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When I spoke to Arc Raiders design director Virgil Watkins, we briefly discussed the possibility of developer Embark adding legendary weapons specifically designed for PvP. Watkins said he's open to the idea, though he'd want to be cautious about the power level of such a gun. Well, thanks to the Arc Raiders Shrouded Sky update, we now know that Embark had "intended" for the famously weak Aphelion to be a PvP gun this whole time, but it was so extraordinarily cautious on balancing that nobody even noticed.
The latest Arc Raiders patch notes are full of weapon changes, including nerfs to the Venator, Kettle, and Stitcher, but the most surprising bit is hidden right at the end of the list. The Jupiter has gotten a minor zoom and equip time change to make it less unwieldy, in part to make it more usable in PvP situations, but the Aphelion has been hugely buffed specifically to juice it up in PvP. I have genuinely never seen an Aphelion used in PvP in over 300 hours, not in person or in clips online, so if it was secretly underrated, that secret was buried six feet under.
"We weren't quite happy with the previous balancing of the Aphelion," Embark writes. "It was intended to be a more PVP focused legendary weapon, but it couldn't quite keep up with the pacing of many of our other PVP weapons. We've made some changes to make it feel less bulky and a bit more nimble to use, to make it more viable in PVP."
To that end, the Aphelion received hefty stat changes:
- Reduced Base Reload Time from 4.5s to 3.5s
- Reduced Time Between Shots from 0.9s to 0.7s
- Reduced Vertical Recoil by ca 50%
- Improved ADS Settle Speed by ca 35%
These are big, potentially needle-moving changes. When Embark starts shifting stats by 30% or even 50%, and especially when rate of fire is on the list, guns tend to move around the meta.
The Aphelion is a two-shot burst rifle that's pretty good at stripping armor off of Arcs. That's about it. It's crafted using cores from the Matriarch, whereas Queen cores are used in the superior armor shredder, the Equalizer, and a powerful piercing damage option, the Jupiter. This legendary weapon balance has always left the Aphelion feeling like the worst good option – objectively weaker than its contemporaries, but still not awful in practice.
As surprising as it is, a pivot to PvP might actually be just what the Aphelion needs to find an identity of its own. With shots coming out faster and hitting their mark more reliably, maybe it'll be a real contender. It is, after all, the only legendary weapon that takes weapon mods, boosting its stats further.
