We can’t say this one’s out of the blue, though, as the Free Kit option was definitely something that felt unfair to those among you who put in the work to get your build up and running from scratch. You know, like a Raider is supposed to do in the dystopian world that this one puts you in.

Well, the studio is looking to take Free Kits out of the equation, with the Night Raid or Close Scrutiny map conditions blocking them out for the next three weeks to let it evaluate its next steps. More map conditions could be added down the line if enough of you find these changes agreeable, and we think locking these two conditions to regular loadouts could make things interesting for the foreseeable future.

That might be a bummer if you counted on them to bring along on your next raid rather than risk losing all your stuff, but it’s always fun to start over in a game that’s unpredictable and entertaining as this one. Stay tuned for more updates on this change, and whether Embark will stick with it.

Embark Studios has noted that it wants to maintain a sense of uncertainty between players when they encounter each other during a raid in ARC Raiders. While this means incorporating some PvP elements, the studio has also noted that it wants to ensure that its system remains fair and offers players plenty of enjoyment, depending on their play style of choice.

“Topside works because it’s unpredictable,” explains Embark Studios. “You can never be sure if you can trust the people you meet, or how dangerous they might be. That freedom – and the uncertainty it creates – is what drives the tension, the encounters, and the choices that make every run feel like its own story.”

To achieve this, the company makes use of what it refers to as playstyle-based matchmaking, taking into account player actions from across their previous rounds to decide where they will fall in a graph of co-operative and PvP-focused players. The post has also noted that the system isn’t strictly binary, and instead works on a spectrum that tries to put players where it thinks they should be.

“This is why we see such a wide range of interactions Topside: Raiders forming impromptu musical bands and others vibing along; strangers lending a hand in a tough moment while scavengers thrive on remains; betrayals when you least expect them and justice when you need it most; firefights that start on sight – and negotiations that end with everyone walking away,” says the studio.

This also means that, while players are likely to be matched up with others with a similar focus, it is by no means a guarantee. The company has also dispelled some myths about the matchmaking system, confirming that a single errant shot wouldn’t instantly put a player into the PvP-focused side of the spectrum. Other aspects, like end-of-round feedback, loadout, patches and updates, and even looting knocked-out players, also have no bearing on a player’s matchmaking profile.

As for the changes, the studio has confirmed that its matchmaking system is getting smarter, and it can now distinguish between players defending themselves and starting fights. This means that more cautious players who only get into a fight in order to survive will no longer be treated as PvP-focused. Players finding themselves in low-activity rounds will also see their matchmaking profile be less affected when compared to rounds with more activity. Things like spawning and instantly surrendering, for example, won’t start instantly putting you into the co-operative player bucket.

ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more on how the PvPvE extraction shooter’s matchmaking works, check out what design director Virgil Watkins said about it back in February.

Buried in the patch notes was a developer note where the studio confirmed that it wanted to focus on underperforming augments and bring them up to the standards of the more popular ones. This update focused on Tactical Mk. 3 (Healing) and a small buff to Combat Mk. 3 (Flanking). We will likely see more changes made to augments in the future, depending on how the player base uses them.

“As mentioned in the patch notes for Patch 1.26, we continue to focus our sights on underperforming Augments,” wrote the studio. “In this update, we are making the Tactical Mk. 3 (Healing) Augment offers more utility in line with its place as a support-focused Augment. Now you can also heal your allies (and your enemies, if you’re not careful) after being revived. We also increased the survivability potential of the Combat Mk. 3 (Flanking) to make it more viable as a flanking combat Augment.”

The studio has been taking steps to boost underutilized tools rather than bring in nerfs for those that might be considered popular. This decision has likely made the player base quite happy, since it means that the popular Survivor augment hasn’t seen any changes made to it, at least for now.

The same update also brought in a brand new weapon for players to use—the Rascal. The weapon is a new sidearm, and Embark Studios has said that it makes for a great anti-ARC weapon for players who don’t want to waste one of their larger slots to carry a Hullcracker.

The update also introduced a brand new faction for players to interact with—the Nomadic Envoys. Part of the new faction is the trader, Ermal, who has a variety of items on a weekly rotation up for sale, including cosmetics, blueprints, and Raider Tokens, among other things. The arrival of the Nomadic Envoys also marks a continuation of the story that ARC Raiders has been telling in subtle ways through NPC interactions and updates.

In the meantime, Nexon revealed during its recent earnings report that ARC Raiders has managed to sell 4.6 million copies in the last quarter, with the extraction shooter’s lifetime sales sitting at more than 16 million.

