Players, if you want to quickly acquire a top-tier lineup in MLB The Show 26, you'll inevitably need to systematically and repeatedly accumulate stubs. Here are some methods to help you avoid detours and accumulate resources rapidly.

Regular Inventory Cleanup

Many players neglect their Inventory, which may actually contain thousands or even tens of thousands of stubs worth of equipment, uniforms, stadiums, or bats.

You need to regularly check all cards and equipment, perhaps weekly. Sell any duplicate Gold cards or Silver cards you find immediately. A Gold card can sell for approximately 600 stubs. Don't overlook any card; every little bit counts, and hundreds of small transactions can accumulate to tens of thousands of stubs.

Also, keep an eye on less popular equipment; sometimes they can bring you pleasant surprises.

Utilize Exchange to Increase Profits

If you have a large number of Bronze and Silver cards, your next step is to utilize the exchange feature to increase your profits. Turn low-tier cards you wouldn't normally consider into high-tier assets.

Selling Silver and Bronze cards directly is cheap, but exchanging them for Gold cards before selling them significantly increases your profits.

Gold Exchange Pack has a chance to drop Gold cards with a rating of 84+, each worth approximately 1500 MLB 26 stubs.

Team Affinity

Accumulating experience through missions and card packs is the core long-term method. Completing team experience and stat missions will earn you a massive number of card packs.

Of course, it's best to use efficient methods to farm card packs. Playing against weaker teams on GOAT difficulty will grant you a huge amount of player experience.

When doing Conquests or Mini Seasons, try to complete missions using players from the same team. The more card packs you get, the more chances you have to draw cards, and the more stubs you accumulate.

Programs and Spotlights Series

Also, don't just focus on Team Affinity; New Threads Program and Spotlight Series also offer a large number of card packs and high-value players. These are hidden goldmines for card packs.

For example, Kenley Jansen in April Spotlight can be sold for 30k stubs.

Programs also include Deluxe Packs, Show Packs, and Boss Players (approximately 86k each).

It's best to run multiple programs simultaneously, completing multiple tasks with a single gameplay action.

Efficiently Farm Packs with Mini Seasons

Choose World Baseball Classic Mini Seasons. This is currently the most efficient way to repeatedly farm packs.

You need to play 7 three-game matches to reach our goal. Accumulating 56 points will earn you 10 Show Packs and one Habit Pack. And this can be repeated.

After completing a season, you can exchange the earned championship banners. Five Habit Packs require five banners to redeem.

Playing 7 three-game matches only takes a few hours and can reliably generate over twenty packs. Combined with player missions and Team Affinity, one action can bring you multiple benefits. Why not?

Multiplayer Program and World Series

Even if you don't enjoy grinding against the AI ​​in single-player mode, Multiplayer Program can still reward you with substantial stubs. Reaching 150,000 stars will earn you 50 Show Packs, 20,000 XP, and players and Deluxe Packs that can be sold for 20k.

This isn't as difficult as you might think, as you can achieve it by playing Co-op and participating in various events. Get rich without playing single-player? Yes, with dedication!

Furthermore, you can compete in World Series. Whether you succeed or not, you'll receive card packs. If you're lucky enough to reach World Series, you'll receive high-value player card packs.

If you reach World Series in both Co-op and Ranked, you can obtain Trea Turner and Christian Yelich. These two cards can earn you hundreds of thousands of stubs. This high return is very tempting.

Conquest

Conquests are the perfect place to complete player missions, grind XP, and also reward a large number of card packs. It's recommended to prioritize Conquest Maps when doing Team Affinity or program tasks to achieve multiple benefits.

Flipping Cards

This is also a method for accumulating stubs, but it's less recommended compared to the previous methods.

In general, this is a traditional buy-low-sell-high method. However, this method is too time-consuming and you won't get any enjoyment from the game; it's better to just play tournaments.

If you enjoy researching the market, this method can theoretically yield a large number of stubs, but it's not suitable for players who want to truly enjoy the game.

Final Advice

Sell everything, don't keep anything junk. Don't underestimate small transactions; even orders of 20 or 30 stubs are worth selling. Only through gradual accumulation will you eventually reap substantial rewards.

List every Silver Card, Gold Card, and excess equipment you don't use on the market. The more frequently you clear out, the sooner you'll discover hidden gold, and the faster your cash flow will be.

There's no magical way to instantly earn stubs; only systematic, repetitive, and meticulous accumulation. By following the above process, you too can successfully acquire stubs and quickly build a top-tier roster.

At Final Fantasy XIV FanFest 2026, which just took place these past two days, Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida held a press conference to announce the next major update, patch 8.0: Evercold, and revealed a wealth of new content.

From what they revealed, this patch will revolutionize some of the game's core gameplay and improve upon aspects that players have been hoping for. Therefore, many players have expressed high anticipation for patch 8.0 in player communities.

The official release date is January next year. Although it's still a long time away, some of the gameplay features will be tested in patch 7.5, so we'll be able to play it soon.

Next, let me introduce some of the most interesting aspects:

New area and new story

As a game that heavily relies on its storyline, FF XIV patch 7.0's story received widespread criticism, directly leading to a significant loss of players. But patch 8.0 looks - at least in the trailers and at FanFest 2026 - much more interesting than patch 7.0.

First, there's the new area. Judging from the trailers, unlike the cheerful atmosphere of Tuliyollal or Kozama'uka in patch 7.0, the new area is covered in snow and frost, making it uninhabitable for creatures, forcing people to move their homes into the air.

This is a land filled with sadness and heaviness, called "the Fourth World". If you're familiar with the main story of FF14, you'll know that this is a place that was once completely destroyed.

Based on the official images, the architecture of the Fourth World leans towards a Scandinavian style, adding a retro feel. Players will be active on various floating islands, suggesting potential new gameplay elements related to these islands.

As for the new story, Naoki Yoshida didn't reveal much; we only saw snippets in the trailers. Regardless, patch 8.0 will bring a story set in a once-destroyed land, and that alone is enough to whet anyone's appetite.

Combat system reworked

This is definitely one of the most anticipated and core new gameplay features of FF14 patch 8.0: they've reworked the combat system.

This rework primarily divides the combat system for each class into Reborn Mode and Evolved Mode. Reborn Mode is essentially the original mode, unchanged, while Evolved Mode significantly reduces the number of skills for each class, allowing them a maximum of 16 skills.

However, the two new classes added in patch 8.0 will only have Evolved Mode. It seems Naoki Yoshida added Reborn Mode for older classes simply to appease veteran players. If Evolved Mode doesn't receive widespread negative feedback, future new classes will probably only have Evolved Mode.

