Extraction shooters train you to trust your ears. You listen for crunching dirt. You wait for the mechanical whir of a patrol. Embark Studios just threw that rulebook away. The Shrouded Sky update launches today. It turns the environment into your biggest enemy. We are getting a brutal new weather system, two terrifying machines, and a much kinder progression loop. Here is how the patch fundamentally changes your time on the surface.
Video game weather is usually just visual fluff. The new Hurricane condition in ARC Raiders is a completely different story. It is a rotating hazard hitting maps like the Spaceport, Blue Gate, Buried City, and the newly expanded Dam Battlegrounds. When the storm rolls in, you essentially go deaf and blind. The roaring wind masks the sound of enemy patrols. Heavy rain ruins your visibility.
The environment also physically attacks you. Flying debris actively shreds your energy shield. Your movement slows to a crawl. You cannot just sit on a hill and snipe anymore. The game forces you into uncomfortable, close-range fights. But the developers hide a massive reward inside all this danger. The high winds dig up First Wave Raider Caches. These boxes hold premium loot. You have to weigh the risk of a broken shield against the promise of top-tier gear. You also need to brave these storms to gather parts for the new Weather Monitoring System project. It creates a fantastic loop for greedy players.
The ARC fleet is adapting to your tactics. The update introduces the Firefly and the Comet. Both machines exist to punish players who stay in one spot. The Firefly is a flying, heavily armored nightmare. It shrieks loudly before vomiting a jet of flames over your position. You cannot hide behind a wall when the floor is on fire. It acts as a brutal flush-out mechanic. You have to run into the open and focus your fire to bring it down.
The Comet is equally stressful. It looks like a bloated version of the standard Pop robot. It patrols quietly until it spots your squad. Then it locks on, honks loudly, and sprints straight at you. It is quite literally a walking bomb. It does not shoot. It simply gets close and detonates with a massive blast. Fighting indoors at the Dam Battlegrounds just got much more chaotic. You have less room to run from these explosions. Together, these two enemies force you to constantly change positions. You have to watch the sky and your flanks at all times.
The combat is punishing. Thankfully, the actual game economy is getting a lot softer. Embark is rolling out a massive catch-up system on February 25. If you missed out on early Expedition rewards, you can now secure up to ten permanent Skill Points. This is a huge relief for players who cannot play every single day.
The developers also lowered the maximum reward threshold. You only need a total Stash value of three million Coins now. That breaks down to a very manageable 600,000 Coins per Skill Point. They even threw in 24 permanent stash spaces to help with inventory clutter. The new Weather Monitoring System also respects your time. It is a five-stage seasonal project that rewards 250 Raider Tokens and exclusive gear. Crucially, it is immune to the usual Expedition resets. On top of that, the free Surgeon Raider Deck is here. It brings medical outfits, an Anemometer charm, and finally adds facial hair. Yes, your Raider can finally sport a full beard or rugged stubble. The community asked for it, and the studio delivered.
Shrouded Sky is a masterclass in game balance. Embark made the moment-to-moment gameplay significantly harder. You have to fight the weather and outrun kamikaze robots. Yet, they removed the most annoying parts of the daily grind. It makes the game feel fresh, highly dangerous, and deeply rewarding.
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