Frozen Trail brings three brand-new ARC machines to ARC Raiders, and each one is built to break a habit rather than just soak up more bullets. Embark’s engineers and designers walked through all three during the Frozen Trail First Look, showing a charging quadruped, a low-profile sniper, and a stacked turret that can split its attention across a whole squad.
Quick answer: Frozen Trail adds three new ARC machines on October 8, 2026 — the Bully, a charging four-legged brute; the Skulker, a hit-and-run ambusher; and the Hydra, a three-part turret found aboard the Frigate.
The three new ARC machines compared
| Machine | Type | Behavior | Counterplay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bully | Four-legged ground unit | Charges, tackles, never backs off | Use cover, time your shots |
| Skulker | Small ground stalker | Hides, fires from range, retreats | Track it by sound, punish the peek |
| Hydra | Stationary turret | Three sections, six barrels | Split attention, attack in windows |
All three were introduced by Embark developers during the First Look, with the Bully presented as a machine-learned enemy and the Hydra shown specifically as a Frigate fixture rather than a roaming threat.
Bully: the four-legged ARC that charges you down
The Bully is a heavy quadruped that gallops straight at your position and keeps pressure on without pausing. It closes distance aggressively, tackles raiders to knock them off their feet, and cycles through several lethal attacks once it is on top of you. Embark describes it as an enemy that cedes no ground.
Its speed also makes it clumsy in tight spaces. The Bully can smash into the environment as it charges, which means the wall or wreck you are hiding behind may not survive the fight. The recommended approach is simple and unglamorous — stay behind cover, time your response to its charge, and land accurate shots instead of spraying while it moves.
Skulker: the long-range stalker with a scorpion tail
The Skulker is the Bully’s opposite. It is smaller, keeps a low profile, and works the edges of your vision, tucking itself behind rocks and foliage while it waits for a clean opening. When it commits, an unfolding scorpion-like tail rises and fires precise shots from long range.
Lose track of it for a moment and it slips back out of sight, repositions, and hits you again from somewhere new. Audio is the most reliable way to keep tabs on it, since its movement often gives away a position your eyes never picked up. Treat every Skulker engagement as a series of short trades rather than one sustained fight.
Hydra: the three-part turret aboard the Frigate
The Hydra does not walk anywhere. It is a tall, tower-like turret split into three stacked and autonomous sections, each carrying its own pair of pivoting guns. That layout lets it track three different raiders at once or stack all six barrels onto a single target that stays still too long.
Because it is mounted on the Frigate, the Hydra usually shows up in corridors and platforms where cover is limited and retreat is awkward. Squads need to divert its sections deliberately, break line of sight quickly, and burst it down during the moments when its attention is elsewhere.
Splitting your squad’s positions is the point here — if everyone stacks in one spot, all three Hydra sections aim at the same place.
Where the new ARC machines appear
The new threats arrive with Pendola Pass, a snowbound Italian village and Exodus transport hub past the mountains that ring the Rust Belt. The region is dominated by a fallen Emperor, and flash freezes sweep the valley, forcing raiders indoors while ARC forces react to the crash site.
That ARC response is where the Frigate comes in. It is one of the largest ARC vessels yet, a flying carrier you cannot simply shoot down — you have to board it, unlock a path through its interior, and sabotage it from inside. The Hydra is found on the Frigate itself, so it is tied to that high-level activity rather than open-world roaming.
Other raiders are chasing the same haul, which means fights on board can turn into three-way problems hundreds of feet in the air. You will be forced to either work with the squads you run into or push through them.
How to prepare before meeting the Bully, Skulker, and Hydra
All three machines punish the same mistake — standing in the open while you figure out what is shooting at you. Plan your loadout around holding cover and making individual shots count, with enough ammo to fight a Bully at contact range and a Skulker at distance in the same raid.
Mod components you pull out of raids matter more than usual once Frozen Trail lands, because the Research Workstation in the new Outpost is where higher-tier weapon modifications are unlocked. Holding onto those materials gives you better tools for the Frigate run instead of trading up mid-fight.
Interior fights are the real danger zone. Bunkers, corridors, and the Frigate’s passageways leave little room to reposition, and a machine that pins you there gives rival raiders an easy finish.
The Bully, Skulker, and Hydra all go live with the Frozen Trail update on October 8, 2026, across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, alongside Pendola Pass and the Frigate. Embark is also running a developer Q&A livestream about the First Look on Friday, September 25 at 6PM CEST, where more specifics on the new machines are likely to come up.
