Arc Raiders: Flickering Flames Event Guide

If you’ve been topside recently and suddenly felt like your Raider is freezing to death, congrats, you’re playing during Cold Snap, the winter update that introduced the Flickering Flames event.

This isn’t just another cosmetic grind. Cold Snap changes how you move, fight, and route your raids, and if you don’t adapt, you’ll bleed HP faster than you expect.

I’ve spent 500+ hours in ARC Raiders, and trust me: this event rewards players who plan their runs instead of wandering aimlessly.

Cold Snap Map Condition: How the Snow Actually Works

Cold Snap adds snowstorms and freezing winds to selected maps. This isn’t visual fluff.

If you stay outside too long:

• Your Raider starts shivering

• Snow builds up on your body

• Your HP begins to drain slowly but constantly

This forces you to rotate between cover points instead of camping open areas.

How to Avoid Frost Damage

• Move inside real buildings, not every shack counts

• Watch your character:
  If you’re still shivering, you’re still taking damage

• When the snow melts off your Raider, you’re safe again

This mechanic alone changes routing, extraction timing, and PvP risk.

Pro tip: Cold Snap punishes greedy looters. Plan warm-up stops into every raid.

Snowballs: Yes, They Exist (No, They’re Not Useful)

You’ll also find snowball piles scattered around Cold Snap maps.
You can throw them at other Raiders.

Do they deal damage? No.
Are they useful? Also no.
Are they funny in squad runs? Absolutely.

That’s it. Don’t overthink it.

Flickering Flames Project: The Core of the Event

The heart of this event is the Flickering Flames Project.

Think of it like a limited-time expedition project:

• You commit materials

• Items are permanently consumed

• You earn Merits, Raider Tokens, and usable items

A lot of previously “junk” loot suddenly matters.

Important Warning

Once you donate an item, It’s gone forever

That said, most required items have low long-term value, so this project is worth finishing.

Flickering Flames Project: Full Material Breakdown

The Hardest Items to Farm (And How to Solve Them)

For most Raiders, the single most annoying item in the entire project is Mushrooms. They’re inconsistent, often fought over, and easy to miss during normal routes.

Here’s a pro tip straight from hundreds of hours topside:

Run a night raid on The Spaceport with an empty loadout. Sprint directly to the specific forested location on the map (the one experienced players already know). There’s a tree there with a 100% guaranteed spawn of Mushrooms, usually dropping 10-12 Mushrooms in one go.

Why this works so well:

• You go in with no gear risk

• You secure a free safe pocket slot

• You finish the Mushroom requirement in a single raid

• You extract immediately without engaging ARCs or Raiders

This single route removes the most frustrating part of the entire Flickering Flames Project.

Once Mushrooms are done, everything else in the project is straightforward and low-risk.

Step 1

• 20 Candleberries

• 5 Durable Cloth

• 1 Empty Wine Bottle

• 25 Plastic Parts

Step 2

• 50 Candleberries

• 3 Candle Holders

• 1 Industrial Battery

• 3 Light Bulbs

Step 3

• 60 Candleberries

• 10 Duct Tape

• 2 Film Reels

• 5 Snap Blast Grenades

Step 4

• 60 Candleberries

• 2 Coffee Pots

• 10 Fireball Burners

• 2 Water Filters

Step 5

• 70 Candleberries

• 2 Frying Pans

• 7 Mushrooms

• 2 Music Albums

Total needed if you brute-force everything: 260 Candleberries
But you should not farm all of them manually (more on that below).

Completion Rewards: What You Get at the End

After finishing all five steps of the Flickering Flames Project, you unlock an additional rewards screen with bonus items tied to full completion.

These rewards are granted on top of everything earned from:

• The project steps

• The Merit reward track

• Candleberries milestones

It’s a final confirmation that you’ve fully completed the event and squeezed maximum value out of Cold Snap.

Candleberries: How to Farm Them Without Losing Your Mind

Candleberries are event exclusive and only spawn during Cold Snap.

Where They Spawn

• Red berry bushes during snowstorms

• Raider Caches (usually 1-3 per cache)

• Rare baskets in nature-themed POIs (best yield)

Best Farming Locations (From Experience)

• Hydroponic Dome Complex - Dam Battlegrounds

• Marano Park - Buried City

• Forest area between Container Storage and East Plains Warehouse - Spaceport

The Smart Way (Pro Method)

You don’t need all 260 manually.

By progressing the Gathering Candleberries reward track, you can earn:
👉 Up to 180 Candleberries passively

Which means:

• Farm berries naturally

• Let Merits do the heavy lifting

• Finish the project without burnout

Merits: How Progress Actually Works (And Why You Shouldn’t Stress)

Merits are way simpler than most players think, and honestly, a lot of people overcomplicate this system for no reason.

The rule is straightforward: every 100 XP equals 1 Merit. That’s it. You don’t need special tasks, daily challenges, or event-only missions just to progress. If you’re playing ARC Raiders normally—killing ARCs, surviving encounters, looting, and extracting—you’re already earning Merits.

A single solid raid can easily net you thousands of XP, especially if you:

• Clear multiple ARC encounters

• Kill other Raiders

• Loot efficiently instead of rushing extraction

On top of that, the Flickering Flames Project gives you huge Merit boosts just for donating items. Some steps are borderline free Merits. For example, donating 3 Light Bulbs instantly grants 1,000 Merits, which is more than many players earn across several average raids.

The key thing to understand is this, Merits are passive progress. If you’re playing regularly during the event, you will finish the track naturally. No sweating, no forced grinding.

Is Flickering Flames Worth Completing?

Short answer: Yes. Absolutely.

And not just for cosmetics.

Here’s why:

• Most required items are low-value or situational

• You earn Merits, Raider Tokens, consumables, and exclusive skins

• Candleberries are far easier to collect than they initially seem

• If you play smart, you’ll finish the event naturally without forcing it

This event rewards good habits, not endless grinding.

Bonus Reward: Free Skin from The Finals

Here’s something a lot of players miss:

By playing a few matches of The Finals a free to play game from the same publisher as ARC Raiders you can unlock an additional free cosmetic skin that carries over.

No tricks, no purchase required.
Just log in, play a few games, and the reward is yours.

If you care about cosmetics at all, this is basically free value for minimal effort.