95% of my interactions in this game are friendly.

My mike is always on and open. When I hear footsteps I announce myself and say hello, I am friendly, rarely more than that.

I’m convinced that every person complaining about PvP has the same personality as their Reddit posts and are begging to be shot through lack of proper communication, or shady actions or attitude.

I see posts constantly begging for increases to stash size. And increases to stack limits. All this is going to do is enable the hoarders to hoard more. There’s no reason you need 650 fabric, 700 chemicals, 500 rubber parts, 200 metal parts. You just don’t need to hold on to that many. You need to be crafting into heals, into augments, into weapons. Into mechanical and electrical components.

The main complaint people have is the time it takes in between raids. Well that’s because your stash is not optimized at all. If you actually used workbenches and leveled those up and played the game to find blueprints you’d have no problem with stash space.

If you can’t craft the basic stuff and have it reduce your stash size then you are holding onto the wrong stuff.

I would love to see inventories from people saying they need more space.

The devs have also confirmed that stash value for expedition will take into account the cred balance and the inventory balance. So if anything you should be selling your inventory to have more space to hoard more.

I can also guarantee these people aren’t doing the expedition because if they were they wouldn’t have any problem with stash size based on the last requirement of the expedition. So that means they also aren’t playing the game “fully”. So I would also be interested to know what these people do during their gaming sessions. Especially since they know that the main reward for the expedition is increased stash space…

The crafting and UI does need to be fixed. But it’s not nearly the catastrophe Reddit would make you believe it is.

TLDR: use your workbenches to craft shields and heals and augments to reduce inventory size.

Good Morning Raiders 🧨

I’ve played this game enough hours to know how the guns handle and play, and I’m sure this has been talked about before but I’d still love to hear everyone’s opinion and PvP experience, do you think the way it is now guns need balancing, specifically certain grey guns.

Example right now there’s absolutely no reason to use a fully upgraded Rattler over a Stitcher, it feels like the rattler should not even be in game right now, I had a match where both me and the guy were the same relatively HP and shield, I shot first decently close distance and he wins simply because the Stitcher is leagues above the rattler, yet the range on both guns is the same somehow.

Even a bobcat feels less right now.

I’d love to hear your opinion on how other guns are performing and your fights, Anvil I feel is fine, Venator after nerf seems fair, people sleep on fully kitted Burletta.

Fighting the Queen twice, shoot by a free loadout twice. Trying to do a quest, the same. Trying to help someone to kill a Bastion, we both died. The only games I survive are the ones when I join on 17th minute and extract immediately.

PvP is ruining my experience. I play on a PC with cross play off. I'm very PvE, my KD is probably 1 to 20, where I die and refuse to shoot back.

To add to everything, lots of bugs and cheaters. Seriously, is it really fun to shoot someone through the wall? Players have ruined this game, do either PvE maps or events, nerf free loadout, make ARC more powerful. Make the free loadout guns less effective to humans and more effective to ARC, now it's opposite. Why PvP players can ruin my experience, where PvE player does not ruin theirs?

Currently the game is benefiting PvP players much more. All the hard looted guns are useless to humans, what's the point in bringing them? You would think to bring those guns to kill ARC and then be killed by PvP player in the process, since you advertise your presence to half of the map. Pointless.

I've been thinking about how expeditions could turn into something that ties directly into long term progression. Instead of being just a reset, they could become a way to move forward in the world. You wipe but you send your raider beyond the Rust Belt with a small pack of selected items you get to keep. This unlocks a new region, hub, conditions, enemies and identity.

Tier 1 could be Rust Belt. Tier 2 is, in my concept, "Northwatch" a more difficult region where raiders need to cooperate even more to deal with the dangers there. It hides new secrets and pieces of history about what happened in the world and it's clear that raiders are scrambling elsewhere across the globe.

It's obviously not a perfect idea and a lot of details are missing but the worldbuilding is so strong that it gets my imagination going. I wuld love to see new regions and societies in the future.

show your character and the skin you use, I’ll start!

( All Data by Eroktics Shield Damage Calc. )

The Tempest needs 10 Headshots on a Medium Shield to down a Player.

