Arc Raiders players have torn through the game like a pack of ravenous, apricot-devouring hyenas in the three weeks since launch. Steam achievement data shows that 39% of players have earned more than 1 million in loot value, and 16.5% have safely descended the elevator and/or subway back to Speranza more than 100 times.
Embark Studios has a hit on its hands, but the community is figuring out the game quickly. In the first week, the Arc were seen as fearsome, clever threats. In the second week, I was seeing players surf them for sport and dunk on them with creative zipline/mine techniques.
Meaningful Expeditions
Sean Martin, Senior Guides Writer: So far, Arc Raiders has done a brilliant job of making each run feel meaningful, whether through quests, map modifiers, or the big events like breaking open Stella Montis, but currently it feels like we’re lacking in some form of meta progression. Sure, we have Expeditions for people who want to reset at the end of every season, but in my opinion, I don’t think they’re quite rewarding enough as it stands.
Each Expedition provides advantages that can be increased by taking part in subsequent Expeditions, but these rewards also appear to lapse if you don’t do that. Quite a few people don’t think it’s worth it because they lose all their blueprints, for example—why not let us unlock one blueprint we already have permanently (perhaps randomly to make it fair) when we do an Expedition? Why not let us have an additional skill point above the level cap, say, up to a max? In the original Expedition post, Embark talked about potential “Permanent account unlocks for each completed Expedition” but that no longer seems to be the case—we won’t entirely know until December rolls around.
Some players don’t see the need to be rewarded for prestige and just playing the game, while others, like me, who see this game in its context as a seasonal live service shooter, want some kind of worthwhile incentive for putting the extra time in. Neither is right or wrong—I just think we ultimately need a bit more info about Expedition Projects than what is currently in the game, so each of us can decide whether it’s worth it to take part.
More verbs & systems
Evan Lahti, Strategic Director: Arc Raiders isn’t a persistent sandbox like one of its progenitors, DayZ, but it could take a page from its book and give players a wider set of things to do and ways to interact, not just more stuff within its existing systems. Some quick ideas that come to mind:
- Arc hacking, the ability to take over or even control some Arc remotely with advanced equipment
- More buildable temporary structures like barricades, such as gun emplacements or radar
- Being able to formally team up with strangers and create spontaneous squads in solo
- Handheld detectors for certain resources
- Friendly Arc that follow you around or provide additional inventory space
- Placeable surveillance cameras or listening devices
- Fishing, because every game benefits from a fishing system, right?
A photography system
Evan Lahti, Strategic Director: More specifically, what about a photo mode or equippable camera that players can bring into maps?
Have you seen the Arc Raiders war photographer? It turns out that Arc Raiders looks pretty cool through the lens of organic battle footage, and they’re only using the binoculars item to film with. I can imagine an entire questline that involves snapping photos of Arc in the wild, during certain weather conditions, or going on a visual scavenger hunt for hidden graffiti and left-behind relics, as some of the current quests already have you do. Photo systems are also a source of player-created marketing—players make machinima and shareworthy visuals that they inevitably share.
Keep churning out deadly Arc
Evan Lahti, Strategic Director: Alerting a Shredder as a solo player currently feels like a death sentence. They’re more durable than the fragile pops (dispatched with one shot of an Anvil), have surprising range with their shrapnel spray, and can chase you around the claustrophobic Stella Montis map pretty effectively. More of this, please.
I worry that otherwise, the roster of Arc are losing their edge. Leapers can’t touch you if you’re indoors. Sentinels and turrets simply need to be shot. Rocketeers, though best avoided, can be soloed by a savvy player with access to good cover and something as simple as an Anvil. Wolfpacks are a craftable, fire-and-forget way of dispatching the biggest Arc. To continue to stoke the spontaneous teamwork and acts of goodwill from strangers that make Arc Raiders so fun, Embark must continue to wage war with its playerbase and deliver daunting threats.
More maps and world-changing events
Rory Norris, Guides Writer: One of the biggest strengths of Arc Raiders so far has been its maps. Each one is not only incredibly detailed and dangerous, but also unique from each other. On Dam Battlegrounds, you extract via exposed lifts on the surface, while Buried City sends you into cramped, dark metro stations. Buried City is a very urban map, while Blue Gate is almost the exact opposite outside of the tunnels.
This became even more apparent with the new Stella Montis map, which provides the most intense PvE and PvP combat yet. Set entirely inside the sprawling hallways and lobbies of an underground facility, Stella Montis is unlike any other map in Arc Raiders right now.
I’d love for post-launch support to continue to deliver new maps that offer a unique spin on Arc Raiders’ mastercrafted sandbox. However, I’d also like to see future updates alter the existing maps in some way. After all, it would quickly become unwieldy if we were treated to a new map every few months.
What if certain points of interest were changed to suit ongoing events in the story? Perhaps a location is destroyed by a brand-new Arc machine erupting from the earth, or a new area is built as we begin to reclaim parts of the surface.
Base building
Rory Norris, Guides Writer: Your room in Speranza already updates to show certain milestones you’ve accomplished or high-end loot you’ve collected, so why not take it a step further? It would fit with the overall story so far of trying to reclaim parts of the surface, anyhow.
Imagine how cool it would be to find blueprints and furniture items to spruce up a base, even if it’s just an elaborate “menu” to suit up before every run. Plus, it would also be a good use for all the random junk you find topside (some of which are already household objects), especially if you’re not dedicating materials towards the Expedition.
Co-op PvE
Morgan Park, Staff Writer: I don’t know if you heard, but the mid-2000s shooter with lots of modes and variety is coming back into fashion. I’m digging Arc Raiders, but it could use more than one format. The obvious candidate is a proper co-op mode.
Embark famously pivoted Arc Raiders away from its original pitch as a purely co-op shooter because it didn’t think it was fun enough. Turns out that was the good call, but I’d play the PvE-only version of Arc Raiders in a heartbeat. The mode I have in mind isn’t just the base extraction game without human adversaries, it could be a linear Left 4 Dead-style campaign set on smaller maps, a horde mode with upgrades, or any number of sticky objective types yanked from Helldivers 2.
Morgan Park, Staff Writer: The bones of Arc Raiders are good enough that I think it’d make an excellent platform for custom game types. Let players go wild with those maps and devise a persistent, Rust-like survival mod, or Trouble in Terrorist Town, or Arc Raiders except other players control the Arc.
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