I think this rework is very valuable; in FFXIV, some classes had a lot of skills. If you want to experience a class you've never played before, you not only need to spend a lot of Final Fantasy XIV Gil to upgrade your character's abilities, but you also need to familiarize yourself with those skills - there could be dozens.

This design theoretically increases gameplay and freedom, but what's the reality? Each class has only one mainstream build in each patch, and you have to learn every skill like you're preparing for a final exam. And if any of them are changed, you have to relearn them all.

With Evolved Mode, the cost for players to become familiar with a new class is significantly reduced. This is very beneficial for players who don't have much time to play, and for new players.

Furthermore, previous classes retain Reborn Mode, so if you prefer the old combat experience, that's fine too.

Armory system update

This is also a major change. We know that Final Fantasy XIV has dozens of classes, and players can freely switch between different classes during gameplay. Most players choose to experience all the classes.

However, this also means you need to create a lot of builds. To experience all combat classes, you'll need to craft at least five different builds.

However, the gear you can directly exchange with NPCs in the game is usually fairly common. If you want to use a particular class to enter high-difficulty dungeons or reliably participate in the latest dungeons, you'll have to use Final Fantasy XIV Gil to trade with other players for better gear and craft powerful builds.

But after patch 8.0, you only need to craft one build to sync your item levels to other gear, significantly reducing the pressure on players.

However, only the most basic item levels can be synced. If you're aiming for higher gear stats, you'll still need to prepare enough Gil in advance.

Other Updates

Besides these, FFXIV has many other interesting new gameplay features.

First, two new classes have been added, as mentioned earlier. Specifically, FF14 will add a Tank class and a Physical Ranged DPS class. I speculate that Physical Ranged DPS might be Beastmaster. Although Naoki Yoshida mentioned that this class would be added in patch 7.5, based on past experience, minor patches generally don't add new classes.

Secondly, Adventurer activity has been changed from once a day to once a week. You only need to complete it on one day of the week to get allAllagan tomestones for that week. This is very friendly to players who have to work or study on weekdays.

These are the exciting new gameplay features I wanted to introduce to you. Of course, there are many more things I haven't mentioned yet. Let's look forward to FF14 patch 8.0: Evercold!

The upcoming ARC Raiders Third Expedition brings many new changes. In addition to Expedition's reward system, Raiders' skill trees have gained an extra 5 skill points. Before Expedition system, we only had 86 skill points; now we have 91.

This has given me some inspiration. Perhaps we can develop a skill tree system more suitable for the current version. It should not only improve your survivability in the game but also enhance your ability to amass wealth - by scavenging large amounts of high-level resources.

We have a total of three skill tree branches: Conditioning, Mobility, and Survival. I will now explain in detail which skills and how many skill points are added to each branch.

Mobility

Nimble Climber - 5 skill points

This is a basic utility skill that increases your speed when manually climbing high platforms or automatically vaulting low walls, windows, and other obstacles while running.

Marathon Runner - 5 skill points

This not only reduces the stamina consumed by movement but also increases your mech's resilience. Whether escaping, chasing, or making long-distance raids, this is the foundation of your stamina. A solid foundation will greatly enhance your gameplay experience.

Youthful Lungs - 5 Skill Points

Each level increases your maximum stamina by 5%. At max level, it increases your stamina cap by 25%, allowing you to sprint longer, roll more, and effectively improve map movement efficiency and combat survivability.

Effortless Roll - 5 Skill Points

It directly improves stamina endurance, allowing you to use the crucial roll maneuver more frequently in combat.

Heroic Leap - 5 Skill Points

 Its core function is to increase the movement distance of Sprint Dodge Roll, allowing you to engage or disengage faster in combat. Maxing out this skill is key to maximizing its value.

Crawl Before You Walk - 5 Skill Points

Crawl Before You Walk increases your crouching speed, enhancing stealthy mobility.

Carry The Momentum - 1 skill point

This skill is a Major Skill in the mobility skill tree, creating a valuable, cost-free sprint window for a short period.

Carry The Momentum requires a well-timed, stamina-consuming roll. Effortless Roll effectively reduces the cost of the roll itself.

Finally, add one skill point each to Vigorous Vaulter, Sup And Slide, Sturdy Ankles, Calming Stroll, and Vaults On Vaults On Vaults.

Youthful Lungs and Marathon Runner will be the foundation of this combo. On top of these, Carry The Momentum acts as a brief burst of power. Its presence makes this movement system more complete and allows you to force a 3-4 second respite when your stamina is depleted, buying time for other skills to recover stamina.

Survival

Agile Croucher - 5 Skill Points

It's a prerequisite for unlocking key building paths, and its most important strategic value. In areas dense with high-level ARC Raiders Items, Agile Croucher reduces your risk of being detected by enemy players or ARCs, while also providing a speed boost, allowing you to move between cover more quickly.

Looter's Instincts - 5 Skill Points

It allows you to see the items inside containers more quickly after opening the container browsing interface, significantly improving looting efficiency and allowing you to acquire key resources faster, reducing your exposure time.

Revitalizing Squat - 3 Skill Points

It allows you to continuously regenerate stamina while crouching.

In-Round Crafting - 1 Skill Point

This skill allows you to craft ARC Raiders Items you need during a match, achieving self-sufficiency.

Silent Scavenger - 1 Skill Point

Greatly reduces the noise you make when looting and picking up items, making you more stealthy and less likely to be detected by ARC.

Suffer In Silence - 1 Skill Point

Reduces the sound of your cries of pain when injured, buying you time to heal.

Broad Shoulders - 5 Skill Points

Greatly increases your carrying capacity, meaning you can pick up more loot.

Looter's Luck - 5 Skill Points

A passive skill that has a chance to instantly double the number of items when looting containers. The player community often believes it improves the quality of items dropped, such as rare ARC Raiders Blueprints.

Good As New - 1 Skill Point

Increases the efficiency of healing items.

Conditioning

Used to the Weight - 5 Skill Points

Reduces the reduction in movement speed caused by armor and weight. It provides a near-free upgrade. A shield is practically a standard feature for every action, and this skill can be unlocked early in the game, maintaining high tactical mobility even when heavily armored.

Blast-Born - 1 skill point

Reduces the impact of explosions on hearing, allowing you to more clearly distinguish footsteps, gunshots, and other key environmental sounds amidst blasts.

Fight Or Flight - 5 skill points

A survival-oriented secondary passive skill that instantly restores a fixed amount of stamina when injured in combat, but has an internal cooldown. It can be combined with Survivor's Stamina for a powerful combo, giving you a stamina advantage on the battlefield.

Gentle Pressure - 1 skill point

Reduces the noise when breaching doors and unlocking locks, aiding in stealth operations.

