We’re nine days into the New Year, and instead of focusing on any resolutions that are likely redundant by now, I’ve set my sights on one of the most popular games of 2025, Arc Raiders, and what I think (and hope) is in store for players as we progress through the year.
Embark Studios hasn’t confirmed a roadmap for Arc Raiders yet, but there are some things we’re very likely to see, at the very least, before 2027 creeps up on us.
Following on from the last few months, I’d bet that raiders will get to experience new map conditions, weapons, arc mobs, raider decks, and hopefully even some new community events.
When it comes to map conditions, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a desert condition sometime in the summer, like the Cold Snap, but in reverse. I’d also like to see something like a Wacky Raid, where the arc behaviour is really weird, the mobs spawn in locations you’d usually not find them in, and the loot makes absolutely no sense for where you’d find it. It sounds fun (and horrifying) finding a leaper wedged into the hallways of Dam Control Tower, although that’s likely a pipe dream.
But you know what isn’t? New mobs. From the beginning, players have been pointing and shouting about the huge arcs that can be seen on the horizon of the maps. And Embark has even spoken about the existence of the Baron, King, and Emperor arcs, all of which are even bigger versions of the Queen and the Matriarch, so where are they?
Well, there are a few dormant Baron husks you can sort through already, but seeing the real deal alive and walking will likely take a little longer. Before Embark can introduce these huge arcs, they need to sort out their epic guns.
In Arc Raiders, you have normal, rare, and epic weapons, but the weird thing is that the basic weapons are just as good, if not better than some epic ones, and they are cheaper. No one really knows why this is, although some suspect that it’s because Embark is afraid to buff pink weapons and throw off the balance of the game. But the consequence of this is that there’s currently a ceiling on what kind of arcs players can actually take on, and I don’t think the average player right now could take on a fully fledged Baron or King with what they have in their arsenal, even with all the gun mods available.
But other than adding more goliaths to the game, I’d like to see a bunch of new little guys also. We already got a new indoor mob with Stella Montis as the Shredder has quickly made a name for itself, but why stop there?
Mobs like pops and fireballs turn walking through the buildings in Arc Raiders into a horror game. There’s nothing worse than getting swarmed by a bunch of explosive balls, only for you to also have a tick jump on your face. It’s pure chaos, and I’d like more of that, please.
But if we’re not going to get any new mobs, then I’d at least like to see a new mode or two. A PvE raid mode or even a PvP heist mode could be really cool, especially against the backdrops of Arc Raiders’ derelict maps. The raids could be like Destiny, where you have to work together to take down a huge enemy, and the heist mode could just dump a load of players in a small area with limited loot and time, raising the stakes and the tension of a game.
I’d also like to see Embark expand more on aggression-based matchmaking. In an ideal world, we’d get to know more about how it actually works, especially since the conversations around aggression-based matchmaking are likely far from over.
In the same vein, community events also need a rework. With more and more friendly PvE lobbies, more players are working together to complete tasks like opening the Bunker or taking down the Matriarch. It’s now easier than ever to complete these events, as the game clearly wasn’t built with this mass cooperation in mind. Meanwhile, if you’re a PvP player, you’re at a disadvantage in completing these events due to the aggression-based matchmaking.
And last but not least, there needs to be a rework of expeditions. I haven’t even thought of sending my raider away since PC Gamer’s senior guides writer Sean Martin said it wasn’t worth it. There’s just not enough incentive right now, and encouraging players to hoard their stash instead of using all their cool gear before the wipe seems like the wrong idea.
Arc Raiders devs have said time and time again that they thought they had something special in their hands in the lead-up to the game’s release, but I’m not sure anyone could’ve predicted just how popular it would become. I’m not saying its popularity is a bad thing, quite the opposite, but it does mean that Embark now has swathes of fans who all want different things added to the game, and they want them now.
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