ARC Raiders’ inventory wipe incentive is a mystery to ‘the majority of the player base’ due to how inconspicuous it is in-game

ARC Raiders is looking to tackle the “wipe” problem that games in its genre experience by making it optional for players to participate in. It’s called the Expedition Project, and the game’s first iteration is happening soon.

Given that ARC Raiders is likely the first extraction shooter for many players, many are somewhat unfamiliar with the Expedition Project and what it means. And that’s largely because it’s not very evident in-game.

Today, a Reddit user called out that it’s mainly been posted about and discussed on social media channels like Discord and X/Twitter, which is a fairly good point. To even find the Projects page in-game, players need to navigate to multiple menus, and there’s no in-game notification or marker anywhere to point to it.

Because of this, the main gist of the upcoming Expedition Project seems to be flying under the radar for a lot of players, especially when it comes to the requirements for earning extra skill points, which may be the biggest draw to wiping your stash and starting over.

This optional inventory wipe features some steep requirements to begin with to reach the final phase, which begins in a week on Dec. 17. But then, the main reason to start over is the skill points, which are pricy: when the Expedition Project takes off, players can earn up to five permanent skill point unlocks, and they cost one million overall stash value per point.

“None of my friends had any idea when I told them yesterday,” one gamer said. “Now none of them wants to do the Expedition.”

“When the Expedition departs, all items in your Raider’s stash will be contributed toward it,” Embark explained in a blog post this past week. “Your next Raider can earn up to five skill points based on the total value of your Stash and Coins at the time of departure.”

Opting in to the Expedition will unlock some exclusive cosmetics, 12 more slots for your stash, and some temporary buffs. These rewards are nice, but moving forward, having those extra skill points and tacking them onto your build at each reset will be what sets most players apart. And it appears that many have no idea that it’s a thing because there’s nothing about it in the actual game.

Some sort of in-game announcement would be a good first step in making sure that all players are prepared for the Expedition to begin in a week. There’s only a week-long period where players can do so, too, so that only makes the need for better communication on the subject more pertinent.

Since the Expedition itself is quite an undertaking for casual players, I’ll be very curious to see how many players actually take part in it and how Embark will handle the mechanic moving forward after this initial try.