Proficient Pryer - 5 skill points

Shortens the animation time for unlocking and breaching doors, allowing you to acquire loot faster and reduce the risk of detection.

Unburdened Roll - 1 skill point

After your shield breaks, the first roll within a short timeframe does not consume stamina. Offers you a free escape opportunity, high survival value.

Survivor's Stamina - 1 skill point

Significantly increases stamina regeneration speed when your health is below 20%.

A Little Extra - 1 skill point

Always obtains extra resources (materials or consumables) when picking locks, increasing resource accumulation efficiency.

Loaded Arms - 1 skill point

Reduces the impact of your current weapon's weight on your inventory.

Downed But Determined - 1 skill point

Extends the duration of being downed, increasing the chance of teammates reviving you.

Turtle Crawl - 5 skill points

Reduces damage taken while downed, increasing survival chances.

In short, the choice of build depends on your primary goal. If you want to accumulate resources in ARC Raiders in the shortest time, avoid getting bogged down in close combat, and still become a hunter, getting rich through combat plunder, then this build is very suitable.

WoW Midnight 12.0.5 is finally live, bringing a wealth of new content and many new ways to acquire gear.

Voidforge will give you a completely new gaming experience, but it also contains several bugs that can seriously hinder your progress and even waste your Nebulous Voidcore's extra rolls.

Let's take a look at Nebulous Voidcore content in patch 12.0.5, learn how to obtain and maximize your Nebulous Voidcore's extra rolls, and which annoying bugs you should definitely avoid.

How to Obtain It?

First, you need to complete Voidforge quests. Go to Voidstorm and pick up the final elementary Voidcore Shard quest from Decimus. The fastest way to complete this quest is too quickly clear a random raid area with three bosses, such as the first area of ​​Voidspire Raid, or clear some resource-rich dungeons.

Be sure to complete these quests before you start experiencing any other game content. Delaying Voidforge completion means you'll miss out on some very shiny, free loot and WoW Midnight Gold. If you haven't been completing these Voidforge quests weekly, you need to catch up now.

Your Voidforge is complete when Voidforge counter shows all six quests finished. Now, you can exchange 5,000 gold, 2,000 Voidlight Marl, or 80 Veteran Dawncrests for two Nebulous Voidcores weekly from Decimus. If you no longer need Veteran Dawncrests to upgrade your gear, I recommend using them, as they have no other use.

After completing Decimus's quests to unlock Voidforge, you can also receive an additional Nebulous Voidcore weekly from Vaultkeeper Elysa next to Great Vault. Each Nebulous Voidcore requires six Thalassian Tokens of Merit and does not count towards your weekly cap.

How to use it effectively?

After defeating Midnight Season 1 raid boss, or completing Mythic+ Dungeon, Bountiful Delve, or Prey Hunt, players can choose to consume Nebulous Voidcore to obtain a random item matching their gear specialization from the event.

Obtaining Mythic Gear

To maximize your gear acquisition potential, you should only use Nebulous Voidcore when you can obtain Mythic gear. The best place to use Nebulous Voidcore is likely Mythic+ Dungeon.

Even after reaching reputation rank nine, Nebulous Voidcore can be used for Heroic gear in Prey or Delves at rank 11, and you can only obtain Champion gear at most. If you use Nebulous Voidcore in a raid, you will obtain gear corresponding to the current difficulty. You can never obtain Mythic gear through raid bonus drops unless you run Mythic difficulty raids.

However, if you use Mythic+ Keystones, you'll receive rewards based on your weekly Vault item level. This means that completing Mythic+ Keystones at level 10 or higher and using the extra gear drops from Nebulous Voidcores will grant you Mythic gear. Most importantly, this is easier than Mythic raids.

You can also use Nebulous Voidcores to enhance lower-tier gear if you wish, but considering the significantly reduced difficulty of obtaining Heroic gear in patch 12.0.5, I recommend saving your Mythic+ Keystones rather than wasting them on Heroic gear.

Even if it takes you several weeks to clear a level 10 Mythic+ dungeon, if you save Nebulous Voidcores weekly, you'll eventually have four, six, or even eight Nebulous Voidcores available, meaning a lot of Mythic gear waiting to be enhanced. As things stand, I really don't think it's worthwhile to use Nebulous Voidcores on gear below Mythic.

Increase Item Drop Rate

If you primarily use Nebulous Voidcore in dungeons, first, you should browse the seasonal dungeons and their loot lists to find those that offer the most of the items you need.

You can use Catalyst to change gear stats and convert gear into set pieces. Loot Spec Swapper can further narrow down your choices. Some items only drop for DPS, tanks, or healers; you can use Loot Spec Swapper to remove unwanted items from the drop list.

This means that when you use Nebulous Voidcore for an extra roll, you won't see the item again, increasing your chances of getting the item you want and reducing the number of rolls required to obtain it.

System Bugs

However, unfortunately, Voidforge system has some bugs that you should be aware of.

First, if you receive a Nebulous Voidcore from Vaultkeeper Elysa weekly before receiving one from Decimus, Decimus might only give you one Nebulous Voidcore. Therefore, make sure to obtain Nebulous Voidcore from Decimus every week.

Secondly, many players have reported receiving duplicate items when using Nebulous Voidcore. This will render your Nebulous Voidcore rolls completely invalid. Therefore, until this bug is confirmed to be fixed, I recommend you refrain from using extra rolls.

Voidforge system in WoW Midnight 12.0.5 can indeed help you acquire a large amount of gear. Your top priority should be completing six Voidforge quests. Remember to collect 3 Nebulous Voidcores weekly and try to save all your Nebulous Voidcores for Mythic gear. Use Catalyst and Loot Spec Swapper to improve efficiency. Simultaneously, avoid system bugs and plan patiently to maximize the use of Nebulous Voidcores and obtain more rewards.

What Lies Dreaming is the fourth main mission in the first story DLC for Borderlands 4, Mad Ellie and Vault of the Damned.

The core of this mission is entering Vault of the Damned deep within Whispering Glacier. The process includes exploring a destroyed ship, restoring power, and dealing with ambushes. Upon completion, you will receive experience points, Borderlands 4 Money, Eridium, and a green or blue assault rifle.

The mission is divided into four stages. This guide will walk you through each step of What Lies Dreaming, providing a detailed completion walkthrough:

• 1. Reach Storm
• 2. Reach Ship
• 3. Reach Engine Room
• 4. Defeat Colonel Crash

1. Reach Storm

The core of this stage is reaching the red storm area in Maelstrom. To get there, you need to traverse a snow-covered wasteland, following the marker at the top of the screen. As you get closer to the red storm area, you'll realize that direct entry is not possible.

