I’ve played 500 hours of Arc Raiders and I’ve seen lobbies where everyone is a serial killer and lobbies where everyone’s Santa Clause. It’s the not knowing that makes each encounter intense, but Embark’s new PvE mode removes that uncertainty. Or does it?
Arc Raiders PvE lobbies are already stacked with griefers, using the relative safety of the mode, where your bullets don’t affect other raiders, to put other players in dangerous spots via other means, whether that be manipulating the AI, using tools, or simply getting in the way.
There are already videos circulating online of players using the Bull Rush ability to bash into people who are trying to extract. This way, they die to arc enemies and can be looted without consequence, bringing a whole new level of rat behaviour to one of the rattiest games ever released.
Thread on pve mode in @ARCRaidersGame
This is what pvp guys warned you about. https://t.co/1doayUnDZQ— WhaleCalls (@whalecalls) October 13, 2026
Outside of that, people camp the locked loot rooms and wait for another player to turn up with a key. The player with the key either opens it and shares the spoils, or they have to leave and head into another match and hope for better randoms. In PvP, you’d try to kill anyone contesting the loot. In PvE, it’s a race to see who can grab it first.
There are also players using lure grenades to pull enemy robots into extraction points — this is particularly devastating when it’s a goddamn shredder. And there’s no way to be punished for playing like this.
“Legit first game on and people were being just like this, vultures, and taking all loot from Arc before you could even get anything from it,” said one X / Twitter user. “Top that off they were throwing lure grenades at me and my wife the whole time while trying to fight Arc. She went down due to it, I go for the rez then get body blocked and pushed around like I’m in grade school again.”
This could be selfish players trying to get rich at the expense of others, or it could be PvP players who want to see the mode, which is only experimental at this stage, shelved. That way, they’ll get some easy pickings back in their lobbies, after all.
Of course, the mode is currently only experimental, so Embark could make changes. I personally don’t think PvE has any place as a mode here, though — unless it were a side thing with separate unlocks. The developers say loot is nerfed, but players are coming out with some crazy gear. PvE mode landed just after Arc Raiders’ biggest update, which added grappling hooks, a new map, and more. The update sparked a resurgence of players, which Steam concurrents not seen since March.
This isn’t Arc Raiders’ first griefing incident, either. In December last year, soon after the game’s explosive launch, one player hell bent on killing relative newcomers, casuals, and those who had next to no loot or even none at all, went viral for killing others for sport — sparking a debate about what is and isn’t acceptable PvP behavior in the process.
Bungie also announced plans to add PvE modes to Marathon as developers come to terms with extraction shooters being a niche genre. Hunt: Showdown figured this out ages ago, stuck to its cowboy-era guns, and kept its identity intact without alienating the core fans.
Kirk McKeand is a Contributor on IGN News. Find him on Twitter @MckKirk
