways
- Embark says it will disable the Expedition Vault. Contents go to the stash, and purchased slots receive Bronze Statuette compensation.
- Heavy Shield base charge rises to 90. Flame Spray deals 13 damage per second and uses durability more slowly.
- The Emperor and Frigate reward deeper exploration. Six weapon blueprints become available in any major map condition.
- Soul's Offering launches with the Noxious Set in store. Routine fixes return to a three-week schedule after this update.
What is happening to the Expedition Vault?
Embark says it will disable the Expedition Vault and move everything stored there into your stash. Players who purchased slots will receive Bronze Statuettes as compensation.
The wording describes a planned shutdown. It doesn't give a separate closure time, a Statuette exchange rate or a replacement storage feature. Check your stash and compensation when the change reaches your account; the notes say the stored items will be transferred.
This affects the Vault storage system. The announcement doesn't say that Expedition progression itself is being removed.
Heavy Shield, Flame Spray and other equipment changes
| Equipment | Before | Update 2.3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy Shield | 80 base charge | 90 base charge |
| Flame Spray | 10 damage per second | 13 damage per second, with durability drain reduced by 50% |
| Firefly Burner | Had to be shot to release fire | Activates on impact when thrown, leaves fire as it travels and explodes after about three seconds |
| Adrenaline Shot | Could not be used at full stamina; effects could stack | Usable at full stamina. Another shot refreshes the duration instead of stacking effects. |
The Heavy Shield adjustment adds ten points of base charge. Embark says the shield still sees relatively low use after its earlier changes, and intends to monitor the effect on combat balance.
Flame Spray also receives a fix for fire passing through walls. Mines placed on barricades being dismantled should no longer remain suspended in the air.
If you're changing your loadout, the item database is the place to compare your equipment and crafting needs.
Better Emperor and Frigate loot moves deeper inside
Inside the Emperor, containers close to the entrance now hold lower-tier rewards, with higher-tier loot placed farther in. On the Frigate, deeper areas have a greater chance of producing higher-tier rewards.
That changes the value of a quick entrance sweep. Reaching the better loot means committing farther into the encounter. Neither adjustment promises a particular item or a better total haul from every run.
The Frigate also gets clearer hatches and audio cues for puzzle progress, completion and destruction states. Pings near it mark the position you actually select, and you can mark the Frigate at long range while it enters the area. The cargo gate has been updated.
Collision fixes target hiding inside Frigate geometry and getting stuck on its wings. Emperor changes expand locked-room exploit prevention and adjust the compactor's upper kill zones to address unfair deaths. Barricades can no longer be placed through solid walls or into spaces too narrow for them.
Which blueprint drops have changed?
Dolabra, Bobcat, Equalizer, Jupiter, Tempest and Vulcano blueprints can now drop in any major map condition. The drop chance for that pool is slightly lower to account for its increased value. Wider availability doesn't mean a guaranteed drop or a higher chance in each eligible encounter.
The Emperor Key blueprint is less likely to drop from Redirection pods. Those pods gain a small chance of parts and high-tier ARC loot in compensation. Furniture Design drop rates were also inverted before this patch; rarer Designs should now appear less often.
No numerical drop rates are supplied. Our blueprint database can help you identify the unlocks, while the new notes establish where this pool can appear.
What has changed with the Grappling Hook?
The Grappling Hook now works inside an active Matriarch shield. Tether items can affect a Raider swinging from the hook, and a hook attached to a target that breaks apart can reattach to its debris.
Several fixes address unintended launches. When a line wraps around an obstacle, reeling an ARC should pull it toward the rope's wrap point. Snagging geometry should also cause fewer extreme launches. Animation fixes cover swapping away from a thrown hook and reeling while firing is blocked.
A separate problem remains on the known-issues list: falling while using the hook can still send a Raider bouncing high into the air. The patch contains movement fixes, but doesn't claim to have resolved every Grappling Hook launch.
Heavy landings should now trigger correctly during dodge rolls, closing a fall-damage avoidance issue. Zipline entry from the ground and long-distance cable previews also receive fixes.
