Arc Raiders' Shrouded Sky added lots of cool new toys, but my favourite part is the new quality-of-life features that have flown under the radar
Of course, it's expected that the thing everyone's talking about in a new content drop in Arc Raiders is… the content. And the Shrouded Sky update delivered on that part, with the Controlled Access Zone on Dam Battlegrounds, five new quests, two new Arc machines (Firefly and Comet), the Weather Monitor project, and the admittedly divisive Hurricane map condition. It's also finally seen Embark adjust the PvP meta by nerfing popular free loadout weapons.
I'm not going to argue that's not cool and all, but the 1.17 patch notes also snuck in a handful of quality-of-life tweaks we've been asking for since launch. My favourite is the new inventory tooltip to display what each item breaks down into when you recycle or salvage it. No longer do you need to remember (or worse, sacrifice an item to find out) what each of the random recyclable materials actually does. Take Geiger Counters, for example, a purple-quality material that's a great source of Batteries and Exodus Materials, or Ion Sputters being salvageable for Voltage Converters.
At long last, you can now buy items with seeds and convert your free loadout rig into a proper augment, even if your stash is full. This saves you from having to jump in and out of different screens in order to make space in your vault just to immediately buy or equip certain items. I'm hoping this gets further improved in the future so purchased or crafted items are deposited directly in your backpack first instead of clogging up your stash.
Feats—Arc Raiders' version of daily challenges—are now re-rollable up to three times per day for free, so you're no longer burdened with terrible challenges until they reset. Many Feats have been tweaked, too, and some new ones added, though I'm not sure I agree with PvP Feats being removed entirely.
Ever tried pinging an item inside a crate for a buddy but still had to explain where exactly it is? Worry no more, as this patch makes it so item pings now appear above the container's interaction prompt, and not in a completely different, incorrect location instead. I mean, that's how pings should work, right?
And one for all of us PC players: You can use the mouse wheel to scroll between pages in the Raider Deck. Hard to argue against that, even if I'm surprised it wasn't a thing at launch.
Arc Raiders roadmap: New and improved
Arc Raiders best skills: Survive the surface
Arc Raiders best weapons: Just don't lose them
Arc Raiders Expeditions: Retire your Raider
Arc Raiders quests: All the missions and how to beat 'em
Arc Raiders Weather Monitor Project: Beat the wind
Arc Raiders Trophy Display Project: Big game hunter
