Claim ARC Raiders Twitch Drops during Riven Tides by linking Twitch to Embark ID, watching Drops-enabled streams, and grabbing the limited Floppy Disk and Buoy Backpack Charms.
ARC Raiders is leaning hard into its Riven Tides mood right now, and yeah, the new coastal look is nice, but most players are really here for the limited Twitch Drops. That's the bit people don't want to miss. If you already keep an eye on community streams or even browse sites like EZNPC when looking at game items and player extras, this event fits right into that same collector mindset. The current drop campaign began on April 28, 2026, and it runs through May 26, 2026. There are only two rewards in the pool this time, which honestly makes the whole thing much easier to track. Watch for 1 hour and you get the Floppy Disk Backpack Charm. Stay for 2 hours total and the Buoy Backpack Charm unlocks after that.
How the watch time actually worksThe good news is you don't need to park yourself in one stream for a straight two-hour session. Twitch counts the time cumulatively, so you can dip in and out whenever it suits you. Ten minutes on your lunch break, half an hour later that night, then another stream the next day. It all adds up. The only thing that matters is that the channel has Drops enabled. You'll usually see that label on the stream page, so it's easy enough to check before you waste time watching the wrong broadcast. If you bounce between creators, that's fine too. A lot of players do that anyway, especially when they're trying to find someone whose gameplay is actually worth sticking around for.
Linking your account before anything elseThis is where loads of people trip up. They watch long enough, expect the reward to appear, and then nothing happens. Most of the time, the issue isn't Twitch at all. It's the account link. You need your Twitch account connected to your Embark ID, otherwise the system has nowhere to send the items. Head into Twitch settings, open the Connections section, and make sure Embark ID is linked to the profile you actually use in ARC Raiders. Sounds obvious, but plenty of players still end up attaching an old account by mistake. That's the kind of small mess that turns a free reward into a support ticket, and nobody wants that.
Claiming the rewards properlyAnother thing people forget: progress alone isn't enough. Once your watch bar reaches 100%, you still need to open the Twitch Drops Inventory page and hit Claim. If you don't, the reward just sits there waiting. It won't magically show up in your loadout. A lot of players leave that tab open in the background so they can grab the drop the second it becomes available. If you've claimed both charms and they still don't appear in-game, restart the client first. That fixes it more often than not. It's a small step, but it usually saves you from assuming something's broken when the inventory just hasn't refreshed yet.
Why these drops are worth grabbingNo, these charms won't help you survive a bad fight or give you any edge against the machines. They're cosmetic, plain and simple. Still, event cosmetics have a way of sticking in people's minds, especially when they're tied to a specific update window. Months from now, players will spot them and know exactly when you were around. That's part of the appeal. They're quick to earn, easy to miss if you leave it too late, and they sit nicely alongside other collectible ARC Raiders iteams that players keep an eye on when they want their setup to look a bit more personal before the May 26 deadline closes everything off.
