ARC Raiders will trial a PvE toggle in October

Embark Studios has announced that they will be testing a PvE toggle for their extraction shooter ARC Raiders in October.

Following the release of ARC Raiders: Frozen Trail on 8th October, a PvE toggle will be added from 13th to 20th October, giving players the choice between the standard PvPvE game and a PvE mode where it’s all about cooperating with other Raiders against the ARC robots.

Everything we know about ARC Raiders Frozen Trail – Pendola Pass, the ARC Frigate, Weapon Amplification & more

Playing in PvE will come with some alterations to the game content and rewards. Progression will be shared between the two modes, but the overall loot value in PvE will be reduced, since there’s also lowered risks. ARCs will also be empowered to target players that have been downed, if they choose to move around. Some conditions, Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate and Frigate will all be excluded from this playtest. Oh, and obviously there will be zero player-to-player damage when playing PvE.

ARC Raiders is following a rather familiar path for the extraction shooter genre, of adding a PvE element without the tension and uncertainty of having potentially hostile players. Tarkov added a PvE mode a while ago, Marathon is making a major pivot to have dedicated PvE modes, and now Embark is bringing PvE back into the mix.

The game was originally conceived as a PvE experience, but pivoted away from this during development. The game was a major hit at the end of 2025, with the surprising quirk that there was actually a substantial portion of that initial playerbase who did actually just want to cooperate and not fight.

Embark says, “We’re seeing a large and growing group of Raiders who come to the Rust Belt for the co-op and the ARC, not fighting with other Raiders. That group has become a core part of our community, so it’s important we learn how to support them properly rather than leave them working around the game.”

The studio notes that there’s 37% of players who want to be friendly, and 51% of the surveyed playerbase thought a PvE option sounded good. Obviously not to the exclusion of the existing system – 51% isn’t exactly a mandate for such a massive life-altering change of direction…. oh right, we’re talking about ARC Raiders.

Of course, the other side to this is that, as with so many live service games, the player count has been dwindling over the past year. Nowhere near the extent of Marathon, and Embark can hope and expect a major uptick in players with the launch of Frozen Trail, but enough that they need to look, plan and develop future content with this in mind.

Source: ARC Raiders

Tags: ARC Raiders