Arc Raiders' matchmaking is aggression-based, so if you're hostile, so are they

8 hours ago 1

You get what you give

A player in Arc Raiders in a forest aiming at another player looking at them.

If you ask me, playing solo in Arc Raiders means you're likely to have a pretty friendly experience. I've been playing since day one and while the general meta seems to have shifted to be a little more aggressive lately as players are more geared up and they understand how the game works better, if you hop on proximity chat and explain you're friendly or you're just trying to do a quest, most players will let you stroll right past.

I've seen a lot of comments about how the experience for other players hasn't been like that though. Theories have ranged from the region you're in to the time of day you're playing or the platform you're on, but as it turns out, the game actually has a more intelligent matchmaking algorithm than we thought.

As originally reported by PC Gamer, Robert Sammelin, art director at Embark Studios, explained that matchmaking "is quite complex, so we do analyze behavior and match accordingly." However, a YouTuber named Domi ran a 200+ hour test across two Arc Raiders accounts. One account, focused entirely on PvP, has 50 hours in the game, while another, where he essentially never shot back when someone shot at him, has 160 hours.

As he explains at the start of his video, the results are staggering. To summarize, the overwhelming majority of matches on his friendly account saw players communicating on proximity chat, sharing items, reviving downed players, and teaming up to take down tougher Arc enemies like Bombardiers and Bastions. On the other hand, his PvP-focused account saw almost everyone he encountered start shooting him on sight. As a result, he engaged in PvP back.

Perhaps the most important takeaway from these findings is that if you're mostly finding friendly lobbies, it only takes a couple of PvP-focused games for you to be put into more aggressive visits topside, but it'll take considerably more friendly encounters for the reverse to happen. So it is easier to find yourself amongst hostile players, but persevere and you'll start finding friendlier folks to play with.

Want to read more about Arc Raiders? Our Cold Snap explainer details exactly what's arrived with the latest update.

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