Omarbetar Arc Raiders testsystem kring spelarscheman och kartval

Embark Studios has published a dedicated blog post detailing changes to Arc Raiders' Trials system, the rotating weekly challenge ladder that rewards high scores with a unique seasonal outfit. The first wave of changes lands with Trials Season 4 on April 29, one day after the Riven Tides update.

Trials have drawn complaints since launch. Objectives have been narrow, the leaderboard climb has been gated by a strict schedule, and several challenges only became available during specific map conditions. Players who could not log in during those windows missed entire categories of progression. Embark is now removing or reworking the parts of the system that forced that behaviour.

The first change concerns the start time. Previously, Trials were locked off during the Expedition 3 window, which compressed the period available for ranking up. Season 4 begins earlier, opening more time on the leaderboard. The Expedition itself is being reworked under a linked change announced earlier: future runs will reward players for killing bots rather than hoarding loot, after Embark admitted grinding for monetary value is not fun to play through.

Map conditions are losing their double-point bonus. The intent is to stop pushing every Trials grinder onto the same map under the same conditions. Embark wants players to chase the leaderboard wherever they prefer, without a numerical penalty for ignoring the current "best" rotation.

Tied to that, challenges anchored to specific map conditions are being dropped or rewritten. The blog post names "disarm mines" and "get hit by lightning" as examples. Both required a player to be online during the corresponding event. Close Scrutiny is referenced as a separate condition the developers already addressed; it now runs permanently rather than on a schedule. The wider point is the same. Embark is identifying systems that punish players for playing on the wrong day, and either making them permanent or removing the requirement.

I think the strongest argument for these changes is the one Embark does not state directly. The previous Trials structure penalised anyone whose schedule did not align with event windows, and the fix here is the removal of arbitrary friction rather than any flashy redesign of the loop itself.

Embark has flagged variety as the next priority. The blog post promises melee combat challenges, score objectives tied to specific gadgets and grenades, and what Embark calls "searching unique containers" without elaborating further. The full set will roll out across Season 4 rather than at launch.

"We hear you—Trials challenges need more variation, and Season 4 intends to deliver. Without revealing our hand early, expect to see some exciting new objectives throughout the upcoming season, like melee combat challenges, using specific gadgets/grenades to score points, and searching… unique containers."

— Embark

Season 4's outfit reward was also confirmed in the post. The Recon set follows Season 3's Torgue outfit and uses the same unlock structure. The base outfit drops at Tryhard I rank, with colour variations attached to higher tiers. Hotshot and Cantina Legend ranks deliver the additional palettes. Players who never engage with Trials still see no impact on the rest of Arc Raiders, which is why the "ruining the game" framing some players use overstates the situation. The system is opt-in, and the changes simply make it less hostile to players who do opt in.

Embark also acknowledged complaints that fall outside this first wave of changes. The blog post references "unfair advantages" for squads and the "competitive integrity of the leaderboards" as ongoing concerns. Neither is being addressed in Season 4 specifically, but both have been formally logged for future patches.

"In Season 4 we're taking the first steps to allow all players to participate without any time scheduling constraints, and we'll continue to listen to your comments as the season progresses."

— Embark

Embark has not committed to a specific cadence for further Trials changes, but the blog post leaves the door open. I see the post as a soft-launched roadmap for the system rather than a one-off patch. The team is admitting the current design is not finished, and will keep iterating across Season 4 if the data and feedback support continued work.

The Riven Tides update, which lands on April 28, briefly overlaps with the existing Trials Season 3 before Season 4 begins the next day. Players who want the Torgue outfit's higher tiers have a narrow window to push their rank before the rotation flips. After that, the focus shifts to the Recon set and the new challenge pool.

The first wave of changes targets one clear failure: time-gated progression that punished irregular schedules. Whether the Trials ladder becomes something players actively pursue rather than tolerate will depend on the variety promised across the season, the gadget and melee objectives Embark has previewed, and on how the studio handles the squad-versus-solo question that sits behind the leaderboard integrity complaints. The Recon outfit will drop on April 29 regardless.

Read also, during a presentation at the Game Developers Conference, Arc Raiders production director Caio Braga shared playtester satisfaction data segmented by which other games respondents played. Fans of Rust, PUBG, Escape from Tarkov, and Hunt: Showdown reported the highest PvP satisfaction during early builds, and Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Counter-Strike fans also scored high. Helldivers 2, Destiny, Elden Ring, and The Division players gave the lowest scores overall, with one exception inside that group: The Last of Us fans reported high satisfaction with the PvP mechanics.