ARC Raiders is the latest game from Embark Studios, the developers behind the hit multiplayer game “The Finals.” It’s an extraction game that has garnered a large audience, as players praise it for its addictive gameplay loop and beginner-friendly nature. It’s almost perfect, in my opinion, as I have already put in 50 hours and don’t see me stopping anytime soon.

However, ARC Raiders is not perfect and there are changes that I would like to see in future updates. As Embark Studios has already confirmed with its content and update roadmap, the developers are hard at work to make the game as good as it can be. Still, some updates haven’t been confirmed or even talked about yet, but have been addressed by the ARC Raiders community.

This list discusses future updates we would love to see in ARC Raiders sooner rather than later. These updates focus on QoL improvements, and include changes that would benefit the game in the long run, for everyone playing.

8

Duos Only Que

For Just You and a Friend

What’s so great about ARC Raiders is that players are allowed to go into a match solo and be matched with other solo players. However, for some reason, the game doesn’t allow duos to match with other two-man teams, and instead puts you up against teams of three. No matter how skilled you and your partner are at the game, two against three is a huge mismatch and will likely result in getting downed during combat encounters.

We would love to see Embark Studios add a duos-only que to the game, allowing co-op buddies to play together, without being at a significant disadvantage against larger teams. Yes, you can add a third random person to your team, but you never know what type of player you will get. When playing with my brother, I have had tons of third teammates come in and just end up being a liability, ruining the fun. If the developers can do a solo que, why not add duos?

7

Loadout Quick Craft

Make Crafting Less Tedious

One of the most frustrating aspects of ARC Raiders is dying during a match, losing all your gear, and having to go through a ton of menus just to rebuild the loadout you previously had. ARC Raiders should add the option to quick craft a saved loadout, so you don’t have to spend so much time after a match crafting everything individually. This will make crafting feel less like a chore and reduce the frustration you feel when dying.

Even if you don’t have enough materials to craft everything in the saved loadout, this quick craft option would still craft everything that you DO have materials for. For example, if you have a shield, Zipline, bandages, Barricade Kit, and a Rattler in a saved loadout, but only have enough for a shield and bandages, this quick craft loadout button would instantly add the shield and bandages to your new loadout.

6

Craft from Logbook

Make the Logbook More Useful

ARC Raiders has a fantastic feature where you can track wanted materials, making it easy to keep track of whatever you’re trying to craft. The Logbook shows you everything that you’re tracking, and when you have enough materials for it, a large yellow bar that says “Craft” is shown at the bottom. However, for whatever reason, you can’t click the yellow craft bar and instead you have to go to the correct workbench to craft the item.

Honestly, players should be able to craft right from the Logbook, instead of having to go to a whole different menu. This would remove some of the tediousness of crafting and decrease the amount of time you spend between matches. I mean, the yellow craft bar that appears when you have all the materials even looks like a button, so much so that I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out how to press it, just to realize you can’t. Pretty odd game design choice, in my opinion.

5

PvE Only Mode

For Those Who Hate PvP

This is going to make a lot of PvP enthusiasts angry, and I get why. The constant feeling of being on edge, thinking that an enemy Raider could sneak up on you and take you out, is what makes ARC Raiders so great. Some of my best moments in ARC Raiders have been in PvP encounters. However, I do think a PvE-only mode would benefit the game, especially for those who are just trying to enjoy the loot collecting aspect.

The good thing is that ARC Raiders has enough players, recently peaking at over 400,000 players on Steam, to accommodate a PvP and a PvE mode and not have either lobby feel empty. I can even argue that more players would flock to this incredible game if PvE only mode was an option for those searching for that kind of experience. I have spoken to a handful of people who were about to get this game and then decided not to when I mentioned PvP is a focus.

4

Fix the Desync

A Frustrating Issue

If you aren’t familiar with desync, it’s essentially the transfer of information from the server to what is happening on your screen. In other words, if there is a desync issue in a multiplayer game, players may see something happen on their screen before you see it on yours. In ARC Raiders case, there is a desync issue going on, causing players to get shot through walls and taking damage when they are clearly behind cover.

This is a major issue in multiplayer games that can ruin the experience, especially in a game like ARC Raiders where the stakes are so high. Being killed by someone when you’re behind cover, and then losing all of your loot, is a terrible feeling. The worst part is when you know it’s not your fault, and you were actually playing really well, but the desync issue caused you to meet your demise. Yeah, this happened to me more than I’d like to admit.

To succeed in ARC Raiders, you have to keep your eyes peeled and listen carefully for nearby enemies and players. Failing to do so increases your chances of being snuck up on and killed, losing all your loot in the process. While the sound design in ARC Raiders is absolutely superb, an update that increases the sound of footsteps is very much needed and will increase the overall fairness of the game. As of right now, it’s incredibly difficult to hear footsteps, unless they are extremely close to you.

I’m not saying make the footsteps too loud, where you can hear an enemy Raider three floors above you, but a slight increase in noise would hit the sweet spot. This would not only make the game more fair for all players, but it would also make the game feel more tactical, as players would have to crouch and sneak more often when searching buildings in a way to avoid alerting other players.

2

Make Speranza a Social Hub

Speranza Doesn’t Feel Alive

This update may take some time, but it’s definitely one we want to see in ARC Raiders. Instead of having Speranza be a series of menus to navigate through, Speranza should be a social hub, where players can walk around and interact with other Raiders. This will not only make Speranza feel like a lived-in world, but it would also make it a ton of fun between matches as you could interact with your fellow squadmates before hitting topside.

This hub world could be similar to what we see in the Monster Hunter games. How cool would it be if we actually had to go to the shops to purchase items, instead of just pressing R1? Or maybe explore your workshop and room, each becoming more full as you progress and collect the correct materials. This update most likely will never see the light of day, but it’s one that I truly believe would make ARC Raiders one of the best multiplayer games around.

1

More Maps

Additional Places to Explore

Embark Studios has already announced that a new map will be available in November, called “Stella Montis.” This is great and all, but since the playerbase has spent all this time with the first four maps, having only one new map releasing will result in it growing stale pretty fast. We hope to see Embark Studios add even more maps sooner rather than later, so there are more options out there to help keep the experience unique with each run.

I’ve played all the maps available so many times that I know them like the back of my hand. This makes me worried that ARC Raiders will begin to feel “samey” after a while, not only for me, but for other players, leading to a major falloff in concurrent players. Adding more maps will prevent this from happening, so I’m hoping Embark Studios is hard at work in this regard.