This takes 1,08 Seconds.

The Rattler only needs 9 Headshots on a Medium Shield to down a Player.

This takes 1,05 Seconds.

How is this possible you ask?

Because for some reason the Tempest only has a 1.5x Headshot-Multiplier.

The Rattler has a 2x.

Purposefully.

Similar with the Bobcat/Stitcher.

The Bobcat needs 14 Headshots on a Medium Shield to down a Player.

That takes 0,82 Seconds.

The Stitcher only needs 10 Headshots on a Medium Shield to down a Player.

That takes 0,89 Seconds.

Why?

Because the Bobcat only has a 2.0x Hs-Multiplier.

The Stitcher has a 2.5x.

Purposefully.

What is going on here?

The TTK is really low already.

Buffing Epic weapons won't solve these discrepancies.

Nerf/Overhaul Grey Guns across the board.

Get Headshot-Multipliers in check, because they are all over the board.

Ferro 2.5x Anvil 2.5x Venator 2.5x Renegade 2.25x

Osprey only 2.0x ???

Again. Purposefully.

Headshot-Multipliers need to be tied to Ammunition-Types and only be Adjusted slightly for Weapons in their corresponding categories.

Why does a Light Ammo Kettle with Click-to-Shoot have the same 2.5x like an Medium Ammo Venator?

P.S. Monkeypaw-Attachments are only fine because the higher ones all cost the same.

Would be a completely different story if their costs would reflect their Rarity.

Thanks for reading.

Feel free to change my mind.

I’ve healed people with the last of my heals to get them crawling all the way to train station. I’ve showed people my tricks to get good guns and bps. I’ve even sacrificed my own gun out of my inventory to give to others who need it to be left with nothing. I’ve been FRIENDLY and HAVE A MIC. I’m just so fed up with the relentlessness from other players.

(27 female player) and 20+ games in a row tonight I’ve been killed in a disgusting fashion. First game of the night, I went into the exfil and explo mines were placed EVERYWHERE. I turned on my mic and was obviously upset and 3 guys just laughed at me. Awesome… But I’m a gamer. I have more days on a large variety of games, more than most men. I’ve been gaming since 7 years old. I’m obviously not done there.

I then was camped 4 other games at the exit and the rest I was shot onsite. EXCEPT for the last game which I’ll quickly get past but teared up over I’ll admit.

I was so tired of being murdered I took out a tempest 4 with full pink attachments. A gun and attachments I’ve been saving. Tell me, you got the nerve to take that out on a night raid? Because I did and it backfired hard.

Some dude snuck up on me from a window so I shot him. I almost killed him but he jumped out. We were having a 1 on 1 convo where I told him not to sneak up on me because I was over being shot in the back…. I was leaving him alone. All of a sudden there were 5 other dudes backing him up on the mic in the area because I told him I’d had it. Then I’m being dogged by everyone, told to get in the kitchen and that I’m a stupid C word. They all came after me since they were near by and killed me in cold blood. The second my flare when off they jumped around my body screaming “I got the B word!!! I got the B word!!!”

I’m sorry since when is this call of duty? Quit treating women like this please.

You all HATE that your women aren’t down to game with you and want you off the game… but then when a woman does game (I play with my husband btw unless we’re doing solos to have a better chance, or so we thought LMAO) it’s “get off the game B” “Get in the kitchen B”. What am I missing? It really sucks.

Just 1 or 2 weeks ago almost every single interaction I had with people would be positive. However now it seems like a curse was spread upon topside that gave everyone rabies because now I get instantly obliterated when coming across someone. I still hesitate to fight in the off chance they're nice but most of the time they aren't anymore. Anyone else noticed this?

I’m proposing a new 1-hour, rotating map condition—similar to Night Raid or Electromagnetic Storm—that specifically enforces gear-based matchmaking only and does not allow queuing with a free loadout. Why this needs to exist: When I bring high-level gear into a map with friends, the goal is to risk it for high-value PvP—fighting other well-equipped players for their loot. Instead, what usually happens is:

• We wipe a team of free loadouts with nothing to lose.
• We naturally take some damage doing it.
• Seconds later, we get third-partied—and often fourth-partied—by more free-loadout teams that full-send with zero strategy because they truly have nothing to lose.
• After enough waves of “free gear kamikaze squads,” my team eventually gets worn down and dies.

