Arc Raiders Expedition Guide: Is It Worth It? Complete Requirements

Expeditions in Arc Raiders tackle a core extraction shooter dilemma: what happens when everyone’s maxed out and fully equipped? Unlike Escape from Tarkov’s all-at-once mandatory wipes, Arc Raiders lets you choose when (or if) you want to start fresh. It’s a prestige system steeped in lore about venturing beyond the Rust Belt, and it comes with some actual benefits instead of just wiping your progress for fun.

If you’ve hit level 20 and are wondering if this whole Expedition thing justifies the considerable resource commitment, you’re in the right place. You can depart between December 17 and December 22, so there’s not much time left to decide.

QUICK ANSWER: Is Arc Raiders Expedition Worth It?

✅ DO EXPEDITION IF:

• You’re level 60-75 (experienced endgame)
• You want to respec skills (only way to reset)
• You play regularly (buffs last 8 weeks)
• You care about permanent stash space (+12 slots)
• You want exclusive cosmetics

❌ SKIP EXPEDITION IF:

• You’re below level 40 (haven’t seen everything)
• You’re casual / time-poor
• You’re attached to rare blueprints
• You don’t have 830K+ coins worth of gear

⚠️ DEADLINE: December 17-22, 2025 departure window
💡 GOOD NEWS: Progress carries over if you miss it!

What Are Expeditions?

Once your Raider hits level 20, you unlock the Projects tab and can start working on your first Expedition. The goal is to spend several weeks gathering materials to build a caravan, and when you’re ready, you send your current Raider off into the unknown. Your Raider is gone for good, taking everything with them, and you start fresh with a new Raider who gets some nice bonuses.

Participation is entirely optional. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, and your progress from the current cycle carries over to the next one if you don’t finish before the departure deadline. The whole thing operates on an eight-week schedule, with about 60 days to gather materials, giving you a seven-day departure window at the end.

The Five Build Phases

Building your Expedition caravan isn’t a weekend project. There are five stages, each requiring specific materials that you’ll need to extract with and donate. Once you commit items, they’re gone.

Phase 1: Foundation

This is the easiest phase. You’re constructing the caravan’s foundational structure.

• 150 Metal Parts
• 200 Rubber Parts
• 80 ARC Alloy
• 15 Steel Springs

Metal and Rubber Parts are everywhere if you’re recycling junk. ARC Alloy drops from most enemies in the game, making it easier than it sounds despite the 80-unit requirement. Steel Springs can be more challenging, but you’ll find them in both low-level and high-level loot areas, and Celeste will sell them for Seeds if you’re in dire need.

Phase 2: Core Systems

Now you’re adding wiring, ventilation, and power systems. This is where things get more tedious.

• 35 Durable Cloth
• 15 Electrical Wiring
• 30 Advanced Sensors
• 10 Pressure Regulators

You’ll probably need to start farming clothing items for the 490 fabric required to craft all that Durable Cloth from scratch, unless you’ve been hoarding. These materials also spawn in medical looting locations.

Phase 3: Framework

Adding structural integrity and advanced systems. This phase introduces some particularly challenging materials.

• 5 Light Bulbs
• 15 Reinforced Frames
• 10 Thermal Regulators
• 5 ARC Humidifiers

Light Bulbs are weirdly specific—you need to breach car hoods at the Electrical Substation (south side of Dam Battlegrounds) and Generator Hall (north end). ARC Humidifiers are the real pain point here. Despite being “residential items,” they can feel pretty rare when you’re specifically looking for them.

Phase 4: Outfitting

More specialized components for advanced caravan systems.

• 5 Cooling Fans
• 10 Magnetic Accelerators
• 5 Advanced Electrical Components
• 3 Leaper Pulse Units

Cooling Fans spawn in metal lockers and industrial zones, especially around power plants. Magnetic Accelerators and Advanced Electrical Components are typically found in high-tier tech areas—check Spaceport tech areas and underground server rooms in Blue Gate.

