Candleberries are a limited-time nature resource in Arc Raiders, introduced with the Cold Snap seasonal update. They sit at the center of the Candleberry Banquet project and the wider Flickering Flames event, so farming them efficiently is one of the main jobs during this holiday window.
Where Candleberries spawn on the map
Candleberries only appear when the Cold Snap map condition is active. If none of your raid locations are currently under Cold Snap, you will not see Candleberry bushes in the field.
When Cold Snap is live on a map, Candleberries can be found in three ways:
- Nature / vegetation areas outdoors. Bushes that carry Candleberries spawn in open “nature” regions of the map. These are the same general areas where you already see other forageables like Lemons and Olives. The bushes are small shrubs with visible red flowers or berries that you can interact with to harvest.
- Dam Battlegrounds vegetation zones. Dam Battlegrounds is currently the most reliable location. The western side of the map near the South Swamp Outpost is marked as a vegetation area and frequently contains multiple Candleberry bushes when Cold Snap covers the map. Additional clusters can appear in other snow-covered vegetation pockets on Dam Battlegrounds.
- Raid / wicker caches. During Cold Snap, raid-style wicker baskets and Raider caches around the map can also contain Candleberries as loot, similar to other event map conditions.
Snow coverage is a useful visual cue. Cold Snap pushes deep snow across parts of the map; Candleberry bushes and caches with berries tend to sit in these colder outdoor regions, especially where the minimap labels the area as nature or vegetation.
How to farm Candleberries during Cold Snap
Because spawns are random, the goal is to maximize the number of vegetation hotspots you clear per run while still extracting safely. Dam Battlegrounds is the best starting point, but any map with the Cold Snap modifier and nature zones can work.
Step 1: Queue into a raid on a map that currently shows the Cold Snap condition. If possible, pick Dam Battlegrounds.
Step 2: On Dam Battlegrounds, move toward the western vegetation region near South Swamp Outpost. On other maps, head for nature-marked or foliage-heavy areas on your map.
Step 3: Sweep the area for small shrubs with red flowers or berries. Get close and interact with each bush to harvest. Expect roughly one Candleberry per bush.
Step 4: While rotating between vegetation pockets, loot any wicker baskets or Raider caches you encounter. These can roll Candleberries as part of their loot pool.
Step 5: Once you have a decent stack, prioritize extraction. Dying with berries in your inventory risks losing them, which is painful given the low yield per bush.
Dealing with Frostbite while you hunt
Cold Snap does more than add snow and Candleberries. It also enables the Frostbite effect, which damages you while you stay outside in the freezing conditions.
Step 1: Bring ample healing, especially bandages, and build your route around indoor spaces or shelters you can duck into when Frostbite stacks build up.
Step 2: Limit the time spent standing still while you scan for bushes. Move efficiently from shrub to shrub or cache to cache to avoid unnecessary exposure.
Step 3: Use buildings and interiors as reset points. After clearing one outdoor patch of vegetation, cut back through structures to recover and then exit toward the next nature zone.
Balancing Frostbite management with outdoor farming is crucial. Overcommitting in the open for a few extra berries can cost you the entire haul if you go down far from cover or teammates.
How to get Candleberries from events and projects
You do not have to rely entirely on map spawns. The Cold Snap season adds a parallel live progression where Candleberries are awarded directly for playing.
Gathering Candleberries / Flickering Flames rewards
The holiday event tracks your XP gains during raids and converts that into Merits. Every 100 XP you earn grants Merits, which move you along a limited-time rewards track sometimes referred to as Gathering Candleberries or the broader Flickering Flames progression.
That track contains:
- Multiple nodes that directly grant Candleberries in small and medium stacks.
- Cosmetics such as Hi-Tech Hiker outfit variants, camo colors, and goggles.
- Utility items like emotes and Raider tools (for example, the Space Wrench).
- Several Raider Token bundles.
Since Merits come from ordinary XP, you can earn these rewards simply by playing raids, looting, and killing Arc. The more efficiently you farm XP, the faster you unlock the Candleberry bundles on the track.
What Candleberries are used for
Candleberries currently have one major purpose and a minor fallback use.
Candleberry Banquet and Candlelight project
The primary use is as a donation item into the Candleberry Banquet project, which sits under the seasonal Candlelight / Flickering Flames umbrella. The project is split into multiple stages, and each stage requires a quota of Candleberries to complete.
Feeding Candleberries into the project does two things at once:
- Progresses the five-part Candleberry Banquet chain so you can claim its associated rewards.
- Awards large chunks of Merits, which push you further along the Gathering Candleberries / Flickering Flames reward track described earlier.
This loop means every Candleberry effectively multiplies its value, first by unlocking project stages and then by boosting your access to cosmetics, Raider Tokens, and additional Candleberry bundles from the Merit track.
Recycling into Assorted Seeds
Candleberries can also be recycled into Assorted Seeds. Each berry converts into a very small number of seeds (2x Assorted Seeds per Candleberry). Given how important berries are for the Banquet and event progression, recycling them is almost never worth it unless you have fully completed the seasonal content and have no remaining project donations or reward nodes to chase.
Event timing and practical priorities
The Gathering Candleberries event runs for a limited holiday window, with the current schedule ending on January 13. Within that period, the Cold Snap map condition rotates across maps, nature zones fill and empty with snow, and Candleberry bush spawns shift along with raid rotations.
If you want every reward without burning out, a simple priority list helps:
- First focus on completing Candleberry Banquet stages using berries from both field farming and the event track.
- Second aim to reach all the Candleberry nodes on the Merit track, since they effectively refund berries for further project donations.
- Finally clean up remaining cosmetic and Raider Token milestones before the deadline.
As long as you regularly queue into Cold Snap raids, pass through vegetation areas for bush spawns, and keep playing enough raids to steadily earn Merits, you will gather the Candleberries needed to clear the Banquet and fully exploit the Flickering Flames season.
