Arc Raiders Players Clash Over Drone Nerfs After Server Slam — Skill Issue or Balance Problem?

Arc Raiders just wrapped a big server slam, and players are already arguing about the vibe: are the AI enemies legitimately overpowered, or are people just mad they can’t steamroll a PvPvE game on day one? Depends which subreddit thread you read.

What just happened

Embark Studios ran a stress test October 17–20, letting early players dive in ahead of the full release later this month. The goal was twofold: break the servers on purpose and shake out any wonky mechanics. Mission accomplished on the data front — now the studio gets to sift through a mountain of feedback before launch.

The debate (and why it’s spicy)

The community split into two clean camps after the test, and the tone could not be more different:

• Team Nerf It: Some players say drone-style Arcs soak up way too many resources and feel miserable to fight. One frustrated tester said they burned through two full magazines on a stun-drone’s propeller and it barely reacted — the gist being that the Arc’s armor needs a trim. Another complaint: getting chunked for roughly 90% health by a massive AOE that comes off cooldown in about two seconds. Over a dozen posts on the game’s official Reddit echoed versions of this, calling it the biggest flaw so far.
• Team Git Good: The counterpoint is that if you’re consistently dying to Arcs, that’s on you. Veterans argue you can ping enemies from far away to identify them, and the early game is balanced around bringing two guns. The big guy drawing the most heat — the Rocketeer — has already been nerfed hard, they say. It used to fire three rockets per shot, was basically impossible to survive, and almost always crashed the party at extraction. Now, according to this camp, there are plenty of ways to handle it. They also argue the difficulty is the point: pressure from Arcs creates memorable chaos in PvP encounters and forces teams to reroute on the fly.

"The Arc is key to what makes this game so special."

That’s the core philosophical split. Tone down the Arcs and you arguably sand off what makes this extraction shooter different. Keep them spicy, and some folks will bounce off it. Embark has a choice to make, and somebody will be unhappy either way.

So what now?

All eyes on October 30, when Arc Raiders actually launches. Whatever Embark tweaks between now and then will set the baseline for whether the game leans gritty and punishing or a little more forgiving.

Quick context check

Arc Raiders comes from ex-Battlefield developers and is currently the 5th most-wishlisted game on Steam. It also had a long road to get here: the team delayed it roughly three years after deciding it just wasn’t working.

"This game is not fun"

That brutally honest reset is partly why expectations are so high now. If the Arcs really are the secret sauce, we’re about to find out whether players actually want the full flavor.