“Extraordinary worldwide sales have made ARC Raiders the most successful new product release in company history, and demonstrated that Nexon can deliver games at scale across global markets,” said the company. “Six months after the launch, and driven by a steady stream of content updates, ARC Raiders surpassed 16 million unit sales worldwide and consistently ranked among the top games on Steam’s most-played chart.”

ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out how the studio plans to move its update cadence to releasing two major updates every year.

The trader brings a series of items that will be available on a weekly rotation, including cosmetics, blueprints, Raider Tokens, and gameplay and progression items. The update also brings in other additions, like a new weapon – the Rascal – and a new Extended Barrel mod improvement.

The Rascal is a grenade launcher designed by Tian Wen. It’s lightweight and easy to carry, with its major drawback being the slow reload speed and unpredictable accuracy. Despite being a sidearm, it offers substantial anti-ARC firepower without raiders needing to carry a Hullcracker.

Raiders that have managed to reach level 25 can also use high-value ARC materials and stockpiled rare weapons to barter for special upgrades, like an expansion to Stash space that will reset after an Expedition, and access to the Expedition Vault. The latter allows players to store up to five of their items that can be retrieved post-Expedition.

“For the first week, a single Stash expansion and five Expedition vault spaces will be available to gather initial feedback and give us a chance to adjust prices before adding more space,” explained the studio.

Embark Studios has also revealed that it will be bringing Denuvo Anti-Cheat to ARC Raiders from today onwards. While initially released to a limited pool of players, there are plans to expand it to the entire player base after close monitoring. The decision was spurred by the successful anti-cheat system in THE FINALS, but it doesn’t have plans to use Denuvo’s DRM service.

For more details about the update, check out the full patch notes below. ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and has sold over 16 million copies to date.

ARC Raiders update 1.29.0 patch notes:

What’s New?

• New Trader – Ermal
• New Weapon – Rascal
• Mod Improvement: Extended Barrel
• End of Round Changes
• The Sandveil Set
• Facial Hair Style – Sideburns
• The Sheath Set will be available on June 2nd

Balance Changes

ARC

• Increased the granularity of ARC vision through bushes and smokes, rewarding strategic positioning. Raiders near the edge of cover are now easier to spot, while those deeper in foliage or behind smoke are harder to detect.
• Improved how ARC perceives sound in open outdoor spaces, while reducing their sensitivity to sounds in indoor environments and those passing through geometry.

Firefly

• Improved how the Firefly applies fire. The effect now matches the visuals more closely, and briefly grazing the flame no longer feels as punishing, reducing the sensation of being hit around corners.

Rocketeer

• When the Rocketeer shoots several missiles at once, they are now consistently spread out over a larger area to prevent unfair situations where multiple missiles hit the same location.

Gameplay

• Reduced the power cost of Photoelectric Cloak from 10/s to 5/s.

Augment

• The Cloud of Renewal effect on the Tactical Mk. 3 (Healing) Augment has been changed to an AoE effect.
• The Cloud of Renewal healing has been increased from 20 to 45.
• The cooldown on Cloud of Renewal has been increased from 30s to 45s.
• Changed the shield capacity on Combat Mk.3 (Flanking) Augment to accept Medium Shields.

Weapons

• Bettina Base Fire Rate has been increased from 235 to 250.

Weapon Mods

• Weapon mods can now affect aim-down-sights transition speed for scoped weapons.
• Extended Barrel:
  • Bullet Velocity Bonus has been increased from 25 to 30%.
  • Increased the damage fall off distance by 15%.
  • Renamed to Extended Barrel III.
  • Added new mesh.
  • Added 2 lower tier variants:
    • Extended Barrel I
    • Extended Barrel II

Content and Bug Fixes

ARC

General

• Fixed an issue where flying ARC could get stuck.
• Queen and Matriarch will now more often step over things than through them, reducing the amount of times players suffer unfair knockback.
• When Raiders first spawn into a session, ARC will be less perceptive of them and less likely to engage.
• Fixed some instances of ARC spawning in unexpected locations.

ARC Turbine

• Fixed ARC Turbine legs becoming invisible in odd angles.
• Improved ARC Turbine probability of finding good angles for the legs when landing.
• Improved ARC Turbine landing positioning to mitigate visual clipping issues.
• Increased the odds of Raiders getting burned by the ARC Turbine when inside of it.

Animation

• Updated cloth physics on character outfits for more natural movement.
• Fixed an issue causing some ARC weapon rotations to snap and appear laggy.
• Fixed an issue where items would clip into Field Crates when picked up while holding a gadget.
• Fixed the inspect animation for the Metal Detector.

