ARC Raiders currently features 5 playable maps set in the post-apocalyptic Rust Belt region. Each map offers distinct environments, loot opportunities, and challenges that fundamentally change how you approach raids. Understanding these maps and how to unlock them is essential for maximizing your survival and extraction success.
The Complete Map Count Breakdown
As of January 2026, ARC Raiders includes:
- 4 Launch Maps: Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Acerra Spaceport, and Blue Gate
- 1 Post-Launch Map: Stella Montis (unlocked through community event in November 2025)
- Future Maps: Embark Studios has confirmed additional maps are planned for 2026
This gives players a total of five distinct battlegrounds to explore, each progressively unlocking as you complete more raids.
How to Unlock All Maps in ARC Raiders
Unlike many extraction shooters where all maps are available immediately, ARC Raiders uses a progression-based unlock system. You gain access to new maps simply by completing raids, regardless of whether you successfully extract or get eliminated.
Unlock Requirements by Map:
Dam Battlegrounds – Available immediately (0 matches required)
- Your starting location
- Low difficulty (2/5 risk level)
- Best for learning game mechanics and ARC enemy behavior
Buried City – Unlocks after approximately 6 matches
- Medium difficulty (3/5 risk level)
- Sand-covered urban environment
- Close-quarters combat focused
Acerra Spaceport – Unlocks after approximately 12 matches
- Medium-high difficulty (3/5 risk level)
- Industrial facility with high-value tech loot
- Intense PvP zones in confined spaces
Blue Gate – Unlocks after approximately 18 matches
- High difficulty (4/5 risk level)
- Wide-open mountain terrain
- Advanced ARC enemies including Leapers
Stella Montis – Unlocks after completing 24 matches AND community event completion
- Difficulty rating to be determined (likely 4-5/5)
- Mountain research facility
- Features new Matriarch and Shredder ARC enemies
The unlock system counts every completed raid, win or lose. Extractions, kills, and loot collected don’t affect progression – only finishing matches matters. This means you can unlock all maps by simply playing the game naturally, typically requiring 15-25 hours of gameplay to access everything.
Detailed Map Breakdown
1. Dam Battlegrounds – The Starter Map
Dam Battlegrounds serves as every player’s introduction to the Rust Belt. This sprawling map combines forested swamplands with abandoned residential areas, offering a balanced mix of indoor and outdoor combat scenarios.
Key Features:
- Forests and swampland terrain provide natural cover
- Research centers contain valuable tech components
- Apartment complexes offer vertical gameplay opportunities
- Moderate ARC presence suitable for beginners
- Multiple extraction points scattered across the map
Loot Profile: Moderate quality spread evenly throughout. Dense forest areas have sparse loot, while buildings contain more concentrated resources.
Best For: Learning enemy patterns, practicing extraction timing, and understanding the basic loop without overwhelming difficulty.
The map’s relatively low threat level makes it ideal for completing early quests and farming basic materials. However, don’t underestimate nighttime raids – darkness dramatically increases ARC aggression and reduces visibility.
2. Buried City – The Urban Wasteland
Buried City presents a haunting vision of pre-collapse civilization – an entire metropolis buried beneath sand dunes. Players must navigate partially buried buildings, hospitals, shopping malls, and town squares to uncover valuable loot.
Key Features:
- Sand-covered streets create unique sightlines
- Multi-story buildings enable vertical combat
- Hospitals contain medical supplies and research data
- Mall complexes house consumer goods and electronics
- Town squares serve as high-traffic PvP zones
Loot Profile: Medium-high quality concentrated in intact buildings. Medical facilities offer healing items and chemicals.
Combat Style: Close-quarters dominates this map. Long-range weapons struggle in the tight corridors and sand-obscured streets. Shotguns and SMGs excel here.
Strategic Considerations: The sand dunes make movement slower but provide excellent cover. Sound travels differently in the enclosed urban spaces – every gunshot echoes, potentially drawing multiple teams to your location.
3. Acerra Spaceport – The Industrial Complex
The Acerra Spaceport represents humanity’s abandoned dream of escaping Earth’s collapse. This derelict launch facility sprawls across multiple interconnected zones, each filled with salvageable technology and dangerous encounters.
Key Features:
- Launch platforms and control towers provide high-ground advantages
- Maintenance tunnels create hidden movement paths
- Equipment warehouses contain high-value tech loot
- Industrial machinery provides hard cover during firefights
- Fuel storage areas present environmental hazards
Loot Profile: High-quality tech components, rare weapon mods, and advanced materials. This map offers some of the best loot-per-square-meter in the game.
