ARC Raiders has introduced a temporary PvE matchmaking toggle to evaluate dedicated cooperative servers. The setting allows players to disable combat against other squads while reducing overall loot payouts and restricting specific map modifiers. The test runs for a 7 day trial period to gather player telemetry ahead of permanent matchmaking changes.
The toggle lets players move away from the standard PvPvE environment into dedicated PvE instances. In these servers player to player damage drops to 0. Throwables such as stun and fire canisters no longer inflict harm on other players, though physical world interactions like barricades and ziplines stay functional. Enemy ARC machines will target downed players after an 8 second grace period expires if the player moves. Overall loot value is reduced on PvE maps, and squad matchmaking no longer separates solo players from larger groups.
The development team restricts several high difficulty map conditions from the PvE queue. Players cannot access PvE mode during Night Raid, Locked Gate, Hidden Bunker, Frigate, or Redirection events. Standard PvPvE matchmaking continues without changes, giving developers a direct baseline to compare queue times across low population regions. The studio plans to distribute a survey following the 7 day test to decide the long term future of dedicated PvE servers.