Audio

• Reduced how much sounds are lowered while taking damage.
• Added a distinct sound when Bastion and Bombardier switch targets.
• Added comb filtering to footsteps and movement sounds to achieve clearer perception of distance, elevation and movement direction.
• Improved binaural audio to make it easier to distinguish the height and elevation of sounds.

Cosmetics

• Ongoing work to unify character texture settings for better performance and more visual consistency.

Gameplay

• Players are now immune to stuns while entering a Raider Hatch, preventing interruptions when returning to Speranza.
• Fixed an issue where downed players could move out of bounds.
• Fixed an issue where pressing fire during certain actions like dodgeroll or climbing wouldn’t buffer fire.

General

• Fixed an issue where players would be teleported when standing on destroyed ARC parts.
• Fixed an issue where characters could float when disconnecting in mid-air.
• Fixed an issue where the Expedition timer was not showing the correct duration.

Items

• Agave Juice now Quick Moves into available Quick Use slots instead of the Backpack, and will not be unloaded from Backpack when emptying it.
• Free loadout Augment sell price: 100 -> 660.

Maps

General

• Fixed low-res textures, odd spray paint decals, and a misaligned wall in tunnel and highway areas.
• Fixed overly dark shading on vent materials to improve visibility.

Riven Tides

• Fixed a balcony structure clipping into a hotel doorway that could block passage.
• Fixed floating objects and improved rope visuals and physics.
• Fixed a misaligned balcony in the hotel lobby and missing wall collision at Room 207.

Stella Montis

• Polished environment textures and fixed collision issues.

Social

• Added an option to block players after reporting.
• Fixed an issue where voice chat could fail when opening the console UI on PS5/Xbox.
• End of Round Changes
  • Raiders will now be able to see all squad members at the end of the round whether they extracted successfully or not.
  • Interacting with the squad member’s name plate will display a range of social actions that can be taken, which include reporting, muting or blocking the player.
  • Players will also be able to immediately leave the squad in the tunnel sequence.

Stability & Performance

• General performance and stability improvements.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the loading screen to remain stuck.

UI

• Added information to the Crash Mat tooltip to showcase the additional safe fall height gain.
• Deployable previews now show occluded portions with a striped overlay, making placement easier.
• Fixed an issue where pinging an ARC Turbine as it entered the map could cause the ping marker to behave erratically.

Utility

• Removed unintended delay after cancelling a Trigger ‘Nade throw during which the grenade could not be thrown or triggered.
• Fixed an issue where throwing grenades could not be cancelled.
• Cancelling deployment of Pulse Mine or Gas Mine no longer consumes the item.
• Fixed an issue where the ‘Use Zipline’ prompt was missing, preventing interaction at close range.
• Fixed an issue where vaulting could trigger while moving upward or while standing on the ground with the Powered Descender active.
• Fixed an issue where the Surge Coil would not damage teammates of the player who placed it.

Known issues

• Opening the console menu on PS5/Xbox while matchmaking causes the matchmaking to be cancelled.
• The Sandveil outfit scarf may appear stretched with long hairstyles clipping through.
• Players can fall from the map by walking near the wall of the Pilgrim Peak’s building.
• Successful Extraction music plays in the background when the new Trader Introduction video is shown to the player after they return to the main menu.
• Characters in Squad Walk screen may fail to appear under certain circumstances.
• Dolabra does not deal damage to training dummies on Practice Range.
• Pause on an Augment’s Regen Effect fails to apply after Player’s revival.
• The throw animation may sometimes fail to play if the player attempts to detonate a Trigger ‘Nade immediately after throwing it.
• Some localization issues across the UI, including missing text in the settings menu and loading screen quotes.
• In rare cases purchases might not work in the customization screen, reopen the customization screen to fix it.
• The Firefly may sometimes disappear after going idle and drop an incendiary grenade.
• Shredders float to the ceiling in some rooms of the Hidden Bunker.
• Player animations may appear broken when interrupting a search of the Baron Husk.
• The Leaper can jump through the ARC Turbine.

“Extraordinary worldwide sales have made ARC Raiders the most successful new product release in company history, and demonstrated that Nexon can deliver games at scale across global markets. Six months after the launch, and driven by a steady stream of content updates, ARC Raiders surpassed 16 million unit sales worldwide and consistently ranked among the top games on Steam’s most-played chart.”

If that wasn’t enough, over half of its active players have spent more than 100 hours in-game, resulting in over 1.5 billion hours, which is an “exceptionally high level of engagement.”

