Tomorrow, October 8, Frozen Trail 2.0 goes live and brings a completely new skill tree to ARC Raiders. Some skills are being removed, others move to a different branch, and every branch gets two spots where you have to pick one option and leave the other behind. Your current build won’t carry over as it is. We got to see the new tree before release thanks to early access, so here is what it looks like and how to spend your points without wasting any.
Embark only changes the numbers on three of the existing skills; every other value is shown in the in-game tooltips. That’s why this guide only lists percentages where they change compared to the current version.
Quick summary
- Points: at level 75 you have 76 skill points, up to 91 with Expeditions. You can’t unlock everything, the tree has more than 140 ranks.
- Three branches: Conditioning (weight and toughness), Mobility (stamina and movement) and Survival (looting and crafting).
- 10-point choice: each branch makes you pick one of two skills. You can only change it by resetting the tree.
- Capstones at the end: a trio of skills of which you can take two at most. The first unlocks at 30 points in the branch, the second at 40.
- Best all-round build: 31 Conditioning / 31 Mobility / 14 Survival with Security Breach and Sprinting on Fumes.
- PvP: 24 / 41 / 11 with In the Flow and Sprinting on Fumes. PvE and loot: 31 / 26 / 19 with Security Breach.
What Frozen Trail changes in the skill tree
New skills are coming and existing ones get adjustments. Structurally, two things change. Halfway up every branch there is a node where you choose one of two skills, and at the end of each branch there are two nodes sharing three skills, of which you can take up to two once you have invested enough points.
For skills that stay in the tree, three numbers change:
- Fight or Flight restores roughly 25% more stamina per rank.
- Stubborn Mule gets roughly 33% higher stamina regen.
- Back on Your Feet heals up to 40 instead of 30.
One more change outside the tree: weapon slot weight reduction will only apply to your loadout, not to other containers. If you carry a spare gun in your backpack, you’ll feel it in your carry weight.
How many points you get and how the reset works
You get one point per level plus one for the tutorial, so at max level 75 you have 76. Completed Expeditions add up to 15 more, 5 for each of the three windows, as Embark stated in its Expedition announcements. The cap is therefore 91 points. Not everyone has finished an Expedition, so the builds below are calculated for the 76 points everyone has.
A reset refunds all your points. It costs 2,000 Coins per refunded point, the same as since patch 1.7.0, and Frozen Trail doesn’t change that. Resetting a full tree therefore costs 152,000 Coins. Plan your build before you start spending points tomorrow.
The three branches and what’s in them
Conditioning: weight, overload and toughness
It starts with Used to the Weight (less slowdown while carrying a shield). Early in the branch you’ll find Stubborn Mule, Three Deep Breaths, Vigorous Vaulter and Vault ‘N’ Carry. At 10 points you choose between Mule’s Gallop (sprint even while overloaded) and Back on Your Feet (health regen when you’re at critical HP). After that come Loaded Arms (your equipped weapon weighs on you less), Broad Shoulders (more carry capacity), Downed But Determined (longer before you bleed out), Crawl Before You Walk, Speedy Mule and Proficient Pryer (faster breaching).
Capstones: Security Breach opens Security Lockers, including ones someone else has already breached. Weapon Bash adds a melee strike with your equipped weapon and Bull Rush knocks back players and ARC while you sprint with your weapon stowed.
Mobility: stamina and movement
It starts with Youthful Lungs (higher max stamina). Then come Sure-Footed Scrambler, Nimble Climber (faster ladders and vaulting), Ready to Roll and Fight or Flight, which gives you stamina back when you get hit. At 10 points you choose between Vault Spring (a jump at the end of a vault) and Vaults on Vaults on Vaults (vaulting costs no stamina). The second half of the branch: Effortless Roll, Right Back At It, Marathon Runner, Slip and Slide, Off the Wall and Swift Start.
Capstones: Sprinting on Fumes keeps your stamina from fully draining while sprinting, In the Flow greatly lowers stamina costs and speeds up vaulting at full flow, and Wall Run lets you run along walls.
Survival: looting and crafting
It starts with In-Round Crafting, crafting right in the raid. Next are Looter’s Instincts (faster searching), Sturdy Ankles (less fall damage), Silent Scavenger (quieter looting) and Agile Croucher. At 10 points you choose between Quick Roll (a faster, cheaper dodge roll over a shorter distance) and Minesweeper (defuse mines and explosive deployables up close). The second half: Gentle Pressure, Traveling Tinkerer, Stylish Landing, A Little Extra, Looter’s Luck and Turtle Crawl.
Capstones: Road Warrior (more ammo and ARC Powercells from ARC plus full recycling efficiency in a raid), Nomadic Crafting (wider in-raid crafting) and Field Repair (repair weapons, shields and gadgets to 30% durability in the raid).
Why two branches at 31 are enough
A capstone really costs you 31 points: 30 in the branch and one for the skill itself. With 76 points that gives you two capstones in two different branches with 14 points left for the third, or three capstones if you push one branch to 41. The three paths that make sense are below. Even in the third branch it pays to reach the choice node: you need 10 points in the branch, at least one of them in a skill directly below the choice, and the choice itself costs another point. That’s why every build here has at least 11 points in its third branch.