Risk Assessment: The concentrated loot attracts experienced players and full squads. Expect intense PvP competition, especially around the main hangar and control center.
ARC Threat: Advanced units patrol this map regularly. The confined industrial spaces give ARCs ambush advantages, making solo raids particularly dangerous.
4. Blue Gate – The Mountain Frontier
Blue Gate showcases ARC Raiders’ visual ambitions while presenting its most challenging natural environment. Sweeping vistas stretch from industrial zones into mountainous wilderness, creating long sightlines and unpredictable encounter distances.
Key Features:
- Wide-open expanses favor long-range weapons
- Mountain elevation changes create tactical advantages
- Underground tunnel networks provide alternative routes
- Industrial facilities dot the landscape
- Natural cover is sparse, making movement risky
Loot Profile: Varied – industrial zones contain high-value items while wilderness areas offer natural resources and caches.
Combat Dynamics: This map fundamentally changes from others due to its open design. Snipers and marksman rifles dominate. Squad positioning and communication become critical since third-parties can engage from hundreds of meters away.
ARC Population: Leapers frequently appear here, using the vertical terrain to their advantage. Their mobility makes them particularly deadly in the mountain regions.
Weather Impact: Blue Gate experiences the most dramatic weather conditions – fog can reduce visibility to near zero, while clear conditions expose you across vast distances.
5. Stella Montis – The Mountain Research Facility
Stella Montis represents ARC Raiders’ first major post-launch map expansion, added through the “North Line” update in November 2025. This pristine mountain facility offers a stark contrast to the ravaged Rust Belt below.
Key Features:
- Two-level indoor facility carved into the mountain
- Cold, sterile environment remarkably preserved
- Extensive tunnel network connecting various sections
- Seed vault containing pre-collapse agricultural data
- Cultural archives housing humanity’s preserved works
- Assembly workshops with advanced manufacturing equipment
Access Requirements: Unlike other maps that unlock through simple progression, Stella Montis required the community to complete the “Breaking New Ground” event. Players collectively donated materials to excavate tunnel access, unlocking the map for everyone in under 38 hours.
New Enemy Types:
- The Matriarch: The most dangerous ARC introduced yet, appearing under specific map conditions
- The Shredder: Close-quarters specialist ARC that spawns exclusively in Stella Montis’s tight corridors
Loot Highlights:
- Legendary weapons including the Energy Burst Battle Rifle (Aphelion Rifle)
- High-tier equipment from the research labs
- Unique key-locked rooms requiring rare keys to access
- Cultural archives containing premium loot
Layout Strategy: The facility’s two-level design creates complex vertical gameplay. Multiple tunnel entrances mean enemies can approach from numerous directions. The confined spaces favor close-quarters weapons and tactical gadgets like mines and grenades.
Special Mechanics: Three locked doors throughout the map require specific keys – the Stella Montis Assembly Admin Key, the Stella Montis Archives Key, and others. These keys are rare drops from other maps, adding a layer of preparation to Stella Montis raids.
Map Conditions and Modifiers
Every ARC Raiders map features rotating conditions that dramatically alter gameplay. These modifiers refresh periodically and appear clearly on the map selection screen.
Common Conditions Include:
Time of Day:
- Daytime: Standard visibility and ARC behavior
- Night: Reduced visibility, increased ARC aggression, potential for better loot
- Dawn/Dusk: Transitional lighting affects engagement ranges
Weather Systems:
- Clear: Standard conditions
- Fog: Dramatically reduced visibility, muffled sounds
- Rain: Reduced audio range, wet surfaces affect movement
- Snow (Cold Snap update): New visual aesthetics, potential movement changes
- Electromagnetic Storms: Interference with electronic equipment, increased ARC activity
Special Events:
- Night Raids: Enhanced loot tables, heightened ARC presence
- Harvest Season: Increased natural resource spawns
- Flickering Flames: Community event with unique objectives
- Map-specific modifiers that rotate regularly
These conditions aren’t just cosmetic – they fundamentally change optimal loadouts, movement strategies, and risk calculations. A foggy night raid on Blue Gate plays completely differently than a clear afternoon on the same map.
Map Size and Player Distribution
All ARC Raiders maps support the same player population system – approximately 21 players with continuous respawns until the 16-18 minute mark. However, the maps’ different sizes and layouts affect how often you encounter other raiders.
