I didn't hit reset on a whim. I'd been staring at my stash like it was a museum, scared to touch anything, and that's when it clicked: I wasn't playing, I was preserving. Before I wiped, I sold off what I could, took one last look at the blueprints, and even browsed ARC Raiders Items just to sanity-check what I'd be walking away from. Then I pressed the button. The screen went dark, my progress vanished, and I woke up broke in a clean Speranza with nothing but time and a point to prove.
What You Actually Keep
People call the wipe "losing everything," but that's not the full story. You're swapping temporary loot for stuff that sticks. The extra permanent stash space is the one you feel every single session, because it changes how you plan raids and what you bother bringing home. The skill point bump matters too, not because it makes you a superhero, but because it lets you hit your early unlocks without that awkward stretch where every choice hurts. Even the small boosts, like faster repairs and smoother XP, add up once you're back in the loop and running routes without thinking about it.
Early Points: Don't Get Cute
After the wipe, the fastest way to stall out is pretending you're doing a "fresh start" build. You aren't. You're speedrunning your own comeback. I put my early points into the Breaching tree first, and it paid off immediately. Getting into secured containers is where the run turns from scraping by to stacking blueprints. I see folks dumping points into raw damage and wondering why they're still poor. You can win fights and still lose the run if you can't open the stuff that prints value.
Cold Snap Changes the Rhythm
With Cold Snap active, the map isn't just a backdrop, it's the timer. You can feel the pressure when the wind picks up and you realise you've got a short window before the cold starts chewing through you. I started treating warmth like ammo: always top it off, always know the next shelter, don't get greedy. Indoors becomes your reset button, and short hops beat heroic sprints. For gear, I like something steady at mid-range and a panic option up close, but the sneaky lifesaver is fire. A Molotov isn't only for flushing someone out; it buys you breathing room when the weather wants you dead.
Getting Back to "Fun" Faster
The weird part is how quickly the second climb feels better than the first. You're not wandering, you're choosing. You know which rooms are worth the risk, which routes keep you warm, and when to bail instead of donating your kit. If you don't have the time to grind yourself out of the broke phase, I get why some players look for shortcuts, and I've seen people grab cheap ARC Raiders BluePrint so they can spend their nights actually raiding instead of counting scraps and praying for one decent drop.
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