ARC Raiders Frozen Trail Guide: Beating Bully, Skulker and Hydra

ARC Raiders' Frozen Trail update went live on October 8, 2026, and it is the extraction shooter's biggest content drop since launch. Embark Studios opened a new mountain map, rebuilt the skill tree, added a base-building layer, and introduced three brand-new ARC enemies that behave nothing like what you have fought on the Rust Belt so far. If you dropped into Pendola Pass expecting the usual Wasters and Snitches, the Bully, Skulker and Hydra will punish that assumption fast.

This guide covers every new threat on Pendola Pass, how to beat each one without burning all your meds, and the gear Frozen Trail hands you to do it. The update is free for everyone to try from October 8 through 12, so even if you have not bought ARC Raiders yet, this is the week to see what the fuss is about.

01What Frozen Trail Changes on Pendola Pass

Pendola Pass is an abandoned Italian village and former Exodus transport hub tucked into an icy valley beyond the northern edge of the Rust Belt. You will recognize the shape of a normal ARC Raiders map in its supermarket, town square and buried train depot, plus a new observatory landmark, but the terrain is built around a fallen Emperor-class ARC that Raiders are trying to strip for rare tech.

The map also introduces a Dynamic Loot Zone system exclusive to Pendola Pass: a given zone's loot value can shift from raid to raid, though the type of loot it offers stays consistent. That means memorizing "the good room" from one raid will not guarantee the same payout next time, so scout with your scanner rather than running old routes from memory.

02Surviving Flash Freeze and the Ballistic Gondola

Pendola Pass' signature hazard is Flash Freeze, a cold snap that sweeps the map and drains your health if you are caught outdoors without cover. Avalanche Shelters open up as a freeze approaches, and ducking into one the moment you hear the warning is safer than trying to sprint to extraction through it. Treat Flash Freeze like a rotating storm circle: always know where your nearest shelter is before you commit to a fight.

Frozen Trail also adds the Ballistic Gondola, a new extraction option on the map. It has to be called in and boarded quickly, and it only seats three Raiders, so a full squad needs a backup extraction plan if a rival team beats you to it. Do not call it in until you are already standing near the platform; the window to board is short enough that a slow walk over can cost you the slot.

03How to Beat the Bully

The Bully is the most aggressive of the three new ARC enemies: a fast, machine-learned charger that closes distance on your position the moment it has a read on you. The fight is less about damage racing and more about positioning. Keep solid cover between you and its charge lane, because the Bully commits hard to a straight-line rush and will overshoot if you sidestep behind something solid at the last second.

Time your return fire for the moment right after it finishes a charge, when it is briefly recovering rather than accelerating. Button-mashing shots into an incoming Bully wastes ammo you will want for whatever is looting the same room as you; aim carefully and let it come to you rather than meeting it in the open.

04How to Beat the Skulker

The Skulker plays the opposite game. It is an ambush unit that lingers at the edge of your vision and waits for you to turn your back before striking with a quick flurry of close-range blows. The core tell is that a brief distraction, like breaking line of sight around a corner or popping a gadget, makes it retreat out of view rather than press the attack.

Use that retreat window to reposition, not to relax. The Skulker comes back, usually from a different angle than where it left, so clear corners methodically in rooms where you have already taken a hit from one. Squads clear Skulkers fastest by having one Raider bait the ambush in the open while a second watches the flank it is likely to reappear from.

05How to Beat the Hydra

The Hydra is the closest thing Frozen Trail has to a boss encounter without actually calling itself one. It is a stationary turret built from three autonomous, stacked sections, and it can lay down enough fire to threaten an entire squad at range. Do not try to out-trade it head-on; divert its attention with movement or a teammate drawing aggro, take cover the instant it locks on, and strike only when you have a real opening.

Be aware of a known issue Embark has flagged in the Frozen Trail patch notes: in the Cargo area of Pendola Pass, the Hydra can detect and shoot at you through walls, though those shots currently deal no damage. Treat that interaction as unconfirmed behavior rather than a reliable quirk, since Embark is actively working through Pendola Pass bug fixes post-launch and it may be patched without notice.

06Boarding the Frigate and Fighting the Frigate's ARC

The Frigate is ARC's large vessel patrolling Pendola Pass, and it functions as the map's dedicated challenge activity. You have to find a way aboard, then navigate its interior, unlocking paths as you push deeper while fighting through ARC defenders. Other Raider squads can be on the same ship, so you may need to cooperate to get past a tough section or fight them for the loot at the end, depending on how a given raid shakes out.