At this point, Captain Willis's voice will appear in the communication, warning you not to proceed. You then need to change direction and follow the red spiked passage on the right side of the storm to the stern of a crashed ship. One end of the ship is embedded in the storm, forming a natural passageway inside.

After passing through the passage, you will see the wreckage of a ship. One end of the ship is inside the storm, and the other end is outside, so you can enter the storm via the ship.

There are multiple routes to the ship, some faster, but the core objective is to reach the stern at the bottom of the map. As you approach the ship, you will see a long bridge; simply cross it to board the ship.

2. Reach Ship

While crossing the long bridge leading to the ship, you will encounter a large Thresh O' War, which deals Cryo damage and has two health bars. It is recommended to use Borderlands 4 Items with Corrosive attribute and high-explosive homing missiles to deal with it, such as Darkbeast, Disc Jockey, and Swarm.

After eliminating the enemies, enter the ship's entrance and find Ellie. Help her eliminate the five surrounding enemies, then talk to Ellie. Scan the three green-glowing weak points on the ship's hull (the third is in a hole in the side wall). Locate them and destroy the vent to enter.

Turn to face the ship and approach the most damaged area on the side of the hull. As you approach the hatch, a prompt will appear. Once ready, press the button displayed on the screen to begin scanning - the specific button depends on your controller.

After scanning the first weak point, turn right to scan the next one; then move left along the hull to scan the last weak point. Unlike the first two, this weak point is not on the outside of the hull, but hidden in a large cave on the side.

Enter the cave and scan the vent to find the entrance. Quickly destroy the vent to enter the cargo hold. Use the grappling hook on the central mechanical device in the cargo hold to climb to the upper level. Defeat the enemies lurking on the upper level, then use the control panel to try to open the cargo door.

Unfortunately, there's no power available right now. Turn around and find the circuit breaker - it's located in the cargo hold control room.

The control room is on the south edge of the cargo hold. To enter, go up the stairs on the left side of the control room and pull the handle on the control panel on the wall to activate the first breaker. The second circuit breaker is near the computer in the corner of the room.

Once power is restored, you can enter the upper control room. Have Ellie go in with you and eliminate the enemies that have been attracted there.

You and Ellie are successfully reunited, and the enemies are defeated. Follow her to the control room in the center of the room. After reviewing the ship's blueprints, Ellie sets a plan: the first step is to find the cryogenic storage area.

Climb the collapsed pillar on the right side of the control room to reach the upper level, then follow Ellie to the elevator - but the elevator is out of power.

Fortunately, you're already an expert at restoring power. There's a power core on the other side of the room. To get it, you need to use the robotic arms that span the room - the storage boxes they're holding form a makeshift bridge.

Cross the bridge to retrieve the core, return to the elevator to install it, and then protect Ellie from enemy attacks while she adjusts the control panel. After clearing the enemies, the elevator is finally usable.

Take the elevator up and follow Ellie into the cryogenic chamber room. Give her the Keystone Fragment obtained from defeating Crazy Earl. Hold onto the handrail and enter the illusion.

3. Reach Engine Room

When you return to reality, Ellie is gone. You need to search for her in the corridor and collect as much loot as possible to prepare for the upcoming battle. Once you notice strange organic matter appearing on the ship's hull, you're on the right track.

Continue forward to find the vent, break it, and crawl into the passage. Follow the mission marker to a room, jump down, and clear enemies along the corridor.

Finally, you'll encounter a door that requires the energy core to open. Turn around and enter the opposite dormitory. Climb through the small hole on the right to retrieve the core, then return to the entrance to activate the door. After passing through the door, climb the ladder in the center of the room, enter the vent again, sneak into the next room, and follow the corridor to the engine room.

The engine room is teeming with enemies. First, take out the regular Dahl soldiers, then deal with the large man in saturated protective suits. He's heavily armored, his health bar is yellow-blue, and his defenses can be easily broken with corrosive and electric damage. After defeating Dahl, Ellie will contact you via communicator; she's safe and sound, so you can continue.

The next objective is the main control room to activate the switch and engine overdrive. Follow the marker to the control panel in the center of the room. After completing the first step, you'll still need a keycard. Turn right with your back to the control panel, find another vent, break it, and jump down to enter another room full of enemies.

After clearing the enemies, follow the marker to a narrow platform above red liquid. The keycard is on the left beam. Pick it up, climb the stairs on the right, then climb the ladder back to the main room. Insert the keycard into the control panel to activate the engine overdrive.

Turn around and use the grappling hook to retrieve the spark plug above, then turn around again and use the grappling hook to start the engine on the ceiling.

Once the engine is running, go to the other side of the room and pull the control panel lever to unlock the path ahead. Head to the newly opened door in the rear right corner and begin searching for Ellie. You'll encounter enemies along the way and then return to the outside of the ship. Jump over the metal platform and crawl into the cabin through another hole on the side of the hull.

Turn right, and you'll see Ellie on the other side, but the gap is too wide to jump across. Look to the lower right - there's a pile of rubble. Break it to get a speed booster. Scan the speed booster to learn its function, then follow the yellow cable extending from it to find and destroy the power regulator. Next, pull the lever on the left side of the room to activate the jump pad. Finally, use the jump pad on the right to leap across to the other side.

Find Ellie in the ship's corridor and go through the door she opened. There are two vending machines on the right side of the room. Jump down through the hole at the back of the room and follow Ellie to the operations room. Someone is waiting for you there: Colonel Crash.

4. Defeat Colonel Crash

Colonel Crash is the final boss of Borderlands 4 What Lies Dreaming Quest, possessing two health bars: blue and red. Prioritize blue targets and use electric damage to counter them; after defeating the boss, only the red health bar will remain, which can be dealt with using burning damage. It's best to prepare both types of damage.

During the fight, be aware of the following attacks: The long-range red laser will first shoot towards the back of the room, then sweep twice horizontally; you can avoid this by hiding behind control panels. Afterward, he will summon multiple stationary lasers to restrict movement.

The boss will teleport and leap, disappearing as a red ball, reappearing about a second later and causing a purple explosion that deals extremely high damage. He can also summon some floating heads that will disappear on their own after a while; it's recommended to focus on dodging these and attacking the boss. His flamethrower has a small range; maintaining distance will prevent damage.

Your advantage lies in the control panels around the room - use them wisely as cover, otherwise they will hinder your movement; make sure to turn disadvantages into advantages.

After completely defeating Colonel Crash, take the keycard and meet up with Ellie. Open the door, listen to Moxxi scold Ellie, and then enter the bridge. Continue onward to find Moxxi and retrieve the Echo Log from a corpse covered in organic matter. Finally, pull the lever to blast open the breaching door and reveal the vortex.

