What’s New in ARC Raiders Update 1.45.0? Get Ready For Frozen Trail With New Projects, Cosmetics & Big Economy Shifts

Full 1.45.0 patch breakdown featuring new story content, Expedition 5, community rewards, massive currency changes, engine upgrades and all known launch issues

Table of Contents

• ●Update 1.45.0 Overview: Final Major Patch Before Frozen Trail
• ●New Raider Project: Ascending the Mountain Story & Rewards
• ●Critical Economy Update: Full Cred Currency Retirement Guide
• ●Fresh Game Content: Expedition 5, New Skins & Community Duck Rewards
• ●Massive Gameplay, Engine & Quality of Life Upgrades
• ●Full List of Known Issues & Platform-Specific Bugs
• ●Objective Analysis: Is 1.45.0 a Worthwhile Pre-Update?
• ●Player Action Guide: What to Do Before October 8
• ●Final Summary & Frozen Trail Preview

Update 1.45.0 Overview: Final Major Patch Before Frozen Trail

Dropped officially on September 8, 2026, ARC Raiders Live Update 1.45.0 marks a pivotal transitional patch for the entire game. Serving as the last major content update before the highly anticipated Frozen Trail expansion arriving on October 8, this patch packs tons of quality-of-life fixes, brand-new story progression, community rewards, and landmark economic system overhauls that every player must know.

This update is not just a routine bug-fix patch. Every change, from story projects to currency expiration, is carefully designed to pave the way for Frozen Trail’s brand-new gameplay systems, reward mechanics, and mountain-themed map content. It acts as a clean-up and preparation patch to create a smoother gaming experience for the upcoming big expansion.

New Raider Project: Ascending the Mountain Story & Rewards

The highlight new story content in Update 1.45.0 is the brand-new Ascending the Mountain Raider Project, which brings fresh lore clues and exclusive player rewards while teasing the upcoming Frozen Trail map.

According to the in-game lore, mysterious phantom ARC signals have recently been detected across the map, catching Shani’s full attention. After thorough investigation, Raiders discover these strange signals originate from a remote mountain range that lies completely outside the coverage of the game’s existing Tube fast-travel system, making the area completely inaccessible with current technology.

To solve this dilemma and unlock the sealed mountain region, the character Apollo is developing an experimental new transportation technology. To complete this groundbreaking project, Apollo calls on all experienced Raiders to contribute various schematic materials and engineering components to support the research and development process.

This mountain exploration project is a direct prequel to the Frozen Trail expansion. All story clues and task progress foreshadow players’ upcoming journey into the brand-new snowy mountain map in October.

Players who fully complete the Ascending the Mountain project will obtain exclusive decorative rewards. It is highly recommended for all players to reserve necessary crafting materials in advance instead of emptying inventories blindly, ensuring smooth project completion without affecting Expedition farming progress.

Critical Economy Update: Full Cred Currency Retirement Guide

The most impactful change in Update 1.45.0 is the official retirement of the in-game Cred currency, a major economic overhaul tailored for the Frozen Trail update’s brand-new reward system.

To make room for a more comprehensive and diversified reward system in Frozen Trail, developers are officially phasing out the Cred currency system. All existing Raider Deck reward content will be fully migrated to the new post-expansion reward framework, ensuring players do not lose access to classic unlockable content.

Key rules every player must remember:
✅ All rewards already claimed via Raider Decks will be permanently retained on player accounts.
✅ Cred can be normally spent in Shani’s store and for remaining Raider Deck unlocks before October 8.
❌ Any unspent Cred left in accounts after the Frozen Trail launch will be completely wiped with no exceptions.

This economic reset is a bold optimization to eliminate outdated currency systems, laying a cleaner foundation for the expansion’s richer reward gameplay. Casual players are especially reminded to check their Cred balance immediately to avoid unnecessary resource loss.

Fresh Game Content: Expedition 5, New Skins & Community Duck Rewards

Update 1.45.0 brings abundant casual and endgame content updates, including a brand-new expedition season, exclusive cosmetic sets, and heartwarming community-designed rewards, greatly enriching early-game and collection gameplay.

Expedition 5 Official Launch

The fifth iteration of the Expedition system officially goes live with this patch. The most user-friendly optimization is the removal of forced quest reset when starting a new expedition. Players now have full autonomy to choose whether to reset their quest progress before departure, completely solving the long-standing pain point of accidental progress loss.

