ARC Raiders Pendola Pass Map: POIs, Systems & Extracts

Quick Answer — Pendola Pass in 30 seconds

Pendola Pass is ARC Raiders' new map, and it is live now — it shipped with the Frozen Trail 2.0 update on October 8, 2026 (console package 1.000.061). The full game is free to play October 8–12 (PS5 players in Germany pay a token €0.25). It is a frozen, abandoned Italian village and old Exodus transport hub beyond the peaks of the Rust Belt, built around verticality and a single marquee prize: a fallen ARC Emperor holding rare tech. Two systems are genuinely Pendola-exclusive — the Dynamic Loot Zone test that reshuffles loot value raid-to-raid, and the Redirection map condition — layered on top of dynamic Flash Freeze weather with Avalanche Shelters, a three-seat Ballistic Gondola extraction, three new ARC enemies (Bully, Skulker, Hydra), the airborne Frigate condition, and your persistent Outpost base nearby. This page is the index: what every POI and system is, how they interact, and which deep-dive to read for each.

What Is Pendola Pass in ARC Raiders?

Pendola Pass is the centerpiece of Frozen Trail 2.0, Embark Studios' biggest update since launch — in Embark's own words, "Frozen Trail is our biggest update since launch, packed with new features, fresh challenges, and a long list of fixes and improvements" (arcraiders.com). It is the destination the "Ascending the Mountain" Raider Project pointed toward, north of the existing play area, preserved under icy air and ringed by the mountains that border the Rust Belt.

Three things set it apart before you even look at the layout:

• It is among the largest maps in the game and the most vertical — expect climbing, elevation swaps and layered sightlines, which is exactly why Frozen Trail added the Grappling Hook.
• It runs systems no other map has, chief among them a Dynamic Loot Zone test that is currently exclusive to Pendola Pass.
• The end of your raid is the most dangerous part. Between Flash Freeze, Redirection and the three-seat Ballistic Gondola, surviving to the extract is only half the job.

With Pendola Pass live, ARC Raiders now has seven maps, joining Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, Blue Gate, Stella Montis and Riven Tides.

Everything on Pendola Pass at a glance

This page is the index, not a walkthrough: it tells you what every POI and system on Pendola Pass is and how they interact, then points you to the dedicated deep dive for each. Here is the whole map in one table — the single reference a one-line answer can't give you. (The establishing shot above is an illustrative overview with approximate callouts, not a to-scale tactical map.) Each row links to its deep dive where one exists.

System / feature	What it is	Why it changes how you play
Dynamic Loot Zones	Pendola-exclusive test: loot value of an area varies raid to raid (loot type stays fixed)	"Routes" are no longer fixed; scout value every raid, don't autopilot
Flash Freeze	Dynamic sub-zero weather that sweeps the valley without warning	Forces you toward Avalanche Shelters — a positioning problem, not background flavour
Avalanche Shelters	Shelter pockets that activate as a freeze approaches; protection plus loot	They draw every other Raider too — the shelter is a lure
Ballistic Gondola	Callable cable-car extraction, three seats per car	A loud, contested, timed exit; the gondola arrives away from where you call it
Redirection (map condition)	Pull Harvester Payloads toward your position with a Transmitter	High-value loot that attracts ARC and rivals — you commit to holding ground
Frigate (map condition)	An airborne ARC carrier dispatched to patrol the fallen Emperor	New endgame challenge for high-skill Raiders; home of the Hydra
Bully / Skulker / Hydra	Three new ARC enemies	Change the threat mix on the map and aboard the Frigate
The Outpost	Your persistent base near the mountains, with a Research Bench	Gate for the Amplified Weapons endgame
Fallen Emperor	The dominant landmark and the reason to be here	Rare tech inside; the marquee objective of the whole update

What Does the Pendola Pass Map Look Like?

Pendola Pass is a narrow, snow-locked stretch of old-world ruins. The landmarks you will navigate around, confirmed in Embark's First Look, are:

• A supermarket and a lifeless town square — classic civilian-district loot pockets.
• An observatory — an elevated point that leans into the map's verticality focus.
• A buried train depot — the Exodus Project transit hub that gives the village its purpose.
• The fallen Emperor — the dominant landmark and the reason to drop in at all.

Because the map is built around elevation, positioning matters more here than on the flatter exterior maps like Dam Battlegrounds or Buried City. That is also why your first upgrade priority is traversal: the Grappling Hook (climb, abseil, swing) is the signature new mobility tool, and Embark re-tuned the older Snap Hook into a burst-mobility gadget so the two have distinct roles.

