ARC Raiders Skill Tree After Frozen Trail: Nodes & Resets

The ARC Raiders skill tree after Frozen Trail 2.0 (8 October 2026) makes you choose: the middle of each branch is a one-of-two pick, and the end of each branch lets you take up to two of three skills. Embark Studios says more tweaks are likely.

Frozen Trail 2.0 replaced the old large nodes in the middle and at the end of each branch with two new kinds of choice node, alongside new skills and a reshuffled layout. Embark gave two goals: modify or replace under-performing skills, and make choice and expression a bigger part of the tree. Community guides list the same three branches as before: Conditioning, Mobility and Survival. For the wider update (Pendola Pass, the Outpost, 22 new quests), see our Frozen Trail 2.0 overview.

You get one Skill Point per Raider level, and you spend them across the three branches. Where the XP for those levels comes from is covered in our ARC Raiders XP sources guide. One Frozen Trail 2.0 change feeds it: completing quests and quest objectives now grants XP, and XP is shown as a reward in quest descriptions and on completion.

Expeditions used to add bonus points, up to 5 per Expedition, based on stash value at departure. Expeditions are paused until early 2027, so that route is closed for now; see the Expedition 5 pause explainer. Community guides put the level-derived total at 76 points, but one of them calls that figure community-documented rather than published by Embark.

The cost in time: every point is one level, so the community total of 76 points works out to 75 level-ups plus the starting point, which is the figure the same guide describes. How many hours a level takes is not something Embark publishes and we have not measured it, so the XP guide is where to size your own grind.

The patch notes name three skills from the previous tree that were adjusted to fit the new one. Each is a numeric change, and the notes do not describe the other skills in the revamp.

Everything beyond those three is community-counted. One guide tally reports 16 new, 13 removed and 11 moved skills, labelled as guide-counted rather than official. A community guide at arcraiders.gg lists the 13 removed skills by branch; the same list appears on a third-party wiki tracker, and it is not in Embark’s patch notes. Treat any skill list for the new tree as community data until you check it against the in-game node text.

The patch notes give no per-skill effects for the new choice nodes, so the useful test is about you, not a tier list: pick the skill that helps with how your raids usually end. Read both options on the node before committing, because you can only hold one until you reset.

If most raids end with you running for the exit

Favour the option that helps you get out: movement, stamina or recovery, whichever the node text describes. The binary node gives you one slot, so the pick that shortens your usual escape is the one to hold.

If most raids end in a fight you chose

Favour the option that helps in that fight. At the end nodes the same test applies, except you are choosing which one of three to leave out, since you can take up to two.

If you cannot say how your raids end yet

Take the option that fits your last few raids and treat it as provisional. A wrong pick costs a reset, not a rebuild from zero, and Embark says further tweaks to the skills are likely.

A reset is the only route the patch notes describe for choosing a binary node again. The reset feature itself arrived earlier, in patch 1.7.0, Cold Snap (December 2025), at 2,000 Coins per skill point. The Frozen Trail 2.0 notes do not restate that price. The wiki-described reset is a whole-tree action, with no option to reset a single branch or skill.

As arithmetic, not a measured price: if 2,000 Coins per point still applies, resetting a tree with 50 points spent is 50 x 2,000 = 100,000 Coins. Check the number on the in-game reset screen before you confirm.

Not stated in the 8 October patch notes: the total number of skill points, the exact investment that opens the end nodes, and whether points spent before the revamp were refunded. The table lists the figures that circulate instead, with where each comes from. Our earlier Frozen Trail preview coverage covers the same mechanic from the pre-launch post.

Sources and Confidence

This table separates what the studio has confirmed and what is not confirmed yet. Each claim below is tied to the post and the game version it describes.