By all metrics, ARC Raiders seemingly has nowhere to go but up, and yet, it’s interesting to how Embark Studios is changing how it updates the game. As announced yesterday, instead of monthly updates, the team is shifting to a semi-annual cadence with the next patch, Frozen Trail, due in October.

Lest you think support is winding down, this shift is to ensure the extraction shooter can implement bigger changes, especially to progression and other systems. The next update is slated to add the title’s largest map yet with new ARC threats, weapons, tools, and more. It’s even going to kickstart a mystery surrounding the origin of the ARCs.

In the short term, a new Trader will arrive in the Rust Belt next week, offering unique rewards – including two new Perks – in exchange for “high-value items.” Embark is also committed to regularly adjusting the balance, fixing bugs, and releasing new player events, so there will be some content to log in for. It remains to be seen whether the lack of major content monthly results in a Destiny 2-like situation.

“When ARC Raiders launched, we planned to offer monthly updates. The intention was to keep you all engaged, to ensure the game always felt fresh, and to give you reasons to keep braving topside. But once the game was in players’ hands, we saw that the kind of long-term experience we want to create for ARC Raiders requires more transformative updates.

“Over time, we’ve found that the pressure of a monthly cycle limits how impactful these updates can be. You feel it, and we feel it too. Running at that pace isn’t sustainable, or compatible with the bigger ambitions we have for this game.”

The new yearly updates promise to be “larger in scale, more impactful, with the goal to genuinely change how you play the game.” Regular updates, including balance adjustments, bug fixes, events and store updates, will still be delivered at a regular cadence.

For instance, next week brings a new Trader for level 25 and above players who will exchange “high-value items” for “unique rewards, rare items, and cosmetics” that rotate weekly. You can even acquire two new Perks – extra space for the stash and the Expedition Vault to bring up to five items across (including blueprints).

Other improvements are slated for later this year. As for Frozen Trail, it adds the largest map in the game with “layered design and new mysteries.” You’ll also encounter new ARC threats with “fresh designs, and unique behaviors that will challenge Raiders in new ways”; new progression goals for those who have maxed out everything; and perhaps most intriguingly, the first steps to uncovering the ARC’s origin.

The Skill Tree will also see improvements, and you can expect new weapons, cosmetics and instruments. Of course, it’s only “just the beginning” with more details to be revealed later.

“One thing that has become increasingly clear since launch is how important progression and player goals are to the ARC Raiders experience. If you love ARC Raiders, you want more reasons to keep returning to the Rust Belt – and we want to build systems that continue evolving alongside the game,” said Embark.

“Some of the progression improvements we want to implement simply need more development time that we haven’t been able to address properly while running on a monthly cycle. Moving to larger updates allows us to spend more time refining the systems players engage with the most.”

Granted, there’s always the question of whether a live-service game can truly thrive without a regular infusion of content. Time will tell, but you can’t fault the developer for trying to add on to ARC Raiders in more meaningful ways.

Embark Studios’ Engine Lead, Robert Kihl, announced the upgrade in a post on the PlayStation Blog and elaborated on what it’s slated to bring to the table.

“The new PSSR delivers crisp visuals across all environments, doing a great job at preserving fine details. Visual artifacts such as flickering and shimmering are significantly reduced, resulting in a cleaner and more consistent picture, especially in complex scenes.”

We’ve always liked ARC Raiders from a graphical perspective, and these new changes are sure to make us all the more convinced it’s a title you should try out, even if extraction shooters aren’t your thing.

It isn’t just a cleaner image, though, as the new update will be a step up for the game’s geometry and significantly reduce ghosting. It looks like the PS5 Pro version is going to be the one to beat among the console editions of ARC Raiders, and the best part is that we don’t have to wait too long to try it out.

The Riven Tides update drops on April 28th. All that’s left is to gear up and wait impatiently for it to drop.

While not an immediate threat, it can prove extremely dangerous. How? As is tradition, you’ll have to find out first-hand. A new Map Condition also debuts in Beachcombing. It involves carrying a Dockmaster’s Detector to search for any buried loot, and while you could get lucky, the fact that it requires a weapon slot could leave you vulnerable.

Players can also make use of two new items – the Crash Mat and Powered Descender – to help mitigate fall damage. Meanwhile, the Last Resort event will run until May 25th and involves finding hidden Ship Models, which grant Merits. The rarer the model, the more the Merits, and you can unlock a new outfit, backpack, attachments, emotes and 250 Raider Tokens.

