Recently, the developers of ARC Raiders announced that they will not open the expedition project departure window as scheduled on December 15th, but will instead begin on December 17th and end on the 22nd, two days later than originally planned.

While slightly disappointing, this isn't entirely bad, as this brief delay actually gives players more preparation time until the window closes.

You will have six days to allow your raider to permanently leave The Rust Belt and embark on a new journey with the caravan you built in the expedition project, carrying some buffs and advantages.

Next, we want to delve deeper into the confirmed information about this expedition project window to understand what the actual expedition reset is like and what advantages we will gain. So, let's take a look.

How Does Expedition Work?

First, the expedition in ARC Raiders works similarly to Call of Duty's Prestige system. Players participating in the event have their current character progress reset, forcing them to create a new character when the next expedition project begins. However, this doesn't mean players will lose almost everything once the six-day window ends, and their efforts may not be worthwhile, as participating players will receive some permanent rewards that will make their next game journey easier.

What Buffs Does The Expedition Project Provide?

Now, suppose you're about to leave Speranza. When an expedition begins, all ARC Raiders items in your inventory are counted towards the expedition.

During an expedition, your raider can gain a maximum of 5 skill points. The exact number depends on the total value of your inventory and coins at the time of departure. In other words, the total value of all items in your inventory plus the total value of all your ARC Raiders coins is your total value when you leave the expedition.

An item worth 1 million coins can provide 1 additional skill point for your new raider. You can gain a maximum of 5 skill points, but this requires your stash and coins to be worth at least 5 million.

When you restart the game, everything related to your game progress will be reset, so your skill tree, level, stash, workshops, crafting abilities, and blueprints will be lost.

Notably, your initial tutorial after your first deployment in Speranza will be skipped, meaning all maps and potential workshop upgrades will be available immediately after your reset. While you'll still start from scratch, you'll gain these basics without any tedious steps.

Permanent Rewards

If you choose to reset Expedition, you'll also gain some permanent unlocks, mostly cosmetic, including:

• The Patchwork Raider outfit
• Scrappy Janitor Cap
• Expeditions Indicator icon
• Skill points (depending on stash value)
• +12 Stash space

These are decent upgrades that you can gradually accumulate as you continue participating in Expedition system.

Temporary Buffs

In addition, you will receive some temporary buffs:

• 10% Repair Buff
• 5% XP boost
• 6% more materials from Scrappy

Please note that while skill points, extra inventory space, and cosmetic items are permanently unlocked, these account-bound buffs will expire if you choose not to participate in the next expedition. In other words, if you stop participating in this system, you will no longer be able to obtain these temporary buffs.

The buff effects will increase over the next three expeditions, but can only be triggered once per expedition project window. Therefore, the stacking mentioned here means that the more times you participate in this system, the stronger these buff effects will become.

A reminder that the expedition window will open on December 17th and last until December 22nd. This is different from our initial expectations; you must register during this period. They have stated that the value of your inventory and coins will be calculated when the window closes, not when you register. Therefore, you can continue to scavenge for resources and try to accumulate 5 million coins before the window closes.

Of course, we know many players don't intend to participate in the expedition system, so if you choose not to reset, you can continue building caravans, and all progress will be retained, allowing you to keep working until the next window opens in a few months.

Why Reset Expedition Progress?

The main reason many players feel participating in expeditions isn't worthwhile is that each reset makes them feel like all their previous efforts have been wasted, making it completely unworthy of trying.

However, ARC Raiders development team has provided an explanation. They stated that progress wipes have always been difficult to balance in multiplayer online games, and a mandatory global wipe has some obvious benefits. Players who have invested a lot of time can relive their initial grind, and for a period of time, the game environment will be fairer.

The optional expedition project window is a solution proposed by the team to address some of the problems that mandatory wipes inevitably cause, especially reflecting their respect for the time players have invested in the game. They want to give players a choice.

The developers even stated that if you haven't completed as many tasks as you want, you can continue to loot, build, and expand your resource reserves. You can also participate in Expedition system and gain buffs, rewards, and bragging rights during the next possible Expedition window. However, it's unclear whether the permanent rewards offered in each Expedition window will be the same.

While the rewards aren't numerous, this does create a unique experience, allowing players who genuinely want to reset their progress to receive cosmetic items as a reward after investing significant resources in completing the entire Expedition project.

As for temporary buffs, you can think of them as clear advantages. However, some may not see it that way, as these buffs only make your gameplay slightly easier; you ultimately start from scratch.

However, we don't yet know the specifics of Expedition project departure window, only that it's part of a major December update on the roadmap. Therefore, we can consider this the first step in a game update. It's expected to be a multi-step process, including balance adjustments, new content releases, and more. Let's look forward to the official opening of the window on December 17th!

While Diablo 4 Season 11 made some adjustments to the early game difficulty, your leveling speed will still be quite fast if you kill monsters quickly enough.

Evade Spiritborn build, after several seasons of testing, has proven to be excellent for both leveling and endgame performance, and may be one of the best Spiritborn builds.

