Quick answer: ARC Raiders Trials Season 6 starts October 8, 2026, alongside the Frozen Trail update — the same day the two-week Trials pause (after Season 5 ended September 22) lifts. The 14-rank competitive ladder (Rookie I → Cantina Legend) and the weekly best-score-on-extract system carry over, and separately Frozen Trail adds a brand-new 60-tier Reward Pass with a free and a premium track (this is the pass replacing the old free rewards track — it is not the Trials ladder). Trials still unlock at Level 15.
If you climbed Season 5 and want to know what carries over, when the leaderboard resets, and whether the new paid Reward Pass is worth 1,150 Raider Tokens — here's the full breakdown, verified against the community ARC Raiders wiki and Embark's official Frozen Trail reveal.
ARC Raiders - Blueprints
Get blueprints in 10 minutes
When Does ARC Raiders Trials Season 6 Start?
Season 6 starts October 8, 2026 — the launch day of the Frozen Trail update, ARC Raiders' first major content drop under Embark's new biannual release schedule. Season 5 ("Prove Your Mettle") ran July 7 – September 22, 2026, and Trials went dark for a roughly two-week gap between seasons. That gap ends October 8, so if your Trials menu has been empty since late September, this is the day it fills back up.
Frozen Trail launches for free on all platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S — so Season 6 goes live for everyone at once when the update drops.
How ARC Raiders Trials Work (Season 6 Recap)
Trials are ARC Raiders' weekly competitive mode, and the core loop is not changing in Season 6. Here's how it works:
- Unlock at Level 15. Trials don't appear until your Raider hits account level 15.
- Five challenges per week. Every week you get five Trials Challenges — things like "Damage Queens or Matriarchs," "Open ARC Probes," or "Search containers in the Medical Research wing." They rotate on Mondays.
- You must extract to bank a score. Points only count if you get out alive. Per the official wiki: "Upon extraction, the Raider's points for each challenge are tallied. Only a Raider's best score in each challenge is kept." Die topside and that run's Trials points are gone.
- Best score per challenge is what's kept — scores do not stack across raids, so a single clean run that maxes a challenge beats ten sloppy ones.
The Trials Rank Ladder
Once you score at least one point in a week, you're placed in a division of 100 Raiders at your rank, filled first-come-first-serve. Every Monday you move based on where you finish in that division. Crucially, the promotion thresholds tighten as you climb — the top brackets at Rookie are generous, but by Daredevil the same finish barely holds you steady, and the bottom of each division can be demoted:
| Where you finish (example: Rookie) | Result |
|---|---|
| Top ~5% | Triple promotion (3x, skip two sub-ranks) |
| Top 30% | Double promotion (2x) |
| 31–60% | +1 sub-rank |
| Lower brackets (at higher ranks) | No movement — or demotion |
At Daredevil II, for instance, only the top 10% double-promote and the bottom 72–100% are demoted — a completely different curve from Rookie. So climbing gets harder every tier, by design.
There are 14 ranks in order: Rookie I/II/III → Tryhard I/II/III → Wildcard I/II/III → Daredevil I/II/III → Hotshot → Cantina Legend (Hotshot and Cantina Legend have no sub-ranks). New Raiders begin at Rookie I, but returning players don't fully reset — you start two ranks below your last placement (finish Season 5 at Daredevil II and you'd open Season 6 around Wildcard III). And the top title works the opposite way to how most people assume: Cantina Legend is reserved for the top 1,000 players in Hotshot — Hotshot is the tier you grind through, Cantina Legend is the elite cut above it.
What Are the Trials Season 6 Rewards?
Trials rewards are handed out at the end of the season based on your final ranked placement — cosmetics and emotes, with each higher tier automatically including the rewards from every rank below it. That means climbing improves both your placement badge and your total loot pool.
The most important thing to understand about Trials rewards: the ranked cosmetics are permanent. Outfits, emotes, and charms you earn from your placement stay in your collection and survive ARC Raiders' voluntary Expedition resets — the game doesn't force a seasonal inventory wipe on you. The weekly challenge rewards (gear and materials) you bank mid-season are ordinary inventory, so they're subject to the normal Expedition rules — don't treat them as a stash that's guaranteed forever.
Embark hasn't published the exact named cosmetic set for the Season 6 ranked track on the reveal page, so treat any specific "Season 6 outfit name" you see on third-party sites as unconfirmed until it's live in-game. What is confirmed: the placement-based structure and the persistence of ranked cosmetics carry into Season 6 unchanged.
The New Frozen Trail Reward Pass (This Is the Big Change)
Here's what's actually different in Season 6: alongside the Trials ladder, Frozen Trail introduces a 60-tier Reward Pass — a battle-pass-style progression track with two lanes. This is a separate system from Trials; per Embark's official Frozen Trail preview, you unlock its rewards by completing Feats and earning progress, not by climbing the Trials leaderboard.
