The ongoing support for ARC Raiders has seen the extraction shooter change in a variety of ways, with updates and patches attempting to address fan concerns. Recently, the 1.36 update has been responsible for the biggest changes the game has seen yet, deliberately targeting systems that players have had problems with since the title launched. With a number of problems commonly driving fan complaints in ARC Raiders, hopefully this update will put some audience concerns to rest through new features.
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Developer Embark Studios have faced a variety of issues with ARC Raiders, namely with cheating being so rampant across all of its modes. Players have notoriously used multiple tools to gain an upper hand in matches, from duplicating items to using third-party software to circumvent in-game systems. With controversies around matchmaking and AI use in the game too, ARC Raiders has been a subject of discourse for a long time, making this update even more impactful due to the attention already on the game.
Arc Raiders Update 1.36 Overhauls Matchmaking Systems With Various Quality-Of-Life Improvements
The changes targeted by ARC Raiders‘ 1.36 update were mostly to the game’s matchmaking, finally implementing systems that were rumored and tested some time ago. The extraction shooter has long been divided in its player base, since the title is split largely into PvE and PvP modes that create a lot of preferred match types between players. Some people generally prefer to never face another player, while others thrive in the competition that PvP can create.
The problem is, the cheating is most rampant in PvP, and matchmaking has always made competition in that mode unbalanced, with beginners often having to face veterans consistently. Patch 1.36 attempts to fix this by integrating a “aggression-based matchmaking system,” or a feature that filters players based on how they behave in different modes. For example, a player who doesn’t engage in combat with others is more likely to get placed in PvE lobbies, rather than a PvP area with highly aggressive opponents.
This system tracks your behavior, molding your experience to fit your play style rather than skill level in modes you don’t want to participate in. Past iterations of this feature were a bit spotty, sometimes making it hard for players of varying group sizes to accurately find the lobbies they wanted. Now, the matchmaking tracks your playstyle separately based on your group size, with Solo, Duo, and Trio groups all have their own categorization when you try to find places to enjoy the changes to ARC Raiders.
This way, a player who likes a friendly Solo lobby can have that, while also being able to jump into fierce PvP battles when joining up with friends in a Duo or Trio squad. With new features like The Fourth Expedition also coming to the 1.36 update, this matchmaking twist is more important than ever, giving players better ways to engage with fresh content. To make matters even better, some of the lobbies that players now get matched into more accurately have been modified to provide better experiences that better pair with your preferences.
Other Changes To Established Game Modes Could Create The Most Refined Version Of Arc Raiders Yet
PvE and PvP lobbies have been altered through the matchmaking changes, becoming different to suit players looking for a specific setting to play in. For example, the Night Raid and Close Scrutiny maps now have a “No Free Loadout” requirement, ensuring that players with kitted out loadouts are prioritized for matches in that area. This creates a higher level of competition and danger, creating the perfect zone for aggressive PvP players to dive into. Entering this space means you’ll always encounter an enemy player with some form of loadout, making fights harder for players looking for that type of challenge.
Extra map conditions are set to be expanded in the future, perhaps building spaces for better PvP rewards or calmer PvE zones for other players. Either way, this makes the matchmaking changes even more important, as they will be able to filter players into these modified regions more and more as new parameters are introduced. Other progression system tweaks fix other problems in ARC Raiders, giving players extra reasons to jump into the matchmaking in the first place.
Optional resets and Store redesigns are slowly but surely improving the extraction shooter, even if the aggression-based matchmaking system is where player focus is right now. This represents a good step forward from Embark Studios, who are managing to keep the diversity of the game’s various modes, while putting more agency into player hands to go into the match types they want. With this long-held fan issue hopefully on the right track, ARC Raiders can start prioritizing other complaints, namely the cheating that still plagues its lobbies.
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