If you have been spending your evenings buried in ARC Raiders' Cold Snap event, you have probably already bumped into the Flickering Flames Reward Track and started thinking about how it fits in with your favourite ARC Raiders Items loadouts. At first glance it looks a bit fiddly, but the core idea is simple enough: everything you do gives XP, and that XP slowly turns into Merit. The usual rate sits around one Merit for every 100 XP, so you can sort of feel the bar moving as you play. The nice thing is you are not locked into one "right" way to progress; you do not have to live in sweaty PvP lobbies if that is not your thing, because the game pays out for quieter scavenger runs too.
You quickly notice that hunting ARC machines is the steadiest way to stack Merit. They are everywhere, they do not argue, and a machine-heavy zone can pump out XP without another player ever showing up. PvP fights do add a chunk on top, sure, but they cut both ways. You lose a long run and that missed extraction bonus really stings. Extraction is where the big payout sits: get out alive with a half-decent haul and you watch the XP jump. That is why a lot of players calm down their playstyle, move slower, clear areas, and only take fights they are likely to win. Even the boring stuff like looting containers, tapping every crate, and grabbing random junk matters, because each tiny XP tick nudges the Merit bar.
The Flickering Flames track runs through 25 levels, and it is not just filler. Early on, around 600 Merit, you pick up the Hi-Tech Hiker Outfit, which fits the whole frozen wasteland vibe without looking ridiculous. As you keep climbing, roughly between 1,200 and 2,400 Merit, you start pulling in Candleberries. Those look minor on paper, but they are huge if you care about seasonal projects and crafting routes. At 3,000 Merit you unlock the "Check Compass" emote, which sounds small but ends up being a nice bit of character for chill runs with friends. Push deep into the track and it gets more flashy: at 10,800 Merit you grab a Yellow Camo colour that really pops, and if you make it all the way to 15,000 Merit you get the Space Wrench skin, which is basically the "yep, I was here all season" badge.
Candleberries are where a lot of players quietly struggle. They only show up in natural spots like bushes during Cold Snap weather, so you can not just brute-force them by fighting more. You end up doing these odd detours, checking tree lines and little pockets of vegetation while the storm howls around you. The reward track handing you a few batches is a big deal, because it takes the pressure off pure farming runs. Still, if you want to keep your seasonal projects rolling, you kind of have to build a habit: whenever you see a bush or a clump of plants, you go over and check it, even if your backpack is already a mess. Most people end up dropping half the junk later, but the important bit is the XP tick and the chance at more berries.
The best way to approach Cold Snap is to treat each match like a little loop: some bots, some looting, then a calm exit, rather than chasing every red dot on the radar while dreaming of highlight clips and ignoring how much Merit you might lose. If you plan your route so you sweep through machine-heavy zones, cut past a few likely Candleberry spawns, and then angle towards a safe extraction, you usually come out ahead over a full evening. People who tunnel-vision on PvP might have more wild stories, but they often end up staring at a stalled reward track. The players who take a slower, more methodical route, keep an eye on seasonal materials, and lean on a solid set of buy ARC Raiders weapons tend to hit the big milestones without burning out.