ARC Raiders Frozen Trail: Best Loadouts After Update 2.3.0

ARC Raiders just passed its one-year anniversary, and Embark Studios marked the occasion with Frozen Trail, the biggest content drop the extraction shooter has had since launch. Nearly a month later, the October 27 Live Update 2.3.0 patch quietly reshuffled the loadouts that actually work in Pendola Pass, the Emperor and the Frigate. If you haven't touched your build since the update notes dropped, here's what changed, what to run, and how to deal with the new threats waiting in the snow.

01What Changed in ARC Raiders Update 2.3.0

Frozen Trail opened Pendola Pass on October 8 as a free update for every Raider: a frozen settlement at the edge of the Rust Belt, built around abandoned villages, factories, research facilities and an observatory. Alongside the new map, Embark added new ARC threats, a fresh Raider space called the Outpost, and a reworked Skill Tree the studio says is meant to give you "more agency over the kind of Raider you want to become." None of that costs anything — the paid Frozen Trail Collector Set on Steam is a cosmetic bundle layered on top, not a gate to the content itself.

Update 2.3.0, which landed on October 27, is the patch that actually rebalances how you should gear up. Embark folded in the Noxious Set and a new community project called Soul's Offering, then spent most of the patch notes on weapons, shields, loot tables and bug fixes. After this update, Embark says it's returning to its normal schedule of balance passes every three weeks and store updates weekly, so treat 2.3.0 as the current baseline for a while rather than a blip that gets overwritten next week.

02Best Weapons and Blueprints to Chase Right Now

Two item changes stand out if you're rebuilding your loadout. Flame Spray now deals 13 damage per second, up from 10, and its durability drains 50% slower than before — it was a middling pick before 2.3.0 and is a genuinely strong area-denial option now. The Firefly Burner also got a real quality-of-life fix: it used to require a follow-up shot to vent fire after being thrown, but it now ignites on impact and leaves a trail of fire before exploding roughly three seconds later, which makes it far more reliable in a panic.

Blueprint farming also got easier to plan around. The Dolabra, Bobcat, Equalizer, Jupiter, Tempest and Vulcano blueprints can now drop in any major map condition instead of being locked to specific weather, though Embark slightly lowered the drop chance on that pool to account for the wider availability — expect to see them more often overall, just not dramatically more often per run. On the flip side, the Emperor Key blueprint's drop chance from Redirection pods was reduced, with Embark adding a small compensating chance at ARC parts and high-tier ARC loot instead. If you were farming Emperor Keys specifically, budget for more runs; if you just want strong loot in general, that trade works in your favor.

Embark also fixed an inverted drop-rate bug for furniture Designs, so rarer cosmetic blueprints should now actually drop less often than common ones, as intended, instead of the other way around.

03Shields and Survival Gear: Why the Heavy Shield Earns a Slot

The clearest buff in Update 2.3.0 is to the Heavy Shield, whose base charge rose from 80 to 90. Embark's own developer note explains the thinking: the studio made smaller buffs to the Heavy Shield back in its 2.0 update and saw a marked change in its durability drain rate, but usage stayed relatively low, so this update gives it another small bump specifically to the base charge value. The stated goal is to slightly increase survivability against most weapons without creating too large a margin over the Medium Shield — in practice, that's enough to make the Heavy Shield worth a raid or two of testing if you'd written it off before.

Adrenaline Shot changed too: you can now use one even while already at max stamina, but its effect no longer stacks — using a second one just refreshes the duration instead of adding on top. That's a straightforward quality-of-life change for anyone who carries two and wants to top off a fight without wasting the extra charge.

Mobility gear got real attention as well. The Grappling Hook picked up several bug fixes: it can now be used inside the Matriarch's shield while it's active, it reattaches properly to debris when its target breaks apart, and Embark fixed cases where the rope snagging on geometry could launch you at extreme speed or straight into the air. If the Grappling Hook felt unreliable before, it's worth bringing back into your loadout for Pendola Pass's verticality.