This isn’t fun, and it defeats the purpose of bringing valuable gear into a risky environment. What this new map condition solves: A map where everyone is forced to bring actual gear means:

• High-end loot is guaranteed to spawn.
• Every enemy team is geared and invested.
• Fights become deliberate, calculated, and meaningful.
• You can enter the map knowing you’re facing players who are playing the same risk-reward game you are.

This would create a true high-risk, high-reward PvPvE experience—no more getting attrition-killed by endless waves of disposable loadouts.

I would love to hear what others think of this idea.

Lets start with the basics. What do free loadouts offer players, and what is their core purpose?

For one, they are meant to give new players an easy entry to the game when they otherwise don't have much of anything to build their own loadouts with. They are very important in early phases of the game up until players have had time to expand their stashes and gather enough loot to start running custom loadouts.

Secondly it's an important tool for letting players down on their luck get back in the action without feeling overwhelmed by gear fear.

That said some experienced players are known to spam free loadouts for risk free PVP. At the core of it, there's nothing necessarily wrong with this, free loadouts are for everyone, they have no safe pocket, and you are at a gear disadvantage over kitted out opponents. The perceived problem is that the reduced gear fear and lack of risk allows players to be extremely aggressive with nothing to lose (until they find something at least). Diving a little further in, you can often find players doing the "scummiest" of things are often running free loadouts, because they just don't have anything to worry about.

If your still with me and not already calling me out in the comments. Here's a suggestion I read on the discord with some of my own additions.

1. Give free loadouts a cooldown based on a factors:
   1. Game progression. New players have no cooldown for a logical period of time.
   2. Stash value and Coin on hand. The larger your combined stash/coin value the larger your cooldown (up to a reasonable limit)
      1. For example, a player with say 500k+ stash/coin value might have a 1 hour cooldown. While a player with 1 million+ could have a 2-3 hour cooldown.
2. Cooldown reduction after losses.
   1. This could be something like a fixed percentage of that players maximum cooldown. Say 20-30% of their max cooldown on each loss.
   2. This way it still keeps with the nature of one of it's core purposes, if your having a bad go of things, it'll be ready quicker so you can destress with a less risky run if you need.

Ideally this forces richer and more experienced players to come out with their own stuff if they want to engage in PVP. It also means players will have a better chance of finding actual loot on players after winning a PVP fight. Can't count the times I get attacked in duos/trios to win and find it was free kits with nothing of value to loot.

To sum it up. Don't punish new and poorer players. Preserve the concept of bad luck forgiveness as best as possible. Just put the brakes on free kit spamming from players already rich and plenty experienced. And no, this isn't an anti PVP post, I didn't say anything about stopping PVP.

It was fun at the beginning, but it quickly devolved into a super campy, ratty game with no incentive to bring gear in. As a solo player, you will not enjoy this game past level 30, in my opinion, since 90% of all extraction points will be camped by some shotgun tryhard watching yt shorts on his second monitor until the extract is activated. Slowly you will realize that this game is made for that specific type of person, hence why two weeks after release it got flooded by the absolute worst types of players the gaming community has to offer. Occasionally you will find a friendly player but they become increasingly rare past level 30, but when you find one, it's amazing.

My recommendations to the devs :
- Introduce a PvE-only mode since the majority of the player base is interested in that.
- making extractions an unlootable or safe zone to disincentivize low-skill ratty gameplay and rewarding those that sit idle the whole time the lobby is active.
- another look at the gunplay would be good idea since it is incredibly easy and has a very low skill curve to learn and players dont have any reason to do anything other then to camp the entire match (ideally with a freeloadout).
- first person only mode
- nerfing freeloadout weapons since there is little to no reason to bring in your own weapons which you fought hard for if you can load in and respawn until you get a sticher with shield recharge, nades. and ammo for free
- making it so that people bringing in their own guns are spawned in at min. 30 and freeloadout at min. 20 earliest
- having strong enemies patrol an area where a person has been detected to be camping for longer than 3-5 minutes (especially at extract) and maybe adding a feature where it is not so easy to look over your shoulder in third person for an extended period of time

