Arc Raiders is Testing PvE Only This October
And They Said It Would Never Happen...
Embark Studios
ARC Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure, set in a lethal future earth, ravaged by a mysterious mechanized threat known as ARC.
When Arc Raiders was first announced in 2021 at The Game Awards, it was supposed to be a strictly PVE game, which caught my eye and really made me excited because I'm old; gaming is now a hobby, not a lifestyle, and honestly, it's just fun to hang with friends in a PvE world, chat and explore while helping each other out with quests.
But when I was in my 20s, I loved PvP and PvPvE games, and hell, I was in a clan with weekly practice and scrims, and tournaments.
When Arc Raiders came out, we got an expanded game type, with it becoming PvPvE, which turned a lot of PvE players off, but the charm of the universe, weapons and grind pulled people in from all gaming types.
You could tell there was something special about Arc Raiders because it became a game of chance with VoIP being your biggest tool...At least for me, that is. I was so into meeting people and planning attacks on larger ARCs with complete strangers that I even went out and bought a new dynamic mic for the game.
But with this new game sweeping the industry, two different play styles emerged and created tension in the PvPvE game. We had our friendly PvE players looking to complete quests, help others take down HUGE ARCs and goof around, while on the other hand we had straight-to-the-point PvPers who raided for strictly gain and progression.
Now there is nothing wrong with either of these playstyles because different people equal different experiences, but the PvE side wished they could just queue for PvE only.
Well, from October 13 to October 20, Embark Studios is testing a PvE-only matchmaking setting for their game to test and get feedback for the idea in hopes of rebuilding the PvE numbers back up.
Posted today (Sept.24th/2026) on their blog, they have shared the vision, some stats and the goal of this test.
Now, after my first expedition and doing all the quests when the game came out, I parted ways with the game because I burned out on the grind. but this has me excited once again to return to Speranza as a part-time raider!