December 22, 2025
ARC Raiders Players Frustrated as Workshop Progress Resets During First Expedition
🎮 ARC Raiders’ First Expedition Is Live — But Not Without Controversy
The first-ever Expedition in ARC Raiders has officially launched, marking a major milestone for the live-service shooter. Expeditions are designed as optional progression resets, giving players a fresh start while offering long-term rewards for those willing to participate.
While wipes are nothing new in extraction-style games, this debut Expedition has already stirred frustration across the community. Many players logged in expecting to continue using their unlocked Workshop Stations — only to find they were gone.
🧰 How Expeditions Were Supposed to Work
In games like ARC Raiders, wipes serve an important purpose. They refresh progression, rebalance the economy, and prevent veteran players from running out of things to do. The downside, however, is that resets often hit casual players the hardest.
To soften that blow, ARC Raiders introduced Expeditions as an opt-in wipe system. Players who chose to reset were promised incentives such as:
- Permanently increased Stash space
- Additional Skill points
- Exclusive cosmetics
- Temporary buffs for newly reset characters
Crucially, many players also believed certain progress — including Workshop Stations — would carry over.
🔧 Workshop Stations Suddenly Missing
Once the Expedition went live on December 22, players quickly noticed something was wrong. After logging in, only the basic starting Workbench was available. Every other Workshop Station had vanished and needed to be unlocked and leveled again.
This caught many raiders off guard, especially those who joined the Expedition believing that unlocked Workshop Stations would remain accessible.
Adding to the confusion, the in-game list detailing what would be kept versus reset was quietly updated before launch. “Unlocked Workshop Stations” was removed from the “This Will Be Kept” section, leading to mixed interpretations among the player base.
📋 Miscommunication or Mixed Expectations?
Some players argue that Workshops were always listed as part of what would reset, suggesting the issue stems from misunderstanding rather than a broken promise. Others point out that “Unlocked Workshop Stations” did previously appear under the list of retained items, which influenced their decision to participate.
Earlier developer explanations did state that character-based progress would be wiped, including:
- Player levels
- Skills
- Inventory and items
- Workshop progression and crafting capabilities
Later updates clarified that workshop upgrades would be available again after resetting, but did not clearly state that stations would need to be unlocked from scratch.
⛏️ Why Players Are Especially Upset
For many players, rebuilding Workshop Stations isn’t a minor inconvenience. Progression requires rare and time-consuming materials, including notoriously hard-to-find components like Rusted Gear.
Key frustrations include:
- Losing hours of crafting progression
- Needing to re-unlock every station instead of just re-leveling
- High material costs combined with other Expedition expenses
- Uncertainty over whether the Expedition rewards justify the losses
With millions of Coins required to unlock all Skill points and significant resources needed to build the Expedition Caravan, some players are questioning whether opting into Expeditions is worth it at all.
🧠 Final Thoughts
Growing pains are common when new systems launch in live-service games, and the first ARC Raiders Expedition appears to be relatively stable overall. Still, the confusion surrounding Workshop Stations highlights how critical clear communication is when asking players to reset meaningful progress.
Whether this situation was caused by miscommunication or shifting design decisions, it has clearly impacted player trust. How Embark Studios responds — and whether future Expeditions adjust these mechanics — may determine how willing players are to opt in next time.