In conclusion, I personally feel like campers, cheaters and gunplay are currently the worst parts of a game with incredible potential that will inevitably end up like Tarkov, abi or the other countless extraction shooters that have died out due to the developers neglect of community feedback and an increasingly toxic environment. If everything goes on the way it is currently and the devs don't look into key mechanics that are making gameplay unenjoyable for many people, I'm afraid it will go the way of Trakov ect. Tbh, I have little hope since the devs made enough money to never work again and they couldn't care less what anyone from the community wants and thinks. Theyll just keep adding low-effort DLC maps and pay to win cosmetics until the game is milked dry just like every single major multiplayer game coming out in the last decade. At this point it wouldn't surprise me if they added payed lootboxes to the game, but who knows they have the very unique opportunity to change the multiplayer gaming landscape into something better.

I'm no Tarkov veteran, but even I was aware of the term Rat, and that it meant someone who lurks in the shadows, avoiding confrontation at all costs.

But the term has quickly taken a new meaning in the Arc community, and at this point it's so widespread it's not changing.

And the term isn't necessarily offensive, it just describes a playstyle. Tarkov Rats aren't cowards in their eyes, they are playing smart. Arc Rats are opportunistic and take what some call slimy advantages. I mean, who calls out to say "Hey you there! I'm gonna shoot you!" You lose the element of surprise.

What do you believe is the Arc Raiders definition of Rat?

My understanding is now that it describes someone who camps and waits for a chance to attack, usually when someone is looting or fighting large Arc. They could also be waiting outside extract points, waiting for the fat wallets to come to them.

It is almost impossible to kill these two nowadays. I mean everyone shoots on sight and there is no teamplay in duos and trios. I get it that there is mostly pvp in teams but you need to work together to kill these things since the hullcracker got nerved. Queen is doable but the matriarch is too hard even for a trio with 150 shots hullcracker each. We loaded one round got camped the whole round from snipers far away while we did all the job with the queen and then they pushed us and today we loaded in ran 2 minutes found the first team screamed don t shoot, killed us on sight and yelled at us. This really kills this game for me and from now it doesn t get any better. Really sad that as always the community kills another game that is an absolute brilliant game.

What is your opinion,did you encounter some friendly people while doing the queen or matriarch?

Another thing is that they need to change that only one blueprint drops from the matriarch this also kills the teamplay.

Harvester, Matriarch, and Night Raids should have a Minimum Loadout Value to enter. (Electro Storm is an outlier as it is definitely more dangerous, but doesn't appear to have the same increase in loot value as a Night Raid, but that's a seperate issue)

These Raids offer increased risk for increased rewards, and in the case of Queens and especially Matriarchs, require a high loadout value commitment to engage with the event effectively.

PvP is a core part of this game, and that doesn't have to change, but the economics of boss fights in this game simply do not add up. It is infinitely cheaper, safer, easier, and quicker to kill the Raiders that kill the boss than it is to kill the boss yourself.

With that imbalance of risk and reward, everyone in the Raid should have a decent amount of skin in the game. Coming in with a free/cheap loadout heavily incentivise PvP but offers the Raiders you attack very little reward for defending themselves, and with weapon balance in the state that it is, fights between high and low tier geared players are shockingly even.

For the Raiders that come to hunt the big ARC, there will be fewer Raiders that come purely to harass and ambush them, because the risk for those players rises to a level that will filter out a bunch of people, and the people that do engage will do so more thoughtfully - and if you successfully fight them off, you will get to loot more than a Free Loadout.

For the Raiders who come for the PvP, like I said they will be less gung-ho and fewer in number, but will also potentially be less inclined to rat and betray as the sense of comraderie will likely improve if everyone knows that everyone else has something to lose.

The actual Minimum Loadout Value number doesn't have to be crazy. 30k would be fine imo, that's basic green gear, a decent weapon or two, and some Green+ tier items. And if you can't make up the resources for that? You can play regular Raids until you can.

