ARC Raiders January Update Makes Important PvP Fixes, But Players Aren’t Satisfied

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Kyle Gratton is an editor and writer based out of Kansas City. He received a bachelor's degree, dual majoring in English and History with a minor in Film and Media Studies, and has been a senior staff writer and reviewer for Screen Rant's Gaming section since 2021, with roles in editorial, and various freelance projects.

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Some of the most glaring issues in ARC Raiders have now been fixed thanks to a new patch, but players are lamenting the problems that remain in the game. Over the holidays, ARC Raiders exceeded 12 million downloads and celebrated with a free Raider Tool skin, but the continuous work that such live-service titles demand is ongoing.

Update 1.11.0, released on January 13, brought a few key improvements to ARC Raiders. Most importantly, Kettle macros have been neutralized by reducing the gun's fire rate from 600 RPM to 450 RPM, per the patch notes on the official website. Said patch notes aren't very extensive, however, and players are growing frustrated with ongoing issues.

ARC Raiders Update 1.11.0 Finally Fixes Kettle Macros (& More)

Two Raiders pointing guns at each other in the snow.

Kettle macros saw increased use in ARC Raiders as the exploit became widely known, but this new update has finally put a stop to it by lowering the gun's fire rate cap. The Kettle can still be fired at a significant clip, and its versatility will likely see it remain a popular choice. Another major PvP balance change in Update 1.11.0 is a Trigger 'Nade adjustment. The Trigger 'Nade had become the go-to explosive in ARC Raiders, and has now received a key nerf.

The explosion produced by a Trigger 'Nade now has more severe damage drop-off, meaning it won't do as much damage further from the epicenter. It has also received a delay in how soon it can be detonated, allowing targets to potentially escape. Another issue with locked doors has also been fixed, ensuring a key card is actually consumed upon use, and the lighting during Night Raids on Stella Montis has been adjusted to conform to the desired atmosphere.

Here are the full patch notes verbatim:

Kettle
- Dev note: Reduced fire rate from 600 to 450. The previous fire rate was only realistically reachable by players using macros, which creates an unfair dynamic that favours using 3rd party software.
Trigger ‘Nade
- Dev note: Trigger ‘Nade currently dominates PVP encounters, and players favour picking it over all our other grenades. This nerf aims to make it less usable as a “trigger-in-air” grenade, whilst keeping its usefulness as a sticky bomb. Damage falloff has been rebalanced to concentrate the damage closer to the center of the explosion, and deal less damage further away. The delay between triggering the grenade and it detonating, has been increased from 0.7s to 1.5s, giving players more time to react, and making it harder to time the detonation in air.
Fixed a key card exploit that allowed players to keep room keys after using them.
Lighting has been lowered in some areas on Stella Montis Night Raid making flashlights and listening more relevant.

Players Are Growing Frustrated With ARC Raiders’ Unsolved Issues

In a discussion of the new patch on Reddit, it's clear that many were hoping for more from this ARC Raiders update. The small patch is likely a result of Embark Studios taking a much-needed break during the holidays, which has been pointed out by some players, but others note that many bugs and exploits have been in the game since launch.

Ne'er-do-wells are consistently glitching into walls on Stella Montis and Dam Battlegrounds, giving players no way to fight back. There are also issues relating to crafting quantities resetting, trophies failing to unlock on PS5, and a bug affecting the quality of proximity chat audio that was introduced alongside the Flickering Flames event that has just ended.

Wall glitches are really irritating dedicated players, especially those in the more hostile lobbies produced by ARC Raiders' aggression-based matchmaking. I will always advocate for developers to receive generous holiday time, but Embark's speed in fixing issues is being rightfully questioned. It's also notable that the last major exploit fix didn't actually solve the problem – players glitching into locked rooms were simply set on fire instead of the doors being corrected.

The game has incredible momentum behind it, and will continue to if Embark sticks with its monthly content updates. The compounding issues are cause for concern, though, and the longer ARC Raiders goes without fixing game-breaking problems, the more players are going to continue growing frustrated.