The Patchwork outfit in ARC Raiders is one of the most coveted cosmetics in the game, largely because it recreates the rugged, desert-worn look your Raider wears during the opening tutorial. Embark Studios made it the signature reward for completing the Expedition Project — the game's voluntary prestige system that wipes your progress in exchange for permanent bonuses and exclusive cosmetics.
Quick answer: You unlock the base Patchwork skin by completing your first Expedition. The upgraded "Patchwork Evolved" variant unlocks after your second Expedition. There is no way to buy or earn Patchwork without going through the Expedition process.
How the Expedition Project works
The Expedition Project is ARC Raiders' take on a prestige mechanic. You complete a multi-step preparation process — gathering resources, hitting crafting milestones, and building out a caravan — then sign up for departure during a limited window. When the window closes, every participating Raider's profile resets simultaneously. You lose your stash, blueprints, currency, quest progress, and crafting bench upgrades.
In return, you keep any cosmetics you've earned (including Patchwork), gain a permanent stash space increase, and receive bonus skill points based on how much total value you had banked before departure. Every million coins of combined cash and stash value grants one bonus skill point, up to a maximum of five. You don't need five million to participate — even players with minimal savings still receive the skin and the stash upgrade.
Unlocking the base Patchwork outfit
The base Patchwork skin is tied to your first Expedition, regardless of when you complete it. Embark designed the system so that new players who join months or even years from now can still earn the original Patchwork by completing their first prestige cycle. The skin is not locked to a specific Expedition window, which means it functions more like a milestone reward than a limited-time exclusive.
To earn it, you need to finish all six pages of the Expedition preparation steps and sign up before the departure window closes. The preparation involves collecting specific items, completing combat and survival objectives, and accumulating resources. Dedicated players have reported finishing the entire preparation in a couple of days of focused play, though a more casual pace over a week or two is realistic.
Once the wipe happens, the Patchwork skin appears in your cosmetics inventory permanently. It persists through all future wipes.
Patchwork Evolved — The second Expedition upgrade
Completing a second Expedition unlocks an upgraded version of the outfit informally called "Patchwork Evolved." This variant adds substantial visual changes over the base version: arm armor plating, a new helmet and face mask, ammo pouches and a bullet belt across the chest, grenades and pouches on the thighs, and knee pads. The overall silhouette shifts from a scrappy survivalist look to something more heavily armored, drawing comparisons to Halo ODST and Star Wars Rogue One aesthetics.
The Evolved variant was accidentally revealed to players in late February 2026 due to a caching bug in a game update. Players who already owned the base Patchwork skin logged in to find their outfit had been replaced with the armored version, complete with a helmet that couldn't be removed through the normal toggle system. Embark had not yet officially released the skin, and the toggle options for removing the new armor pieces were not functional at the time of the bug.
The community consensus is that this was an unintentional early reveal. The Evolved additions are intended to be toggleable, meaning players should eventually be able to switch between the original Patchwork look and the armored variant. The toggle currently removes the head wrap but leaves the helmet in place — a known issue that should be resolved once the skin is officially released with the second Expedition's departure.
Customization options and the blue sleeves issue
One persistent point of community frustration is the blue arm sleeves on the Patchwork skin. The tutorial version of the outfit features a more muted, earth-toned color palette, but the unlockable Patchwork has bright blue sleeves and a red glove that many players find clashing. Embark likely made this choice for gameplay visibility reasons, as overly camouflaged skins can create balance issues in a PvPvE extraction game.
The base Patchwork skin includes toggle options for headgear (goggles, head wrap) and limited color variations. The Evolved version is expected to add two new color options and four toggle slots, though neither confirmed colorway appears to replicate the exact muted tones of the tutorial outfit. Players hoping for a perfect one-to-one match with the tutorial look may be disappointed, but the expanded toggle system should offer more flexibility than the base version provides.
Progression-based cosmetics, not FOMO
Embark's approach to Expedition rewards deliberately avoids traditional fear-of-missing-out mechanics. The Patchwork skin is not exclusive to players who participated in the first Expedition window — it's awarded for completing your first Expedition, period. Similarly, Patchwork Evolved unlocks on your second Expedition regardless of timing. A player starting the game a year from now follows the same unlock path as someone who participated on day one.
This stands in contrast to other ARC Raiders cosmetics that are genuinely time-limited. The G-Suit, awarded to players who purchased the advanced pre-order pack, remains exclusive. The Patrol skin from Season 1 Trials and the Alpino skin from Season 2 Trials are tied to specific competitive seasons. Twitch Drop cosmetics and cross-promotion skins from events like The Finals collaboration also have limited availability.
The Patchwork system instead functions as a visual indicator of how many Expeditions a player has completed. Spotting someone in the Evolved variant tells you they've prestiged at least twice. If the pattern continues, future Expeditions will likely add further armor layers or customization options to the same base outfit, creating a progressively more battle-worn appearance over time.
What the Patchwork skin signals in-game
Wearing Patchwork carries social weight in ARC Raiders. Because it requires a full account wipe to earn, it immediately communicates that the player has voluntarily given up their entire inventory and progression at least once. In the early days after an Expedition window closes, Patchwork-wearing Raiders are freshly reset — no blueprints, no high-tier gear, no upgraded crafting stations. Some players treat them as easy targets; others see them as allies worth cooperating with during the rebuilding phase.
The community remains split on whether Patchwork will become a "kill on sight" skin or a "friendly" skin. The reality is that it depends entirely on the player wearing it and the phase of the cycle they're in. Early post-wipe, Patchwork Raiders tend to be more cooperative out of necessity. As they rebuild, the dynamic shifts back to normal.
The Patchwork skin system is one of ARC Raiders' more interesting design choices — tying the game's most requested cosmetic to its most consequential decision. Whether you're chasing the base version on your first Expedition or eyeing the armored Evolved variant, the path is the same: prepare your caravan, bank what you can, and let go of everything else.