ARC Raiders Outposts Aren’t Full Player Housing Yet — But They Could Become Something Bigger

THE PAYOFF: Outposts are coming to ARC Raiders with Frozen Trail on October 8, but let’s kill the fantasy before Reddit does it for us: this first version is not a walkable player house. You can’t invite friends over and parade them through your post-apocalyptic IKEA showroom. What you do get is a customizable personal base with modules, furniture blueprints, trinket displays and, most importantly, the Research Workstation that unlocks Weapon Amplification.

That’s less exciting than “full player housing.” It’s also potentially much more important to progression.

What Outposts actually are

Embark says Outposts are unlocked through a Project and upgraded with materials. They contain different modules, and players can earn furniture blueprints through the Reward Pass and topside drops.

You can also display collected trinkets, which finally gives some of the junk we’ve compulsively hauled underground somewhere to live besides a menu.

The important part: Research Workstation

The Outpost houses the Research Workstation, which connects directly to Frozen Trail’s new Weapon Amplification system. That makes the Outpost more than decoration. It’s part of the new progression loop.

Find resources topside → improve Outpost → research weapon upgrades → go topside stronger → acquire rarer materials → repeat until a Hydra rearranges your organs.

What the community wanted

Players immediately started imagining walkable bases, gardens, social spaces and friend visits. Embark’s Q&A tempered that expectation: Outposts aren’t walkable and don’t support friend invites in this version, although the developers have said they plan to expand the feature.

That “in this version” matters.

If Outposts become a long-term system rather than a glorified menu, Embark has an obvious place to attach future crafting, trophies, collections, utility modules and social features.

What I want next

Give us an actual space. Let squadmates visit. Let rare raid loot become physical trophies. Give useful modules choices instead of a straight upgrade ladder. Hell, give us a greenhouse if the apocalypse permits tomatoes.

ARC Raiders already understands the emotional value of extracting with stupid objects because you decided they’re yours. A physical Outpost could turn that instinct into one of the game’s best long-term systems.

Bottom line: Frozen Trail’s Outposts are not the full player housing system some of us imagined. But tying them to research and persistent progression makes them more than cosmetics, and Embark has left the door open for expansion.

Read our Frozen Trail overview, then hit the Weapon Amplification guide.

Why ARC Raiders Outposts matter even before full housing

ARC Raiders Outposts become useful the moment they connect raids to something persistent. A display space is cute. A Research Workstation that unlocks new weapon paths is progression. The more Embark ties the Outpost to things we earn, craft, display and improve, the more every raid feeds a longer-term goal.

Players are already asking for gardens, walkable rooms and deeper upgrades because the fantasy is obvious: if we are surviving on the surface, we want a place that gradually looks like ours instead of another static menu with furniture icons.

What we want Embark to build next

Walkable interiors would be the big one, but functionality matters more than square footage. Give trophies stories. Let rare raid finds become permanent displays. Add useful stations that change preparation without turning the Outpost into mandatory busywork.

Sources: Embark’s Frozen Trail preview and Embark’s September Frozen Trail Q&A.