ARC Raiders Tests a PvE Matchmaking Toggle From October 13 to 20, Embark Confirms
By CriticalPixel ·
ARC Raiders just admitted something a lot of extraction shooters would never say out loud: a big chunk of its playerbase came to the Rust Belt to make friends, not enemies. Embark Studios confirmed on September 24 that it is testing a PvE matchmaking toggle from October 13 to October 20, giving Raiders a way to opt out of player combat entirely and just fight the ARC robots instead. It is a strange pivot for a game built around the tension of not knowing whether the person across the room wants to loot alongside you or put a bullet in your back, but the numbers Embark shared explain exactly why the studio is trying this now.
What the PvE Toggle Actually Does
During the test window, players get a toggle in matchmaking that lets them choose between the classic PvPvE mode and a stripped down PvE version with zero player to player damage. Solos, duos and trios all queue into the same PvE sessions, and Embark says switching between PvE and PvPvE will be seamless, so you can run a relaxed co-op scavenging trip and then jump straight into a high tension PvPvE raid without digging through menus. Your PvPvE matchmaking rating stays untouched while you are playing PvE, which matters if you were worried this would tank your rank the moment you took a break from other players.
A few map conditions are sitting this test out. Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate and Frigate are all excluded from PvE matchmaking because Embark built them around the uncertainty of running into other Raiders, and loot value inside PvE sessions is being tuned down to account for the lower risk of playing without anyone shooting at you.
Embark's own blog post spells out that this is explicitly a limited test, not a launch. When the window closes on October 20, the toggle disappears and matchmaking reverts to normal until the studio decides what to do with the data it collects.
Why Embark Is Doing This Now
ARC Raiders was not originally supposed to be an extraction shooter at all. Embark has said the game started seven years ago as a raid based PvE co-op project built around looting mechanics, and the studio only pivoted to the tense PvPvE format everyone plays today after that original version hit a wall. When ARC Raiders finally launched, Embark expected extraction shooter diehards to show up. Instead the game pulled in a wave of players who wanted to loot, build and survive together, earning it a reputation online as the Extraction Don't Shooter.
The numbers back that reputation up. Embark's own player survey puts 37 percent of the current base in the friendly co-op camp, a group that has grown steadily since launch, against 34 percent who are pure PvP players and have barely moved either way. The remaining 27 percent float between both styles. More strikingly, over 70 percent of friendly players and 40 percent of PvP players told Embark they want fewer hostile encounters, and 51 percent of everyone surveyed said they are interested in a dedicated PvE option. That is not a fringe request, that is more than half the playerbase asking for a change.
That context matters given where ARC Raiders sits right now. The game is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and it exploded to over 250,000 concurrent players on Steam alone at launch, breaking records for the extraction shooter genre. Player counts on Steam have cooled since that peak, as they do for basically every live service shooter after launch month, but Embark is not framing this test as a play to win back numbers. It reads more like the studio listening to the community that stuck around rather than panicking over a chart.
Raiders Are Split Down the Middle
Reaction on social media has been genuinely mixed rather than a pile on in either direction. Some Raiders are straightforwardly excited to finally get a dedicated PvE lane instead of hoping for friendly randoms. Others are convinced this is the beginning of the end, arguing that splitting the lobby pool on top of existing complaints about matchmaking and cheaters will hollow the game out. A vocal middle ground does not want a separate mode at all and would rather Embark bake a PvE option directly into the core PvPvE loop as a permanent system instead of running it as a side event. Reaction here is genuinely split rather than settled, and that is before the test has even gone live.
The CriticalPixel Take
Embark testing this in public, with real numbers attached, is the right instinct even if the execution invites debate. A live service shooter that ignores 51 percent of its surveyed players asking for an option is not protecting its identity, it is leaving demand on the table for whichever competitor builds the feature first. Bungie's Marathon has been moving toward its own PvE options around the same window, and that timing is not a coincidence. The extraction genre as a whole is figuring out that permadeath tension and casual accessibility do not have to be mutually exclusive. The real test is not whether PvE queues fill up in October, it is whether Embark can keep the loot economy honest when a chunk of players are farming supplies with zero risk of getting shot in the back.
Nothing here is permanent yet. Embark has been explicit that the October window is a data gathering exercise, not a commitment to a new mode, and the studio says it will be watching matchmaking times and the wider player economy closely while the test runs. If the toggle sticks around past October 20 in some form, expect a longer conversation about how PvE and PvPvE players can coexist without one side quietly making the other obsolete. For now, mark your calendar for October 13 if you just want to loot the Rust Belt in peace for a week.
Sources
Eurogamer: Arc Raiders announces a new PvE test to accommodate its surprisingly friendly players
ARC Raiders official blog: We're testing a PvE Toggle, here's what it means for you