BrokenBuilds

ARC Raiders Headwinds Patch Notes (Update 1.13.0)

Embark's January 27 mid-winter update permanently adds the Bird City condition to Buried City, launches the Trophy Display Project, and opens Solo vs Squads matchmaking for level 40+.

v1.13.0By BrokenBuilds WikiUpdated

What Changed in Headwinds

Update 1.13.0 dropped on January 27, 2026 and reshaped the mid-game in three ways that still define how loadouts get built in 2026. Bird City became a permanent fixture on Buried City instead of a rotating condition. The Trophy Display Project opened the long-form donation grind that pays out the Jupiter, Howl emote, and 300,000 Coins. Solo vs Squads became an opt-in mode for veteran Raiders willing to trade fairness for XP. The patch also added two Epic-tier augment types and a seven-quest content drop.

Bird City permanent on Buried City

Pre-1.13.0, Bird City was a rotating map condition. From 1.13.0 forward, the condition is locked to Buried City. Bird nests in chimneys hold collectible loot, rooftop combat now dominates the high-level extract routes, and flying ARC encounters happen at higher density. The change pulled most of the city's high-value loot off ground level and onto the rooftops, which lifted the Snap Hook from a niche pick to a near-mandatory quick-use slot for any Buried City run.

Trophy Display Project launched

The 5-stage donation track went live with the patch. Each stage requires four ARC component types donated at the Speranza terminal in your locker room. The full grind drops 20 staged rewards including Light Gun Parts, Vita Shot, Bobcat, and Snap Hook blueprints, plus a finale bundle with the Jupiter sniper, Howl emote, Acoustic Guitar, 5x Energy Clip, and 300,000 Coins. Progress is permanent and survives expedition resets. Read the ARC Raiders Trophy Display Project Guide for the full per-stage requirement and farming map.

Solo vs Squads opt-in mode

A new toggle for level 40+ Raiders that drops you into squad lobbies as a solo. The mode pays 20% bonus XP on extract and on death. The fairness tradeoff is real: you are alone against three coordinated players. The XP curve is the appeal for veterans grinding a second Workshop unlock; the survival expectation is brutal.

Two Epic Augment types

The patch added two new Epic-tier augments. The official notes did not surface their exact IDs at launch, and the per-augment data is folded into item:combat-mk2 and item:tactical-mk2 tier conversations rather than published as standalone slots. Treat these as middle-rung options between the Mk. 2 and Mk. 3 trees.

Seven new quests

The questline added seven new objectives, including a reworked Groundbreaking quest with additional interaction branches that ties back to the Bird City rooftop economy.

Balance Changes

  • entity:leaper: locomotion no longer collapses from leg damage alone. Leg-stripping a Leaper still slows it but the kill window is narrower than before.
  • entity:tick: grabbed players now have a dodge-roll escape window. The Tick grab was a death sentence for solo Raiders pre-patch; the escape window restores agency.
  • Higher-tier weapon case drop rates: increased across the board.
  • Matriarch and Queen unique-part acquisition rates: slightly reduced. The Trophy Display Project added a sustained sink for boss reactors, and Embark cooled the drop rates to compensate.
  • ARC traversal: improved obstacle handling on Shredder, Snitch, and Spotter so they stop bouncing off cover geometry.

Bug Fixes

  • Stella Montis Seed Vault extraction exploit closed.
  • Multiple stuck-player collision points across all maps fixed.
  • Achievement tracking corrected for "Enemy of my Enemy" and "Hook, Line, and Sinker."
  • Voice chat connectivity improvements.
  • Anti-cheat: progressive ban system rolled out (30 days, then 60 days, then permanent).

Build Impact

The Trophy Display Project is the largest build influence in the patch and it is not a balance change. Any Raider chasing the project changes their loadout for stages 4 and 5 because Queen Reactors and Matriarch Reactors require a Boss Hunter loadout, not a PvP loadout. The ARC Raiders Boss Hunter Build Guide covers the item:hullcracker plus item:jupiter kit that plate-strips Queens cleanly. Expect a 2-week build pivot in the squad meta as players grind toward the Stage 5 reward bundle.

The Bird City permanence shifted Buried City from a moderate-value map to a top-tier loot map. Loadouts running item:looting-mk3-cautious for the integrated Binoculars now have a clear best-map answer. The Snap Hook moves from "good in some loadouts" to "one of the four mandatory Buried City quick-use slots."

The Leaper locomotion fix matters for solo Raiders who relied on stripping legs to disable a Leaper before committing to the kill. Post-patch, the Leaper closes the gap faster after leg damage, which raises the case for Heavy ammo weapons that one-burst rather than mag-dumping.

The Solo vs Squads mode is a build influencer too. The 20% XP bonus on extract pulls level 40+ Raiders into a high-stakes mode where the ARC Raiders Solo Stealth Build Guide outperforms anything else. The item:looting-mk3-cautious augment plus a item:stitcher silenced kit becomes the default for the new mode.

Updated Tier Lists

The ARC Raiders Weapon Tier List does not need to shift on this patch. No weapon stat values changed. The S-tier picks held: item:bettina, item:vulcano, item:anvil, item:ferro, item:jupiter. The build-impact rotations above shift which weapons get picked into which loadout, not which weapons are strongest.

See Also