Embark Studios has released update 1.36.0 for Arc Raiders, introducing a significant overhaul to the game's matchmaking system. Previously, the game employed an aggression-based matchmaking system where a player's overall combat engagement with others influenced their lobby assignments. This meant that even if a player preferred peaceful, quest-focused gameplay when playing solo, engaging in PvP-heavy matches with friends in a trio could skew their solo matchmaking towards more aggressive encounters.
The new system, detailed in the patch notes, now tracks play style separately for solo, duo, and trio sessions. This change aims to provide a more tailored experience, allowing players to engage in PvP-focused trios while still finding cooperative lobbies for solo play, and vice versa. According to the patch notes, "there's no overlap. You'll be able to go from friendly questing and plant-picking in Solo rounds to adrenaline-fueled PvP Trio games (if that's how you usually play in those respective cases), by simply changing your squad size. The same holds for Duo - all three are tracked on their own."
While this update is unlikely to propel Arc Raiders back to its earlier peak player counts, it represents a notable quality-of-life improvement for its existing player base, which still sees around 40-50,000 concurrent players on PC daily, according to SteamDB. The game also has an upcoming October update, Frozen Trail, which may offer further opportunities for player engagement.
Beyond matchmaking, update 1.36.0 also includes a new outfit obtainable by playing Embark Studios' other title, The Finals. The developers have also confirmed the completion of their Denuvo anti-cheat rollout, are continuing to address duplication glitches, and plan to expand restrictions on free loadouts to more map conditions.