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As part of ARC Raiders Cold Snap update, Flickering Flames Event is now live, requiring players to complete a series of Expedition-like tasks, collecting numerous resources and donating them to the celebration. These items include many materials you've seen before, such as Coffee Pots, Durable Cloth, and Plastic, meaning many items you previously thought were useless now suddenly have a practical purpose.

Completing the entire event objective will reward you with valuable ARC Raiders Blueprints and a large amount of Merits currency, and even the game's premium currency - Raider Tokens! So, put on your snow boots and join us to learn everything about Flickering Flames event and how to unlock all the rewards!

Event Overview

First, Flickering Flames event will run until January 13, 2026. It is associated with Cold Snap map modifier you will see.

Cold Snap is a winter effect, and you will see snow effects on different maps, which rotate every two hours between Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, and Blue Gate. Note that this event is not available on Stella Montis map, only on these four maps.

On these maps, you can collect Candleberries and other high-value loot, but you will be affected by the cold if you stay outdoors for too long. You will need to go indoors to warm up before you can move around the map again.

It's worth noting that, unlike Electromagnetic Storm or Night Raids, you can use Raider Hatch Key in these map events.

Event Tier

To complete this event, you need to progress through all 25 tiers, which you can level up by collecting Merits. These are the number of Merits required for each tier and the rewards you will gradually receive as you level up:

Tier 1: 600 - Hi-Tech Hiker (Outfit)

Tier 2: 1,200 - Candleberries x10

Tier 3: 1,800 - Scanner (Hi-Tech Hiker Variant)

Tier 4: 2,400 - Candleberries x10

Tier 5: 3,000 - Check Compass (Emote)

Tier 6: 3,600 - Candleberries x20

Tier 7: 4,200 - Raider Tokens x50

Tier 8: 4,800 - Blue Camo (Hi-Tech Hiker Color)

Tier 9: 5,400 - Candleberries x30

Tier 10: 6,000 - Field Phone (Hi-Tech Hiker Variant)

Tier 11: 6,600 - Candleberries x30

Tier 12: 7,200 - Sprayed Eyes Red (Face Style)

Tier 13: 7,800 - Raider Tokens x50

Tier 14: 8,400 - Orange (Hi-Tech Hiker Color)

Tier 15: 9,000 - Candleberries x40

Tier 16: 9,600 - Mas (Hi-Tech Hiker Variant)

Tier 17: 10,200 - Raider Tokens x50

Tier 18: 10,800 - Yellow (Hi-Tech Hiker Color)

Tier 19: 11,400 - Candleberries x40

Tier 20: 12,000 - Headgear (Hi-Tech Hiker Variant)

Tier 21: 12,600 - Raider Tokens x50

Tier 22: 13,200 - White (Hi-Tech Hiker Color)

Tier 23: 13,800 - Goggles (Hi-Tech Hiker Variant)

Tier 24: 14,400 - Raider Tokens x50

Tier 25: 15,000 - Space Wrench (Raider Tool)

Please note that you earn 1 Merit for every 100 XP gained. To complete this event, you need to earn 15,000 Merit, which means you must earn 1.5 million XP before January 13th to unlock all rewards.

Projects

Fortunately, completing the accompanying projects can greatly speed up your progress. You can access them by clicking on Raider tab and then going to Projects.

Flickering Flames event projects are divided into five different stages, each requiring the submission of different items.

1. Candlelight

• Empty Wine Bottle x1 - Firecracker x5
• Plastic Parts x25 - Merits x1000
• Durable Cloth x5 - Merits x1000
• Candleberries x20 - Raider Tokens x50

2. Decorations

• Candle Holder x3 - Red Light Stick Blueprint
• Light Bulb x3 - Merits x1000
• Industrial Battery x1 - Merits x1000
• Candleberries x50 - Raider Tokens x50

3. Presents

• Snap Blast Grenade x5 - Trailblazer
• Duct Tape x10 - Merits x1000
• Film Reel x1 - Merits x1000
• Candleberries x60 - Raider Tokens x50

4. Beverages

• Coffee Pot x2 - Vita Spray
• Fireball Burner x10 - Merits x1000
• Water Filter x2 - Merits x1000
• Candleberries x60 - Raider Tokens x50

5. Meals

• Mushroom x7 - Snap Hook
• Frying Pan x2 - Merits x1000
• Music Album x2 - Merits x1000
• Candleberries x70 - Raider Tokens x50

Completing each stage rewards you with the corresponding Merits. Upon completing the project, you will receive 10,000 Merits. This means you only need to earn another 5,000 Merits, or 500,000 XP, to complete the event, significantly reducing the difficulty. 

I must remind you that this project is optional, but completing it will make the event easier and more enjoyable. More importantly, you'll receive generous rewards upon completion. As you progress, you'll unlock various customization options, colors, emotes, and 250 Raider Tokens. So, it's definitely worth doing.