Brand-New Cosmetic Sets

The new Hornet Hunter Set joins the game as a brand-new themed outfit, bringing fresh visual styles for character customization. Additionally, the popular Boonie outfit is scheduled to be officially unlocked for all players starting September 15, 2026.

Community Rubber Duck Decorations

The most popular community feature of this update is the official addition of player-designed rubber duck ornaments. Selected via community voting, three unique duck designs created by players gekko.rar, im_AshCheeks and nassguhl are now available in-game. Players can travel to Bird City and display these lovely duck decorations freely in their personal Raider Den, adding a fun, personalized touch to base customization.

Massive Gameplay, Engine & Quality of Life Upgrades

Beyond new content, Update 1.45.0 delivers sweeping optimizations covering engine iteration, combat mechanics, control settings, UI display, audio effects and multiplayer stability, fixing dozens of long-standing bugs and greatly improving overall gaming fluency.

Enemy AI & Combat Optimizations

Snitch Scanners now spawn ARC enemies following rules closer to regular Snitches, with reduced spawn chances for high-tier powerful ARC units, balancing early-game combat difficulty. The Aphelion weapon’s scope sway is significantly reduced, drastically improving long-range aiming stability and combat accuracy. The broken Matriarch stomp damage bug is fixed, preventing damage penetration through tall cover and invalid overhead damage hits.

Control & Movement Overhauls

Landing logic on moving platforms is fully optimized — players only move with the surface after a complete landing, eliminating awkward mid-air dragging. The most anticipated control upgrade is independent key binding for quick item cycling and quick-use wheel, allowing separate key settings or full disable options, completely fixing unintended item swap errors.

Engine & Performance Upgrades

The game’s Unreal Engine version is upgraded from 5.3 to 5.7, bringing underlying improvements to rendering efficiency, frame rate stability and system compatibility, laying a solid technical foundation for the Frozen Trail expansion’s high-quality map scenes.

Full List of Known Issues & Platform-Specific Bugs

Even with this large batch of fixes, the patch ships with a list of confirmed known bugs that the dev team is actively investigating. Some issues are inherited from older builds, and only temporary workarounds are available for now.

• Phantom Targets Project: Some players cannot start phase two. Compensation will be released in a future patch.
• Xbox Series S: Frequent game crashes remain; logs are being collected by developers.
• PC Windows Update KB5121003: This system patch triggers game crashes. Avoid installing it temporarily if you play ARC Raiders.
• Epic Games Store: Random keyboard input loss. Try closing overlay software or Alt+Tab in and out of the game as a workaround.

Other minor bugs include broken grenade detonation animations, weapon animation glitches after vaulting, floating Shredders in Hidden Bunker, and clothing clipping issues on multiple armor sets. These bugs will be prioritized based on impact after launch.

Objective Analysis: Is 1.45.0 a Worthwhile Pre-Update?

1.45.0 is best understood as a transitional preparatory patch rather than a massive content drop. Almost every major change is built to set up the Frozen Trail expansion in October.

The biggest strengths are the community-focused rubber duck rewards, quality-of-life control fixes, and engine upgrade that improves long-term performance. The story project also builds excitement for the new mountain map ahead of time.

The biggest downside is the hard Cred expiration without conversion. Casual players who log in rarely may lose accumulated currency if they miss the October 8 deadline.

There are also risks tied to the Unreal Engine upgrade. While performance gains are expected, engine updates can occasionally introduce new compatibility glitches across PC and console platforms.

Player Action Guide: What to Do Before October 8

• Hardcore Raiders: Complete the Ascending the Mountain project, manage your crafting materials, test the new key bindings, and use the Expedition 5 manual reset option carefully.
• Cosmetic Collectors: Spend all Cred before October 8, grab the community duck decorations, and mark your calendar for the September 15 Boonie set release.
• Casual Players: Do not stockpile Cred. Check the known bugs list and use the official temporary workarounds if you encounter crashes.
• Waiting Players: You can play lightly and save most of your playtime for the Frozen Trail expansion release.

Final Summary & Frozen Trail Preview

ARC Raiders Update 1.45.0 serves as a bridge to the Frozen Trail expansion. It brings new story quests, Expedition 5, player-made cosmetics, control improvements, and a major currency sunset. The October 8 Cred expiration is the most urgent task for every player.

While the patch still carries several known bugs across platforms, the dev team has listed workarounds and promised follow-up fixes. Use this patch window to prepare materials, spend Cred, and get ready for the snowy mountain gameplay arriving in Frozen Trail.