Arc Raiders has a scheduling problem, and it's only gotten worse with Bird City: "Hey, unemployed people, are you enjoying the new map event?"

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Arc Raiders has a scheduling problem, and it's only gotten worse with Bird City: "Hey, unemployed people, are you enjoying the new map event?" News By Anthony McGlynn published 30 January 2026

Players in Europe are in an awkward spot

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The Headwinds update for Arc Raiders brought a plague of birds to Buried City, with the map becoming full of feathery friends at particular intervals. Unfortunately, the schedule for the bird-based calamity makes it difficult for players in certain time zones to experience it unless they’re playing during some odd hours.

Bird City, as the event is known, happens during three daily one-hour slots. For players in GMT, they are: 12:00 am - 1:00 am, 8:00 am - 9:00 am, and 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm. Every eight hours, in other words, and as you might be able to tell, less than ideal if you work a regular nine-to-five job. This has left a lot of fans feeling left out of the fun.

"Hey, unemployed people, are you enjoying the new map event?" proclaims one frustrated player on the extraction shooter's subreddit. "Considering Embark is a European company (Swedish), it's incredibly ironic how they make their new gameplay content entirely unplayable for European players," adds a commenter.

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The problem stems from rigidity. Bird City and many other Arc Raiders events occur on a set 24-hour loop, and if the timetable doesn't suit you, then you're out of luck. Plenty of the other in-game modifiers happen at greater frequency, making this less of an issue, but as this only has three possible slots, it's irritating to many.

"This is the only legitimate daily complaint. It really doesn't make any sense that events don't cycle, so everyone can eventually hit one," says another commenter on Reddit. "I'm pretty tired of the fixed schedules," a Redditor adds. "Took me forever to get a Bobcat BP because I’m a regular working stiff. I couldn't care less about trinket spawns, but it would be cool to check out without sacrificing work or sleep once or twice."

They're referencing the Bobcat blueprint that was attainable during the Locked Gate event on The Blue Gate. A remedy suggested within the community is some form of dynamic timing; instead of working off a 24-hour loop, make it 23 or 22 hours, increasing the likelihood of finding an hourly slot that suits you.

Whatever the case, Embark may need to look at some kind of solution. People are already weary of how things are currently done, and it's always a shame when players don't get a chance to partake in particular festivities.

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Arc Raiders players think they've found a new duplication exploit, and based on the 40 Tempest blueprints I've seen I think they're onto something

CATEGORIES PC Gaming PS5 Xbox Series X Platforms PlayStation Xbox Anthony McGlynnSocial Links NavigationContributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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