Arc Raiders just got a new update full of bug fixes and balance changes, including a nerf for an OP weapon that Embark now admits "has been over-performing recently," and a massive improvement for fans of ducks everywhere.
Patch notes for update 1.3.0 were shared today, and while the changes might not be quite as exciting as last week's cosmetic price decreases and duo matchmaking improvements, it's still fantastic news for anyone who's been living in fear of the Venator. The semi-automatic pistol is strong – it's one of the best Arc Raiders weapons, and it's so strong that the devs now acknowledge that it's "capable of outgunning full squads using close range weapons." Thankfully, changes have been made.
"We're re-tuning the fire-rate gained from upgrades to pull down the pacing a bit, while still keeping its damage and accuracy intact," Embark explains. "This should encourage players to take some more time with their shots rather than mag-dumping the first poor soul they encounter. The community also rightfully pointed out that the weight of the Venator was inconsistent with the weights of our other pistols, so we've corrected that as well."
Explosive damage has also been tweaked, with Embark explaining that it could deal "damage to more parts at once than intended, allowing weapons like the Hullcracker to kill larger drones too quickly." This has now been made more consistent, with the Hullcracker itself getting its damage re-balanced "to account for that change." Expect shots from the weapon to "need a bit more precision" going forward.
Elsewhere, a couple of crashes have been fixed, and some collision issues have been ironed out, but we're totally overlooking the most important change. You might notice in the URL for the patch notes that this is dubbed the "duck update." A line in the miscellaneous section notes that "your Raider Den has been ducked out," with an image showing a player sitting on their bed, surrounded by an army of rubber ducks.
While it's not been directly stated, it seems pretty dang likely that this is Embark's direct response to one disgruntled player who recently took to Reddit to complain that despite collecting over 600 rubber ducks in the extraction shooter, only nine of them could be displayed in their den. "Please tell me the guy with hundreds of ducks is still here to confirm this means what I think it means," one player writes today, sharing the patch note.
The famous rubber duck advocate hasn't made an update to their post at the time of writing, so I can't confirm whether their full collection is now there and accounted for in their Raider Den – believe me, I immediately scrambled to look. However, I can only hope that they're proud of their apparent impact when they download the update.
