An icy storm is brewing for the raiders of Arc Raiders. The North Line update, deployed on November 13 from 10:30 a.m. (CET), marks a major milestone in the development of Embark Studios’ shooter-extraction game. With it, a whole new area appears: Stella Montis. This snowy land north of the Rust Belt is described as “cold, pristine and filled with the remnants of humanity’s lost ambitions”, setting the tone for a setting that is as beautiful as it is merciless.
But this area will not be immediately accessible. Players will first need to complete the community quest “Explore New Horizons”, a global mission whose collective success will unlock the tunnels leading to Stella Montis. Embark explains: “Access to Stella Montis will first have to be earned: the tunnels leading to this new region will only open once the global community has completed the quest Exploring New Horizons.”
What Stella Montis has in store for Arc Raiders players
Inside this new map, adventurers will have to face a harsh environment and two new enemies. The first is the Matriarch, a “colossal ARC that makes the Queen seem like an ally,” available from the start of the Breaking New Ground event. The second, the Crusher, is an opponent exclusive to Stella Montis, “forcing raiders to be extra vigilant during close combat”.
To resist them, players will be able to count on new tools: an energy explosion combat rifle, mines (pulse, timed, and gas), as well as two new play styles, Lone Wolf and Pioneer. Quests specific to Stella Montis also expand the available content.
Community event, currencies, and the future of the game
In conjunction with the opening of Stella Montis, a multi-phase community event is being launched. Called “Exploration of new territories”, it offers participants the opportunity to earn Merits, a new temporary currency linked to the event. The latter also prepares the ground for the second phase of “Territory Conquest”, which will punctuate the next weeks of the game until December.
Embark is already promising a new update next month. Titled Cold Snap, it will introduce “the Flickering Flames event, a new map condition with snowfall, the long-awaited Raider Expedition Project reset, and much more.”
Another discreet but highly anticipated new feature: duo matchmaking was activated at the start of the week. Finally, Embark gave in to player protests by lowering the price of cosmetic items.
Despite the controversy linked to its use of artificial intelligence, Arc Raiders has already established itself as a critical and commercial success. Less than two weeks after its launch, the title has sold more than 4 million copies, with an impressive peak of 700,000 players connected simultaneously. IGN points out in its review: “Arc Raiders sets the bar for extraction shooters, with incredibly gripping progression, intense battles against NPCs and other players that make for memorable playthroughs, and loot that’s more than worth all the effort and stress required to obtain it.”