ARC Raiders Update 1.30.0 Patch Notes – Expedition Vault Price Cut, Ermal Weekly Deals & Live Update Schedule
Embark Studios dropped ARC Raiders Update 1.30.0 on May 26, and while it’s officially labeled a “store update,” there’s more going on under the hood than that name suggests. From a pretty massive Expedition Vault price overhaul to a fresh set of Ermal weekly offers (yes, the Wolfpack Blueprint is finally in the shop), this patch has a few things worth paying attention to — especially if you’ve been grinding toward endgame content.
The previous update, patch 1.29.0, landed just a week prior on May 19 and brought in the biggest addition the game has seen in a while with the new trader Ermal and the Expedition Vault system. So 1.30.0 is clearly a direct response to community feedback from that rollout. Let’s break it all down.
Leviathan Set Gets Two New Color Variants – Midnight and Crimson Frost
Okay so technically no new cosmetics were added to the store with this patch. What 1.30.0 actually does is introduce two new color variants for the Leviathan outfit — Midnight and Crimson Frost. If you already own the Leviathan set, good news: both variants will automatically unlock for you at no extra cost. No additional grinding, no separate purchase. You just log in and they’re yours.
It’s a minor but welcome touch. The Leviathan set is one of the cleaner-looking cosmetics in the game, and having color options genuinely changes how it feels to wear it. Midnight in particular is going to be a go-to for players who prefer a low-visibility aesthetic during raids.
Worth noting — if you’ve been eyeing any collectibles or special rewards tied to recent content, they’re set to expire around June 18, so make sure you’re not sleeping on anything in your backlog.
Expedition Vault Pricing Just Got Way More Accessible
This is the real meat of patch 1.30.0. When Ermal and the Expedition Vault system launched with 1.29.0, the pricing structure was… rough. Tier one started at 200,000 Credits, which was manageable, but every tier after that scaled up steeply all the way to 1,000,000 Credits for the fifth slot. A lot of players found it hard to justify unlocking the full vault, especially early on.
Embark listened. Starting with this update, every single Expedition Vault tier now costs 200,000 Credits — flat, no scaling. Here’s how it looks compared to before:
| Tier | Previous Cost | New Cost |
|---|---|---|
| One | 200,000 Credits | 200,000 Credits |
| Two | 400,000 Credits | 200,000 Credits |
| Three | 600,000 Credits | 200,000 Credits |
| Four | 800,000 Credits | 200,000 Credits |
| Five | 1,000,000 Credits | 200,000 Credits |
That’s a massive reduction on the back-end tiers. Going from a million Credits to 200k for that fifth slot changes the whole calculus. According to Embark, the goal was to “encourage more trading” — and honestly, this probably will. A lot of players were essentially treating the vault as a first-slot-only feature. Now there’s a real reason to go for all five.
What Is the Expedition Vault and Why Does It Matter?
If you’re newer to ARC Raiders or haven’t hit Level 25 yet, here’s the quick rundown. The Expedition system is one of the game’s core mechanics — you push deeper, you risk everything, and when you reset, you typically lose the gear you built up. It’s brutal, and it’s meant to be. The Expedition Vault is Ermal’s way of softening that blow.
Using vault slots, you can protect up to five items before entering an Expedition. Those items survive the reset and come back with your next Raider. We’re talking your best weapon, your rare blueprints, your hard-crafted mods — the stuff that genuinely hurts to lose. Five slots used wisely means you’re not starting completely from scratch after a wipe. That’s a huge deal for anyone deep into the progression loop.
If you’re into the kind of grinding that makes losing hurt, this is one of the better safety nets the game could have added. And now that every tier costs the same flat rate, there’s no reason not to unlock them all when you can.
Ermal’s Weekly Offers – May 26 Rotation
The new weekly shop rotation went live on May 26 at 6:00 AM PDT, and this week’s lineup is actually pretty solid. The standout item is the Wolfpack Blueprint, which is one of the most sought-after blueprints in the game right now. Here’s the full table:
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Chap Outfit | 500,000 High-Tier ARC Parts |
| Soda Can Charm | 100,000 High-Tier ARC Parts |
| Can’t Hear You Emote | 100,000 High-Tier ARC Parts |
| Wolfpack Blueprint | 500,000 High-Tier ARC Parts + Firearms |
| Magnetic Accelerator | Yellow Duck (1), Doodly Duck (1), Gentle Duck (1) |
| Anvil Splitter | 100,000 High-Tier ARC Parts + Firearms |
| Mushroom | 5,000 High-Tier ARC Parts + Firearms |
| Raider Tokens (25) | 150,000 High-Tier ARC Parts |
A few things jump out here. The Wolfpack Blueprint requiring Firearms on top of ARC Parts is a deliberate design choice — Embark wants you to give up real gear, not just grind mats. Same with the Anvil Splitter. If you’ve been farming up a weapon stockpile for exactly this kind of moment, now’s your shot.