All Flickering Flames Items

In total, across the five stages of this project, you'll need to submit many different ARC Raiders Flickering Flames items, specifically, as you can see above, you'll need to find at least 260 Candleberries, which might sound a bit daunting.

However, by completing the various stages of the project, you'll actually receive 180 Candleberries as rewards. This means you only need to collect an additional 80 in-game to complete the task. Besides Candleberries, you won't need to specifically farm for other items in Flickering Flames event. So, it's not actually that difficult.

How to Collect Candleberries?

Candleberries can be found on bushes scattered throughout Cold Snap map conditions. We recommend using an interactive map for easier searching. These interactive maps show potential spawn locations for these items, but this doesn't guarantee their appearance.

Candleberries grow on bushes with red berries and are easy to identify. You can simply walk up to them and collect them in a few seconds. Each bush yields one or two Candleberries, and they can stack up to 10, so you can store them in your Safe Pockets.

Depending on when you play, you might only be able to farm Candleberries on specific maps, but we found them easy to find on Spaceport map, especially in the northeast area. We consistently found around thirty Candleberries in this area each time. So, give it a try; you won't leave empty-handed.

However, be mindful of the temperature's effect on your raider. You'll need to periodically run into buildings to warm up. Also, don't forget to bring some extra bandages to treat cold damage if needed, and some Adrenaline Shots to quickly restore stamina and maintain fast movement, thus reducing the risk of cold damage.

Phase 1 Items

Next, we'll detail the items you need to collect in each stage besides Candleberries and how to obtain them. First, the first stage requires 1 Empty Wine Bottle, 25 Plastic Parts, 5 Durable Cloth, and 20 Candleberries.

Empty Wine Bottle is an item found in residential and commercial areas. You can easily find them in Pale Apartments, Ruby Residence, and Pattern House.

You should already have Plastic Parts. If you've run out, you can also trade for them with Celeste in the trading interface using seeds.

As for Durable Cloth, it's also easy to obtain. You can craft it in Refiner using Fabric, or easily find it in raid mode, especially in medical areas.

Phase 2 Items

For the second stage of the project, you will need 3 Candle Holders, 3 Light Bulbs, 1 Industrial Battery, and 50 Candleberries.

Candle Holders are items found in residential areas and are easily found in the residential areas mentioned earlier, especially in houses in Buried City and Dam Battlegrounds.

As for Light Bulbs, we usually find many of them on Blue Gate map. Especially in large underground areas, where there are many electronic devices, you don't even need to loot cars; you can find them in many other containers there.

Industrial Battery can also be found in the underground area of Blue Gate. But an even easier place is Hydroponic Dome area of Dam Battlegrounds.

Phase 3 Items

In the third phase, we need 5 Snap Blast Grenades, 10 rolls of Duct Tape, 1 Film Reel, and 60 Candleberries.

Snap Blast Grenades can be crafted or obtained from merchants. At Explosives Station, you can craft one Snap Blast Grenade using two Crude Explosives and one Magnet, which is very inexpensive. You can also get three from Apollo every day for 2400 coins each.

As for Duct Tape, if you need it, you can exchange 10 rolls from Celeste for 60 seeds. They are also very easy to find.

Film Reel is a residential item and can be found in drawers, kitchen cabinets, and similar places in residential buildings in Buried City. It's only a blue item, so it's quite common. However, make sure you have a safe so you can put it in there once you find it.

Phase 4 Items

In the fourth phase, we need 2 Coffee Pots, 10 Fireball Burners, 2 Water Filters, and 60 Candleberries.

Candleberries can be found in the same place where you find Industrial Batteries. In Hydroponic Dome area, you'll find them scattered everywhere.

Coffee Pots are also residential items. So, as before, they can be found in all the standard residential areas, red lockers, and apartment areas.

Then there's Fireball Burner, an item dropped by Fireballs, and can be found in almost any building on any map. They respawn quickly, so even if you arrive a little late to a place where a player has already killed some Fireballs, you'll usually find them respawning after a few minutes.

Phase 5 Items

For the final phase of the project, you need 7 Mushrooms, 2 Frying Pans, 2 Music Albums, and 70 Candleberries.

Music Albums and Frying Pans are again residential items, and you'll easily find them in the same locations.

Then there are Mushrooms, which some people might find a little difficult to find. However, the easiest way is to go to Spaceport and look for mushroom trees near Trench Tower hatch on the east side. There are many mushrooms growing here; you can pick them. We once collected 10 mushrooms in one go, so you can easily reach your goal.

Okay, that's all the locations for finding the items needed for the Flickering Flames project. Once you've collected them all, you can submit the quest and wait for your rewards! But don't relax yet, completing the project doesn't mean the event is over. You still need to earn another 5,000 Merit to complete the event, so get going!