Which part of the map should I learn first?

If you are new to Pendola Pass, learn it in this order: (1) the civilian district — supermarket and town square — for safe early value; (2) the gondola stations, so you always know your exit before you commit; (3) the observatory and vertical routes, for the sightline advantage; (4) the fallen Emperor and Frigate approaches, which are the highest-risk, highest-reward ground. For the full layout, enemy spread and extraction breakdown, read our dedicated Pendola Pass new-map guide.

How Do Dynamic Loot Zones Work on Pendola Pass?

This is the system most players miss on day one, and it is the one that makes a static "best loot route" misleading. Per Embark's patch notes: "we will be testing out a Dynamic Loot Zone system, currently exclusive to Pendola Pass. The intent is to make the loot values of certain areas vary from raid to raid, thus making 'routes' less predictable and scavenging more dynamic" (arcraiders.com).

The key distinction, in Embark's words: "zones will not change their inherent loot type (therefore, Residential loot areas remain Residential loot areas no matter what), but rather, one such area may yield more value one Raid, and less value on another raid." So a Residential pocket is always Residential — but how rich it is this run is not guaranteed. Practically: scout value as you move, don't assume last raid's hot zone is hot again, and keep your extraction flexible rather than looping a fixed path.

How Do Flash Freezes and Avalanche Shelters Work?

The signature environmental hazard is the Flash Freeze — a dynamic weather condition that, per Embark, "can sweep across the map at any time, forcing Raiders to seek shelter before the cold takes its toll." Your answer is the Avalanche Shelter: shelters that "activate as a freeze approaches, offering both protection and the promise of loot" — but that also "draw the attention of opportunistic Raiders."

That is the classic ARC Raiders trade-off in a new wrapper. Ducking into a shelter keeps you alive and can pay out, but every other Raider is running the same math toward the same door, so the shelter is both lifeline and ambush point. Treat weather as a positioning problem you route around, the same way you already plan around Night Raid or EM Storm. For the full survival breakdown — shelter behaviour, timing and loot — read our Flash Freeze survival guide.

What Are the New ARC Enemies (Bully, Skulker, Hydra)?

Frozen Trail adds three new ARC machines. These names are official — use them exactly:

• Bully — "Bully by name, bully by nature." An aggressive charger that closes distance fast with a host of lethal attacks. Use cover, time your response, land your shots; it is quick on its feet.
• Skulker — the opportunist. It lies in wait, skirts the edge of your vision, strikes to get the drop on you, then retreats before you can punish it. (Some early third-party coverage mislabelled it "Lurker" — the official name is Skulker.)
• Hydra — "found upon the Frigate." A turret split into three stacked, autonomous portions with a "triple-threat of weaponry" that can handle entire squads and respawn. Counterplay: divert its attention, find cover fast, and attack in the windows you get.

Of the three, only the Hydra has a stated home (the Frigate). Bully and Skulker arrive with Pendola Pass, so that is where you will meet them first. Embark has not published HP, weak points or drop tables for any of the three, so treat any exact numbers you see elsewhere as unverified until datamines settle.

What Are the Frigate and Redirection Conditions?

Pendola Pass ships with two new map conditions — rotating states that change how a raid plays, the same category as Night Raid or EM Storm:

• Frigate — when an Emperor falls, ARC dispatches one of its largest vessels to patrol the area, a massive airborne carrier Raiders have started calling the Frigate. Embark frames it as "a substantial challenge to highly skilled Raiders": after finding a way aboard, you "navigate its internal passageways, unlock paths, and defend yourself against ARC new and old." It is the home of the Hydra and the closest thing the patch has to a raid-style endgame.
• Redirection — a Pendola-exclusive condition that lets you draw Harvester Payloads toward your own position with a Transmitter. The payoff is high-value ARC loot; the cost is that the Transmitter "will attract both ARC and rival Raiders," so you are committing to hold and clear the area before you can claim the reward.

Both are high-risk, high-reward levers, and both pull threats toward you — which is why they interact so sharply with the three-seat extraction below.

How Do You Extract From Pendola Pass?

Standard extraction still applies, but the headline exit is the Ballistic Gondola — a callable cable car with space for just three Raiders, strung across the terrain because Pendola Pass sits beyond the reach of the Rust Belt's usual tube system. You call it in, it arrives, and you have a short window to board.