This completes the What Lies Dreaming quest. After completing the quest, keep an eye out for the unlocked side quest, Summoner's Gift, which can be accepted from Belle in the Crooked Teeth area. The reward is a green or blue rarity SMG and a Vault Hunter head skin.

Hopefully, this guide will help you easily complete Borderlands 4 What Lies Dreaming quest and claim your rewards.

On April 23rd, the official Diablo 4 livestream delved into the content of Lord of Hatred expansion and the upcoming season update.

We got a thorough analysis into all the final details of the upcoming update, exploring the new class skill trees, Horadric Cube, the new endgame system, and more.

I think the most interesting and direct information was the changes to some of the ultimate skill tree nodes in War Plan system and the equipment system adjustments. Let's take a look.

War Plan

War Plan is a completely new system, a major overhaul of Diablo 4's endgame content. You can earn more rewards than with regular content. War Plan contains a list of five different endgame events; completing them will grant all the rewards. You can then move on to the next War Plan, earning even more rewards as you progress through War Plan system. Furthermore, the endgame skill trees are closely linked to War Plan system.

Endgame Skill Trees

Each endgame content has its own unique skill tree. Participating in this endgame content will earn experience points for the skill tree, and completing War Plan list will grant even more experience points.

I'd like to highlight some nodes in these endgame skill trees, as I find them more interesting. And we haven't even seen the bottom nodes yet. Based on what we've seen so far, the nodes seem to become increasingly interesting and impactful as we go deeper.

Hellborne Horde

The first node I want to introduce is in Helltide skill tree, called Hellborne Horde. This node allows threat-level Ambush to have a chance to spawn additional Hellborne. Specifically, there's a 50% chance of spawning one additional Hellborne, a 20% chance of spawning three, and a 5% chance of spawning four. A Hellborne has a chance to drop a unique item upon being killed. So, this effect is quite impressive when triggered.

Specifically, this effect is triggered when you accumulate threat in Helltide. Once the threat reaches a certain level, waves of enemies will spawn. After the threat is depleted, a Hellborne will spawn. There's a chance to spawn multiple Hellborne, up to a maximum of five.

Furthermore, you can increase the chance of obtaining Diablo 4 Uniques from these Hellborne. And it seems there are other nodes that can transform Hellborne into other things. One developer revealed a node that can replace Hellborne with Butchers. I speculate that if you activate these nodes simultaneously, the other monsters that your spawned Hellborne will also spawn additionally.

Answered Prayer and Communion

Some nodes have very significant effects, but the trigger rate depends entirely on RNG. This is because another node has a similar effect. This node is located in Nightmare Dungeon skill tree and is called Answered Prayer. Activating the shrine in Nightmare Dungeon triggers Elite Ambush. There's a 40% chance to summon one Elite, a 30% chance to summon two, a 20% chance to summon four, and a 10% chance to summon seven Elites.

Another node we'll discuss next, when combined with Answered Prayer, also has a remarkable effect. Combining these two nodes can double the number of Elites you summon.

Most players would simply remove Nightmare Sigils that only spawn shrines. However, with these two nodes, the ability to generate large numbers of shrines upon entering Nightmare Dungeon becomes extremely valuable.

The other node is Communion in Helltide skill tree. In Nightmare Dungeon, simply put, when you click on a shrine, any enemy you kill during the shrine's buff will be trapped within you as a spirit. After the buff ends, all these enemies will respawn around you.

Because of the shrine buff, you can easily clear most of Dungeon. Now you have a chance to encounter Elite Ambush. Each time you click on a shrine, there's a chance to enter Nightmare Dungeon, and the shrine might summon one to seven Elites to attack you.

After defeating these Elites, continue exploring Dungeon, killing other enemies along the way. When the shrine's buff ends, these Elites, along with all other enemies you defeated during that time, will reappear.

However, this assumption rests on the premise that the number of enemies will not exceed a certain threshold; how it will operate tactically remains to be seen in actual gameplay.

The combination of just these two nodes can significantly affect the Nightmare Dungeon challenge. We can imagine even more insane effects if five skill points were added.

As more nodes are revealed, we've discovered that these endgame skill trees will have a huge impact on endgame content. Many nodes go beyond simply increasing gear drops, experience points, or other basic attributes. Many of them are genuine game mechanic changes that will disrupt your daily gameplay experience and potentially introduce random, crazy events like this.

I think this is a very good design approach because even if you don't necessarily get more rewards, these significant changes to game mechanics or events alone can make the game more interesting.

Gear System

The changes to Ancestral gear are largely confirmed. Ancestral gear no longer seems to guarantee high-level affixes. How we will obtain high-level affixes is currently unclear, but I speculate that they will be more integrated into Horadric Cube gear modification system.

Higher-level affixes will become more integrated into the late-game gear crafting system. The developers have significantly reduced the number of high-level affixes we can obtain, possibly to lower our overall power level, which might make the game more balanced.

This is because high-level affixes themselves aren't particularly appealing. They do require more effort to acquire, but they aren't necessarily more fun, especially compared to the powerful effects of amulets.

We will be able to fully craft low-rarity gear using Horadric Cube, which the developers hope will encourage us to invest heavily in creating powerful, ultimate gear. It's currently unclear whether white-rarity gear will also be able to do this.

These are some of the more interesting aspects of Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred; more details and gameplay await our discovery.

Warbond is a reward system in Helldivers 2 that allows Helldivers to use Medals to unlock new gear.

Helldivers 2 has just released a new trailer for EXO Experts Warbond, featuring two brand-new EXO suits, a submachine gun, a secondary weapon, and much more exciting content.

The full EXO Experts Warbond will launch next week on April 28th along with the new patch. These two EXO suits require Helldivers 2 Super Credits to redeem. Let's take a look at the details!

EXO-51 Lumberer

First up is the brand-new EXO-51 Lumberer. This classic EXO suit from Helldivers 1 has finally arrived in Helldivers 2. This gear features a powerful anti-tank gun and a flamethrower.

The coolest thing about this combination now is that in a recent update, the developers upgraded all the flamethrowers, and now a continuous burst of flame can induce panic in enemies. This means you can engulf the entire Striker in flames, forcing it into a state of panic, and then completely destroy it with the anti-tank gun.

If you look closely at the rear of the mech, especially the left side, you'll see two large flamethrower fuel tanks that look very familiar. They are very similar to the fuel tanks on the new Cremator. If we simply compare them side by side, they seem to be roughly the same size, allowing us to speculate that the flamethrower's ammunition capacity and range are likely similar to Cremator's.

However, aside from that, we don't know how many shells the anti-tank gun on the right can fire. We currently cannot confirm the specifics of this weapon.