Frozen Trail also touched the map's largest existing ARCs. The Queen and Matriarch both had their higher-tier loot moved from their leg armor onto the leg pieces themselves, and the Matriarch had all of her ranged attacks restored. If you fought either of them pre-Frozen Trail and remember a specific loot or attack pattern, expect it to feel different this time.

07New Weapons, Gadgets and the Skill Tree Rework

Frozen Trail ships two new guns. The Stiletto is a light-ammo battle rifle positioned as a cheap early-game alternative to the Renegade, though its fast fire rate punishes button-mashing with poor accuracy if you do not control your bursts. The Bantam is a snub-nosed, heavy-ammo revolver with a unique hip-fire capability, and it effectively takes over the role the Anvil used to fill before the Anvil's rarity was bumped up from Green to Blue.

Three new traversal tools change how you can approach Pendola Pass's new enemies. The Grappling Hook lets you climb to hard-to-reach spots, abseil off buildings, or swing across large gaps to reposition around a Bully or Hydra. The Tether Launcher connects two points with a wire to root an enemy in place, or can be fired at an ARC to drag yourself toward it. The Yank Grenade pulls a nearby target in with force on detonation, which is particularly useful for bringing down flying ARC or pulling a Raider out of cover during a Frigate fight.

The skill tree itself was reshuffled rather than just expanded. Mid-branch nodes are now a binary choice between two skills, and you can swap your pick if you reset the tree later. Branch-end nodes offer three skills, and once you have invested enough points in that branch you can take up to two of them. Several existing skills were also rebalanced: Fight or Flight now grants roughly 25% more stamina per level, Stubborn Mule gives about 33% higher stamina regeneration, and Back on Your Feet's healing was raised from 30 to 40.

08Amplified Weapons, the Outpost and the New Reward Pass

Once you have fully upgraded your Research Workstation, you unlock Amplified Weapons, a fifth weapon quality tier above the existing rarities. Amplified upgrades branch into significant changes across 15 existing guns, turning a familiar weapon into something that handles differently rather than just hitting harder.

Getting there runs through the new Outpost system. Completing a project unlocks your Outpost and, with it, a Research Bench, and the Outpost itself can be expanded with additional modules over time. Furniture Designs work like weapon blueprints and are learned rather than bought outright; Embark has shipped 100 of them in total, split between ones found Topside, ones unlocked by upgrading the Outpost, and a handful tied to the Frozen Trail Pass and the Collector Set DLC.

Progression itself changed too. Cred has been replaced by Reward Points, which automatically feed whichever pass you currently have active, and only one pass can be active at a time. The Frozen Trail Pass runs 60 levels across Free and Premium tracks, while the old Raider Decks have moved into a Legacy Pass that keeps anything you already unlocked and lets you resume it by setting it active again. Feats are now tiered Easy, Medium and Hard for 15, 25 and 50 Reward Points respectively, and three weekly milestones hand out 250 points each on top of that. Your stash also got two more upgrade tiers, for a new maximum of 328 slots before Expedition and Nomadic Envoy bonuses.

How to Handle Frozen Trail's New Threats

1. 1Pendola Pass's Dynamic Loot Zones can pay out differently between raids, so scan rooms with your detector instead of running old routes from memory.2 min
2. 2Keep an Avalanche Shelter in sight at all times outdoors. When the freeze warning hits, duck inside immediately rather than trying to outrun it.Ongoing
3. 3Stand near solid cover and let the Bully commit to its charge. Sidestep behind cover at the last second, then fire during its brief recovery window.1-2 min
4. 4Have one Raider bait the Skulker into the open while a teammate watches the flank it retreats toward, then collapse on it when it reappears.2-3 min
5. 5Draw its attention with movement, break line of sight the instant it locks on, and only peek to fire when you have a clean angle on one of its three sections.3-5 min
6. 6Don't summon it until your squad is already standing on the platform; the boarding window is too short to cover ground after calling it in.1 min
7. 7Complete the Outpost project as soon as you can afford it; it gates both Amplified Weapons and most of the new Furniture Designs.Varies

Frozen Trail: First Look premiered on ARC Raiders' official YouTube channel on September 23, 2026, previewing Pendola Pass, the new ARC enemies and gear ahead of the October 8 launch.

If you are jumping in during the free trial week, prioritize learning Pendola Pass's layout and the Bully and Skulker encounters before you go anywhere near the Frigate or the Hydra. Both of the tougher fights punish squads that have not already built muscle memory for the smaller threats, and with Flash Freeze cutting into your window to loot safely, a bad pull against a Hydra can end a raid before you have anything worth extracting.