ARC Raiders Expedition Damage Challenge Explained

Embark Studios has quietly reshaped how players engage with ARC Raiders expeditions. Instead of racing to hit massive stash-value targets within a tight deadline, raiders are now asked to do something far more intuitive: deal damage. Alongside this design shift, the studio extended the expedition challenge window from just a few days to nearly two weeks, easing the pressure on players with limited playtime while preserving the feeling that expeditions are time-limited, high-stakes events.

This article breaks down how the new damage challenge works, why the extended deadline matters, and what practical strategies you can use to comfortably earn all available skill points during the expedition period.

From Stash Value to Damage Dealt: What Actually Changed

Earlier iterations of ARC Raiders expeditions tied progression to stash value and coins: you had to accumulate a substantial inventory value within the expedition timeframe to unlock all five skill points. That system rewarded efficient looting and survival, but it also came with drawbacks—particularly for players who couldn’t sink long, uninterrupted sessions into the game.

For this latest iteration, Embark has introduced a more straightforward requirement:

• Skill points are earned by dealing damage during a fixed expedition window.
• Any valid damage counts: to ARC enemies or other raiders, as long as it isn’t in the practice range.
• The system applies whether it’s your first, second, or third expedition run.

In short, if you are actively playing and shooting during the event period, you are progressing toward your skill points. This is a significant quality-of-life improvement for anyone who found stash value grindy, opaque, or overly punishing for failed runs.

The New 13-Day Expedition Window

Originally, players were told they would have roughly five days to complete the damage challenge—essentially a Tuesday-to-Sunday window. Feedback was immediate and loud: five days is a short span for an event that meaningfully impacts your long-term character power, especially for players juggling work, study, and family commitments.

Embark responded by extending the challenge period to a much more generous 13 days. The key implications are:

• More flexibility: Players can spread their progress over nearly two weeks instead of compressing it into a single busy weekend.
• Lower failure risk: Missing a couple of days does not automatically mean missing your skill points.
• Broader time zones & schedules covered: People who can only play on certain weekdays or weekends can still comfortably participate.

This kind of schedule adjustment is typical for modern live-service games when developers see that event windows are creating more frustration than excitement. Similar cadence tuning has appeared in games like Destiny 2 and Warframe, where limited-time activities and seasonal challenges are often balanced to accommodate both hardcore regulars and casual participants.¹

Damage Thresholds and Skill Point Rewards

The challenge structure is simple but scales sharply. During the expedition window, every point of damage you deal (outside the practice range) accumulates toward a set of thresholds. Each threshold corresponds to a skill point, for a total of five. Based on official communication referenced in creator breakdowns and community tools, the thresholds are:

Embark used the Bastion, a chunky ARC unit, as the reference point because the game generally hides explicit health bars and damage numbers in normal play. In developer messaging, they clarified that 100,000 total damage is approximately equivalent to destroying 20 Bastions across the event, while internally they found that 8,000–10,000 damage in a single very good round is achievable for engaged players.

What Counts Toward the Damage Challenge

Within the expedition window, progress is counted under the following rules:

• Any weapon or gadget can be used to contribute damage.
• Any valid target is allowed: ARC enemies or other raiders.
• Practice range damage is excluded to prevent trivial farming.
• The system is account-wide for that expedition cycle; you just need to play during the event.

In practice, this means you can play the way you normally would—pushing matches, cooperating with your team, and experimenting with builds—without worrying about niche requirements. The game measures your output in the background.

Is 100,000 Damage Reasonable? Breaking Down the Numbers

At first glance, 100,000 damage may sound like a grind. However, when you break it into daily or per-session goals, it becomes far more manageable—especially with the extended 13-day window.

Daily Damage Targets Over 13 Days

Assuming you want to evenly spread the work across the whole window:

• Total damage required: 100,000
• Event length: 13 days
• Average damage per day: ≈ 7,700 damage

Given Embark’s internal benchmark that 8,000–10,000 damage is achievable in a strong single round, a player who manages one or two solid sessions per day could reasonably secure all five points without needing to no-life the event.

Session-Based Planning for Busy Players

If your schedule only allows for a few sessions across the window, you can think in terms of matches instead of days. For example:

• Play two or three high-focus sessions where you aim for 10,000–15,000 damage each.
• Supplement with a handful of lighter sessions where you hit 5,000–8,000 damage.

Even with that conservative approach, you are likely to reach or exceed the 100,000 mark, especially if you’re playing with a coordinated squad that feeds you opportunities to output damage safely.

Strategic Tips for Hitting the Damage Thresholds

Because the expedition challenge is entirely damage-driven, your objective in each match shifts subtly. Survival, extraction, and loot still matter, but maximizing effective damage becomes the clearest path to progression. Here are practical ways to optimize your output during the event.

1. Prioritize High-Health Targets

Short-lived, low-HP enemies can be satisfying to clear, but they don’t let you stack as much damage as chunky priority targets. Bastions and other large ARC units are ideal because they soak up damage before going down.

• Focus fire on tanky enemies when it’s safe.
• Coordinate with teammates so you get sustained damage opportunities instead of sniped last hits.
• Avoid over-committing and dying early; dead raiders deal no damage.

2. Build for Sustained Damage, Not Just Burst

Your expedition build should favor uptime and consistency over short-lived spikes. Consider:

• Reliable primary weapons with manageable recoil and strong magazines.
• Gadgets that either extend your DPS window (for example, by controlling crowds) or let you safely chip away at bigger enemies.
• Survivability tools that keep you alive in the thick of combat where most damage opportunities arise.

