Shortly after revealing the new roadmap for ARC Raiders, Embark Studios has released the first of its planned major updates for the year. The patch notes for this update have revealed that the studio is taking a new approach with its ban system. As caught in the Anti-Cheat section of the patch notes, this new system will punish players caught cheating for progressively longer periods of time.
On their first offense, players will get banned from ARC Raiders for 30 days. A second offense will be for a longer period—60 days. A third strike will ultimately lead to the repeat offenders getting permanently banned from the game. It is also worth noting that this new approach doesn’t appear to be 100 percent live yet, as the studio has noted that it is “in the process of being implemented.”
“A three strikes progressive ban system is in the process of being implemented. Bans will progress from 30 days, to 60 and finally a permaban for repeat offenders,” explained Embark Studios in its patch notes.
Compared to the larger extraction shooter landscape, the system in ARC Raiders seems quite lenient. Escape From Tarkov, for instance, doesn’t offer any warnings; players are banned from the game on their first detected instance of cheating.
Other major features part of the patch are a new long-term project where players can build a Display Case where they show off trophies depending on the level of challenge they have successfully taken on, the new Solos vs Squads matchmaking options for players level 40 and over that rewards bonus XP, and the Bird City map condition applied to Buried City.
These additions were described by Embark Studios as part of the new content roadmap for ARC Raiders last week. The update itself has been labelled Headwinds, and will be followed up by Shrouded Sky in February, Flashpoint in March, and Riven Tides in April.
February’s major update will bring in a new player project, a map update, a new map condition, and a new ARC threat. March will see the addition of yet another ARC threat, player project, and map condition, along with an update to Scrappy the rooster. April’s update will bring in a host of new content, like a map and a new large ARC.
ARC Raiders design lead Virgil Watkins had spoken about the ambitions Embark Studios has for the extraction shooter in terms of bringing in new epic ARCs for players to fight. Noting that the title already has six-legged giant spidery robots like the Queen and the Matriarch, he said that the studio is also looking at other ways to escalate the challenge on the PvE side.
“Especially because we’ve seen – as players get more advanced with the game, more sophisticated in their approach, or they just understand how to play better – the current set of drones becomes much less of a threat to them. They’ve figured out their attack patterns and how to avoid them, or how to deal with them quickly and things like that. So I think continuing to escalate that is where we’re looking at growing next,” he said.
ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review from when it first came out.
