Embark Studios dropped their biggest seasonal update yet on December 16, 2025, bringing winter storms, weapon rebalancing, and major loot changes to the Rust Belt. The Cold Snap patch transforms how you approach each raid with new weather mechanics that force tactical decisions, while weapon buffs shake up the PvP and PvE meta.
If you’ve been waiting for Aphelion blueprint farming changes or wondering whether the Bettina is finally worth running, this update delivers. From Shredder AI improvements that make encounters genuinely challenging to quality-of-life features players have requested for months, patch 1.7.0 packs more meaningful changes than any previous update.
Let’s break down everything that matters in Cold Snap, from the new weather system to where you should farm now that loot spawns have been completely reshuffled.
New Cold Snap Weather System: How Winter Affects Gameplay
The headline feature lives up to its name. Cold Snap introduces dynamic blizzards across Blue Gate, Spaceport, and the Red Lakes area. This isn’t just visual flair—the weather directly impacts your movement and visibility during raids.
When blizzards hit, your character stumbles through snow drifts and shivers in the cold. Visibility drops dramatically, making long-range engagements nearly impossible and forcing close-quarters combat. You’ll need to adjust your loadout choices and positioning strategies when the weather turns.
- The Flickering Flames Event adds a survival element to the weather system. Scattered flame sources throughout affected maps provide warming spots where you can recover from cold exposure. But here’s the catch: these flames create obvious gathering points that smart squads will camp or ambush. You’re trading warmth for vulnerability, which creates interesting risk-reward decisions during the worst storm conditions.
- The Electromagnetic Storm received a sneaky buff that makes it worth paying attention to now. Lightning strikes leave behind valuable items where they hit the ground. If you can track the strikes and reach the impact zones before other raiders, you’ll find loot that wasn’t available through any other method. Just don’t get caught in the open while you’re collecting.
Weapon Buffs in Patch 1.7.0: Bettina and Rattler Changes
Bettina Buff Makes It Top Tier PvE Weapon
The Bettina received the most substantial weapon changes in patch 1.7.0, and it’s finally viable as a primary weapon instead of a PvE-only backup choice.
| Stat | Before Patch | After Patch | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magazine Size | 20 rounds | 22 rounds | +10% |
| Reload Time | 5.0s | 4.5s | -0.5s |
| Durability Burn | ~0.43% per sho | ~0.17% per shot | -60% |
| Magazines Until Broken | ~12 mags | ~26 mags | +117% |
The durability change is massive. You used to burn through a Bettina in about 12 magazines, which meant constant trips back to repair or carrying backup weapons. Now you get 26 full magazines before durability becomes a concern. That’s more than double the field time.
The developers specifically mentioned they wanted the Bettina “less reliant on bringing a secondary weapon” and “more competent in PVP.” They succeeded. The faster reload and extra two rounds per magazine give you better uptime in fights, while the durability buff means you can confidently take the Bettina as your only rifle on longer raids.
Embark’s data shows the Bettina was already the highest-performing PvE weapon at its rarity tier (excluding the Hullcracker). These changes don’t break that balance—they just make it equally viable against other players.
Rattler Magazine Size Increase: What Changed
The Rattler got a simpler but meaningful buff: magazine size increased from 10 to 12 rounds.
This 20% capacity increase specifically targets the weapon’s PvP performance at lower upgrade levels. New players or those without fully upgraded Rattlers struggled against Stitcher and Kettle users in close-range fights. The extra two rounds don’t change the Rattler’s identity as a cover-based, burst-fire weapon, but they reduce how often you’re caught reloading in critical moments.
You still need to play deliberately—dipping in and out of cover, firing controlled bursts, managing your reload timing. The Rattler won’t win spray-and-pray duels. But that improved magazine economy makes missed shots less punishing and gives you a better chance in extended engagements.
Loot Redistribution and Map Changes: Where to Farm Now
Aphelion Blueprint Moved to Stella Montis
- OLD LOCATION: Matriarch boss drop
- NEW LOCATION: Stella Montis zone
This is the single biggest loot change in patch 1.7.0. If you’ve been grinding Matriarch kills for the Aphelion blueprint, stop. It doesn’t drop there anymore.
