Arc Raiders' 1.36.0 update is here, bringing with it a big matchmaking change that should make the shooter much more pleasant to play if your playstyle varies between solo, duo, and trio games.
In today's patch, Embark outlines a key change to solo, duo, and trio matchmaking. Specifically, thanks to feedback logged by players during May's matchmaking survey, one of the "most requested matchmaking features" has been added – from now on, "we now track your playstyle separately for Solo, Duo, and Trio rounds, and match you accordingly."
Essentially, if you tend to take a more aggressive, PvP-focused approach to Arc Raiders when you're playing with your friends, but a friendlier one when you're playing solo, the new matchmaking feature should acknowledge this and give you your best match no matter what, rather than constantly pushing you into more aggressive lobbies even in solo, for example.
"Now, there's no overlap," explains Embark community lead Ossen. "You'll be able to go from friendly questing and plant-picking in Solo rounds to adrenaline-fueled PvP Trio games (if that's how you usually play in those respective cases) by simply changing your squad size. The same holds for Duo – all three are tracked on their own."
Alongside a bunch of bug fixes, Embark has also "significantly increased the value of loot dropped by ARC Turbines" to make them more rewarding to take down. Speaking of which, ARC Turbines can no longer randomly disappear right after spawning in, so happy hunting.
Embark acknowledges its recent anti-cheat efforts ("we are continuously getting more effective at identifying & acting against cheaters," the post says), as well as the action it's taken against duplication exploits.
Going forward, the devs also plan to expand on the "No Free Loadout" requirement introduced in patch 1.33.0 for Close Scrutiny and Night Raid. "We are looking into expanding 'No Free Loadout' to more map conditions and investigating other opportunities to further improve the experience overall," says Ossen.
