It's finally happening: Arc Raiders is getting a PvE mode – at least temporarily. Today, Embark Studios announced that a "limited test" of PvE-only co-op will begin in October as the devs evaluate the mode's future as a potential permanent addition to the hit extraction shooter.
From October 13 through October 20, Arc Raiders players will have the option to toggle between traditional PvPvE matchmaking or PvE-only matchmaking. The PvE mode will put solos, duos, and trios all in the same matchmaking pool, with "zero player-to-player damage" between any of them. Players will also get slightly less loot in PvE in order to account for the decreased risk.
"This is, at least initially, a limited test," the devs say in their announcement. "When the test ends, the toggle will be removed and matchmaking will return to normal. Your feedback and data will help to shape the future of this system."
While Arc Raiders was originally envisioned as a PvE-only game, it transitioned to the PvPvE extraction shooter we now know well before launch. Still, the devs have regularly flirted with more explicit PvE mechanics. Matchmaking has been tweaked to put the most aggressive players in separate pools. A full PvE mode was previously tested in the Chinese version of the game, too.
In today's announcement, the devs say that 37% of players are focused on friendly co-op, and "this player group has grown consistently since launch." 34% are pure PvP, and 27% enjoy a mix of the two. (The remaining two percent, I guess, are simply a rounding error.) Altogether, just over half of the player base has "expressed an interest in a dedicated PvE option."
"It’s important to mention that this is not a risk-free test," the devs warn. "The first, unlaunched iteration of ARC Raiders was conceived as a PvE game, and we have been hesitant to return to that concept. There is a risk that introducing a PvE matchmaking toggle could reduce some of the tension that the game was built around. At the same time, we have to respect that some players want to enjoy the game in their own way, and we can’t ignore what the data is telling us."
On one level, the game might simply not be much fun without the risk of PvP encounters lingering in the periphery – our staff's biggest Arc Raiders fan argues that PvP is the reason the game works, after all. In the most practical terms, it'll also shift the economy, since players will be more easily able to extract with good loot. It's also possible that queue times will get longer with a split in the playerbase
"It’s possible that this will not work," the devs conclude. "This test is not a promise that there will be a PvE mode in the future, but take this as an indication that we are seriously considering it."
Arc Raiders will finally let players unlock weapons and items without hunting down blueprints.