The blueprint now spawns somewhere in Stella Montis, which completely changes farming routes and priorities. Stella Montis offers better accessibility than the Matriarch fight—you don’t need a coordinated squad to farm the zone effectively, and you can hit multiple potential spawn locations in a single raid.
Stella Montis Gets Major Improvements
To support the Aphelion blueprint relocation, Stella Montis received significant buffs. Item spawn rates increased across the entire zone, and blueprint drop frequency got a boost. Embark improved spawn distance checks to reduce frustrating instances of spawning right next to other squads at match start.
Window glass clarity improved, so you can actually see through windows properly now. The Rubber Duck exploit with the “A Little Extra” skill got removed—no more infinite ducks from breachable containers.
Universal Loot Changes
Great Mullein farming got easier with more spawn locations added throughout all maps. If you’re still hunting this crafting material, your routes just got more efficient.
- Epic Key Card Rooms finally justify their rarity. The loot value inside these rooms increased to match the effort required to find epic key cards. Before this patch, many players ignored epic rooms because the rewards didn’t feel worth it. That calculation has changed.
- Blueprint spawns spread to previously underutilized areas across all maps. You’re no longer forced into the same high-traffic zones every raid to find blueprints. This should reduce third-party situations and give solo players more viable options.
- Security Lockers switched from static placements to dynamic spawning. You can’t memorize locker locations anymore—they appear in different spots each raid. This kills the old farming routes where you’d hit the same three lockers every time, but it creates fairer distribution and more exploration gameplay.
Blue Gate Map Updates
Blue Gate got the most attention this patch. The new Locked Gate map condition changes how you navigate the area. Out-of-bounds zones near ledges received adjustments to stop abrupt deaths when you’re near the edge. Tree LOD improvements reduce that annoying distant darkness that made spotting enemies harder.
The locked room in Village had a bug where loot spawned outside the room instead of inside—that’s fixed. Quest objectives for “A First Foothold” are easier to find now with added props and visual cues.
Dam Battlegrounds Changes
Dam Battlegrounds moved the Matriarch spawn point. The new location plays better to the boss’s combat strengths and creates a more interesting arena fight. The old spawn let you abuse certain positions too easily.
Spaceport Adjustments
Spaceport’s Container Storage locked room no longer has a protection radius that affects players outside the room. This was creating weird situations where you’d get combat penalties for being near the room but not inside it.
Map Bug Fixes Across All Zones
Universal fixes include Supply Drops no longer spawning inside terrain (finally), proper Raider Cache spawning during Prospecting Probes, door sync between players so you don’t see closed doors that others see as open, and accessible loot containers on Dam and Blue Gate.
Shredder AI Changes: Combat and Navigation Improvements
Shredders are legitimately dangerous now. The AI overhaul addresses basically every way players used to cheese these enemies, and the result is tougher but more rewarding encounters.
Combat changes hit immediately. Shredders engage faster when taking damage, detect close-range threats better, and respond with improved turning and movement. Most importantly, they’re far more aggressive once you’re in close quarters. Old Shredders would hesitate or get confused in close range, making shotgun rushes trivially easy. New Shredders close distance aggressively and track targets more reliably.
The geometry exploits are gone. Shredders no longer get stuck on corners, navigate narrow spaces properly, and can path over short obstacles. You can’t kite them around buildings or trap them in doorways anymore. This sounds like a nerf to player power, and it is. But it’s a necessary one—the old Shredder behavior let you ignore proper positioning and just abuse pathing issues.
Survivability received significant buffs too. Head hitbox health increased so you can’t instantly headshot kill them, which prevents cases where you’d blow the Shredder’s head off and it would bug out completely. More destructible parts were added to the body, meaning more potential component drops for farming materials. Reduced knockback from weapon fire and increased base movement speed make them harder to control.