EXO-55 Breakthrough

Another EXO suit is EXO-55 Breakthrough. This mech has the potential to be the ultimate brute force mech, as it is equipped with a massive shield, and we can expect it to have the same thick armor as the Devastator's shield.

The coolest thing about this mech is that when you press the melee button, you can shove the shield forward, using this bulletproof shield to smash directly into the enemy's face. On the other side, we see a flat-bottomed cannon that appears to possess powerful heavy armor penetration capabilities. The developer's blog mentions a bulletproof coating on its base, but no other details.

MGX-42 Bullet Storm

MGX-42 Bullet Storm uses multi-barrel caseless ammunition, firing two rounds peruse. It's a disposable machine gun; once the ammunition is depleted, it can be discarded.

Helldivers 1 describes MGX-42 Bullet Storm as a magazine less, disposable machine gun designed for use only. 300 rounds of caseless ammunition are stacked in multiple barrels and fired electronically, resulting in a weapon with virtually no mechanical parts and low manufacturing costs. Therefore, we can speculate on its magazine capacity and other information.

SMG-203 Gallant

EXO Expert Warbond will include a brand new submachine gun, SMG-203 Gallant. The developers call this new primary weapon an older brother of MP-98 Knight; it sacrifices some magazine capacity for higher armor penetration. We know MP98 Knight is currently a light weapon. It has a 50-round magazine and armor-piercing capabilities.

From the preview, SMG-203 Gallant appears to have the same rate of fire as MP-98 Knight. We can speculate that SMG-203 Gallant has moderate armor penetration and a magazine capacity of around 30 rounds, perhaps less in reality.

It's also worth noting that this weapon is a two-handed submachine gun. This means you cannot use it while holding a bulletproof shield or picking up other items while holding the weapon. Furthermore, we know it is equipped with a flashlight, laser designator, and reflex scope.

P-33 Missile Pistol

P-33 Missile Pistol is incredibly powerful and appears to track locked-on enemies. It operates similarly to Rant, tracking and locking onto targets. We don't yet know exactly how many rounds P-33 Missile Pistol holds or if it has any limitations. Hopefully, we'll get answers soon before its official release.

Heavy & Light Armor

The developers haven't specified which armors are heavy, medium, or light. From what we've seen so far, O-2 Heavy Operator is clearly heavy armor, judging from its size and name. O-3 Free Spirit appears to be light armor.

New Passive: Oxygenator

The developers have introduced a brand new passive ability called Oxygenator. Both armors feature this ability. Oxygenator allows you to walk, run, and glide at a slightly faster speed within Super Earth's health and safety guidelines. The idea of ​​moving and traversing terrain faster is interesting, but we'll have to see how it performs in-game.

Appearance and Titles

Now, besides the new armor, we also have some new capes and player banners. We have two capes: Watchful Compatriot and Free Spirited Spangles. Each has two different styles, along with two banners that perfectly complement these capes. They've put a lot of effort into the banner designs, especially the mech banner, which is very cool. There are also new player titles and thumbs-up emotes.

We also have new mobile white camouflage options, allowing you to choose different camouflage patterns or colors for your FRV, Shuttle, EXO suits, and Hellpod. However, there's no corresponding camouflage for tanks, which is a bit disappointing; perhaps this will be improved soon.

EXO Experts Warbond will also come with a new patch, so you can expect the new Warbond and the new patch to arrive simultaneously. Overall, EXO Experts Warbond is highly anticipated, although a good deal of may be unhappy that these two EXO suits require Warbond redemption. After all, we previously received two X-Men EXO suits for free—Patriot and Emancipator. Hopefully, the quality this time will live up to our expectations.

Arc Raiders' Third Expedition progression system has changed, introducing a completely new way to acquire skill points. However, there are only ten days left until Expedition window opens.

Now we'll quickly understand all the changes brought about by the new damage-based progression system, including how skill points are acquired and how the catch-up mechanic works.

If you're preparing for an Expedition, you need to understand these things before the data wipe.

The Third Expedition System

Expedition is one of the most important systems in Arc Raiders. It completely wipes your character data, skill points, all hard-earned blueprints, and all your music collection. Basically, everything will be deleted. While it sounds brutal, Expedition isn't just a punishment.

It brings proper rewards that can't be obtained through other means. To start an Expedition, players must deliver specific items and valuables to an Expedition progression project called Caravan. Once enough items have been delivered, Expedition window will open, and then you just need to wait for Expedition day to arrive.

On that day, your character will be reset. The third expedition window will open on April 28th at 13:00 CEST, giving you five days to register and fulfill the requirements. All registered players will automatically depart on May 4th. It's important to note that completing Caravan quest is not equivalent to registration. You will still need to register manually within the five-day registration period.

Arc Raiders has also introduced a new Last Call feature for players who completed Caravan quest but missed the registration window. You will receive a pop-up on your next login offering one last chance to register, but this option will not grant any skill points.

Expedition Rewards

Permanent rewards include a Patchwork outfit, new toggles for the helmet, ammo belt, and leg trinkets, two new color schemes: white, red, and black/green, a tattered bandana, and an Expedition Indicator Icon that upgrades with each expedition completed. Additionally, you will receive 12 extra storage spaces per expedition, which stack with each server reset.

Therefore, if your maximum storage capacity is currently 280 without any expeditions, it will increase to 292 after the first expedition, 304 after the second, and 316 after the third. Next are the consecutive bonuses, which are crucial to understand. Consecutive bonuses mean that if you miss an expedition window, these bonuses will be completely reset.

Currently, these bonuses increase over three expeditions as follows: experience bonus increases from 5% to 10% to 15%, scrap bonus increases from 6% to 12% to 18%, and repair value increase increases from 60% to 70% to 80%. These are significant numbers, and missing an expedition window can result in substantial losses.

The brilliance of ARC Raiders lies in providing players who don't want to participate with the option to skip entirely. Other games, such as Tarkov, force a reset for all players every four to six months. I believe this optional mechanism is one reason why ARC Raiders has a higher player retention rate than most games in its genre. If you've already completed your caravan quests, you can register when the registration window opens on April 28th. During the 5-day window, you need to focus on dealing damage; remember, damage dealt to any target counts. If you're currently on your second or third expedition and missed out on skill points, complete the damage challenge first to unlock the catch-up mechanic, which is still tied to your stash value, with each skill point worth 300,000 coins.

Expedition Changes

In the first two expeditions, skill points were tied to gold value. If your stash reached a certain threshold, approximately 3 to 5 million coins, you would gain all five skill points. This was a passive, wealth-based system. You would accumulate resources and ARC Raiders Items in the game, and the higher your stash value, the more it reflected your efforts.