Soul's Offering launches, and the Noxious Set arrives
Soul's Offering is the new player project. The announcement describes Celeste asking Speranza's residents to honor fallen Raiders as accounts of losses on Pendola Pass reach Toledo's four contradas.
Our Soul's Offering announcement coverage contains the original teaser and early reactions. These launch notes add the project to update 2.3.0, but don't provide its item checklist, reward conditions or end date.
The Noxious Set is the store addition named in this update. The notes don't list a price or a complete bundle inventory, so check the in-game listing before spending Raider Tokens.
Camera options, Outpost fixes and a new revive stat
A camera bob toggle is now available in Gameplay settings. The Advanced Camera gains Color Push and Black & White filters, while the Basic Camera has less depth-of-field blur for clearer selfies.
The Codex player stats page adds a count of times a stranger revived you. Other menu fixes keep the selected Codex entry visible, address the persistent yellow dot on Projects, and restore Daily Quest refreshes after they expire.
Weapon Amplification branch tooltips now name the specific amplifications that a choice would block. The Reward Pass screen labels become Feats and Milestones, with revised layout and timers.
In the Outpost, furniture handling gets additional sound effects and revised crafting and placement audio. Scrappy should appear without requiring a visit to the Workshop or customization, and should stop rotating outside customization. These are follow-ups to the systems introduced in Frozen Trail 2.0.
Performance and stability changes
The FSR plugin has been updated to 4.1.1. The notes don't include a performance benchmark, so the version change alone doesn't establish a particular frame-rate gain.
On Xbox Series S, lower audio memory use is intended to reduce out-of-memory crashes, particularly near the Frigate. Frigate cargo-hold memory use is also reduced for larger groups. An AMD RX 7000-series workaround targets a ray tracing GPU crash, and a rare voice-chat crash receives a fix.
A failsafe returns players to the front end when the end-of-round survey fails to load, addressing cases where they remained stuck in the tunnel sequence. Frigate lighting and several smoke and ambient-occlusion effects are also revised.
Which quest and gameplay problems are still known issues?
Several quest blockers remain. These deserve a check before committing a session to an affected objective:
- Extracting with partial progress on To The Skies can leave the quest impossible to finish.
- Some When Everything Falls objectives, including photographing Port A, may fail to complete.
- Losing or selling certain quest items can block completion. The Equatorial Sundial for Clean Hands is the example given, so keep required quest items.
The remaining listed problems include Xbox instability, ARC Reclaimers failing to dock correctly on the Frigate, and Raiders being pushed off when vaulting on a Reclaimer. Weapon models can sometimes grow dramatically in size. Raider Tool skins may still display as the default.
The Grappling Hook bounce and a place where players can become stuck near Pendola Pass's Railroad are also unresolved. General collision improvements elsewhere on the map don't remove that specific warning.
Are gameplay fixes still coming every week?
After update 2.3.0, Embark is returning to its regular schedule of fixes every three weeks. Store updates will continue weekly. The weekly fixes since Frozen Trail were a temporary part of the post-launch update period.
Weekly store rotations will continue between the regular gameplay-fix updates.
ARC Raiders update 2.3.0 FAQ
Do I need to restart the game?
Yes. Embark asks players to restart to download update 2.3.0.
Are my Expedition Vault items being deleted?
The notes say Vault contents will move to your stash. Purchased slots receive Bronze Statuette compensation.
Does this update bring the PvE toggle back?
No return of the PvE toggle is announced in these notes.
Are all crashes and Grappling Hook launches fixed?
No. Xbox instability and a Grappling Hook bounce remain listed as known issues.
How are the new loot routes and equipment changes affecting your raids? Share what you've encountered in the ARC Raiders forum.
Source and scope
Embark Studios, Live Update 2.3.0, October 27, 2026. This article summarizes the published changes and separates them from the issues still listed as unresolved. Equipment values and drop-pool changes are developer-reported; no exact blueprint percentages or performance results are inferred.