May 11 was supposed to be a good day for Arc Raiders players. Expedition 3 closed its window, Raiders wiped their characters, started fresh, and waited for those hard-earned bonus skill points to roll in.
They didn’t.
Instead of the promised five skill points, most players saw a lonely “1” sitting in their new character’s skill menu. Some got zero. The community noticed fast, and the frustration spread just as quickly.
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How the New Damage-Based System Was Supposed to Work
Embark Studios changed the rules for Expedition 3. Previous expeditions rewarded players based on how much cash and stash value they accumulated before wiping. This time around, the metric shifted to raw damage dealt — a more action-focused approach that pushed players to actually fight rather than hoard.
The breakdown looked clean on paper:
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1 skill point — deal up to 20,000 damage total
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2–3 skill points — reach 20,000–50,000 damage
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4 skill points — push past 50,000 up to 100,000
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5 skill points (max) — hit 100,000 damage or more
One important rule that Embark clarified early on: you didn’t need to successfully evacuate for the damage to count. Every hit landed — on ARC enemies, Bastions, Matriarchs, even other players — contributed to your personal total. No extraction required. Simple enough. Except it wasn’t.
Arc Raiders Skill Points Bug: Who Got Hit and How Bad
The players who suffered most were the ones who pushed hardest in the final hours. Those who spent the last stretch of the event grinding damage — joining friendly lobbies, teaming up to take down Matriarchs and Queens — created their new characters only to find their progress had vanished entirely.
What made it sting even more was the community spirit leading up to the wipe. Friendly lobbies popped up everywhere. Raiders coordinated, shared resources, chased down the big targets together. People were genuinely trying to make the most of the final window. And then the system handed them a single skill point — or nothing at all — as a reward for all that effort.
Embark Studios Responded Fast — A Fix Is Coming
To the studio’s credit, they didn’t go quiet. Community Manager Ossen posted in the official Arc Raiders Discord server shortly after reports started flooding in, confirming that Embark is aware of the missing skill points issue and that the team is actively investigating.
No timeline was given, but the quick acknowledgment at least tells players this isn’t being ignored. Those who were affected are being encouraged to contact Embark’s support team directly — a detailed description of what you did during the Expedition window may help the devs pinpoint exactly where things broke down.
Why Losing Skill Points Hits Harder Than It Sounds
This isn’t just a cosmetic inconvenience. Skill points in Arc Raiders are one of the few things that actually carry over between wipes — they’re permanent upgrades that give you a head start every time you start a new character. Miss them once, and you’re playing catch-up while everyone who got their full stack is already ahead.
Players who completed all three expeditions without issues should be sitting on up to 15 bonus skill points by now. That’s a meaningful advantage from level one — better builds, faster progression, more options right out of the gate. Not getting those points after deliberately wiping your character is a real setback, not a rounding error.
As a partial consolation, players who went through Expedition 3 did receive some cosmetic rewards — exclusive outfit pieces, new accessories for the rooster companion Pluzhkin, and temporary bonuses to XP gain, repair costs, and resource drops. Nice to have. But cosmetics don’t replace the progression you were counting on.
What to Do If Arc Raiders Didn’t Give You Skill Points After the Expedition
While the patch is still in the works, here’s what’s worth doing right now:
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File a support ticket with Embark Studios — describe your playtime during the Expedition window in as much detail as possible: how much damage you dealt, what modes you played, roughly when you triggered the wipe.
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Watch the official Discord server — that’s where the first update will land the moment there’s news on a fix or compensation.
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Hold off on rushing into the new cycle if you’re still on the fence — it won’t hurt to wait a day or two until the situation is clearer.
No official word yet on whether Embark will manually restore missing points or push a broader fix through an update. Given how quickly they acknowledged the problem, a resolution should arrive soon. We’ll be watching.
