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Update - January 28: Clarifying recent communications around Arc Raiders' new Headwinds update, developer Embark Studios confirmed that the looting speed nerf introduced in the latest patch was, in fact, intended.
After the update dropped, players quickly noticed that loot items in containers were unscrambling noticeably more slowly than they have for a while. Initial responses from a community manager in the game's official Discord indicated that the looting speed change, like some errant fire rate changes in the same patch, were not intended.
Embark says that's not the case. It very much meant to lower the looting speed, and apparently we've all been basking in "unintended" high-speed loot.
In a Wednesday post to the Discord server's announcements channel, Embark rep Ossen writes: "We have heard you wondering about the loot appearing too slowly. We have rebalanced the speed at which the first item appears when looting. The looting speed before 1.13.0 was unintended. Players with the Looter’s Instincts unlocked will still see loot faster than those without."
"The current speed is intentional," Ossen affirms in a separate reply.
Discord back-and-forth aside, the most confusing part here is that Embark did not mention this looting speed change in the patch notes for Headwinds. On this point, players were seemingly right: it was a stealth-nerf.
Sort of, anyway. I've seen speculation that this change is actually just Embark correcting an unintended looting speed increase introduced with the Cold Snap update, but this isn't mentioned in the apparent fix, and I've been unable to find clear logs of this from Embark.
Either way, it looks like we'll have to acclimate to the new looting speed limit. Looter's Instincts just became even more valuable.
Original story:
Raiders across Speranza are eagerly digging into Tuesday's big Headwinds update, part of the Arc Raiders Escalation roadmap. At least, they would be if they weren't stuck slowly digging into loot containers that were much easier to plunder before the update.
Through unknowable technical fumbles, Headwinds has noticeably slowed looting speed, giving countless players whiplash like they just got off the interstate and shifted to a school zone speed limit.
Every loot container in Arc Raiders, from glorious red lockers to enemy backpacks, slowly unscrambles contents once you open it. After Headwinds, that unscrambling process takes (very anecdotally) about 30% longer, and that's with the skill Looter's Instincts active, which increases looting speed.
Another skill, Looter's Luck, has a low chance of identifying two lootable items at a time instead of just one, and its effects thankfully seem unchanged.
Players have reasonably speculated that this looting speed change could be the result of Looter's Instincts bugging out. Post-Headwinds, my looting speed with this skill active does feel comparable to what I experienced before unlocking the skill, but I haven't been able to compare it to a skill tree-free experience.
On the Arc Raiders Discord, players have pointed to several other issues accompanying the patch, including that one that hurts the fire rate of several weapons. This has formed a smokescreen of sorts, leaving some to wonder if this looting speed was part of the stealth nerfs. Community admin Ossen confirmed that Embark is "actively investigating" this firing rate problem.
Community manager Birdie commented on the looting speed issue directly, telling one user, "The team is aware of this, as it's not intended."
"It's not intended. The team is aware," Birdie reiterated elsewhere, no doubt hurriedly putting out fires as they spring up.
I've reached out to Embark for details on the bug and its impending fix. For now, brace yourself for the unspeakable horror of slightly slower loot. Precious seconds, lost. How will we recover?
