Candleberries are a seasonal nature resource in Arc Raiders introduced with the Cold Snap winter update. They sit at the center of the Flickering Flames, Candlelight, and Candleberry Banquet events, acting both as a quest currency and a limited-time collectible you can also harvest directly in raids.
Because Candleberries only appear under specific map conditions and event tracks, knowing where and how they spawn is essential if you want to clear the seasonal projects and unlock their rewards efficiently.
Candleberries and the Cold Snap event
Candleberries are tied to the Cold Snap update and its related events:
- Cold Snap adds a snow-covered map condition and the Frostbite status effect to certain raids.
- Flickering Flames is the seasonal progression track that pays out rewards as you earn Merits.
- Candlelight / Candleberry Banquet is a multi-stage project that requires donating Candleberries and other items to advance.
- Gathering Candleberries is a live progression chain that grants cosmetics, currency, emotes, and other rewards as you engage with the event.
Candleberries behave like other fruit-type nature items in how you pick them up and extract them, but their primary role is as a premium donation item for the seasonal projects. They are also much more tightly restricted in when and where they appear than regular fruits.
How to earn Candleberries from events and Merits
Candleberries come from two main progression systems: the Candleberry Banquet project and the Flickering Flames rewards track. Both rely on Merits, which are generated from raid XP.
Merits and XP conversion. Every 100 XP you gain from raids converts into 1 Merit. Playing normally, clearing objectives, and surviving extractions steadily fill your Merit total across the season.
Flickering Flames reward milestones. The Flickering Flames track awards various items at specific Merit thresholds, including Candleberries themselves. Early on, reaching 2400 Merits grants a bundle of 20 Candleberries, with more clusters appearing at later milestones. These bundles are effectively “free” in the sense that they do not risk your gear, so always claim them before you start heavy field farming.
Candleberry Banquet project. The Candleberry Banquet is a five-part project tied into the Candlelight stage of the event. As you progress through its stages by playing and making donations, you:
- unlock Candleberries directly at several checkpoints (up to about 180 across the full project), and
- earn large Merit payouts that feed back into both Flickering Flames and the Gathering Candleberries chain.
Gathering Candleberries live progression. As you finish project stages and collect Merits, you climb the Gathering Candleberries chain. This meta-track does not usually grant berries themselves, but instead pays out cosmetics, emotes, Raider Tokens and similar rewards. Progress here is heavily boosted by turning in the Candleberries you have acquired.
Cold Snap map spawns and conditions
Outside of event rewards, Candleberries can be harvested in raids, but only under specific map conditions.
Cold Snap required for field spawns. Candleberries grow in the world only on maps where the Cold Snap modifier is active. When this condition is up, affected environments become snow-covered and gain the Frostbite effect. You must deal with Frostbite while you search, so plan shorter raids, stick to safer routes, and bring gear or strategies suited to surviving in the cold.
Nature and vegetation zones. On Cold Snap maps, Candleberries appear in areas marked as nature or otherwise heavily vegetated. Expect them around swamps, jungles, and tree clusters rather than in dense urban or industrial spaces.
World nodes and containers. There are two main ways Candleberries show up in the raid itself:
- Candleberry bushes and small fruit trees. These are shrubs or small trees bearing clusters of bright red berries, often half-buried in snow. Interacting with them yields a single Candleberry per bush, similar to how lemons or olives are harvested.
- Loot containers. Candleberries can also appear in Raider caches and smaller containers like drawers during Cold Snap raids, so it is worth opening caches you pass while moving between vegetation pockets.
Bushes are relatively rare compared to regular loot nodes, and each one produces only a single berry, which makes knowing specific hotspots very valuable.
