ARC Raiders did not release a substantial update patch as expected on Thursday. Update 1.5.0, released on Thursday, only temporarily removed Hidden Bunker.

The reason for the removal was that some players were exploiting a bug to bypass walls and enter the bunker, thereby illegally gaining a large number of trial points. Let's take a look at the impact of this update and the recent issues facing ARC Raiders.

Negative Impacts Of Hidden Bunker Closure

When Hidden Bunker was active, it not only provided double trial points but also attracted some ARC enemies, making it easier for players to complete trials. Its sudden closure deprives ordinary players who did not complete trials earlier this week of an important scoring method.

Players who completed trials early between Monday and Thursday could easily achieve high scores using the strong strategies or items available before the update. Players who started trials after Thursday's update may face a nerfed environment, making it difficult to obtain the same number of points, creating an unfair competitive advantage.

Unpatched Known Gaps

Despite weekly updates, some seemingly easily fixed glitches persist. For example, the wool glitch, common on Stella Montis map, allows some players to pass through walls and even fall off the map. Some players exploit this glitch to hide inside walls and shoot. This glitch was discovered a week ago, and the best course of action right now is to avoid playing that map. A zipline exists on Stella Montis that allows characters to go outside the map.

On social media, reports of cheating are rampant. Besides player reports of cheaters passing through walls on Stella Montes map, a wall glitch also exists in specific locations on Bluegate map. Players can hide behind this terrain, finding a safe, untouchable position to fire from, completely invisible to other players.

In the high-risk competitive environment of ARC Raiders, players equipped with advanced ARC Raiders items are rendered helpless against these cheating methods, severely damaging the gaming experience.

If you're a PlayStation player, you can disable crossplay to reduce your chances of encountering cheaters.

ARC's Challenges And Background

Some players understand why these and reported obvious bugs weren't quickly fixed in Update 1.5.0; for example, the developers could have simply removed the problematic zipline. The current situation means players will have to endure another week of exploits.

The current map was originally designed as a large open-world map, and the game was initially only a PvE mode. You can still see some traces of this. You can see Spaceport on Buried City map. This indicates that the development team changed their shooting focus midway through, shifting from PvE to PvPvE.

On the other hand, the development team was also short-staffed. ARC Raiders' explosive popularity exceeded their expectations. The developers initially envisioned ARC Raiders as a niche extraction game. They attempted to deter cheaters by setting at $39.99, but didn't anticipate its immense popularity.

This is similar to the early situation of Apex Legends, where sudden popularity caught the development team off guard, leading to delays in content updates and bug fixes. While this may improve in the long run, it also resulted in a significant loss of players during the process.

Currently, the official team is recruiting for ARC Raiders, but building a suitable team is a long and arduous process. The video mentions that while the team responsible for The Finals belongs to the same company, the two teams operate independently and do not share resources.

The store's outfits have been rotated, with two new cosmetic sets available:

Cavalier Set

• Bundle: 1000 Tokens
• Cavalier Outfit: 800 Tokens
• Nose Stripe: 300 Tokens
• Flying Coins: 300 Tokens

Cavalier Set features a minimalist design and three color schemes: red, blue, and black and yellow. Other cosmetics are also available, such as backpacks, cameras, glasses, and headphones, which can be enabled or disabled.

Engineer Set

• Bundle: 700 Tokens
• Backpack: 500 Tokens
• Airtight Container: 300 Tokens
• Nutrient Tube: 300 Tokens

Engineer set mainly consists of a backpack and accessories, available in two color schemes: solid gray and black/red.

Airtight Container replaces the attachment appearance, while Nutrient Tube replaces the backpack charm appearance. Their designs are fairly normal, typical items from Speranza world.

Expedition

The official announcement states that Expedition window will open on December 15th. Participating players will receive additional skill points based on their Stash value. However, the official information regarding the specific value of ARC Raiders items required for the maximum skill points has not yet been released; this will be announced on the day the event begins.

Players only have one week to prepare, coinciding with the holiday season, which may prevent some players from being fully prepared. This has led many players to hesitate to use or modify their existing gear, as insufficient Stash value would prevent them from maximizing their gains in expeditions, thus suppressing current player engagement.

These are the impacts of ARC Raiders Update 1.5.0, and other news related to ARC. Hopefully, your game won't encounter cheaters.

The expedition is about to begin, so is your Stash stocked with enough items? If you're worried about their value, you can visit the cheap and reliable ARC Raiders IGGM store to replenish your Stash and receive the 5 skill points bonus from Expedition.