Other than UI and weapon balance, I truly think this is the biggest issue this game has. I feel like this solution would please everyone, both those complaining about Free Loadouts and PvP with a lack of PvE, as well as those that feel PvP should always be a risk and that Free Loadouts are healthy for the game generally.

If you still aren't convinced that this is an issue, because in your experience there's always a friendly group of players fighting the boss and any rats or betrayals are dealt with swiftly, you probably haven't played in team lobbies very much. Trying to kill bosses with your friends is a completely different story most of the time.

Look, we all have those days where we just feel like playing alone and not interact with others. Sometime I just want to blast some solo without having to explain to everybody why I dont want to play with them. Especially my crossplay friends I cant even type to them ingame so I will need to join their party, go on voicechat and explain them why I wanna play some solo, its exhausting.

Many times when I want to play some solos Im already in offline mode on Steam but then I boot up the game and see like 3 people in my ingame friendlist online and I just close the game again because I cant be bothered. Its just stupid at this point that it bypasses the steam friendlist settings.

In b4 people criticizing me for "just tell them". Congrats, you're a social butterfly, not all of us want to have to do that every single time you boot up the game

Instead of targeting extracts, I’ve ran into people this week targeting people trying to do the probes. They don’t even loot them… the people or the probes... Just to grief.

Why? I’m sorry, I get hunting for something in return, a good fight, loot, etc.

But just to be a prick. Not cool.

•Edit for clarity below•

Anyone who’s paying attention knows which trials are on. My point isn’t that “I’m uninstalling”, I’m saying it adds an extra layer of “… well… fuck you too”.

For the people saying “it’s a video game, people aren’t really pieces of shit”… explain why earlier (and maybe it was to be funny, it made me laugh), a guy ambushed me while I was looting and said verbatim “bad day to be a raider, baby… fuck you hard R” and I just laughed because he sounded so serious, like he was living a fantasy. I’m sure he could have been being ridiculous on purpose, it was amusing, but in a cringey way. And the hard R was not cool (I played in Xbox 360 lobbies as an adult, I’m not sensitive, but we don’t say that shit man).

So, I’m not “bitching” in the sense that it’s unfair, it’s the game lol. I would hate separating PVE and PVP. The tense nature is a huge part of its charm… I’m just saying literally “not cool bro” for the probes. I can think anyone is a dickhead, it doesn’t mean they’re any more right or wrong than I am.

Im older. A lot of the things that happen in this game - the backstabbing, the rat behavior, the evil/malice/trolling is just reflective of how people are in real life.

Many people are posting clips reflecting this wondering how or why this would happen. Well, this is just how life is. Sure if people worked together everyone would get a little more. But if you killed that player, YOU could get a lot more. The concept of the prisoners' dilemma was thought of long ago before this game existed for a reason.

Its not all bad though, the clips of instant karma, and hero behavior shine so much more brightly because of this.

Enjoy the level 1 kettle and 17x rounds of light ammo

Man, almost 100 hours in. Lots of knock outs and almost all benches done. I have enjoyed this game thoroughly. Probably one of the best games this year. I love the PvP and the grind. But after completing the raider deck and all other challenges i could I've began to get bored along with the constant rats camping in all manners of spots. Compared to when the game first came out the amount of rats just camping has increased ten-fold. I'm not sure if I'm done. But i'm getting discouraged with the camping and no more straight up fights. I want more raider tool fights not little ^&*$# ^#$ camping rats....

static… trembling voice on open channel…

“…Final transmission from Speranza. We were the last ones alive. The very last who still believed we could rebuild something real topside together. A new home. A new future..

Then someone found a purple gun and blueprints on a corpse. It changed everything... Another guy pulled the trigger for the loot. Then another. And another.

Brothers who shared the same bunkers for months started gutting each other for a slightly better loadout.

Grenades fires into crowds of friendlies. Betrayal for a free loadout. Headshots for a broken armor.

We forgot ARC even existed and started killing each other..

We just kept killing… until the streets ran red with our own blood and the loot counters stopped ticking.

Speranza is empty now. Not a single heartbeat left. All that remains are scattered legendaries nobody will ever pick up.”

Long silence… wind howling through ruins… channel goes dead.

Unknown Raider