ARC Raiders Players Aren’t Happy About New Map Condition

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Players of the game ARC Raiders are frustrated with the timing of the new “Bird City” map event, believing it’s scheduled at inconvenient hours. This isn’t the first time players have voiced concerns about event scheduling, and many are now asking the developers at Embark to create a more flexible schedule so more people can participate.

This week, Embark launched a big update for ARC Raiders called Headwinds, starting their planned series of monthly updates throughout early 2026. The January 27th update included a new 1v3 matchmaking mode – which has proven divisive – a special modifier for the Buried City map, a new item bundle in the store, and various bug fixes and improvements. However, many players haven’t been able to experience the new Bird City map modifier due to inconvenient event timing.

ARC Raiders Want Scheduling Changes Made to Its Map Conditions

A new update to ARC Raiders has added ‘Bird City’ as a temporary map change, alongside other limited-time events. However, players are expressing frustration with the event’s timing. A recent Reddit post, with over 1,000 upvotes, points out that the event runs during hours that are difficult for players in the GMT timezone who work traditional 9-to-5 jobs. The event is active from 8AM-9AM, 4PM-5PM, and 12AM-1AM, making it hard for many to participate. The poster and others are asking the developers at Embark to create a more flexible schedule so players worldwide can enjoy all game modes.

Many players share this frustration, with hundreds of comments echoing the need for a change. One US player in the EST timezone stated they won’t be able to participate in the event as it stands. They suggested rotating or shifting the schedule by an hour or two each night to make it fairer for everyone. Given this has been a recurring issue, another player said they’re happy to see the complaint continue until the developers address it.

Since its launch last year, players have consistently asked for a rotating schedule of challenges on the game map in ARC Raiders. Beyond that, many players—now at the game’s highest level with powerful gear—want more difficult raids that require players to use their own earned equipment, rather than starter loadouts. Embark, the game’s developer, has said they’ve considered these requests, but the recent ‘Headwinds’ update didn’t deliver. Instead of the desired raids, it introduced a 1-versus-3 matchmaking option that players overwhelmingly said they didn’t want.

So, the recent update for ARC Raiders had a bit of a bumpy start! We quickly noticed the Kettle and Venator weapons were firing slower, but thankfully Embark said that wasn’t intentional and they pushed out a fix almost immediately to get them back to normal. On the other hand, it seemed like looting was taking way longer after the update. Embark explained that was actually on purpose – they felt the loot was being revealed too quickly before the patch, so they slowed it down. It’s good they’re being transparent about what’s a bug and what’s a deliberate change!

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2026-01-29 20:49