In the third expedition, ARC Raiders obliterated this mechanic. Now, skill points are gained by dealing damage. Damage dealt to any target, whether ARC or other raiders, will count towards skill points. The damage threshold must be reached within the 5-day expedition window.

Impact on Players

Official information doesn't explicitly state whether this change applies to all players on all expeditions, or only to those on their third expedition. How these changes will affect players currently on their first or second expedition remains unknown.

Based on current information, Damage Challenge is now a universal system for all players, regardless of whether it's your first, second, or third expedition. Damage Challenge replaces Warehouse Value system as the universal method for all players to obtain five skill points.

Catchup system is where the real complexity lies. Catchup system allows players who didn't obtain all skill points in previous expeditions to make up for the missed points in subsequent expeditions at a very low gold cost.

Catchup skill points only apply to players on their second or third expedition who missed skill points in the previous expedition, and are still tied to Warehouse Value, with each skill point costing 300,000 gold. If you want to catch up, you need to complete Damage Challenge to unlock Catchup system, and then meet the additional Warehouse Value requirement.

The simultaneous operation of two different systems within the same expedition window can be very confusing for players, especially newcomers. A clearer explanation of which players these mechanics apply to and how the two systems interact would be greatly helpful.

Players shouldn't be piecing together this information from forum posts and content creators' sharing. Official announcements should prominently feature this information. We still don't know exactly how these changes will affect different players. From a game design perspective, I understand the reasons behind these changes.

Reasons for Changes

The wealth-based expedition system encourages players to hoard resources. Players passively accumulate resources and then leave them aside instead of actively participating in the game. With the player base declining, the goal is to encourage more active gameplay, increase engagement, and truly immerse more players in the Rust Belt world, experiencing events rather than simply managing the game.

Player Reactions

This announcement was released 10 days before the expedition window opened. The expedition cycle is nearly 60 days. Players have been working according to the previous set of rules for almost two months, and these rules have changed less than two weeks before the expedition begins. If a player spends fifty days meticulously accumulating inventory value to reach a skill point threshold, only to find that threshold is now meaningless, they have every reason to be frustrated. This isn't a minor adjustment. It's a fundamental redesign of the core progression mechanics, delivered to players at the last minute. The reactions on forums and social media confirm this. Players are very dissatisfied.

Therefore, the problem isn't the change itself. The problem is the entire handling of it. Such a significant change should have been announced after the second expedition, allowing players time to adjust, change strategies, and feel like informed participants, not victims of a last-minute decision. Even a simple announcement at the end of the last expedition would have greatly alleviated this situation.

Arc Raiders' update cadence, roadmap, and proactive response to community feedback are all real and commendable. Adjustments to the free gear matchmaking system, improvements to the user interface, and a complete overhaul of the crafting system all demonstrate that the development team is seriously listening to player feedback.

The changes to the expedition system are not a sign of Arc Raiders' indifference. It shows that the team sometimes acts too quickly and communication fails to keep up. Misunderstanding between decision-making and communication are the root cause of declining player trust. Now you need to prepare for the new expedition and try to adapt to the new expedition mechanics.

The loot drops in ARC Raiders Buried City Town Hall room seem to follow a pattern. A few days ago, I stumbled upon this room and something very strange happened: I found more than one rare blueprint in each container, including VITA blueprint I'd always wanted. As I continued looting, I even found some epic weapons.

This single looting session yielded me items worth nearly 100,000. After that, I tried entering Town Hall room again a few times during night raids. While the loot was far less than before, at least I had weapons as a safety net.

This suggests that the item spawns in Town Hall room seem to follow a pattern. For example, there's a limit to the number of Tier 3 weapons that can spawn, and the spawn count doesn't vary much each time.

After accumulating a large number of keys, I decided to explore more thoroughly. Here are my conclusions.

Resource Generation

Specifically, during night raids, we can usually obtain at least three to four Tier 3 weapons; I haven't exceeded that number yet. I've decided to try a few more times, as this is a fairly large key room.

In my experience, the containers that spawn each time look pretty much the same. If you're lucky, you might get a regular container; with even better luck, you might find a suitcase or a grenade crate. Sometimes, a weapon crate and a grenade crate will spawn at the same time. This time we found a grenade crate with an initial value of 19,000.

Unsurprisingly, it was filled with all sorts of grenades. We also found an Osprey 3 in the suitcase. From my experience, the key room in City Hall usually spawns three to four Tier 4 weapons-whether it's a night raid or a Hurricane assault, the situation is very similar. I think the spawn patterns for these two modes are very similar.

Fixed Spawn Point - Hurricane Assault

ARC Raiders Buried City Town Hall has three floors, each with its own specific function.

The first-floor lobby contains Grenade Cases and Chests of Drawers; the second floor has Medical Bags, Drawers, and a refrigerator; and the third floor has Weapon Cases, Security Breach Lockers, Red Industrial Cabinets, Breachable Computer Cabinets, and Chests of Drawers again.

Items occasionally appear on chairs in the rooms, a more common occurrence during night raids than daytime raids. While containers rarely spawn in certain locations, the types of items they contain are generally similar. The medkit, however, frequently appears in the same spot.

Next, enter the main room on the first floor. The container rarely spawns, but its contents are generally the same. Items can occasionally be found on the table; this time I got a Wolfpack, which was quite a good find.

As for the drawers, they are filled with various items, including junk, but you might also find medical supplies or grenades. Overall, the most valuable ARC Raiders Items you can find here are usually Wolfpacks, Noisemakers, VA sprays, and VA injections.

If your backpack is full, you'll have to deal with lower-value items, usually ammunition.

Therefore, I recommend bringing a Mark 2 pickup truck or a Mark II pickup truck with caution, so you can get more valuable items. If possible, it's best to only carry one low-value item, like a water bottle, which you can discard after finding a weapon.

I've already found my second level 3 weapon on the second floor of Buried City Town Hall, so I estimate I can find two more.

Upstairs, there are more containers that might spawn; occasionally you can find items here, and if you're lucky, even weapons. This room doesn't usually spawn much, but the spawn rate is much higher during night raids and Hurricane mode.

Here I found another Wolfpack, next to a medium shield, but unfortunately I couldn't pick it up, so I'm going to pick up a piece of durable cloth. Most of the items in this room are here, plus a small grenade trap. As you can see, no matter how you farm, the loot is roughly the same each time.

You'll get a lot of trinkets, a lot of grenades, a lot of medical supplies, and frankly, a lot of junk too. The most valuable items are three to four Tier 4 weapons, and with good luck, you might even get three to four purple weapons. Next most valuable are epic healing items and grenades.

It's worth noting that I saw an ammo box and a volcano-themed weapon case here. However, neither is particularly valuable; weapon cases found in ARC Raiders loot room might be more valuable. A second weapon case will also spawn here, potentially allowing you to get a third Tier 3 weapon.

