Arc Raiders has seemingly entered the "it's so over" chapter of the inescapable live service cycle, with a non-trivial chunk of players recently put off by perhaps the most egregious wave of cheated items in the game's history, even as the game maintains a daily user base most games would kill for.
Coupled with slowing patches amid developer Embark Studios' pivot to major updates released six months apart, the game's been a bit quiet and the community a bit cranky. Facing this, Embark has promised "strict measures" for cheaters and dupe abusers. It's also rolled out a change that many fans have requested since 2025: a ban on free loadouts in certain modes.
In the latest Arc Raiders patch notes, Embark reveals a new, experimental restriction on night raids and the Close Scrutiny Arc event. For the next three weeks, you won't be able to bring a free loadout into these modes.
"We are disabling free loadouts for Night Raid and Close Scrutiny to increase the barrier of entry so that players commit to appropriate risk and reward in these scenarios that have better loot," Embark says.
"This is a time-limited change that we will be testing for the next three weeks. We may add this limitation to more map conditions in the future after we’ve observed its impact and analyzed your feedback."
Free loadouts have been contentious almost since Arc Raiders released. As soon as players built up enough gear to feel bad about losing it to someone who risks nothing, folks began calling for free loadouts to be nerfed somehow. We have seen direct nerfs to some of the white-rarity weapons included in free loadouts, as well as matchmaking changes that skew free loadout users toward joining raids late, but the risk-free option remains.
With this restriction, Embark is simultaneously juicing up night raids and Close Scrutiny rounds by raising the loot floor and implementing a soft version of the gear ante that players have also requested in the past. There isn't a true minimum loadout value barrier – in Marathon's end game map Cryo Archive, for instance, you have to bring in at least 5,000 credits worth of gear – but you will have to bring something. Well, in theory, you could bring literally nothing, not even a free kit, but you won't be a threat to anyone at that point either – at least not until you scrounge up some gear and ammo.
Embark acknowledges the slow spot Arc Raiders is in right now, and recognizes that "the road to October" and the fall major update, Frozen Trail, is a long one.
"We know that this quieter period is taking some getting used to, and we completely understand the desire for more things to do in the game," the devs say. "The balance for us is providing content in the short term through Projects and Events, and building something truly substantial for October, and then every six months beyond."
But really, there's no silver bullet (though that experimental PvE mode might excite some players). Things take time to make. Arc Raiders has some new but extremely familiar resource grinds in the latest update, but the game's gone mostly unchanged for a little while. Embark insists it's got its best and biggest on the way, but for now, you're just going to have to find your own fun or, in the wise words of the Final Fantasy 14 dev team, go play something else for a bit. I had my 350+ hours of fun with Arc Raiders, and I will come back for more, but all these RPGs won't play themselves.
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