Even if ultra-high burst damage feels powerful, missed shots or frequent downtime between engagements can dramatically reduce your total accumulated damage across a match.

3. Lean on Team Coordination

ARC Raiders is inherently cooperative, and the damage challenge leans into that. Effective squad play can dramatically raise everyone’s numbers:

• Have one teammate focus on control (stuns, slows, positioning tools).
• Assign another to target marking and scouting, calling out high-value enemies.
• Let the strongest DPS players take point on burning down Bastions while others provide cover and support.

Multiplayer dynamics in live-service shooters often show that coordinated groups outperform solo players by large margins in objective efficiency and reward acquisition.² The same holds true here: the better you coordinate, the more damage each of you can safely output.

4. Manage Risk vs. Reward

Because the challenge tracks cumulative damage rather than complicated extraction metrics, you might be tempted to play recklessly to chase numbers. That approach can backfire if deaths force frequent resets or keep you out of fights for long stretches.

A balanced mindset works best:

• Push aggressively when you have team support and good positioning.
• Pull back when overwhelmed; regrouping often yields more damage over time than heroic last stands.
• Remember that the challenge runs for nearly two weeks—you don’t need to get it all done in a single session.

How the Catch-Up Mechanic Fits In

Embark’s previous expedition also introduced a catch-up mechanic based on coin and stash value. If you failed to earn all five skill points, you could reclaim missed points in a later season by reaching specific currency thresholds—roughly 300,000 coins or stash value per missing skill point, according to creator analyses.

For the new damage-based challenge, this catch-up system remains in place but is decoupled from the current damage thresholds:

• The event itself is entirely about damage dealt during the window.
• Missed skill points can still be recovered in the following season via the pre-existing stash / coin conversion mechanic.

This dual-track approach mirrors what many live-service games do to prevent permanent progression loss from missing a limited-time event: players who show up during the window are rewarded more efficiently, while those who miss out can still grind their way back over time.³

Why the Extension Matters for Player Experience

From a design perspective, the extension from five days to thirteen is more than a mere schedule tweak—it’s an important signal about how Embark wants ARC Raiders to feel.

Reducing FOMO Without Killing Urgency

Live-service games are often criticized for aggressive Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) loops, where players feel compelled to log in daily or risk falling behind.⁴ Short, high-stakes windows amplify that feeling, which can lead to burnout or churn, especially among players with limited free time.

By nearly tripling the expedition window but still keeping it finite, Embark strikes a more sustainable balance:

• There is still a clear deadline, preserving a sense of urgency and event identity.
• Players can miss several days and still realistically finish the challenge.
• The event feels special without effectively becoming a full-time job.

Rewarding Active Play Over Perfect Runs

Shifting from stash value to damage dealt also changes the emotional tone of expeditions. Under the old system, a bad run could feel catastrophic: poor loot, an early death, or extraction failure could mean you lost meaningful progress toward stash milestones.

With damage tracking, each engagement contributes. Even failed runs still push you toward your goal, provided you dealt some damage along the way. That kind of “no wasted effort” philosophy is increasingly common in modern progression systems and has been cited in player engagement research as a key factor in maintaining long-term motivation.⁵

Frequently Asked Questions

Does PvP damage count, or is it PvE only?

Damage dealt to either ARC enemies or other raiders counts toward the challenge as long as it occurs during the expedition window and not in the practice range. You can progress in both PvE-focused and mixed environments.

Do I need to sign up separately for the damage challenge?

For players who have completed the necessary expedition prerequisites (such as finishing their Caravan), the challenge is linked to the expedition cycle itself. Once the window is live, any valid damage you deal during that period contributes automatically—there is no standalone opt-in button for the damage tracker.

What happens if I don’t hit 100,000 damage in time?

You will only earn the skill points corresponding to the thresholds you reached. Any missed skill points from this expedition can later be reclaimed through the ongoing catch-up mechanic, which uses coins and stash value to compensate for earlier shortfalls, provided you meet the eligibility requirements from previous expeditions.

Is the damage tracking per character or account-wide?

Embark has presented the challenge in terms of your participation in the expedition window rather than per-character runs. As long as you are playing during the event, damage from your active expedition-eligible profile adds up. If you use multiple characters or loadouts, they contribute collectively for that account in the relevant season.

Can I farm damage in the practice range?

No. Practice range damage is explicitly excluded from the challenge to prevent trivial exploitation. You must deal damage in real matches against legitimate targets—ARC enemies or raiders—to progress toward the thresholds.

Making the Most of the Next Expedition

The revamped ARC Raiders expedition is a case study in how live-service developers can react to community feedback without compromising on the tension and identity of their limited-time events. By extending the window and linking rewards to damage—a metric any active player can influence every match—Embark has lowered the barrier to entry while still rewarding engagement and skillful play.

If you want to maximize your success in the upcoming window, focus on:

• Planning a handful of solid sessions across the 13 days instead of cramming everything into a single weekend.
• Building for sustained DPS and survivability so you can stay in the fight longer each match.
• Targeting high-HP enemies like Bastions whenever possible to extract more damage from each engagement.
• Grouping with friends or clanmates for better coordination and safer, higher-output fights.

With that approach, the 100,000 damage target becomes far less intimidating—and the expedition transforms from a stressful race into a satisfying community event that rewards simply showing up and playing well.