Embark Studios will run a PvE matchmaking test in Arc Raiders from October 13 to 20, letting players toggle between the extraction shooter's usual PvPvE sessions and a version in which players cannot damage each other.
PC Gamer quoted the studio's blog post setting out the terms: the test runs October 13-20, 2026, PvE sessions carry zero player-to-player damage and focus on the ARC threat and co-op, and solos, duos and trios share the same session. Switching between the two modes is designed to be seamless, and time spent in PvE will not affect a player's PvPvE matchmaking rating.
Eurogamer reported that executive producer Aleksander Grondal announced the test on the official Arc Raiders site. GameSpot noted it follows a PvE map condition Embark tested on Chinese beta servers three months ago; this time players do not have to seek out a specific map condition to play without PvP.
What is different in a PvE session
Loot is worth less in PvE sessions, reflecting the reduced risk, according to PC Gamer and Eurogamer. Several major conditions - Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate and Frigate - are excluded from the test, because Embark built them around the uncertainty of meeting other players.
Embark said the test is not an attempt to make PvE harder to compensate for the missing PvP threat, Rock Paper Shotgun reported, though the studio warned that downed players should be careful when crawling: ARC will re-acquire a downed target that moves and will ignore one that stays still. Eurogamer said Embark will also watch matchmaking times and the wider player economy, given how much low-risk loot players could extract.
The data behind it
We have to respect that some players want to enjoy the game in their own way, and we can't ignore what the data is telling us.
The figures Embark published put 37% of players in the friendly co-op group, which it said has grown consistently since launch, 34% in the pure PvP group, which has stayed stable, and 27% in a mixed group, PC Gamer reported. More than 70% of friendly players and 40% of PvP players said they wanted fewer hostile encounters, and 51% of those surveyed expressed interest in a dedicated PvE option.
Grondal called the result an "Extraction (Don't) Shooter", Eurogamer reported, and said Arc Raiders began as a raid-based co-op PvE shooter with looting before Embark shifted it toward the extraction format it shipped with. Rock Paper Shotgun quoted the studio saying the co-op group "has become a core part of our community, so it's important we learn how to support them properly rather than leave them working around the game."
Embark was explicit that nothing permanent follows automatically. The toggle is removed when the test ends and matchmaking returns to normal, and GameSpot quoted the studio saying the test "is not a promise that there will be a PvE mode in the future", only "an indication that we are seriously considering it".