Finally, there’s the Avian Alarm Raider Project, where you’ll embark on a bird-catching adventure, setting up cages on the coast. It’s critical for unlocking the Dockmaster’s Detector, but you’ll also receive an emote, backpack attachment, Gel Patches and another 250 Raider Tokens.

As for the future, Embark Studios hasn’t outlined what’s next for the extraction shooter, beyond three more cosmetic sets in May. But with the promise of even more maps across a range of sizes in 2026, it’s clear that the battle against the ARCs (and other players) is only just beginning.

The studio discussed this change in its blog post, where it noted that “monetary value isn’t the most exciting experience.” It went on to state, “By introducing damage-based objectives and trials instead of stash value, we’re providing more freedom and variety in how you can complete the Expedition, encouraging the use of loot rather than hoarding it throughout the Expedition Window.”

Rewards for the Expedition are split into three distinct tiers, with the first one featuring the Patchwork Outfit, an Expedition indicator icon, the Janitor Cap cosmetic for Scrappy, 12 stash spaces, and between 0 and 5 skill points as permanent rewards. Departing on your second Expedition will earn you evolved versions of the outfit and icon, along with the Beanie cosmetic for scrappy, 12 more stash spaces, 0-5 skill points, and the chance to catch up on missed skill points.

The third Expedition will get you further evolutions for the outfit and the icon, the Turban cosmetic for Scrappy, 12 stash spaces (totalling up to 36), 0-5 skill points, and another chance to catch up on missed skill points.

“Finishing the third Expedition will unlock the entire Patchwork outfit, and the fourth Expedition will introduce the first step of a brand new one,” explains Embark Studios. “Looking ahead, we will continue gathering data and feedback to make adjustments and improvements to future expeditions. We hear you on rewards, and we are committed to making them more meaningful and reflective of what players actually achieve. We also understand that losing full progression is a concern for many, and we will be iterating on what gets reset and what carries over into future expeditions.”

Design director Virgil Watkins went into more detail about this change, as well as the skill tree as a whole, in an interview with Game Maker’s Notebook. He referred to the skill tree as “a tough problem space for us, and I don’t think by any means we nailed it.”

“There are definitely skills in there that are under-serving their purpose,” he continued. “Whenever possible, I don’t love things that are like small statistical changes, but they do serve a purpose. As opposed to like, ‘Oh, I have a whole new ability now, or I can do this thing now that I couldn’t do before.'”

Whether this means that Embark Studios is going to bring in some radical changes to the skill tree in ARC Raiders remains to be seen. However, the fact that Watkins has acknowledged it as being a relatively dull tree does inspire hope that we might eventually see skills that do more than just provide small stat boosts.

ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

One example used was that of a popular Twitch clip showing off how players could hide from a Leaper in tunnels, with the ARC being unable to follow due to its poor vision in constrained spaces. In response to this, Embark Studios gave Leapers improved vision so that they could better follow players into tight corridors. Flying ARCs have seemingly seen similar improvements.

“We’ve done similar things with the indoor flying behaviors,” said Singh-Blom. “We keep trying to make the flying drones better and better at flying indoors. And every time players start to think that they’re safe in some place, then it’s nice if we can figure out a way to make the drones enter that space and make it less safe.”

Rather than using data from players actively in the game, Singh-Blom explained that Embark Studios keeps the improvements it could make to the ARCs in mind all the time. Clips from the game getting popular also helps the developers figure out what they should work on next.

“It’s not like we’re training on player data,” he said. “The loop is, all the game developers look at TikToks and YouTube clips and say, ‘ Hey, that’s really cool. Could we make this change that would really make people squeal?’ And then we make the change, and then people hopefully get surprised and have a good time.”

“We hope to have more things in the future and have things in the pipeline, but they’re not ready yet.”

Singh-Blom has also spoken about improving the physics of ARC Raiders to the extent that players could get their hands on some rope to trip some of the larger ARCs. He even went as far as bringing up a comparison with the infamous Hoth battle scene from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

“Those of us who really work with the physics and make things happen with physics, of course, want more physics in the game at every turn. We want ropes to pull at legs and wires to trip them, like the Hoth invasion scene in Star Wars, where they have the speeders and wrap up the legs. We could do that if we just had better rope physics, right?”

“[The designers] tend to be much more hooked into what the game actually needs, and we tend to be much more hooked into what we want to do with this new tech. Hopefully, we get a good synthesis where we push the boundaries of what we can do, and still do things that make sense for the game.”

ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Embark Studios is currently working on a major update, planned for release at the end of April.