ARC Raiders stops counting self-defence toward matchmaking

Embark Studios has changed how ARC Raiders decides a player's place in aggression-based matchmaking. With update 1.39.0, released on July 28, fighting back against an attacker no longer feeds into the playstyle estimate the system uses to sort players into lobbies.

The studio set out the rules in a blog post covered by Dot Esports and PC Gamer. The squad that deals damage first is treated as the aggressor, and an entire squad counts as defending if an enemy player damages, downs or knocks out any of its members. Third-partying — entering a fight already underway between other squads — counts as starting one. Accidental damage still registers as an initiation but carries far less weight.

Scale matters too. A sustained exchange with heavy damage and downs weighs more heavily against the aggressor than a brief skirmish where one side runs.

How the system got here

At launch, shooting back contributed to a player's profile on the same terms as picking a fight. PC Gamer notes that an update at the end of May reduced the weight of self-defence without removing it, so players who wanted quieter lobbies still had reason to avoid returning fire. Dot Esports reports that this had produced a workaround — loading into a raid and dying quickly — which Embark has also addressed by giving low-activity raids less weight in the estimate.

The change ships as a test with no announced end date. Embark said it will monitor metrics and gather feedback over the coming weeks. Earlier matchmaking work remains live alongside it: the separate tracking of solo, duo and trio behaviour introduced in 1.36.0, and the 1.38.0 adjustment that accepts longer queues in exchange for better-matched lobbies.

PC Gamer frames the sequence as an attempt to steady the game ahead of the Frozen Trail update in October, following Embark's move to a six-month cadence for major updates.