One week after the launch of Riven Tides, ARC Raiders' various periodic updates have begun to return to a more consistent schedule. Accordingly, Week 27, which also marks Week 1 of the new Season Trials, went live on May 4th and will conclude one week later on May 11th.

This week's five Trial missions remain heavily combat-oriented; however, several features entirely new objective types never before seen in the game. These warrant your close attention, as overlooking their specific requirements could lead to errors or setbacks while attempting to complete the trials.

Below, we have provided a detailed breakdown of all Week 27 trial objectives to ensure you can complete them whenever you have the time.

Destroy Fireballs

If you haven't just recently joined the ranks of ARC Raiders, Fireball should be a familiar enemy type. Spherical, it is a heavily armored unit, making it difficult to penetrate, and its offensive power increases significantly at close range.

Once it spots you and decides to attack, Fireball will begin rolling forward; it then opens its front panel to extend a flamethrower, unleashing a stream of fire to inflict damage upon you.

If you are caught in the flames, you will continue to suffer burn damage over time, even after you have successfully destroyed Fireball.

However, for seasoned Raiders, defeating a Fireball is actually quite manageable, provided you employ the right tactics.

First, as previously mentioned, Fireball is a heavily armored adversary; the key to defeating it lies in destroying the core hidden beneath its plating.

Therefore, the optimal offensive strategy is to first maintain a safe distance between yourself and Fireball. Then, continuously fire at it using weapons chambered for medium or heavy ammunition to pierce through its armor until its vulnerable core is exposed.

If, due to the recent start of a new expedition cycle, you have not yet acquired weapons of this caliber, it's fast and safe t o buy ARC Raiders blueprints on IGGM to immediately craft any gear you urgently need!

Furthermore, during the engagement, to ensure you maintain a safe distance from Fireball and avoid being scorched by its flames, it is advisable to constantly utilize the evasive roll maneuver to stay mobile.

Destroy ARC Enemies in the Swamp

Although this mission confines the action to the swamp area within Dam Battlegrounds map, a relatively small zone, rest assured that the game will spawn a sufficient number of enemies within the allotted time to allow you to successfully complete the objective with a coveted three-star rating!

Furthermore, since there are no restrictions on enemy types, if you find that taking down high-point targets, such as Rocketeers and Leapers, is too difficult for you, you can choose to focus exclusively on easier enemies; the only downside is that doing so will take up more of your time.

It is crucial to note that the points you earn during this trial mission are only validated if you successfully extract from the map after eliminating your targets. Therefore, do not let your guard down once the fighting ends.

Damage Any ARC Enemies

This is likely the least innovative objective in this week's trials, as you are effectively doing this during almost every single raid you undertake. The upside, however, is that it can be progressed simultaneously with other trial objectives.

For instance, while you are eliminating enemies in the swamp zone, you are also passively contributing to the progress of this specific objective.

Even if you haven't yet achieved a three-star rating for this task by the end of your last run, the amount of dedicated time you need to invest in it later will be significantly reduced.

On the other hand, beyond the final trial rewards, eliminating ARC enemies also yields various crafting materials dropped by the foes themselves, resources that are highly valuable for crafting additional gear at your current stage of progression.

Deal Melee Damage to ARC Enemies

Broadly speaking, this objective does not differ significantly from the previous one and can also be progressed concurrently.

However, the critical distinction lies in the requirement to deal melee damage, which effectively, albeit indirectly, imposes restrictions on the types of enemies you should target.

Theoretically, you could use appropriate weapons to deal melee damage to any enemy; however, if you target a particularly fragile ARC unit, such as a Tick, you will probably eliminate it after dealing only a minuscule amount of damage.

Since the key to this objective lies in the total damage dealt rather than the number of enemies killed, the most efficient strategy is to prioritize larger, high-health enemies.

These larger foes allow you to directly latch onto them and launch attacks, ensuring that every hit registers as melee damage.

Furthermore, the sheer amount of damage required to take down a single one of these enemies is substantial, more than enough to help you successfully complete this trial objective.

Search Kitchen Cabinets

Much like the melee damage objective, the task of searching kitchen cabinets is a new type of objective introduced in this week's trials. This specific task requires you to locate and search a sufficient number of cabinets across any of the available maps.

Inevitably, while undertaking this task, you will encounter randomly roaming ARC units as well as rival PvP players who are also vying for the loot hidden within those cabinets.

Therefore, you should remain fully prepared for combat at all times. Generally speaking, kitchen cabinets can be found on all maps; however, the areas where they spawn most frequently include:

• Dam Battlegrounds: Apartment Buildings.
• Buried City: A second-floor kitchen within Santa Maria Houses.
• Stella Montis: Medical Research and Security Office.

