Arc Raiders is trialing a PvE mode after "a large and growing group" of players refuse to fight each other

The Backdrop

Extraction shooters have always run on one core tension: other players. Since The Division's Dark Zone popularized the formula, the uncertainty of whether the person approaching you is a friend or a looter has been the genre's defining thrill. You're never safe until you've escaped the map.

But Arc Raiders, the extraction shooter from Embark Studios (published by Nexon), has developed a player base that increasingly wants something different — and the studio has been paying attention.

The Cause: A Growing Pacifist Community

According to data Embark shared, the game's population has shifted noticeably since launch. The pure PvP crowd — players who hunt other humans — has held steady at 34%. The mixed players, who mostly cooperate but occasionally turn hostile, have shrunk, with most of them converting into full-time co-op players who never attack anyone.

That means the largest group in Arc Raiders now consists of people who come to the Rust Belt purely for the co-op and the ARC machines, not to fight fellow Raiders. As Embark put it: "That group has become a core part of our community, so it's important we learn how to support them properly rather than leave them working around the game."

The Event: A Trial Run, October 13th–20th

Between October 13th and 20th, players can flip a toggle and choose how they load into the game:

• The traditional mode — the ruined world of Arc Raiders as it has always been, where human players compete for valuable scraps under the watch of killer robots.
• The PvE trial mode — the ARC machines remain just as deadly, but players can no longer damage each other.

The mode is nearly identical to regular Arc Raiders, with a few deliberate differences:

1. Zero player-to-player damage.
2. Loot value is lower, reflecting the reduced risk of grabbing it.
3. Certain events designed around unpredictable player encounters — Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate, and Frigate — won't appear in PvE matches.

Embark also stressed that the goal is not to crank up PvE difficulty to replace the missing PvP threat. Still, the ARC machines have been tuned to be slightly nastier: if you're downed by ARC, they may re-acquire you as a target even while you're crawling — but only if you're moving. Stay still, and they'll ignore you. In Embark's words, the tweak exists "to maintain some tension to compensate for the lack of a PvP threat." In short: learn to play dead.

The Bigger Picture

Embark isn't alone. Bungie is also building a PvE mode for Marathon, aimed at the same segment of players who want co-op rather than competition. Two major extraction shooters responding to the same player behavior suggests something is genuinely changing in the genre.

Where Things Stand

The trial runs October 13th–20th, and its outcome matters beyond Arc Raiders: if PvE-only players sustain the mode, expect other extraction shooters to follow. If the mode feels hollow without the backstab risk — a question even the original author intends to test by playing both PvE modes — the genre's identity may prove inseparable from player-vs-player danger. Either way, the verdict will shape what Arc Raiders becomes next.