‘I don’t think by any means we nailed it’: Arc Raiders design director says ‘significant changes’ are coming to the skill tree

Arc Raiders is set to get “pretty significant changes” to its still tree, its design director says.

In an interview with the Game Maker’s Notebook podcast, Virgil Watkins was asked about the game’s skill tree and the way it “went a little above and beyond” the skill trees seen in many other games.

Watkins replied that the skill tree as it stands isn’t perfect, because some skills are more important than others.

“It was a tough problem space for us, and I don’t think by any means we nailed it,” he replied.

“Definitely there are some skills on there that, as we’ve seen how players actually play the game – because of course we operate by our own intent or even theory by how players actually engage with the game, and also some of the choices we’ve made since then about how certain systems have changed, or certain progression loops have changed – there are definitely skills in there that are underserving their purpose.”

Watkins suggested that part of the reason for this is that some skills are best suited to PvP players while others are better for PvE, and as a result players who focus on one discipline may be disadvantaged in the other. As such, he says changes are being planned to address this in the future.

“A lot of thought went into… whenever possible I don’t love things that are just small statistical changes, but they do serve a purpose, as opposed to ‘oh, I have an entire new ability now, or I can do this thing now that I couldn’t do before’, and that becomes a tricky situation for us because we have PvE, which is easier to balance around, and we have PvP, which is not,” he explained.

“So it became this situation of ‘do we really want someone who invests in this wing of the skill tree to be obviously more capable because they chose those, they’re going to win over someone who invested in the red tree instead’?

“So it’s a tricky problem space and we’re evaluating some pretty significant changes to it to better serve the game that exists today and the game that will exist in the future.”

Watkins also said he wanted to skill tree to make it easier for players to evolve their character’s abilities in a way that better helps them define their specific playing style.

“Can the skill tree, with its composition, paired with things like augments and your preference for weapons, as well as the gadgets you choose and the grenades and things you might bring, can that help all come together to form a play style for you?,” he asked. “So do I want to be the sneaky looter or the guy who wants to be super agile and maneuver around and things like that?

“I think we’ve moved toward that ambition pretty well, but I think there’s more to do there, I think, at this point, to make players feel like they’ve truly rounded out a set of choices that amalgamate into a playstyle choice of their own.”

In February, Nexon detailed some of the phenomenal sales figures behind Arc Raiders, which it says “significantly exceeded” its expectations. The third-person extraction shooter game launched on October 30, 2025, and quickly racked up huge concurrent player numbers on Steam, selling more than 14 million copies in a little over three months.