The single biggest live gotcha on launch day: the gondola does not always arrive exactly where you call it. The in-game announcement gives you a directional callout for where the car will land (for example, "NW of your position"), and the arrival point shows as an icon on your map. So the habit that works: call it, read the callout, open your map for the icon, and move to the landing point rather than standing on the call point waiting.

For the full extraction breakdown — seat math, the Yank Grenade seat-steal problem, and how to win a contested gondola — read our Ballistic Gondola extraction guide.

What Are the Outpost and Amplified Weapons?

Just off the map sits the Outpost — a new persistent player base unlocked by completing a project (the first step, "Research Topside Living Conditions," asks you to photograph a farmland house, so bring a Camera). You expand it with modules and decorate it with the patch's 100 Furniture Designs (73 findable Topside, 22 from upgrading the Outpost, the rest from the Pass and DLC).

The real gameplay hook is the Research Bench, the gate for Amplified Weapons — a new fifth quality level rolling out to a set of weapons via a fully upgraded bench. This is the endgame grind of the whole patch, and players are already asking exactly what it takes: a fully upgraded Outpost (reported around level 4) plus a higher-tier Gunsmith are part of the requirement, with the full material list still being mapped. Pendola Pass is where you farm the inputs for it, which is why the map and the Amplification system are joined at the hip.

Skip the Pendola Pass grind and land kitted on day one.

• ARC Operation Carry — the Frozen Trail co-op endgame, from $3.87 per run, 1-15 runs, all loot stays yours
• Frozen Trail Runs — Pendola Pass runs farmed for you, materials and gear delivered
• Frozen Trail Boss Kill — the new ARC machines killed by hand
• Frozen Trail Quest Line — the whole new questline completed
• Outpost Research Boost — from $9.99, Outpost research pushed to the new tier

• ARC Raiders Frozen Trail Runs — fast, repeatable Pendola Pass loot runs with your gear
• ARC Raiders Frozen Trail Quest Line — clear the new questline including the Outpost unlock
• ARC Raiders Outpost Research Boost — level the Research Bench toward Amplified Weapons
• ARC Raiders Frozen Trail Boss Kill — Frigate and new-enemy kills handled for you

FAQ

Can I buy this loadout instead of farming it? Yes: this loadout costs $45.08 on Timesaver, and a Timesaver pro completes it by hand within 5 hours. How handover works and what happens if something goes wrong: account safety.

Is it safe to buy ARC Raiders items from Timesaver? Every order is done by hand by verified Timesaver pros, with no cheats, bots or third-party software, and item orders need no access to your account. Embark's rules prohibit real-money trading, so the risk is not zero: since 2024 about 0.01% of our orders have led to sanctions. If your account is sanctioned because of our work, the Account Safety Guarantee refunds 100% of the order price. Account safety: how handover works and what happens if something goes wrong

Is Pendola Pass live in ARC Raiders yet? Yes. Pendola Pass went live with the Frozen Trail 2.0 update on October 8, 2026 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and GeForce NOW. The full game is free to play from October 8 to 12, 2026 (PS5 players in Germany pay a token €0.25).

Where is Pendola Pass located? It is an old Italian village and Exodus Project transport hub set beyond the mountain peaks that ring the Rust Belt, north of the existing play area — the destination of the "Ascending the Mountain" storyline. It is among the largest and the most vertical maps in the game.

What are Dynamic Loot Zones on Pendola Pass? A test system currently exclusive to Pendola Pass where the loot value of an area changes from raid to raid. The loot type never changes — a Residential area stays Residential — but how rich it is this run is not fixed, so a single "best route" is less reliable here than on other maps.

Why can't I find the Ballistic Gondola after I call it? Because it does not always land on your exact call point. Listen for the in-game announcement, which tells you the direction it will arrive from (for example "NW of your position"), then open your map to find the arrival icon and move to it.

How do I unlock Amplified Weapons? Unlock the Outpost by completing its project, then upgrade it and the Research Bench. Players report an Outpost around level 4 plus a higher Gunsmith level among the requirements; the full material cost is still being mapped as players progress. Pendola Pass is the main farm for the inputs.

What new enemies are on Pendola Pass? Three: the Bully (aggressive charger), the Skulker (hit-and-run opportunist) and the Hydra (a three-part turret found aboard the Frigate). Embark has not published their HP or drop tables, so treat exact numbers elsewhere as unverified.

Are Frigate and Redirection permanent? They are new map conditions on Pendola Pass, which rotate the way Night Raid and EM Storm do on other maps — states a raid can be in, not a one-time event. Redirection is Pendola-exclusive; the Frigate is the airborne endgame challenge tied to the fallen Emperor.