Best Candleberries locations on Dam Battlegrounds and other maps
Dam Battlegrounds stands out as the most reliable map for Candleberry farming when Cold Snap is active. Several consistent vegetation zones here can be looped for bushes and caches.
| Map | Area | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Dam Battlegrounds | South Swamp Outpost (west side) | Nature-marked swamp and nearby jungle shrubs; red-berried bushes in open snow-covered patches. |
| Dam Battlegrounds | North-west of Central Swamp extract | Area around a small green hut; several Candleberry bushes can spawn in the surrounding snow. |
| Dam Battlegrounds | Northern swamp and vegetation pockets | Open ground near the Power Generation Complex and an exposed Raider cache; bushes and container drops. |
| Space Port | Staff Parking | Clusters of small fruit trees around the car park where jungle foliage meets concrete. |
Across all Cold Snap maps, the pattern is similar: Candleberries prefer snowy, open vegetation zones at the edge of more built-up areas. Swamps and mixed jungle–industrial borders are typically more productive than pure concrete or dense forest.
Visually, focus on low bushes with red berries rather than tall trees. These red clusters are the easiest way to distinguish Candleberry shrubs from ordinary foliage at a glance.
Candleberries farming tips
Candleberries farming is most efficient when you treat your runs as focused gathering expeditions rather than full-clear raids.
Step 1: Queue into a map that currently has the Cold Snap condition and, if possible, choose Dam Battlegrounds. Check the map for areas tagged as nature or swamp before you commit to a route.
Step 2: Equip a free or low-risk loadout. Since your main goal is extracting berries, prioritize mobility and survivability over rare weapons. This way, a failed extraction does not set back your main progression.
Step 3: Land close to one of the known vegetation clusters such as South Swamp Outpost or the swamps north of the dam. Move carefully through open ground, scanning for short bushes with red berries and for Raider caches along the way.
Step 4: Avoid prolonged fights around fruit trees. These areas are often exposed with little cover, and attracting ARCs here quickly becomes dangerous. If you draw attention, disengage and reposition rather than digging in.
Step 5: Extract as soon as you have secured a good batch of Candleberries. It is usually more efficient to bank a few successful short runs than to push for one oversized haul that risks being lost to Frostbite or enemy fire.
Tip: If you are also chasing regular fruits like lemons or apricots, run slightly wider loops around the same vegetation zones. Those items tend to share spawn logic with Candleberries, so a single circuit can stock multiple nature resources at once.
All known Candleberries uses
Although Candleberries look like another fruit in your inventory, they are mainly a seasonal event resource with several specific uses.
Candlelight / Candleberry Banquet donations. The key use is donating Candleberries into the multi-stage Candleberry Banquet project during the Candlelight phase of Flickering Flames. Each stage of the project requires a set number of berries and other items, and turning them in:
- advances the project towards completion, and
- rewards you with large chunks of Merits plus event-specific items.
Finishing a Candlelight stage that uses Candleberries also pays out Raider Tokens (for example, 50 Tokens for an early donation stage), further tying berries into the seasonal economy.
Flickering Flames and Gathering Candleberries progression. Because project completions and donations generate Merits, spending Candleberries effectively accelerates both the Flickering Flames track and the Gathering Candleberries meta-chain. This is how you unlock most of the limited-time cosmetics, currency bundles, and emotes attached to the winter update.
Recycling into Assorted Seeds. Candleberries can be broken down into generic nature resources; recycling a berry yields 2× Assorted Seeds. This is a small return compared to their event value, so recycling generally only makes sense once you have finished all Candleberry-related projects or if you have a surplus with no remaining seasonal use.
Base upgrades and crafting. Like other fruits, Candleberries can function as a general nature ingredient in certain base upgrades and crafting recipes. The exact recipes vary over time, but in practice these uses are secondary; during the Cold Snap season, the project donations and event progression are almost always the better way to spend them.
Timing and availability
Candleberries are closely tied to the Cold Snap window. Field spawns only appear on maps where the Cold Snap modifier is active, and the main sinks for the resource sit inside the Candleberry Banquet and related seasonal projects.
If you want the full spread of winter rewards, the safest approach is to:
- claim every Candleberry bundle from the Flickering Flames track as you reach Merit milestones,
- run a few focused farming loops on Dam Battlegrounds or other Cold Snap maps while the condition is up, and
- feed those berries into Candlelight and Candleberry Banquet stages before the season rotates.
Handled this way, Candleberries become a manageable requirement rather than a last-minute grind, and you avoid wasting them on low-yield conversions while the event rewards are still available.