Evade Spiritborn Gameplay And Advantages

The core mechanics of Evade Spiritborn build revolve around Eagle Hall ability. Your skill tree should primarily focus on enhancing various damage multipliers. Use Evade to trigger Accelerated Thunderspike effect, unleashing a barrage of feathers at monsters for massive damage.

Evade Spiritborn build has been a Tier S leveling build for several consecutive seasons. It boasts extremely fast movement speed and monster-clearing efficiency, and its gameplay is very simple, and you just need to keep using Evade, and the flying feathers will automatically clear the monsters on the screen.

Impact Of Season 11

A bug in PTR 2.5.0 allowed gear like Loyalty's Mantle to provide double damage bonuses with Eagle Hall, resulting in excessively high damage. If this bug had been fixed, the reachable level in The Pit would have decreased by 10 levels (about level 100). This bug has been fixed in the official patch.

However, the developers also announced a rebalancing of the difficulty of The Tower and The Pit, reducing it by approximately 5-10 levels. Therefore, the actual strength of Evade Spiritborn is not expected to change significantly compared to PTR 2.5.0.

Additionally, the developers announced a 60% reduction in boss health, which will significantly speed up boss fights for this build.

Evade Spiritborn Leveling Build

Gear

• Helm: Aspect of Might (Neo + Qax)
• Chest Armor: Aspect of Layered Wards (Cem + Gar)
• Gloves: Rebounding Aspect
• Pants: Aspect of Disobedience (Emerald + Emerald)
• Boots: Duelist's Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of Unyielding Hits (Skull)
• Ring 1: Conceited Aspect (Skull)
• Ring 2: Aspect of the Moonrise (Skull)

In the early game, you can freely use your two-handed weapon slot, using any magic, rare, or legendary weapon, focusing primarily on its pure damage to avoid wasting resources on Aspect engravings due to frequent upgrades.

Skils

• Thunderspike: Enhanced Thunderspike and Accelerated Thunderspike
• Crushing Hand: Enhanced Crushing Hand and Advantageous Crushing Hand
• Toxic Skin: Enhanced Toxic Skin and Measured Toxic Skin
• Soar: Enhanced Soar and Replenishing Soar
• Ravager: Enhanced Ravager and Measured Ravager
• Armored Hide: Enhanced Armored Hide and Reinforced Armored Hide
• Primary Spirit: Eagle
• Secondary Spirit: Eagle

From level 1 to 14, you can use basic skills like Stinger, Quill Volley, or Crushing Hand to level up. However, when you reach level 15, you must reset your skills and switch to Evade Spiritborn build.

Evade Spiritborn skill build is relatively flexible, and the overall strength is not significantly affected. Even if you don't have enough skill points, it won't affect your damage much, because skills like Thunderspike and Crushing Hand are mainly used to trigger effects.

Starting with the seasonal quests, unlock the reputation board on Normal difficulty, then equip your pet. Once you reach level 15, switch to Hard difficulty and use Crushing Hand to farm Helltide. Then farm Helltide until the first hour ends, and your character should be around level 30-35.

Then, run Vessel of Hatred Campaign on Normal difficulty until you unlock Kurast Undercity and obtain Runes Cache. Last, depending on your character's strength, continue farming Helltide on Expert or Penitent difficulty until you reach level 50. After that, clear Strongholds on Normal difficulty.

Evade Spiritborn Endgame Build

Gear

• Helm: Loyalty's Mantle (Qax + Cem)
• Chest Armor: Jacinth Shell (Emerald and Emerald)
• Gloves: Fists of Fate
• Pants: Temerity (Emerald and Emerald)
• Boots: Duelist's Aspect
• Weapon: Wushe Nak Pa (Ohm + Bac)
• Amulet: Aspect of Redirected Force (Skull)
• Ring 1: Conceited Aspect
• Ring 2: Aspect of Unyielding Hits (Skull)

In the mid-game, you can Temper your gear to gain damage affixes and reforge other attributes. Then, progress through The Pit to level 10 to unlock Torment I difficulty.

This build doesn't require any specific Diablo 4 items for a smooth transition from early game to endgame content, and you only need 3 items to handle most of the endgame content. One is the core item Loyalty's Mantle obtained by defeating Gregor, and the other is the Wushe Nak Pa and Jacinth Shell obtained by defeating Lord Zir.

Skills

• Armored Hide: Enhanced Armored Hide and Reinforced Armored Hide
• Concussive Stomp: Enhanced Concussive Stomp
• Thunderspike: Enhanced Thunderspike and Accelerated Thunderspike
• Counterattack: Enhanced Counterattack and Reinforced Counterattack
• The Seeker: Harmonious Seeker and Exalted Seeker
• Rock Splitter: no

In endgame gameplay, you almost only need to frequently press the evade key, while other skills mostly provide buffs. For example, Armored Hide skill is only used to trigger Aspect of Unyielding Hits buff.

Spiritborn is one of the strongest classes in Season 11, and Evade Spiritborn is the most stable and safest choice. It can be strong from the start of the season to the end, without worrying about acquiring specific Diablo 4 items, and is arguably the best leveling build in the entire game. If you're not aiming for The Pit rankings, then this can be your best starting build for Season 11.