As of today, Arc Raiders' player count has plummeted to an all-time low of approximately 130,000, a decrease of about 3.5 times from the initial 450,000+ players. So, what exactly is behind this player exodus?
I believe it's highly likely related to free loadouts. Are they the reason for the player decline? To answer this question, this article will delve into free loadouts and explore some possible improvements.
Free loadouts are completely free and can be used an unlimited number of times. While this sounds great for new players or those who spend a little money, they cause numerous problems affecting both PvE and PvP.
Free loadouts in PvE
First, PvE is very unique in terms of gameplay and replayability. Not only do they virtually eliminate the threat of other players, but the direct death rate is also extremely low.
While dying in a game can be frustrating, victory and defeat are the core driving force behind the dopamine reward cycle in all games or competitive activities. Game after game, from the initial joy to the boredom of the seventh or eighth round. This means that unlimited, lossless experimentation is key to quickly boring players.
You can use free loadouts to challenge Queen without any penalty, and this eventually robs the game of its most important element: excitement.
Furthermore, players can use free loadouts to endlessly farm monsters on the map, repeating any activity without consequence. If they encounter a bad spawn point or a bad free kit, they immediately quit the game, hoping for a better spawn next time.
This ruins the gaming experience for other players in Arc Raiders, as only a handful of raiders remain on the server, making the entire dungeon feel empty. Meanwhile, if certain maps have higher blueprint drop rates, many players abuse free loadouts to gain an advantage. If they don't find ARC Raiders Items they want, they surrender and start over.
Free loadouts in PvP
How do free loadouts ruin PvP? Research shows that 82 out of 100 players use free sets, meaning the vast majority of PvP players are using free sets. Why are players so enthusiastic about Free loadouts? Because they're unlimited, completely free, and absolutely risk-free. Players carrying gear worth 100,000 Coins face a high risk in the game, while those using free loadouts can try to defeat enemies an unlimited number of times without any penalty.
The problem is that free loadouts still come with fairly good weapons. Even against well-equipped opponents, players using free loadouts still have a significant chance of winning. Later, Embark attempted to address this by nerfing free loadouts, but instead of reducing the time required to kill players using free loadouts, they nerfed weapon damage across the board, which didn't solve the fundamental problem.
Over time, players stopped caring about their gameplay. At times, the game felt less like a tactical takedown shooter and more like a chaotic free-for-all with no stakes or objectives. This clearly contradicts the developers' original intention: Arc Raiders' PvP mode should be about acquiring resources and better weapons from other raiders with genuine caution and risk, not about rushing in en masse at the first sound of gunfire.
When over 80% of PvP players in a game use free loadouts, it actually disrupts the entire game ecosystem. It's especially unfair to PvP players with genuine high-level gear, who risk everything only to end up with an average of just a bandage and level 1 items.
Six Solutions
I believe both of these issues are closely related to player churn. So, what should the solutions be? This article will offer several solutions, and here are my thoughts on each. Free loadouts should have only one primary purpose: to help players recover resources and get back on track so they can continue using full custom gear. This is the role free loadouts should play.
1. Timing
Free loadouts should only appear late in raids, perhaps around 90% of the timer. This prevents players from using surrenders and respawns to farm blueprints. Free kit players shouldn't have any advantage over fully geared players at spawn, or be able to loot weapons earlier than others on the map.
2. No skill upgrades included
Free loadouts should not include player skill upgrades, especially Stamina. Current free loadouts are too powerful; early-spawning players with free loadouts can open Security Breach Containers to obtain epic items. Therefore, removing skill upgrades from free loadouts effectively prevents some players from using them as a complete replacement for custom gear.
3. New shield included
Free loadouts should include a new special shield, either with 50% of the current Green Shield's effectiveness or only blocking damage from ARC enemies. The root of the problem is not the weapon itself, but that currently, players using free loadouts take the same amount of time to kill enemies as fully equipped players with custom builds.
4. Usage conditions
Free loadouts should only be usable on normal and casual maps and should not trigger Electromagnetic Storm, Hurricane, Matriarch events, or Harvester events.
5. Daily limit
Free kit packs should have a daily limit, for example, 10 per day. To obtain more Free loadouts, players would need to successfully extract with at least 20,000 worth of gear. This would reduce surrender abuse and strengthen the core survival gameplay, making it more meaningful.
6. Total value limit
Finally, and in my opinion, the most significant point: consider limiting the total value of free loadouts to 30,000. This would effectively prevent Free Kit players from looting fully armed players in PvE loot boxes. For example, if you defeat someone carrying gear worth 27,500, your inventory would be nearly full.
That concludes this article. Players, do you believe the decrease in the number of ARC Raiders players is related to free loadouts? Please share your opinions, and feel free to offer any better suggestions for discussion
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