I don’t need an ARC Raiders PVE mode, and neither do you

The threat of ARC’s machines is palpable. It looms over the nook and cranny of Embark Studios’ shooter, whether you’re roaming the corridors of Buried City’s hospital or the abandoned labs of Stella Montis. Combined with the unpredictable social element of the rival players, the magic of ARC Raiders lies within those split-second decisions to fight or forge alliances. Defeating the ARCs is plenty of fun, but there’s absolutely no need for an ARC Raiders PVE mode.

Since ARC Raiders’ launch last year, the game’s matchmaking is still a point of contention. Recent admissions from Embark Studios clarify that players are purposely matched with those who prefer aggression and PVP skirmishes if they play the game in the same fashion. On the other side of the coin, if you tend to roam around without confrontation, simply to gather loot, you’ll find yourself in friendlier lobbies. This is a good decision. It isn’t necessarily about skill, but about the mentality you choose to brandish on the Rust Belt.

Right now, Stella Montis is the ultimate playground for fighting. It’s a claustrophobic maze of labs, canteens, and industrial areas, all of it dripping with dread. My friends and I often take in free loadouts, ready to get into gunfights, with the hopes of possibly extracting some fantastic loot in the process. That’s ARC Raiders’ gameplay loop at its purest. Within those hallways, Shredders and other cyborg foes wait to burn, blast, and shoot you into smithereens.

Unless you’re wielding exceptional weapons and sporting high-level shields, it turns ARC Raiders into a stealth game. It’s a thrill that most multiplayer games wish they could emulate – and proximity chat is the secret sauce, Embark tells me.

Removing the human element from any ARC Raiders match reduces that tension significantly, in my opinion. In the game’s early days, Embark toyed with the notion of embracing a PVE format. After all, that’s the game we were all shown back at The Game Awards in 2021. Noclips’ excellent documentary series delves into the early iteration of the shooter, showcasing huge wastelands with a central goal to defeat a giant ARC Queen. Players can perform almost superhuman feats with a selection of gadgets, as everyone fights to tear down this gigantic enemy. In theory, yeah, it sounds like a blast, but it’d be a short-lived high.

If every match of ARC Raiders is just blowing up various robots across huge maps, it’ll likely get old very quickly. If I want to experience PVE hijinks, that’s what Helldivers 2, World War Z, or good old Left 4 Dead 2 deliver in spades. Those games are intended to deliver that format. ARC Raiders is not geared up for a solely PVP landscape, having changed drastically in development before release. You can pinpoint this exact moment in a post from executive producer Aleksander Grøndal.

It isn’t like the game is extremely punishing, either. Its hybrid approach to casual and seasoned extraction shooter lovers is why ARC Raiders is such a success – it’s even dethroning Call of Duty. Sure, you’ll get knocked out more times than you can count, but the game always gives you the tools to get back in the fray.

An ARC Raiders FPS mode also doesn’t need to exist, so park that wish as well. A hub in Speranza would be good, though. Rather than branch PVE into a separate playlist, it can evolve and flourish within the game’s current experience. New threats are coming in the 2026 roadmap, and eventually, a fresh map to do battle in, too. The sweat and grit of outlasting the deadliest force on Earth work in ARC Raiders because at the end of the day, it isn’t ARC – it’s you.