Since its launch last year, the indie sensation that is ARC Raiders has been one of the biggest success stories in the video game industry, not only garnering big concurrent player numbers, but it has even won the Best Multiplayer gong at The Game Awards in 2025.
However, as great as any game might be, there is always room for improvement, and since its launch, the developers at Embark Studios have not only worked tirelessly addressing player feedback but also by bringing new content to ARC Raiders regularly.
The latest update for ARC Raiders is now live with patch 1.22.0, and with it comes a host of gameplay improvements, quality of life enhancements, weapon balancing, as well as the typical stability and whatnot.
However, arguably the biggest improvements concern being spawned late in a game. If players spawn into a map wanting to personalise their loadouts, sometimes they can spawn in mid-game, and that can be a problem.
Basically, a match in ARC Raiders lasts 30 minutes from start to finish. Yet, sometimes, a player might spawn in mid-way (or less), and if they spend five or ten minutes of that restricted time on a loadout, it doesn't leave much room to hunt for loot and engage with other players, especially on larger maps.
Thankfully, following the recent update, players entering a new game will now have a much lower chance of entering halfway through, which should mean that more players will begin a game at the very start.
While it may seem drastic to say ARC Raiders is finally playable, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that a player might have rotten luck and consecutively spawn into a match late on and may not even engage in combat or looting.
Read More: Claim Free ARC Raiders DLC for a Limited Time!
“As part of an ongoing look at free loadout usage and how it impacts the game, we're going to bias the matchmaking to put players with custom loadouts into fresh servers,” said Embark Studios in the patch notes.
“This won't be a guarantee, as map choice, time of day, and region will still affect the number of players available to matchmake. This does have an effect on overall matchmaking times, so we'll be keeping a close eye on it.”
ARC Raiders is out now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Topics: Indie Games, ARC Raiders, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X