I heard the engines first — a thin hiss over the storm noise, then a flare that turned a teammate into ash. I dropped behind a concrete slab and watched a small drone sweep past, flame licking where his shield had been. By the time we regrouped, the map felt different: colder, more dangerous, with a new thing to fear.
Outside the briefing room I noticed cracked concrete and scorched paint — tomorrow the game adds two foes that change how you move.
I’ve been through enough raids to tell you this isn’t a cosmetic tweak. The update arriving on February 24, 2026 lands a pair of AI enemies that force you to rethink cover, timing, and how you hunt high-value loot on Dam Battlegrounds.
At the edge of the Dam I felt the wind shift — the Firefly will force you off static positions.
The developer describes the Firefly as an armored flying machine that spews a jet of flame. Practically, think of it like a pocket-sized flamethrower with wings: it patrols the air and punishes slow or exposed Raiders. If you’re the kind of player who camps a doorway, this drone makes that play dangerous.
When does the Shrouded Sky update release?
Shrouded Sky goes live on February 24, 2026. If you run ARC Raiders on Steam, Xbox, or PlayStation, patch servers will push the files that day — prepare for a brief downtime window and a hotfix wave from the developer’s team on Discord and Twitter if anything breaks.
I was crouched behind a generator when something rolled past — the Comet rewrites ground control.
The Comet is a spherical ARC machine that calmly patrols until it finds you; once it locks, it detonates with a seismic blast. In practice it behaves like a landmine with a glare: it can patrol open lanes and punish greedy looters who sprint across exposed terrain. Avoiding its line of sight or baiting it into wasting its charge becomes a team play.
What are the Firefly and Comet, and how dangerous are they?
Short answer: both are lethal in different ways. The Firefly punishes vertical exposure; the Comet punishes horizontal runs for loot. Both demand faster movement, smarter positioning, and more coordinated crowd control from you and your squad.
On a clipboard in the staging area I saw lists of rewards — Shrouded Sky brings new progression to chase.
The update adds a Project called Weather Monitoring where you collect materials to build system features and earn Raider rewards. You’ll also see new cosmetic bundles, a free Raider Deck you can rank up, and a new Controlled Access Zone in Dam Battlegrounds — a high-security room marked by a Rocketeer chandelier and heavy loot.
How should I approach the Dam’s new Controlled Access Zone?
Treat it like high-risk, high-reward territory. I’d advise sending a scout with mobility builds first, keeping a suppression tool ready, and using the new Weather Monitoring objectives to justify trips in. If you go in solo for quick loot, expect the Comet or a Firefly to make that run costly.
At the coffee table I compared notes with streamers and speedrunners — this update changes meta and streamer content alike.
If you follow ARC Raiders creators on Twitch or clips on YouTube, expect new playstyles to emerge within days: mobility loadouts, stagger tools, and weather-aware routes. The studio’s patch notes suggest the update is heavier than last month’s roll, and Stella Montis’ arrival last November now feels like prelude to this shift.
I’ll tell you this as someone who watches raids and edits the highlights: these two machines tighten the map and make mistakes costlier. You can grind cosmetics or you can learn the new patrol patterns and loot routes — the decision shapes every run.
So which will you be on February 24, 2026 — the Raider who charges every high-value room, or the one who studies the enemy’s patrol and takes the smarter score?