Embark finally pulls back the curtain on Arc Raiders' matchmaking systems

Arc Raiders is busting some myths surrounding its aggression-based matchmaking. Embark put out quite a lengthy post on May 10 explaining how its PvP/PvE lobbies work, why they exist, and most importantly, why it thinks unpredictability is essential to the multiplayer game experience.

The idea of players belonging to one specific lobby has always been a bit of a fallacy, and it led to many, myself included, playing Arc Raiders in an unnatural way to try to game the system. Avoiding conflict, being unnecessarily hostile, all in the hopes of being paired with like-minded players. With Embark’s new blog post, however, I now know that, despite constant concerns, the system adapts to how I play, meaning I can play the way I want to.

Embark has quashed the idea of a binary lobby system – there is no full PvP instance, and no PvE one either. It’s a spectrum by design “because unpredictability is part of the experience.” The post explains that, while some players are on the extreme ends of the aggression scale, most fall somewhere in between, and the idea is to pair those with a similar playstyle to reduce friction and increase enjoyment.

I could spend months not firing a single shot in the attempt to fall far on the PvE side of the scale, but there’s still a chance I’ll meet someone who will start trouble. We’re all human at the end of the day; sometimes bad things happen. This is all part of the drama, and it’s why Arc Raiders is still as exciting to play today as it was on day one.

The post goes into other details about how Arc Raiders sorts its players: a single shot won’t destroy my reputation, isolated instances aren’t weighed as heavily as prolonged behavior, and my loadout doesn’t affect matchmaking at all. Basically, I need to chill out and let Arc Raiders take the wheel. Metagaming these lobbies isn’t as important as just having fun with it.

There are also a couple of adjustments being made to improve matchmaking, one of which I’m very pleased with. Prior to these changes, any sort of fight – even one where I was defending myself – was treated as an act of aggression. The system didn’t capture whether I had started a fight or not, but now it will. So now if it kicks off in a calm lobby, I can feel safe in drawing my weapon and putting an aggressor down.

Arc Raiders made its name on social interactions. Whether that be a hero play from a stranger or a horrifying betrayal, there was weight to everything because it was unexpected. Players trying to funnel themselves into a singular experience, for me, takes something away from the whole. This clarification, and those changes from Embark, are a strong step forward in giving me the freedom to be the type of player I want to be without second-guessing myself.