Discussion Forum

The Cold Snap update in Arc Raiders hits you first in the eyes and then in the fingers; the whole mode plays slower, harsher, and every decision feels like it costs something, including how you spend your ARC Raiders Coins. You drop into this whiteout and you can barely see more than a few steps ahead, so if you try to sprint around like it is a normal match, the cold just chews through you. Your movement starts to drag, your aim feels off, and some squad that actually mapped their route is waiting on the edge of the storm to clean you up. It stops being about who shoots first and turns into who respects the map and the weather enough to stay alive.


Using Safe Zones As Short Stops
Safe zones sound comforting, but playing them like permanent bases is how a lot of players throw games. Bunkers, basements, old concrete shells in the snow, they are meant to be pit stops, not homes. You dive in, warm up, check your ammo, maybe swap a weapon, then you are planning the next sprint before the timer on your body heat starts ticking again. Hang around too long and someone is already wrapping a flank around you, listening for your footsteps and gear swaps. One thing you notice fast is how sound behaves out there; snow crunch feels louder, but it also gets swallowed by the wind, so people miss cues. Players who pause in a safe zone, kill the chatter, and just listen for a few seconds usually walk out alive. Never cross a big open snowfield unless you are already locked on to the next safe zone as your exit route.


High Risk Loot And Time Pressure
Loot spots did not move, but how you approach them has to. Industrial sites, crashed machines, broken towers out on the ice, they still hold the best weapons and survival gear, but now they also scream "shoot me" to anyone watching. You cannot stand there scrolling your inventory while your temperature bar is quietly tanking. The best squads I have seen treat every loot stop like a quick job. One player posts up watching key angles, one sweeps the containers, another calls out anything worth taking. No one is arguing about who gets which rifle while standing in the open. You grab what clearly fits your build and move on. If you are still sorting your bag when the frost bites into your health, you are already feeding the players who were watching that hotspot from a ridge.


Tracking Enemies Through The Snow
Cold Snap has turned the ground itself into intel. Footprints and disturbed snow give away routes even when you never see the enemies directly. You will often catch a messy trail where a squad panicked and doubled back, and that is your cue to slow down and think about where they are headed, not just chase blindly. Set up on high ground or just inside a building, let them commit to the open stretch, then hit them when they have nowhere to peel off to. It feels a bit ruthless, but the mode rewards patience like that. Rushing down every track gets you ambushed instead, because good players expect you to follow the path and leave a surprise tucked in behind a rock or low wall.


Heat Sources As Bait And Control
Heat sources look like pure survival tools at first, but they might be the most dangerous bait in the update. Any team that is freezing will drift toward a flare, a heater, or a warm safe zone door without thinking too hard about why it is there. That is where you can get creative: drop a heat source in a chokepoint, or just outside a bunker, then tuck into a side angle and wait. Desperate players sprint straight into it, eyes on their temperature, not on the rooftop you are using. You can also use heat to push movement, forcing enemy squads off one route and into another where you already have a crossfire set up. The cold gives you leverage over how people move, and once you start seeing it that way, every match becomes a puzzle of routes, bait, and timing that matters just as much as your guns or your progress on the ARC Raiders Battle pass. You can learn more now from rsvsr.com.