The Flickering Flames event in ARC Raiders hits different this time round, and if you have already jumped in you probably felt that pressure straight away, with the timer always breathing down your neck while you are trying to grab Merit and chase down ARC Raiders Items in the same run. It is really easy to burn out if you just drop in, sprint at the first icon on the HUD, and hope it all works out. The runs that actually feel smooth usually start before the drop, when you and your squad take thirty seconds to look at the map, talk through who is going where, and treat Merit and Candleberries as one shared plan instead of two separate grinds.

Planning Routes That Actually Work

Once you start paying attention to the map, you notice how often people waste time jogging miles for a single Candleberry, then double back for an objective, then get stuck in some random fight they never wanted. The better play is to pick a route that threads through those little pockets where berries spawn close together, then bends toward a mission that pays out solid Merit at the end. You are basically asking yourself, every few minutes, "If I move there, do I get something for free on the way." Staying out of obvious PvP magnets helps too unless you really want that fight; a ten minute brawl over nothing feels great only until you see the scoreboard and realise your timer is cooked.

Choosing Missions That Fit Your Mood

The event throws a lot of icons at you, but not every mission is worth it when you only care about progress. If you are on form and your aim feels good, combat missions are kind of perfect, because steady waves of enemies just drip Merit into your pocket while you move through the area. On quieter days, or if you are queueing solo, it is often smarter to lean into exploration tasks instead. They can feel slower, sure, but there is way less chance of getting third-partied and dropping your haul to a team you never even saw coming. Keep an eye on those rotating Merit multipliers as well, because skipping a boosted objective is basically walking past free currency.

Making The Most Of A Squad

Running the event alone is doable but the whole thing settles into place once you have even one reliable teammate. The easiest upgrade is splitting jobs: one player stays focused on clearing bots and keeping the area safe, while another keeps their eyes glued to the ground for Candleberries and other loot so nobody is wandering in circles. Good ping discipline matters more than people think; marking a cluster of berries or a rough enemy position keeps everyone flowing in the same direction instead of collapsing into one noisy blob. Swapping a bit of your usual damage gear for movement, climb, or stamina bonuses can feel strange at first, but you notice the difference after a couple of runs when you are clearing more ground and hitting more objectives per hour.

Small Tweaks That Add Up

After a while you start to see little patterns that make each run feel cleaner. Maybe your squad always rotates clockwise round the map, maybe you agree to bail on any fight that drags past a certain point, or you set a rule that no one backtracks for a single berry once you have moved on. Using terrain and environmental hazards to thin out enemy groups saves ammo and time, which means you can push deeper into the zone instead of resetting early. If you treat each attempt as a test run, change one small thing each time, and build a route that fits the way you actually like to play, you will stack Merit, scoop up resources, and quietly pull ahead of most players still running in random circles looking for how to buy ARC Raiders gear in the first place.