The Flickering Flames event has come back to ARC Raiders and it hits a lot harder this time, so if you are jumping in you very quickly realise you cannot just sprint around at random grabbing Merit and ARC Raiders Items and hope it works out. The timer is always there in the corner, pushing you on, and if you try to clear every marker you see you end up stressed and half empty handed. The best runs I have had came when my squad actually paused in the lobby, looked at the map, and agreed on one clean loop we were going to follow before we even dropped in.

Planning Routes Around Candleberries

The biggest change for me was treating Candleberries like the main resource, not a little extra you pick up on the way. You do not want to chase a single berry across a valley when there is a cluster two turns away. Once you start spotting the high density pockets, you can link them into a route that feels almost like a racetrack, and you just run that line over and over. I also try to snake that route past at least one solid Merit objective so we are never just roaming for no reason. You see a lot of players sprint straight into busy PvP zones because the marker is shiny, then they get stuck in a ten minute brawl and walk out with nothing but a repair bill.

Picking Missions That Actually Pay Off

Mission choice matters more than the game tells you on the surface. If you are confident with your aim and your movement, the combat heavy missions can be amazing, because steady waves of enemies drip feed Merit and you clear goals without thinking too hard about it. On nights when I am tired or playing solo though, I avoid those and lean on exploration style tasks, slow but steady stuff where I am not gambling my whole haul on one bad third party push. It is also worth checking the rotating Merit bonuses before you queue, because when a certain task has a multiplier on it, that becomes the anchor for the next few runs and everything else bends around that.

Why Squads Beat Solo Runs

Running alone can work, but the event is clearly tuned around squads that halfway know what they are doing. When my group is on, we give people loose roles so we are not all chasing the same targets: one player handles crowd control and keeps the bots off our backs, one focuses on sweeping up Candleberries and opening containers, and the third floats between them, spotting threats or covering gaps. We spam pings more than voice half the time, just to mark routes, rare drops, or enemy teams, and after a few runs the whole thing starts to feel like a routine. You also feel the difference when you switch to gear that helps with sprint speed, climbing, or sliding instead of pure damage, because shaving a few seconds off every climb adds up fast over a long run.

Small Tricks That Add Up Over Time

Once you have the basics down, a lot of the edge comes from tiny habits rather than some secret trick. I try not to double back unless I absolutely have to, I avoid obvious sniper hills when I am carrying a big haul, and I use environmental hazards more than grenades to save ammo during longer sessions. You start to feel when a run is turning bad as well, and it is better to bank what you have than push your luck and throw everything away on one last greedy fight. If you keep that mindset and treat each drop like a short, focused job instead of an endless grind, the event feels a lot less exhausting and you end up clearing milestones faster than most players who rush in to buy ARC Raiders weapons without ever changing how they play.