4 Biggest Mistakes Arc Raiders Should Fix

Arc Raiders was called one of the best modern extraction shooters when the game initially launched. The game experienced a significant peak of concurrent players, but things have changed since then. Just a few months after launch, Arc Raiders lost a substantial number of players, and even new updates aren’t helping the game retain them. There are several things players complain about, but these are the biggest mistakes that Arc Raiders should fix. 

Cheating 

This is a huge problem not just in Arc Raiders, but in almost every live service game. However, in Arc Raiders’ case, cheating has been a large contributor to many players leaving. The game was initially advertised by many content creators, such as Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Both streamers stopped playing the game, and cheating was one of the reasons they gave for stopping. Ninja returned to Arc Raiders with the Riven Tides update, but he only lasted a few hours before citing cheating as an issue and leaving. 

Normal players have also experienced this issue, which is one of the reasons for the game’s Steam rating dropping from Very Positive to Mostly Positive, and ultimately Mixed. Social forums are also filled with players complaining about players cheating by using aimbots and wallhacks, ruining the game. The issue with cheating in an extraction shooter is that players lose their gear when they die. This forces players to grind again to obtain gear, leading to many leaving. Embark Studios has acknowledged the problem and even rolled out the Denuvo Anti-Cheat, but the problem persists. 

It’s understandable that completely stopping cheating may be a hard task, as cheaters adapt to new protocols that are put into place. However, Embark can take more initiative by continuing its enforcement and banning cheaters, as this can make others wary of abusing the game. The developer can also continue improving its anti-cheat to improve detection speed and limit cheating as much as possible.

Matchmaking 

This is another big issue with Arc Raiders, as the game’s matchmaking is significantly unpredictable. Some matches can feel PvE-heavy, and others you will have to actively look for enemies. Similarly, PvP is also random, and sometimes you will walk into a group of players looking to loot you. The major complaint in the community is that it feels like some players manipulate the aggression rating to affect the difficulty of raids. 

Embark collects gameplay data to refine the game’s matchmaking. This shows the developer is serious and improving, but players still complain about transparency and unfair lobbies. Furthermore, the issue is particularly alarming for new players who don’t have the gear required to survive hordes of enemies, but walk into a match filled with opponents. 

Embark needs to improve transparency, so players have an idea about the difficulty of the match they are loading into. The developer should also improve squad balancing, so new players aren’t outnumbered or fighting against experienced players. This is one of the more serious mistakes that needs to be fixed, as it can make or break the game.

Updates

This is a common complaint in the community, about updates taking too long to arrive and the gameplay becoming stale. It can become an even more common complaint, now that Embark has announced that there will only be two major updates per year, and Arc Raiders will get smaller live service updates regularly. While Embark has given a logical explanation for the shift, extraction shooters rely on replayability, and players may get fatigued if they have to wait too long for new content. 

Players want more maps, weapons, and events, but Embark’s new update policy will be an issue. Maps and weapons will be limited to major updates, which will only be released twice yearly. This can be an issue because there is just so much to do in an extraction shooter, and without new maps and weapons, there is less chance of retaining players.  Events, QoL changes, balancing tweaks, and other elements will still be regularly updated through live service updates.

However, the issue with regular events is that most are typically about collecting and donating items. This makes things too repetitive, reducing replayability. This update schedule has just gone into effect, and the next major update is planned for October. There are a few months left, and how players react will be seen soon. If players are driven away by the waiting period, Embark may rethink its update policy. 

Progression

This is a frequent complaint players have, where they claim early progression feels rewarding, but mid-game starts to feel more like a grind. This makes sense as players are likely to hit the ceiling with upgrades, and then loot, blueprints, and enemies all feel repetitive. Crafting requires too many resources, and collecting the resources becomes a chore. Similarly, blueprints allow players to upgrade weapons, but you must grind to get them.

Some players even go as far as to claim that, after a time, the grind becomes homework towards progression. Leveling also becomes slower over time, and balancing changes make progression feel long. This is particularly an issue for newer players, who are just starting to play Arc Raiders. This may also drive them away if they feel they must grind too much to advance in the game. 

Embark can change this by making progression feel more rewarding, but offering unique items or reducing the amount of grind needed to get blueprints and resources. Loot can also be scaled better, so players get higher-tier items faster. The developer can make long-term progression meaningful so players can immerse themselves in the path.