Relative Size Comparison:
- Dam Battlegrounds: Large, sprawling
- Buried City: Medium, vertically dense
- Acerra Spaceport: Medium-large, compartmentalized
- Blue Gate: Very large, horizontally expansive
- Stella Montis: Medium, two-level compact
The smaller, more compartmentalized maps (Buried City, Stella Montis) create more frequent player encounters, while larger maps (Blue Gate, Dam Battlegrounds) allow more breathing room between firefights – though the respawn system ensures you’re never truly alone.
Extraction Points by Map
Each map features multiple extraction points, though the exact number and locations vary:
- Dam Battlegrounds: 6-8 extraction zones spread across the map perimeter
- Buried City: 5-7 extraction points at map edges
- Acerra Spaceport: 6-8 extraction zones including elevated launch platforms
- Blue Gate: 8-10 extraction points given the map’s large size
- Stella Montis: 4-6 tunnel exits serving as extraction points
Extraction points activate at different times during raids, and later extractions typically see more camping and PvP activity as loot-heavy players converge on the same exits.
Future Map Additions
Embark Studios has committed to expanding the Rust Belt throughout 2026. While specific details remain limited, the roadmap mentions:
- Additional maps beyond Stella Montis
- New regions exploring different aspects of the post-collapse world
- Map variations and conditions continuing to evolve
- Community events potentially unlocking future content
The success of the Stella Montis community unlock event suggests future maps might employ similar engagement mechanics, requiring player cooperation to access new content.
Which Map Should You Play?
For Beginners: Start with Dam Battlegrounds, then progress to Buried City. These maps teach core mechanics without overwhelming difficulty.
For Loot: Acerra Spaceport and Stella Montis offer the highest concentration of valuable items, though competition is fierce.
For PvP Practice: Blue Gate’s open terrain and Buried City’s close quarters provide opposite extremes for practicing different combat styles.
For ARC Combat: Stella Montis features the newest, most challenging ARC enemies for players seeking PvE difficulty.
For Quest Completion: Refer to specific quest requirements, as many tasks require visiting particular maps or locations.
Map Unlock Progress Tracking
You can track your map unlock progress through the expedition counter in your hideout. The game doesn’t explicitly tell you “X matches until next map,” but the progression is consistent:
- 0 matches: Dam Battlegrounds
- ~6 matches: Buried City unlocked
- ~12 matches: Acerra Spaceport unlocked
- ~18 matches: Blue Gate unlocked
- 24+ matches: Stella Montis available (if community event completed)
Remember that these are completed raids, not successful extractions. Even failed runs count toward progression.
Strategic Map Selection
When choosing which map to raid, consider:
- Your Loadout: Long-range builds suit Blue Gate; close-quarters loadouts excel in Buried City or Stella Montis
- Quest Requirements: Some missions demand specific map locations
- Active Conditions: Weather and events dramatically affect difficulty and rewards
- Time Remaining: Maps have 30-minute raid timers; larger maps require more time to cross
- Risk Tolerance: Higher difficulty maps offer better loot but more dangerous encounters
- Current Resources: Low on gear? Stick to Dam Battlegrounds for safer farming
The Verdict: Map Variety and Replayability
With five distinct maps each featuring rotating conditions, ARC Raiders offers substantial environmental variety for an extraction shooter. The progressive unlock system ensures new players aren’t overwhelmed while giving veterans multiple options for their playstyles.
Each map serves a purpose:
- Dam Battlegrounds: Training grounds
- Buried City: Urban combat practice
- Acerra Spaceport: High-risk, high-reward runs
- Blue Gate: Long-range tactical gameplay
- Stella Montis: Endgame content with unique mechanics
Combined with dynamic weather, time-of-day cycles, and special events, these five maps create dozens of distinct raid experiences. The promised 2026 content updates should continue expanding this roster, keeping the Rust Belt fresh and unpredictable.
Conclusion
ARC Raiders launches with five playable maps – Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Acerra Spaceport, Blue Gate, and Stella Montis – each offering unique challenges and opportunities. Players unlock these maps progressively by completing approximately 24 total raids, with Stella Montis requiring additional community event participation.
This map count positions ARC Raiders competitively within the extraction shooter genre while leaving room for expansion. The variety ensures different raid experiences based on terrain, loot distribution, and difficulty levels. Whether you prefer the open battlefields of Blue Gate, the close-quarters chaos of Buried City, or the advanced challenges of Stella Montis, the current map roster provides substantial content for both new and experienced raiders.
As Embark Studios continues supporting the game through 2026, expect this number to grow, bringing new regions of the Rust Belt to explore and new ways to risk everything for that perfect extraction.