Night Raid

In the normal Town Hall loot pool, Tier 4 weapons are already rare drops. In Night Raid, the spawn rate of high-tier weapons increases significantly.

In ARC Raiders weapon tier system, Tempest and Anvil are both top-tier S-class weapons. Tempest is considered one of the best assault rifles by players, tied for S-class with Bettina, but due to its rarity and high crafting requirements, it's usually used by experienced players.

Anvil is a hand cannon-type pistol that uses heavy ammunition, known for its high single-shot damage and relatively low crafting cost. It's effective against ARC bots and also suitable for targeting enemy players.

These high-value weapons are inherently difficult to obtain, and night raids are the best time to search for them. Guides indicate that City Hall not only spawns high-tier weapons like Tempest, Anvil, and Wolfpack during night raids, but also significantly increases the spawn rate of rare blueprints.

For example, Looting Mk.3 (Survivor), an epic backpack-type Augments ARC Raiders Blueprint, typically only appears in high-tier indoor loot pools during night raids, and City Hall is one of the high-priority areas where it might spawn.

What about daytime raids? I've tried it, and it consistently yields between 60,000 and 80,000 damage per run, but it's far less profitable than Hurricane or night raids; you'll likely only find level 2 weapons at most.

Therefore, if you're planning to scavenge for supplies in the key room of Buried City Hall in ARC Raiders, it's best to choose Hurricane mode or a night raid. This will result in a much richer loot reward, and you might even find a rare blueprint like I did.

ARC Raiders has received a strong response from players since its release, initially garnering immense popularity and enthusiasm. Players averaged hundreds of hours of playtime, with a peak daily concurrent player count of 481,966 on Steam. Many players exclaimed after experiencing the game that such a fun game for only $40 was incredibly good value.

However, recently, complaints have emerged, and the daily concurrent player count has declined, now down to 90,000.

Although the number of concurrent players has decreased significantly, ARC Raiders remains very popular on Steam, surpassing many strong competitors.

It's worth noting that for a game that received high praise upon release and maintained its popularity for so long, this significant drop in player numbers indicates potential problems.

According to player community surveys, the most discussed issues are the unbalanced matchmaking system and changes to the game mechanics. Many veteran players feel that the developers haven't prioritized PvP mode, focusing instead on PvE mode.

ABMM Mechanism is Unbalanced

Aggression-Based Matchmaking was described as a system that records players' PvP tendencies and groups them accordingly, but the official explanation was that it wasn't a simple, black-and-white rule.

In an interview, the official statement revealed that ARC Raiders would match players based on their PvP and PvE preferences, sparking considerable discussion among players.

The discussion was mainly divided into two camps: supporters believed this would allow both aggressive and peaceful players to find their place, while opponents worried about gear-based matchmaking and threatened not to buy the game.

Based on this discussion, the official statement immediately clarified that ABMM was not a simple A/B grouping, but a continuously adjusted weighted system. They also denied that the game had a matchmaking mechanism based on skill or gear.

But is the reality really as the official statement describes?

The actual game system is not the perfect, constantly adjusted mechanism that ignores skill and gear as the official statement portrays it. Instead, it's a garbage mechanism that players perceive as a test of obedience: the system cannot distinguish between proactive aggression and legitimate self-defense. This easily leads to players who enjoy PvE mode being passively attacked and then immediately placed into intense PvP matches in the next round.

In addition, there's the issue of chaotic gear matchmaking. Sometimes, players who have spent money and entered matches with high-level gear find the map empty when they spawn.

By the time they try to enter a building, they might be ambushed and killed at the entrance by free-to-play players using low-level gear they've found. They don't even get a chance to start the game, and their valuable ARC Raiders Items are stolen, simply because their spawn times and locations differ.

The good news is that with the recent ARC Raiders Flashpoint update, the developers have addressed the issues of players entering matches late and scavenging, and the next update, Riven Tides, is coming soon.

What will Riven Tides bring?

Currently, ARC Raiders players are experiencing a mix of anticipation and anxiety. Based on the information released about the upcoming update, players generally believe it will be significantly different from the previous unchanging gameplay.

This update introduces a new terrain map-Tidal Surge. Existing maps are primarily industrial areas and cities, all located on land.

From the official emails sent to players, it's clear the new map is set at sea or near the coast, and even includes new environmental systems with features like heavy rain and fog. This means players must adjust their strategies and tactics; tactics used on land are no longer suitable for the new map.

Furthermore, this update increases the threat of ARC units like Firefly, Queen, and Matriarch, requiring players to be much more cautious. This is particularly challenging for players with lower skill levels or those who primarily play PvE, as defeating ARC units becomes significantly more difficult, and they will inevitably encounter them to complete missions.

Weapon balancing further exacerbates this difficulty; the developers are continuously adjusting weapon balance to clearly differentiate the value of low-tier and high-tier weapons.

While this approach lets players know which weapons are crucial and valuable in the game, it also renders the low-tier weapons of players without high-value weapons ineffective.

Furthermore, although the developers introduced larger-scale world events in Riven Tides to address the widespread perception that the existing storyline was tedious and unoriginal, the lack of continuity in gameplay after these events leaves players with nothing to do in the later stages, proving that it's merely a superficial solution.

To truly address players' demands for gameplay enjoyment, the game must not only have a complete questline in the early and mid-game, but also a compelling progression in the late game, rather than simply offering daily tasks and a retirement mode after the endgame. A good game needs both breadth and depth.

The Future of ARC Raiders

The quality of a game is judged by the number and level of its fanbase. ARC Raiders' current ranking on Steam demonstrates that it remains a strong contender.

Even with the official lack of a concrete solution to the widely criticized matchmaking system, players have already begun to exploit its numerous flaws: solo queue defaults to PvE, while trios are PvP. Players can even choose servers with a weaker PvP atmosphere to focus on PvE if they don't want to participate in PvP.

One player with 600 hours of experience shared that during a PvP match, instead of engaging in a gunfight with an opposing player, they engaged in friendly communication and eventually reached an agreement, sometimes even teaming up against ARC. After the game, they became friends outside the game.

Perhaps this is the secret to a game's longevity-a people-centric approach.

The core of a game's matchmaking system needs to be people-centric, rather than simply treating PvP as a purely competitive battle mode. Programming a system that creates conflict and tension will only lead to player fatigue and dissatisfaction in the long run.

Riven Tides update may be a crucial step for the official team to adjust its strategy and better define the future direction of ARC Raiders. ARC Raiders is a promising game with a grand vision. If the developers value player feedback and address issues effectively, it will have a bright future.