The ARC Raiders community is raising fresh concerns about the game’s event scheduling system, with many players saying they are missing limited-time map conditions simply because the events run at inconvenient hours. Some fans even claim they discovered certain events only after playing for dozens — or even hundreds — of hours.
Weekly Event Rotations Are Locking Out Global Players
ARC Raiders currently features five playable maps, with a sixth map expected to arrive later this year. Each map runs special conditions and events that activate for one hour at a time on a fixed weekly schedule. These events introduce environmental hazards like electromagnetic storms or reward-driven challenges such as locked gates that drop rare loot.
Because the schedule remains the same each week until developers manually change it, players in certain regions never get a realistic chance to participate. Time zone differences and work schedules prevent many from logging in during active windows, effectively locking them out of valuable gameplay content.
Bird City Event Triggers Fresh Backlash
The debate intensified after a post by Reddit user Jay-SA121, who highlighted how Bird City’s schedule makes participation nearly impossible for players with regular work hours in GMT regions.
“Bird City is a non starter for us in GMT timezone with regular day jobs. I wish Embark would consider a dynamic schedule to give everyone across the globe a chance at all game modes,” the user wrote while sharing the event tracking link.
The post quickly crossed 1,000 upvotes and triggered hundreds of replies from players experiencing the same issue across North America and Europe.
The frustration resonated across the community. One highly upvoted reply added:
“This is the only legitimate daily complaint. It really doesn’t make any sense that events don’t cycle so everyone can eventually hit one.”
Another player criticized the limited availability of newly released content, noting that restricting a new mode to narrow daily windows reduces its accessibility and overall impact.
Some Players Didn’t Know Certain Events Even Existed
The scheduling problem goes beyond Bird City. Multiple players revealed that they only learned about certain events long after launch, despite spending significant time in the game.
One player admitted:
“I didn’t know the hidden bunker existed for the longest time.”
Another added:
“I literally played it for the first time last week and I have like 200 hours.”
A separate comment highlighted a similar discovery gap:
“I didn’t know the Tower event existed until last night.”
This disconnect suggests that the fixed schedule prevents natural discovery and limits progression opportunities, especially for players who cannot adjust their real-life schedules around in-game timers.
Community Calls for Rotating or Dynamic Timings
Most players agree that the simplest solution is to rotate event hours regularly or introduce a dynamic schedule that shifts time slots across regions.
One popular suggestion recommended shortening the event cycle:
“If events ran on a 22 hour cycle, the times would shift each day and eventually hit every time zone fairly.”
Another player supported daily shifts as an easy improvement:
“Make them more often and shift the times daily by an hour or two so eventually everyone gets a chance. It really shouldn’t be this difficult.”
Many fans believe that accessibility improvements would also increase player retention and engagement, especially as ARC Raiders continues expanding its content roadmap.
Embark Studios recently revealed its 2026 content roadmap, which includes new map conditions and ongoing updates. As more timed events enter the game, players expect the studio to address scheduling fairness before the issue grows larger.
If the current structure remains unchanged, future content risks reaching only a fraction of the player base — an outcome that could slow long-term growth and community satisfaction.