The Magnetic Accelerator stands out because it doesn’t use ARC Parts at all. It wants collectible duck items — one Yellow Duck, one Doodly Duck, one Gentle Duck. These have been a quirky side collectible for a while, and it’s cool to see them finally tied to something meaningful. If you’ve been hoarding them without knowing why, here’s your answer.
The Raider Tokens (25) at 150k High-Tier ARC Parts are also worth grabbing if you’re working on any active Raider Projects. Tokens can be a bottleneck for project completion, and this is a clean, reliable way to top off your supply without hoping they drop in the right spot.
If you’re hunting blueprints through regular gameplay on the side, locations like Grandioso Apartments in Buried City still yield strong results for Wolfpack and other rare blueprints — useful to know if you miss this week’s window or just want a backup option.
Looking for other live service games dropping interesting updates this week? Check out what’s going on with Dead by Daylight’s upcoming Jason Voorhees addition — the survival horror crowd has been buzzing about it.
Embark Confirms Live Updates Every Three Weeks Going Forward
One of the more significant pieces of information buried in these patch notes is the confirmation on ARC Raiders’ future update cadence. Embark Studios has officially stated that live service patches will now drop on a three-week cycle.
Before you panic — this doesn’t mean the game goes quiet between those windows. Hotfixes and over-the-air changes will still happen whenever they’re needed. The three-week rhythm applies specifically to the structured live updates that bring balance changes, shop rotations, and content additions.
Embark put it simply: live updates “will vary in size and scope,” but each one will be used as an opportunity to respond to player feedback directly. That’s actually a healthier cadence for a live service game than weekly patches, which often create noise without meaningful change. This also lines up with the earlier announcement that balancing changes will now be monthly rather than tied to every weekly patch — a shift that should make the meta feel more stable and readable between major updates.
For a studio that has been adjusting its approach to updates fairly quickly based on feedback, this feels like a maturing of the live service model. If you’ve been following how other games have handled similar transitions, the consequences of mismanaging live game updates are a good reminder of why studios get proactive about this.
Xbox Crashes and PC FPS Issues Are on Embark’s Radar
The patch notes don’t shy away from addressing the mess that came with 1.29.0. Both Xbox crashes and FPS drops on PC introduced by last week’s patch are being actively investigated by Embark. There’s no confirmed fix date as of now, but the studio explicitly acknowledged both issues and confirmed it is working on solutions.
If you’ve been hitting crashes on Xbox or watching your framerate tank on PC since last week’s update, you’re not imagining things. This is real, it’s widespread enough to show up in official patch notes, and the team knows about it. That’s about the best you can hope for in terms of communication while waiting for a fix.
PC players dealing with performance instability might also want to check their system’s background processes and make sure GPU drivers are up to date in the meantime — not a guaranteed fix, but worth ruling out.
Full ARC Raiders Patch 1.30.0 Notes Summary
- Two new Leviathan color variants added: Midnight and Crimson Frost, auto-unlocked for existing owners
- Expedition Vault pricing overhauled: All five tiers now cost a flat 200,000 Credits
- Ermal’s weekly shop updated with the Wolfpack Blueprint, Anvil Splitter, Chap Outfit, and more
- Live updates confirmed on a three-week cycle going forward
- Xbox crashes and PC FPS issues from patch 1.29.0 are under active investigation
Overall, patch 1.30.0 is a solid cleanup update that listens to what players were saying about the vault costs and keeps the shop loop feeling fresh. The Wolfpack Blueprint being available this week is a genuine highlight — if you’ve been grinding without luck, check Ermal before his rotation resets. And if you’re the kind of player who cares about the long-term direction of the game, the confirmed update cadence gives you a real calendar to plan around.
For those who enjoy digging into game world-building in between sessions, Embark’s design sensibility has a lot of parallels with studios like Arkane — there’s some interesting reading on that front if you’re into that rabbit hole. And for anyone into city-builders as a wind-down between extraction runs, the Cities Skylines LEGO leak doing the rounds is worth a look.