Best build: 31 / 31 / 14 for regular raids
If you do a bit of everything, farming, questing and the occasional firefight, take this one. Security Breach opens the most valuable crates on the map, and Sprinting on Fumes keeps your stamina from hitting zero when you run. Keep in mind that getting hit turns it off and a cooldown follows, so don’t rely on it in the middle of a fight.
| Branch | Points | Skills |
|---|---|---|
| Conditioning | 31 | Used to the Weight 1, Stubborn Mule 5, Three Deep Breaths 3, Vigorous Vaulter 1, Mule’s Gallop 1, Broad Shoulders 5, Speedy Mule 5, Loaded Arms 1, Proficient Pryer 5, Downed But Determined 2, Crawl Before You Walk 1, Security Breach 1 |
| Mobility | 31 | Youthful Lungs 1, Nimble Climber 5, Sure-Footed Scrambler 5, Ready to Roll 1, Vaults on Vaults on Vaults 1, Marathon Runner 5, Swift Start 5, Fight or Flight 5, Effortless Roll 1, Slip and Slide 1, Sprinting on Fumes 1 |
| Survival | 14 | In-Round Crafting 1, Looter’s Instincts 5, Silent Scavenger 4, Quick Roll 1, Traveling Tinkerer 1, Sturdy Ankles 1, Agile Croucher 1 |
Order: Mobility to 10 points first, because stamina decides whether you survive from your very first raid. Then Conditioning to Mule’s Gallop and Survival to Quick Roll. Only after that push Conditioning to Security Breach and Mobility to Sprinting on Fumes.
If you’d rather take Vault Spring instead of Vaults on Vaults on Vaults, that’s a valid choice. The PvP build below uses it for the jump out of a vault. For regular raids where you vault a lot and save stamina, free vaulting is more useful.
PvP build: 24 / 41 / 11
For hunting players, your points go into Mobility. You push it to 41, which gives you two capstones from one branch: In the Flow and Sprinting on Fumes. In Conditioning you take Back on Your Feet instead of Mule’s Gallop, because in a firefight healing at critical HP helps more than sprinting with a full backpack. With the bigger heal in Frozen Trail it’s an even stronger pick than before.
| Branch | Points | Skills |
|---|---|---|
| Conditioning | 24 | Used to the Weight 1, Stubborn Mule 5, Three Deep Breaths 4, Vigorous Vaulter 1, Back on Your Feet 1, Loaded Arms 1, Broad Shoulders 5, Downed But Determined 5, Crawl Before You Walk 1 |
| Mobility | 41 | Youthful Lungs 1, Nimble Climber 5, Fight or Flight 5, Sure-Footed Scrambler 5, Ready to Roll 1, Vault Spring 1, Effortless Roll 5, Slip and Slide 5, Marathon Runner 5, Swift Start 5, Right Back At It 1, In the Flow 1, Sprinting on Fumes 1 |
| Survival | 11 | In-Round Crafting 1, Agile Croucher 5, Sturdy Ankles 4, Quick Roll 1 |
Playing PvP solo? Downed But Determined helps you less because nobody can pick you up. You can move those 5 points into Speedy Mule or Proficient Pryer.
PvE and loot build: 31 / 26 / 19
If you’re mainly after blueprints, materials for the new Outpost and Security Lockers, take Conditioning to Security Breach and put the extra points into Survival. Mobility stays at 26, so movement and stamina still work, just without a capstone.
| Branch | Points | Skills |
|---|---|---|
| Conditioning | 31 | Used to the Weight 1, Stubborn Mule 2, Three Deep Breaths 5, Vigorous Vaulter 1, Mule’s Gallop 1, Vault ‘N’ Carry 1, Loaded Arms 1, Broad Shoulders 5, Downed But Determined 5, Crawl Before You Walk 5, Speedy Mule 3, Security Breach 1 |
| Mobility | 26 | Youthful Lungs 1, Nimble Climber 5, Fight or Flight 4, Vault Spring 1, Marathon Runner 5, Effortless Roll 5, Swift Start 5 |
| Survival | 19 | In-Round Crafting 1, Looter’s Instincts 5, Silent Scavenger 4, Quick Roll 1, Traveling Tinkerer 1, Looter’s Luck 5, Gentle Pressure 1, A Little Extra 1 |
This build will also suit the PvE toggle beta test Embark starts on October 13. According to Embark the total loot value there will be lower, but without the risk of other players.
Skills that aren’t worth it
Among the Conditioning capstones, Weapon Bash comes out worst: a melee strike with your weapon solves nothing a shot wouldn’t, and Security Breach or Bull Rush give you more. Wall Run is fun, but on 76 points you’ll sacrifice it for In the Flow or Sprinting on Fumes. Minesweeper only beats Quick Roll if players keep putting mines in your path; otherwise the roll is more useful in every raid.
Spend extra points from Expeditions by playstyle: in PvP on Off the Wall and Ready to Roll (Slip and Slide is already maxed at 5/5 in the build), in PvE on Proficient Pryer and Speedy Mule.
Which build are you going for tomorrow? Tell us on Discord. If you’re new to the game, start with the beginner’s guide, and everything the update brings is in our Frozen Trail article.
FAQ
At max level 75 you have 76 points: one per level plus one for the tutorial. Completed Expeditions add up to 15 more (5 for each of the three windows), so 91 in total at most.
For regular raids 31 Conditioning, 31 Mobility and 14 Survival with Security Breach and Sprinting on Fumes. For PvP 24 / 41 / 11 with In the Flow and Sprinting on Fumes, for PvE and loot 31 / 26 / 19 with Security Breach.
Each branch ends with three skills. You can take the first after 30 points in the branch and the second after 40. You can’t have the third one from the same trio.
Only by resetting the whole tree. A reset refunds all points and costs 2,000 Coins per point.
Yes, if you loot. It opens Security Lockers, including ones another player has already breached, which is why it’s in both the all-round and the PvE build. A pure PvP build skips it.
Vault Spring for PvP because of the jump out of a vault. Vaults on Vaults on Vaults pays off when you vault a lot and want to save stamina, since vaulting then costs nothing. That’s why it’s in the all-round build.