ARC Raiders Outpost and Research Station: How to Unlock It

At a glance

The Outpost is a second base added in the Frozen Trail 2.0 update on October 8, 2026. Embark Studios describes it as a first step toward reclaiming parts of the surface: a space you build out with modules, furnish, and use to run a Research Station that gates weapon amplification. You unlock it through a project called Sheltered Retreat. It cannot be walked around at launch.

What the Outpost is

Embark Studios frames the Outpost as an extension of your existing base rather than a replacement, and as a base you use from menus rather than explore on foot. Its published pieces are: modules you build to expand it, furniture and trinkets to decorate it, workbenches for crafting, and the Research Station, which is the one functional part the developer has detailed in public.

How to unlock it

The unlock runs through the Sheltered Retreat project. Embark Studios and the community wiki agree on the shape: the first stage is called "Research Topside Living Conditions" and asks you to photograph a farmland house around the Ruined Homestead on Blue Gate, which means you need a Camera first. The Camera is sold by a Trader, crafted at the Workbench, or found on the surface. Later stages move through gathering building materials and then distracting and destroying ARC machines so construction can proceed.

The Research Station

The Research Station is the Outpost's research bench. According to the community wiki, each Research Station level requires a matching Outpost level, and higher levels unlock more weapon customisation and modding — including, at the top, access to Amplified Weapons. In a September 2026 interview, Embark Studios said the bench lets Raiders research items and weapons directly, so a blueprint drop is no longer the only way to unlock them.

Weapon amplification

Weapon amplification adds a fifth quality level to certain guns. The community wiki describes it as requiring both the Gunsmith and the Research Station at a high level, as being irreversible once applied, and as a state where an amplified weapon you die carrying drops to sharply reduced durability. Embark Studios has named amplification as a Research Station feature; the exact requirements and behaviour above come from the community wiki and are labelled third-party.

What is not published

• The full module list and their costs. Embark Studios says modules exist but has not published the set.
• Whether the existing base's features move or stay. Several guides state the Outpost replaces your base; Embark Studios' own wording describes an extension, and the question was still open at launch.
• Walking around it in future. The developer has said it is considering walking inside the Outpost as the feature evolves; nothing is confirmed.