ARC Raiders New Map Theory: Where It Will Be & What It Looks Like

In a few months' time, ARC Raiders will receive a new map, the sixth to be added to Embark Studios' extraction shooter. Join me as I attempt to piece together a bunch of potentially unconnected details, like It's Always Sunny's Charlie obsessing over the enigmatic Pepe Silvia, to discern the location of the new map and what it might look like.

ARC Raiders' 2026 roadmap revealed that a new Rust Belt locale can be expected in April. Beyond that, there are virtually no details on the map itself. We barely have any idea of what the January update, coming this week, will entail. But that hasn't stopped me from combing through concept art and zooming in on a map of ARC Raiders' overworld like I'm looking at CCTV footage in an episode of CSI.

Embark Is Already Teasing New ARC Raiders Map Details

Exhibit A. What you see above is the newly released roadmap graphic for the next four major content updates coming to ARC Raiders. The whole thing is purposefully vague – in the roadmap announcement, Embark admits, "we're not going to offer all the specifics." But I think those clever developers have hidden a few clues under the April update. ("Enhance!" I say; that's your cue to zoom in on that right-most column.)

First is the update's name: Riven Tides. An odd choice for a game that is noticeably devoid of coastal waters. Second is the icon right next to where it says, "new map." That's a beach umbrella if I've ever seen one (I have). The roadmap icons don't seem random; each new map condition has a symbol that loosely correlates to its respective update's name.

These are just the first two bits of evidence in my prediction that ARC Raiders' new map will be set on the coast and include significant water features. More compelling arguments follow below, but I feel inclined to point out that the game already has a few outfits themed after deep-sea exploration. This may be a bit backwards considering the in-universe chronology (loot-rich Stella Montis hadn't been explored before it opened up in-game, for instance), but other cosmetics have believably been salvaged from the current maps; e.g., flight and space suits from Spaceport.

ARC Raiders Concept Art Shows Ruined Coastal Cities

Exhibit B. All five images in the gallery above are pieces of concept art from early in ARC Raiders' development, uploaded to ArtStation by Esbjörn Nord, an art director at Embark Studios. Nord makes it clear these are from "early concept exploration of the world," but many of the locations shown in other images have been adapted into other maps. Spaceport's launch tower is there; Buried City's, well... buried city can be seen; and Blue Gate's checkpoint is easily identifiable.

There are a couple coastal locations that seem to have been given a lot of thought, appearing multiple times. The second and third images above show a kind of ringed city, where the outermost section creates artifical barrier islands of sorts. The fourth and fifth feature the same oil rig-like structure, though it's not far from some crumbling buildings that appear to be flooding.

I'm not the only one who's caught on to this. When trying to track down this concept art gallery, I came across a Reddit thread from user Folli_YouTube, which has yet another view of the ringed city. I think they're on the right track by speculating that ARC Raiders' sixth map will be near the Rust Belt's southern volcano. But even more interesting is...

Exhibit C. This comment from u/Capabletomcat91 shows a bizarre bug in which the map select screen's icons are overlaid on the main menu. The gang's all there, but at the bottom, below and between Buried City and Dam Battlegrounds, is a second Stella Montis. If you superimpose this on the map select screen, that second Stella Montis lines up – you guessed it – on the east side of the volcano.

My guess is that this glitch shows the location of the sixth map, already buried in the game files somewhere but hidden from players. Now it could, admittedly, be some other bizarre fluke; maybe Stella Montis was originally going to be on the Rust Belt's southern side, on the volcano, before being moved into the northern mountains. The location does, however, line up suspiciously well with the abundance of coastal concept art.

ARC Raiders went through a lengthy development where its scope changed drastically, from a PvE-exclusive game on extremely large maps, to what we have now. It's very likely a lot of concept art simply didn't get translated into the final game – it's just concept art, after all – but there was clearly a lot of world-building done on a coastal locale, and the map screen glitch is too coincidental to ignore another set of images.

ARC Raiders Has A Very Conspicuous Crater

Exhibit D. From Nord's same ArtStation post are these two artworks of an impact crater. It's possible this could just be depicting the landing site of a large ARC enemy (they're big enough to form towering dust clouds when one lands at the end of a raid timer), but I think there's a chance it could be connected to the new map, given the previously discussed details.

A similar crater reappears in the Reddit post above (this time with a building beside the crater), and there's a crater just east of the Rust Belt's volcano on the map select screen. My prediction is that ARC Raiders' forthcoming map will be located between the crater and the volcano's peak, and extend down to the southern coast. It feels like a very large area, but you can see the other maps' buildings in red on the selection screen, and each map takes up a similarly significant amount of space.

Embark Studios is already teasing a map with a beach and tidal waters. Even ignoring most of the evidence above, placing the new map on the southern coast makes sense purely from a spacing standpoint – it's the largest open area currently on the map screen. Maybe I've been staring at my monitor too long, but it seems like things are starting to align for the new ARC Raiders to be set in a coastal location, near the volcano and its neighboring crater.

Systems

Released October 30, 2025

ESRB Teen / Violence, Blood

Developer(s) Embark Studios

Publisher(s) Embark Studios

Engine Unreal Engine 5