Leaper Pulse Units require actually killing Leapers and extracting with the unit, which is about as fun as it sounds. Many players trap the Leaper near Ancient Fort on Blue Gate, burn it with Blaze grenades and Wolfpack rockets, then pocket the unit and extract.

Phase 5: Load Stage

This is where casual players find out if Expedition is actually worth it. You don’t donate specific items anymore, here you donate value. The game wants a grand total of 830,000 coins worth of stuff across four categories:

• Combat items (weapons, grenades, ammo, attachments)
• Survival items (shields, augments, medical items)
• Provisions (nature items, trinkets, keys)
• Materials (crafting resources and recyclables)

None of it comes back. These contributions are permanent. Most people use high-value weapons like Torrente and purple weapon mods to meet the Combat total requirement, Heavy Fuse grenades for additional Combat value, food blueprints and fruit runs at Olive Grove for Provisions, and leftover hoarded materials for the 300,000 Materials requirement.

Best strategies:

• Combat (300K): Donate purple weapon mods (~5K each), Heavy Fuse grenades, Torrente rifles
• Survival (200K): Common shields (~1,200 each), augments, unused medkits
• Provisions (180K): Farm fruit at Olive Grove, food blueprints, trinkets from your stash
• Materials (150K): Dump hoarded basics (Metal/Rubber Parts excess), recyclables

What You Lose

When your Raider departs on December 22, here’s what gets wiped:

• Your level (back to level 1)
• All skill points and your entire skill tree
• Every item in your stash
• All learned blueprints
• Workshop upgrades (workshop unlocks stay completed)
• Crafting station progress
• All your coins

Basically, anything tied directly to your character is gone.

What You Keep

Not everything disappears into the void:

• All cosmetics (purchased or earned)
• Achievements and titles
• Map unlocks (you skip the tutorials on your new Raider)
• Codex entries
• Any items purchased with premium currency

The Rewards

So what do you actually get for dumping 830,000+ coins worth of gear into a caravan? Here’s the breakdown:

Permanent Rewards:

• Patchwork Raider outfit (exclusive cosmetic)
• Scrappy Janitor Cap (exclusive cosmetic for Scrappy)
• Expeditions Indicator icon (shows how many Expeditions you’ve completed)
• +12 permanent stash space
• Up to 5 bonus skill points based on your stash value at departure (1 skill point per 1 million coins worth of items)

Temporary Buffs (until next Expedition):

• 10% faster weapon repairs
• 5% XP boost
• 6% more materials from Scrappy

The temporary buffs stack up to three times if you complete consecutive Expeditions, so there’s incentive to keep doing them.

Is It Worth It?

That depends entirely on how you play.

Expedition is probably worth it if:

• You’re already at or near level 75 and have most of what you want
• You enjoy the early and mid-game loops more than endgame grinding
• You log in often enough to actually benefit from the temporary buffs
• You care about long-term account power like extra stash space and permanent skill points
• You want the exclusive cosmetics

It’s probably not worth it if:

• You’re time-poor and only play a few raids here and there
• You’re still attached to your current Raider’s kit and blueprints
• You don’t have the bandwidth to farm specific rare items
• You’re not level 75 yet and haven’t experienced everything the game offers

Each additional skill points requires 1 million coins worth of value in your stash, capping at 5 points. That means if you want the maximum 5 bonus skill points, you need 5 million coins worth of items held in your stash when the departure window closes on December 22. That’s on top of the 830,000 you already donated for the Load Stage.

With the departure window opening December 17 and closing December 22, you’ve got a week to decide. If you’re undecided, consider that your progress carries over to the next cycle if you don’t finish. You can always complete the first four phases now and wait for a later Expedition to actually send your Raider off.

Arc Raiders tackles the wipe problem plaguing most extraction shooters with a unique solution. Instead of forcing everyone to reset at once, they made it optional and gave it just enough rewards to make it worth considering.

Just don’t expect to complete this quickly. Treat it like the long-term project it is, feel free to pace your farming across multiple sessions, and decide whether those permanent stash slots and skill points are worth more than keeping your current setup. There’s no wrong answer—it’s your Raider, your decision.

Frequently Asked Questions