Quick Loadout Checklist for Update 2.3.0

1. 1Restart ARC Raiders before you queue up; the client needs to finish downloading Update 2.3.0 before the Heavy Shield buff, Flame Spray changes and new Blueprint drop rates apply.2 min
2. 2Grab the Heavy Shield over the Medium Shield for runs into Pendola Pass or the Emperor — its base charge is now 90, so you lose less of the survivability edge that made it worth equipping in the first place.3 min
3. 3Flame Spray now does 13 damage per second (up from 10) and drains durability 50% slower, and the Firefly Burner ignites on impact the moment you throw it instead of needing a follow-up shot — both are worth a raid or two to relearn.10 min
4. 4The Dolabra, Bobcat, Equalizer, Jupiter, Tempest and Vulcano blueprints can now drop in any major map condition instead of being tied to specific weather, so farm whichever condition you queue into rather than waiting for a specific one.15 min
5. 5Both now place higher-tier rewards further from the entrance — push past the first containers in the Emperor, and prioritize the Frigate's deeper compartments once you can ping its exact location on approach.10 min
6. 6Update 2.3.0 fixed several Grappling Hook bugs, including unintended high-speed launches and failed reattachment to broken ARC debris, making it far more reliable for crossing Pendola Pass's cliffs and the Matriarch's shield zone.5 min

04Surviving Pendola Pass: Skulker, Bully and the Frigate

Frozen Trail's new ARC threats include the Skulker and the Bully, both of which Trials Season 6 is actively training Raiders to fight — weekly challenges task you with dealing damage using the Skulker's Targeter and the Bully's Fragmenter specifically, which is as close to an official hint about their combat role as you'll get. Beyond those two, Embark has described the wider new-threat roster as ranging from "a small and nifty problem-maker to an enormous machine that will halt you in your tracks," so expect Pendola Pass to escalate in danger the deeper you push.

The Frigate, the airborne carrier tied to Pendola Pass's endgame puzzle, also got attention in 2.3.0. You can now ping it from long range while it's entering the area instead of only once it's overhead, and pings near the Frigate mark the exact location rather than just labeling the whole structure — useful for coordinating a squad before you commit to boarding it. Loot inside both the Frigate and the Emperor now follows the same logic: lower-tier rewards sit near the entrances, with the better loot placed deeper inside, so don't stop at the first few containers if you're after top-tier gear.

05Building Your Raider: Outpost and Skill Tree Choices

The Outpost is Frozen Trail's answer to the question of what comes after the Raider Den. Embark describes it as a new space to decorate, research new elements of the world in, and take your "first steps to reclaiming the surface" — it's framed as long-term, ongoing progression rather than something you finish in a single session. Pair it with the adjusted Skill Tree, which Embark says is meant to hand you more agency over the kind of Raider you build toward, and Frozen Trail is as much about shaping a long-term identity as it is about one good extraction.

Trials Season 6, subtitled Frozen Trials, runs from October 8, 2026 through January 12, 2027 and ties directly into that progression. Weekly objectives earn Blueprints and gear on the way to the season's Maestro Outfit, and climbing the leaderboard into the Hotshot and Cantina Legend ranks unlocks the outfit's Yellow and Red color variants, plus placement rewards like a Sheriff Badge backpack charm, an Infrared Transmitter attachment, a Pumped Dance emote and a Pop Helmet for Scrappy. If you're investing time into a new build anyway, working the Trials track alongside it is close to free value.

Embark Studios' official Frozen Trail launch trailer, released October 8, 2026 — the day Pendola Pass opened to Raiders.

06Early Loadout Checklist for New and Returning Raiders

If you're coming back for the anniversary or jumping in for the first time, don't overthink the first few raids. Update to 2.3.0, bring the Heavy Shield if you have it unlocked, pack a Flame Spray or Firefly Burner for crowd control, and keep a Grappling Hook on hand for Pendola Pass's cliffs and the Frigate's approach. Everything else — chasing specific Blueprints, optimizing the new Skill Tree, decorating the Outpost — is worth doing once you're comfortable surviving a raid start to finish, not before.

Pendola Pass isn't going anywhere soon. Embark has moved to roughly twice-yearly major content drops instead of a monthly cadence, which means Frozen Trail and the gear changes in Update 2.3.0 are likely to stay the baseline for months rather than weeks. That's good news if you're rebuilding your loadout right now — whatever you settle on today should still be relevant well into the new year.