- Free Pass — available to everyone who owns the base game. Includes 200 Raider Tokens, five new outfits, new gameplay items, and roughly 20 cosmetic items (Scrappy Outfits, furniture, charms, attachments, emotes).
- Premium Pass — unlocks via the in-game store for 1,150 Raider Tokens, or through the Frozen Trail Collector Set bundle. Adds 50 more rewards, including exclusive Raider cosmetics and 1,150 Raider Tokens back.
Because the Premium track refunds 1,150 tokens (on top of the 200 in the Free Pass), the total across both tracks comes to 1,350 Raider Tokens if you complete the whole pass — meaning a fully-completed Premium Pass roughly pays for the next one. As GameSpot put it, "if you buy access to the Premium Pass, you'll earn back more than you spent on it." Note that the Free Pass does include some new gameplay items (not just cosmetics) — but the paid Premium track is purely cosmetic: exclusive Raider outfits and skins, nothing that gives a competitive edge. That's the "don't panic" message Embark led with when it announced the paid tier.
Want to hit Cantina Legend or clear the Reward Pass without the weekly grind? Our ARC Raiders carry and leveling services put a top-ranked Raider on your account.
- ARC Raiders Trials & Leveling Carry — rank climbs, Trials 3-stars, and account leveling to Level 15+ so Trials unlock fast.
- ARC Raiders Materials & Currency — stock up on the crafting materials you'll need for the new Outpost and Weapon Amplification research so you spend Frozen Trail playing, not farming.
ARC Raiders - Materials
Get materials in 10 minutes
What Else Launches With Frozen Trail on October 8?
Season 6 doesn't arrive in a vacuum — it rides in on the biggest update ARC Raiders has shipped. Knowing what else drops the same day helps you plan where to spend your first week back on the ladder:
- Pendola Pass, a new snowbound map Embark has described as its biggest yet, with dynamic weather (Flash Freeze) that changes how fights and extractions play out.
- New ARC threats — Embark has revealed enemies including the Bully, Skulker, and Hydra. Trials challenges have historically rotated in each patch's newest enemies (Season 5 weeks tasked players with damaging Queens, Matriarchs, Shredders and more), so expect the new machines to show up in Season 6 objectives — though Embark hasn't published the Season 6 challenge schedule yet.
- The Outpost, a persistent personal base, plus Weapon Amplification — a new weapon-upgrade path run through the Outpost's Research Workstation rather than a currency sink.
- A reworked progression/skill system, which is why the Reward Pass is arriving as a full 60-tier track rather than the old rewards line.
For Trials specifically, the practical takeaway is that a fresh, larger map plus new enemies is likely to shape the Season 6 weekly challenges — so getting comfortable on Pendola Pass early is a sensible part of climbing efficiently. Everything above launches free on October 8; only the Premium Reward Pass costs Raider Tokens.
Is the Premium Reward Pass Worth It?
For most players, the Premium Pass math is favorable if you actually play through the season. You spend 1,150 Raider Tokens and get 1,150 back over 60 tiers, plus 50 extra cosmetic rewards on top of the free track's ~20. The catch is completion: those refunded tokens sit at higher tiers, so a casual player who only reaches tier 20–30 won't see the full refund and effectively pays for partial cosmetics. If you know you'll grind the pass to completion, it's close to self-funding. If you play a few hours a week, buy it late in the season once you're confident you'll finish.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does ARC Raiders Trials Season 6 start? Season 6 starts October 8, 2026, the same day the Frozen Trail update goes live. Season 5 ended September 22, and Trials paused for about two weeks in between.
Do Trials ranks reset in Season 6? Partially. Brand-new Raiders begin at Rookie I, but returning players don't fully reset — you start two ranks below your Season 5 placement. Your earned cosmetics and emotes from previous seasons stay in your collection permanently; only your ladder position is pulled down.
What level do you need to play Trials? Trials unlock at Level 15. If a new season starts and you're below that, level up first; the ARC Raiders leveling carry can get you to 15+ quickly.
Do Trials rewards carry through Expedition resets? Cosmetic rewards (outfits, emotes, charms) from your final ranked placement are permanent and survive ARC Raiders' voluntary Expedition resets. The weekly challenge rewards are ordinary gear and follow normal Expedition rules.
How much is the Frozen Trail Premium Reward Pass? The Premium Pass costs 1,150 Raider Tokens, or comes included with the Frozen Trail Collector Set bundle. It adds 50 rewards and refunds 1,150 Raider Tokens across its 60 tiers, for a total of 1,350 tokens available across both tracks.
Is the Reward Pass the same as Trials? No. Trials is the weekly competitive ranked ladder (Rookie to Cantina Legend), scored by extracting with challenge points. The Reward Pass is a separate 60-tier progression track you advance by completing Feats. Season 6 runs both at once.