If you didn't watch Diablo 4 developer livestream or replay on December 3rd, then there's some bad news you need to know: the new dungeon, The Tower, and its accompanying leaderboard will be delayed.

Originally, these two features were expected to be released alongside Diablo 4 Season 11 on December 11th Pacific Time, but due to various considerations, the developers ultimately decided to postpone them.

Therefore, this article will analyze why Diablo 4 made this decision and what the consequences will be.

When Will The Tower May Be Available?

During the developer livestream, Diablo 4 team stated that the dungeon The Tower and the leaderboard are expected to be released sometime in 2026 with Patch 2.5.2, and will still be in beta form.

This means that even after launch, The Tower and the leaderboard may be subject to temporary modifications and closures, and may even be further delayed. All of this is to ensure that the final product is more stable and enjoyable.

Why The Delay?

Besides ensuring the stability of The Tower and the leaderboard, there's another underlying reason for the delay: when the gameplay was introduced in 2.5.0 PTR, it was essentially an unfinished product.

This is partly because PTR is only for testing purposes, and partly because the developers were using it to gauge player opinions on the mechanism and to determine whether to officially release it based on how the dungeon and leaderboard worked together.

The developers stated in the livestream that they hope The Tower will be a mechanism that truly reflects your abilities through the leaderboard, but is also fun, and not just new content crammed in for the sake of a new season.

Perhaps the less-than-ideal performance of the leaderboard during its initial release has made the developers more cautious this time. After all, the success of many games proves that the leaderboard mechanism itself is not flawed; the key is how it's implemented.

Furthermore, if you played 2.5.0 PTR, you might have noticed that the gameplay of The Tower is quite similar to The Pit in Diablo 4, both involving progressing through a dungeon and defeating bosses to complete each level.

This might make you feel that The Tower, besides bringing back the leaderboard, offers little in the way of new content. The developers stated in the livestream that they understand this and will work to address this in future optimizations.

It's expected that after the initial stages, these two endgame dungeons will gradually differentiate in their mechanics as you progress through them, aiming to provide distinct and engaging gameplay experiences.

To be honest, this is quite challenging, as both gameplay modes are initially derived from Diablo 3 Greater Rifts. Designing something innovative, based on the same source will be a key focus for D4 development team.

Both optimization and adding new content take time, and it's only been a little over a month since 2.5.0 PTR ended, so it's impossible to complete all this work. Therefore, the delayed launch is both unexpected and understandable.

The Tower Basic Mechanics

The Tower is essentially a continuously progressing dungeon system that requires you to reach a specific level and complete related quests in Season Journey (this mechanism will be replaced by Season Rank in Season 11) to unlock it.

Each round of The Tower generates 5 dungeon floors. Before entering combat, you need to bring sufficiently good Diablo 4 items, such as powerful weapons and reliable potions, to defeat the enemies and the boss, Tower Guardian, on each floor.

Note that each floor has a 10-minute time limit; if you exceed the time limit, even if you win, the result won't count. During combat, you can collect progress orbs from defeated enemies. Once the progress bar is full, the boss will appear.

To complete the current round of The Tower as quickly as possible, you need to defeat higher-level enemies that provide more progress and activate up to 4 Pylons in the dungeon to gain related benefits - you need to break the shields protecting them first.

Originally, we predicted that you could farm The Tower for various rewards such as gold, items, and cosmetics, but now that its launch has been delayed, everything has become more uncertain.

However, given its unique nature related to the leaderboard, it's expected that you will only receive a onetime reward for clearing new levels. If it were possible to farm repeatedly, the leaderboard rankings would lose their value.

What Shortcomings Need To Be Addressed?

Besides the points considered by the developers themselves, players have also pointed out many shortcomings based on The Tower's performance in 2.5.0 PTR.

For example, the progress orbs dropped after killing enemies are generated too far away, making collecting them too time-consuming; the generated dungeons vary significantly, potentially preventing you from achieving the appropriate ranking on the leaderboard.

We hope these issues will be completely resolved after The Tower and the leaderboards are officially launched, so that the final product will live up to the expectations of Diablo 4 players.

What Other Important Information Was Revealed In The Livestream?

This livestream announced the specific launch date for Season 11, as well as its official name, Season of Divine Intervention. In addition, it provided more details and changes to the various mechanics of the season based on existing information.

If you want to experience this content firsthand, please download the update and log into Diablo 4 on December 11th at the specific time corresponding to your time zone! As for The Tower, waiting a little longer for a better experience is certainly worthwhile!