You can’t stunlock Shredders with sustained fire anymore, and the reduced knockback means they push through suppression. The increased difficulty comes with better loot potential through those additional destructible parts, but you need to approach Shredders like actual threats now. Bring proper loadouts, use cover, aim for weak points, and don’t assume you can facetank them in the open.
Best Quality of Life Features in Cold Snap Patch
If you already have more than 800 Cred, don't worry—it's grandfathered in. Embark won't remove your existing currency. But you can't earn more until you spend below the cap. They added more items to Shani's store to give you spending options.
Performance Fixes and Bug Improvements in Patch 1.7.0
AMD users can actually play the game now. Major crash fixes target AMD hardware, with specific work done on the RX 9060 XT driver issues. Stability improved across all systems, not just AMD.
Graphics additions:
- New “Cinematic” preset for high-end PCs that pushes visual quality
- Motion blur intensity slider for those who want to fine-tune or disable it
- Improved texture streaming eliminates flickering between quality states
- Better depth of field scaling at different resolutions
Critical gameplay bugs squashed:
The gear loss on spawn bug is gone. Players were loading into matches with default gear instead of their loadout, losing items permanently. That’s fixed.
You can’t breach doors while downed anymore, which was breaking progression in some quests. Alt-tab movement lock resolved—returning to the game window won’t freeze your movement inputs while camera controls still work. Sticky throwables (Trigger ‘Nades, Snap Blast Grenades, Lure Grenades) no longer vanish when thrown at trees.
Two major exploits got patched: the energy weapon infinite ammo reload and the shotgun fire rate bypass. Both were breaking PvP balance.
UI Changes and Player Experience Updates
End-of-round feedback surveys appear less frequently now, and there’s an optional button to open them instead of forced popups. This alone improves the post-match experience significantly.
Inventory management received multiple controller-specific fixes. Gamepad focus issues are resolved, tooltip flickering eliminated, and the quick equip wheel maintains stable layout now. Keys stay in your safe pocket when using “Unload Backpack”—you won’t accidentally drop your epic keycard anymore.
Quest improvements make objectives actually findable. Quest items show icons on the ground when they’re part of active quests. Ping information for objectives got clearer, especially for Filtration System and Magnetic Decryptor interactions. Resource tracking works in Expeditions now, and rewards display properly for each goal.
Social features gained a Party Join icon so you know when someone’s joining your group. Discord friend status refreshes correctly when they switch from Invisible back to Online. VOIP status indicators are more accurate, and there’s a microphone test function in settings so you can verify your setup works before joining voice chat.
Trials objectives now clearly show when they offer bonus conditions like Map Conditions. The Codex got a video replay section for rewatching previously seen cinematics. Tooltips reposition to stay on screen at all resolutions.
Known Issues
Two problems remain in patch 1.7.0:
Cold Snap Patch Review: Is Update 1.7.0 Worth Playing?
Cold Snap is the biggest content update ARC Raiders has received since launch, and it delivers where it matters most. The weather system adds genuine tactical depth instead of being cosmetic—you make different decisions in blizzards, and the Flickering Flames event creates natural gathering points for PvP encounters. Weapon balance changes target underperforming options without breaking anything. The Bettina and Rattler needed exactly these buffs, not too much and not too little.
Loot redistribution fixes major farming pain points. Moving Aphelion from Matriarch to Stella Montis opens the blueprint to more players, while dynamic Security Locker spawns kill rote farming routes in favor of exploration. Performance improvements make the game significantly more stable, especially for AMD users who were dealing with constant crashes.
The Cred soft cap will frustrate longtime players who saved currency specifically to instantly unlock new content, and Shredder changes increase difficulty for solo players and newcomers. But these are acceptable tradeoffs for better game health.
Everything here is free for all players—no paid season pass, no exclusive content. If you bounced off ARC Raiders at launch due to performance issues or repetitive farming, patch 1.7.0 addresses both. The fresh meta and new mechanics provide solid reasons to keep playing through December, and the foundation Embark built suggests future updates will continue adding meaningful gameplay instead of just cosmetics.
