Embark Studios just pulled the plug on the most profitable 48 hours in ARC Raiders history. Only two days after the massive Cold Snap (Update 1.7.0) launched, the developers released Update 1.7.2 on December 18 to fix a massive oversight in the game’s economy. While the update addresses several critical bugs, the primary focus is a significant reduction in Blueprint drop rates that had players swimming in legendary loot.
When Update 1.7.0 went live on December 16, Embark expanded Blueprint spawn locations to help players find items in underrepresented areas. However, the studio accidentally sent those spawn rates through the roof.
Reports quickly surfaced of players extracting with as many as eight Blueprints in a single match. Specifically, the legendary Aphelion Blueprint, recently moved to Stella Montis, became suspiciously easy to acquire.
Update 1.7.2 ends this “gold mine”. Embark has “slightly lowered” the drop rates to restore the game’s progression balance. Fortunately for latecomers, the rates are still higher overall than they were before the Cold Snap update began.
Aside from the loot nerf, the hotfix resolves several immersion-breaking technical issues introduced by the winter theme.
The “Hidden Bunker” map modifier is now re-enabled, adding more variety to the current rotation. Furthermore, players should prepare for the next “Raider Deck” arriving on December 26. This free deck offers five pages of unlockable cosmetic rewards. You can earn the necessary tokens by completing challenges and playing matches.
This hotfix will likely be the final update of 2025. Embark Studios has announced a shift in their schedule, moving regular updates from Thursdays to Tuesdays. The team is now taking a holiday break and will return in January with more content. Until then, they will only monitor the servers for critical stability issues.