That covers everything you need to know to complete all of this week's trials. In fact, it shouldn't be difficult for most experienced players to accomplish; even if you are a beginner, simply following this guide step-by-step should ensure you have no major issues! Good luck!

With the implementation of the major Arc Raiders update, Riven Tides, the weapon durability mechanic underwent a controversial adjustment.

The official statement clearly indicates that the core goal of this change is to address the excessively high maintenance costs of higher-tier weapons, while simultaneously allowing higher-tier weapons to have a longer lifespan than lower-tier weapons.

However, following the update's release, numerous discussions quickly emerged within the community regarding the imbalance in the weapon economy system, particularly the surge in the durability consumption rate of lower-tier weapons, causing concern among many players.

The following will examine the true impact of this Arc Raiders change on the weapon durability system from three dimensions: the adjustment logic, actual test data, and potential errors.

Adjustment Logic

Arc Raiders patch notes emphasize that higher-tier weapons should have a longer battlefield lifespan than lower-tier weapons.

This premise aligns with the typical Arc Raiders Items progression curve; players who invest more resources to acquire legendary or Epic weapons should logically receive a positive return in terms of durability.

However, Arc Raiders didn't simply increase the durability of high-tier weapons; instead, it significantly accelerated the wear and tear on low-tier weapons.

This dual-track adjustment led to a sharp increase in the repair frequency of both Common and Uncommon weapons in actual combat, sparking community-wide questioning of the weapon economy system.

According to test data, Common-quality weapons like Stitcher require approximately 10.24 sets of light ammunition to be completely destroyed, Kettle 9 sets, and Pharaoh 3.1 sets of heavy ammunition.

Anvil, a weapon that performs well in both PvE and PvP, now only requires 215 rounds to become completely unusable.

This means that in a relatively intense encounter, a player might run out of weapon lifespan before even retreating. For novice players or those with limited resources, this penalty significantly increases the cost of maintaining combat effectiveness.

Test Data

Based on the highest durability level four, the following data represents the test results for each weapon level from full durability to zero.

Among Common-tier weapons, the number of ammunition required for complete destruction varies significantly, mostly ranging from several hundred to over a thousand rounds.

Uncommon and Rare-tier weapons also exhibit considerable fluctuations, with some models requiring only a little over a hundred rounds to deplete their durability, while others exceed a thousand.

Epic-tier weapons range from extreme values ​​of over two thousand rounds to rapidly depleted models requiring only a little over two hundred.

Comparing community test records before and after the update reveals that the actual durability adjustments to almost all weapons were less than stated in the patch notes.

This phenomenon may stem from a conversion error between the underlying calculation formula and the percentage representation, or maybe the development team temporarily used a unique set of parameters before the patch went live.

Nevertheless, when translated into actual gameplay scenarios, the majority of players will rarely fire enough rounds in a single deployment to completely degrade even the most fragile Common weapons, except for a few outliers like Anvil.

Potential Error

From a design logic perspective, only excessively high maintenance costs for higher-tier weapons was explicitly listed as an adjustment target. Therefore, imposing faster durability loss on Common, Uncommon, and even Rare weapons essentially addresses a non-existent problem.

These lower-tier weapons are inherently inexpensive to manufacture and easy to repair, their economic burden is not a major source of player complaints.

The collateral penalty imposed by Arc Raiders at this level actually reduces players' options during resource-scarce phases, forcing them to rely on high-tier gear earlier or endure greater logistical burdens.

The update specifically mentions that Arc Raiders Items looted from downed enemy players will reduce durability loss by 15%. This design attempts to create a more interesting loot and reuse cycle in PvP combat: enemy-dropped weapons are relatively newer, encouraging players to actively change gear and reduce reliance on fixed builds.

However, considering the high elimination rate and low survival rate in PvP, the actual trigger frequency of this benefit may be limited. Players can only enjoy the durability reduction benefit if they successfully extract with looted weapons.

Given the precedent of several instances of unexpected values from the official release, these durability figures will likely be corrected in subsequent weekly updates.

Based on actual testing results, the overall durability balance in the current version is not as extreme as the percentages suggest, but there are indeed several design flaws that significantly deviate from the average for low-tier weapons.

Riven Tides' adjustments to Arc Raiders Items durability appear on paper to severely penalize low-tier weapons and moderately reward high-tier ones. However, real-world testing shows the actual impact is much milder than the patch notes suggest, with some weapons even receiving unexpected buffs.

Visual assessments in terms of ammo stacks indicate that the vast majority of weapons are not completely destroyed during a normal extraction, but the vulnerability of a few models, such as Anvil, does warrant attention. Future fixes are more likely to focus on numerical discrepancies rather than overhauling the entire system.