ARC Raiders recently added a new map modifier, Cold Snap, bringing now the harsh winter conditions of Northern Hemisphere into the game.

Unlike previous maps, this map's environmental conditions are much harsher. Staying outdoors will cause you to be affected by the cold, making outdoor exploration and evacuation extremely difficult. However, to collect Candleberries, you must go outdoors.

So let's see how Cold Snap mechanic works, how to deal with this condition, and how to find Candleberries outdoors.

Cold Snap Mechanism

When you first enter the cold outdoors, you have approximately 2 minutes of safe time before you begin to suffer cold damage. However, in actual gameplay, this time may fluctuate between 1 minute 35 seconds and 2 minutes, depending on whether your body was completely warm before entering the cold.

When you go back indoors to warm up, the safe time when going outside will shorten, to approximately 1 minute 35 seconds to 1 minute 40 seconds. If you stay indoors for about 25 seconds to warm up, you can be outdoors for approximately 1 minute and 35 seconds. Even if you stay indoors for longer, your safe time outdoors won't change much.

Movement

Even in cold conditions, stamina consumption and recovery are unaffected. You can also use an adrenaline injector to fully restore stamina, helping you quickly traverse long distances.

Snow itself doesn't affect movement speed. Only a sudden stop after running on frozen lakes or rivers will cause slight slippage, but this has little impact on normal movement.

Additionally, you can collect Snowballs in snowdrifts on the map, stacking up to 5. Each Snowball is worth 10 coins, and throwing it causes no damage, just for fun. Some Uncovered Caches on Cold Snap map are frozen and need to be broken open. You'll also find baskets throughout the map, allowing you to quickly collect natural resources like fruit.

How To Determine Outdoor Time?

There's no stopwatch in the game to show how long you've been outdoors, but there are many indicators to show your current stage.

The most obvious effect is the snow accumulation on your character. When you first stand outdoors, snow will accumulate on your head and shoulders. After about 25 seconds, snow will begin to accumulate on your legs. After about a minute, your entire body will be covered in snow, and no more snow will be added thereafter.

Additionally, your character will make a sound when entering or leaving cold areas, both to alert yourself and to reveal your location to two enemies. After about one minute outdoors, your character will emit a specific sound indicating that half of the safe time has passed.

When cold damage begins to take effect, the character will emit another audio cue. However, this sound may be difficult to hear in firefights or noisy environments.

Shelter

Therefore, if you need to move long distances outdoors, you should plan your route within 1 minute and 35 seconds and find shelter along the way that can provide temporary warmth.

Any sturdy structure with walls and a roof can be considered effective shelter. The roof is crucial; structures without roofs are generally ineffective. Ideally, you should look for buildings with a roof and at least three walls.

However, some seemingly open outdoor structures can actually serve as shelters, and you can test this yourself. Once you enter a valid shelter, your character will stop shivering, an audio cue will sound, and the snow on your body will slowly disappear.

How To Heal?

Once the cold damage begins, the damage you take is continuous and constant, and it doesn't increase over time. As long as you're not attacked, it's not a significant threat. You can even continuously use healing items to recover.

Regular bandages are effective at mitigating cold damage and slowly restoring health, while Herbal Bandage and Sterilized Bandage are even more effective. Fabric is very ineffective and should only be used as a last resort.

Therefore, it's recommended that you carry an extra set of regular bandages in addition to your usual healing items when entering a cold-weather map.

Fire

If you are set on fire outdoors, you will immediately clear all your chill buildup and reset your 2-minute safety timer to zero. However, being set on fire will also cause you some damage.

A similar effect to Fire is Firespray, which you can create in-game. Its effect is almost identical to being set on fire. You only need to spray it on teammates for 1-2 seconds to completely clear their chill buildup. Note that short sprays are less effective.

When you are being chased by enemies and have no shelter, you can choose to set yourself on fire and then heal yourself, trading a small amount of fire damage for an extra 2 minutes of outdoor activity time.

How To Collect Candleberries?

Flickering Flames event requires a total of 260 Candleberries, but you will obtain 180 through the bonus path, so you only need to collect 80 yourself.

You can search baskets scattered throughout the area; they always contain Candleberries. Uncovered Caches usually also contain them, but they are slightly more difficult to identify due to the need for explosions and wind noise interference. You can also directly search bushes, which will almost always yield you 1 to 5 Candleberries each time.

Cold Snap is a more challenging map mod, riskier than regular maps. If you encounter other players, it's best not to shoot, but rather express a willingness to cooperate. This will make it easier for you to safely evacuate with your loot and Candleberries.

Cold Snap map presents challenging situations, so be prepared. You can buy the new ARC Raiders blueprints in IGGM to arm yourself with the best weapons and gear, thus surrounding your loot gathered in the freezing cold. Using the ARC8 code will also give you an 8% discount on all ARC Raiders items!