Arc Raiders clears up the mystery of Trials, explaining the challenges are unfortunately harder than they first appear: 'Here's the 101'

I finally got to level 15 a few days ago in Arc Raiders, and my reward? Unlocking more tasks to complete. Now that's not a bad thing, I love completing little missions in exchange for trinkets, but at first glance Arc Raiders' Trials seemed easier than they turned out to be.

Trials provides more challenges for players to complete during excursions, like damaging Hornets, searching new wave husks, or destroying Ticks, Fireballs, and Pops, alongside the quests that different raiders from Speranza give you. For each challenge, there are three milestones at 1,000 points, 2,500 points, and 4,000 points, and each milestone will reward you with a better mystery prize.

At first, I thought that these were easier quests that I could simply tick off my to-do list without thinking too much about it, and while challenges at the lower levels aren't too difficult, it often takes a dedicated run to complete them.

This is because you don't gather progress over multiple runs, you have to complete the challenge in one go. "Raider Trials have raised a few questions, so here's the 101," an official Arc Raiders social media post says. "Progress only counts per single surface raid you safely extract from, numbers don’t add up across multiple raids. For example, to complete 'Damage Hornets', you’ll need to deal 4000 damage to those pesky ARC units in one single surface scuffle."

This has meant that the only challenge I've actually completed so far has been damaging Hornets, and I had to set out to Dam Battlegrounds with no other intention but to hunt these specific Arcs down and destroy them.

Luckily, like other quests, squadmates can also contribute to the end number, a fact I only found out when I kept getting pop-ups for searching first wave husks only to turn around and see one of my mates rustling around in a Queen corpse.

The challenges may not be easy, but it's still nice to have a set of new objectives every week, besides gathering loot. Plus, the more you complete, the higher your rank gets, and you'll face harder challenges with better rewards.

"At the end of the Trials season, you will be granted rewards based on your final rank," the post continues. "More clarification will be added to this section in-game to help rookies find their way. Keep at it, Raiders, only the bravest can climb to the top."

It looks like most of the rewards will be headgear, outfits, backpack charms, emotes, and bags, nothing outstandingly brilliant, but a nice reward for hard work well done, nevertheless, especially for those of us who enjoy the mindless act of collecting cosmetics.