ARC Raiders Patch 1.29 Guide: Nomadic Envoy Ermal, Rascal Grenade Launcher & More

You have been hoarding Queen Reactors and Bombardia Cells like a doomsday prepper, and your stash has been a landfill with ambitions. Ermal, the Nomadic Envoy trader, has arrived in Speranza and he is, for reasons known only to the lore team, interested in all of it.

Access requires Level 25. If you are not Level 25, this section does not concern you yet. Go outside. Ermal accepts high-value ARC materials and stockpiled rare weapons in exchange for things that are actually useful: a sentence that could not have been written about any trader before him.

His stock rotates weekly. Miss an item, and it may return in future rotations. Or it may not. Embark has not promised anything, and you should not hold your breath inside an extraction shooter.

Important for week one Prices are deliberately inflated during the launch week. Embark acknowledged this and plans to adjust based on feedback and data. Spending everything on day one is your call. The developers already know it is a bad call.

What Ermal Actually Sells

The Expedition Vault is the feature the community has been demanding since the Expedition system launched. It lets you store up to five items before entering an Expedition, and those items carry over to your next Raider upon return. Survivor blueprints. Rare weapons. That Wolfpack you have been sleeping on. Five slots. Choose wisely.

The vault costs approximately 200,000 material value per slot from Ermal. During launch week, only five total slots are available across all players. That number will expand as Embark adjusts pricing and confirms the system does not break everything.

• Items placed in the vault survive the Expedition and become available to your next Raider
• Stash expansion from Ermal resets post-Expedition: vault slots do not
• Guns cannot be used as currency for vault purchases, only materials
• Survivor Blueprints can be vaulted: plan accordingly

The Rascal Grenade Launcher: Budget Ordinance for the Fiscally Responsible Raider

Tian Wen built something new. The Rascal grenade launcher is described by Embark as "lightweight, compact, and easy to carry": developer language for "we took the Hullcracker and removed the parts that made it good." That said, the Rascal is a Rare-tier weapon that kills Shredders in 2–4 hits, which is actually comparable to its larger sibling and significantly better than throwing yourself at the problem.

The honest tradeoffs: slower reload, imprecise aim, anti-ARC only (do not expect it to settle a PvP dispute). It upgrades three times: all upgrades target reload speed, which tells you exactly what the main complaint will be.

You need the Security Breach skill (36 Skill Points into the Survival tree) to access Security Lockers. If you do not have it, start investing or accept that the blueprint will take longer to find.

Patch 1.26 introduced durability changes that the community found "too much on some weapons." This is a diplomatic way of saying weapons were disintegrating at a pace that made the weapon durability system feel punitive rather than meaningful. Embark agreed and increased the lifetime of the worst offenders.

The Patina was already the strongest PvE weapon at Tier 1 by a considerable margin. It now lasts longer. If you were not using it, that information is yours to act on or ignore.

Balance Changes: The Good, The Overdue, and The Rocketeer

Photoelectric Cloak

The Photoelectric Cloak buff reduces the power drain from 10/s to 5/s. It was nerfed hard in patch 1.26, and this lands it somewhere between its original form and the gutted version. Not a full restoration, but functional again for players who built around it.

Bettina

Base fire rate increased from 235 to 250. The previous TTK buff had apparently overcorrected versus players. This adjustment brings it back toward the intended benchmark. If you were enjoying post-1.26 Bettina, consider this a mild correction rather than a reversal.

Tactical Mk.3 (Healing) Augment

Cloud of Renewal is now an AoE effect. Healing increased from 20 to 45. Cooldown increased from 30s to 45s. More healing per use, less frequent use. Also heals nearby teammates: and enemies nearby, if you are careless about positioning. Embark added that note themselves.

Combat Mk.3 (Flanking) Augment

Now accepts Medium Shields. Previously locked to smaller shield capacity, which limited its viability. The flanking combat augment is more survivable now.

ARC Vision Through Cover: The Bush Is No Longer Your Friend

Embark increased the granularity of ARC vision through bushes and smoke. Raiders crouched at the edge of foliage or smoke are now easier to detect. Raiders deeper inside cover remain harder to spot. This is a mechanical reward for committing to concealment rather than clipping a toe into a bush and calling it hidden.

The practical result: peripheral bush-camping as a cheap survival loop is degraded. Actual positional play, where you push fully into cover, is still rewarded. Whether the community treats this as a skill check or a tragedy is not yet determined.

Extended Barrel III: Stats That Actually Changed

The Extended Barrel mod was renamed to Extended Barrel III and given two lower-tier variants (I and II). The upgrade also buffed it: bullet velocity bonus increased from 25% to 30%, and damage fall-off distance increased by 15%. Weapon mods can now affect aim-down-sights transition speed on scoped weapons, which is a small quality-of-life change that will matter to exactly the players who noticed how slow some of those transitions were.

Denuvo Anti-Cheat: It Is Here, It Is Not DRM, Please Stop Confusing Them

Starting May 19, 2026, Denuvo anti-cheat rolls out to ARC Raiders on a limited player pool following a positive deployment in THE FINALS. Embark was explicit: this is not Denuvo DRM. The two products are distinct. The anti-cheat solution will operate alongside Anybrain detection already in place.

Cheating is a structural problem in extraction shooters. Embark acknowledges this. If you encounter performance changes after May 19, report them. If you are a cheater reading this guide, the irony of being thorough is not lost on anyone.

End-of-Round Updates & QoL

• All squad members are now visible at end-of-round regardless of extraction outcome
• Interact with a squadmate's nameplate to report, mute, or block them
• You can now leave the squad immediately in the tunnel sequence: no more waiting
• Fixed: players being teleported when standing on destroyed ARC parts (it killed people, it is fixed)
• Fixed: Expedition timer displaying incorrect duration
• Free loadout Augment sell price corrected: 100 → 660

Sandveil Set & Cosmetics

The Sandveil cosmetic set is available now in three color variants alongside Sideburns facial hair. The Sheath Set arrives June 2. The set includes a mask, camera belt, field console, gloves, tribal tattoo (red), and is bundled with the Adventure Backpack. It is visually distinctive. You will either want it immediately or never think about it again.