Arc Raiders is testing a PvE toggle, and the developers are terrified it might actually work. The limited beta runs from October 13 to October 20, 2026, letting players flip a switch and remove all player-versus-player damage from their matches. Is this the moment the extraction shooter stops being an extraction shooter, or just a polite experiment that gets shoved back in the closet?
Daddy Gamers Demand Their Robot Shooting Simulator
Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal sat down with GamesRadar and basically admitted the obvious thing everyone already knew. The community has been split for ages, and the friendly co-op crowd keeps growing while the hardcore PvP folks stay exactly where they’ve always been. Embark’s own numbers show 37 percent of players identify as friendly co-op types, another 27 percent are mixed, and only 34 percent are pure PvP murder enthusiasts.
More than half of surveyed players said they wanted a dedicated PvE option, and even 40 percent of PvP players expressed a desire for fewer hostile encounters. Grøndal even used the phrase “dad gamers” to describe the folks who just want to shoot some robots for a couple hours without getting ganked at extraction. Honestly? Respect. Some of us have bedtime.
The Toggle Does Exactly What You Think
When the test goes live, you’ll see a matchmaking toggle. Flip it to PvE, and suddenly nobody can hurt you except the giant killer robots, which are still very much allowed to hurt you. Solos, duos, and trios all share the same PvE sessions, which is a weird choice that might result in some awkward moments where a trio watches a solo player loot a building they wanted.
Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate, and Frigate are all excluded from the test because those conditions were designed around the constant threat of human betrayal. Your PvPvE matchmaking rating stays untouched while you’re in PvE, so you can be a pacifist for a week and nobody will ever know.
The Economy Is Gonna Get Weird
Embark is already bracing for economic chaos. PvE players extract more often and with more loot because nobody is ambushing them at the elevator. To compensate, PvE sessions will have lower overall loot value while PvPvE sessions get a slight bump. It’s a delicate dance that basically admits the two modes are playing different games with the same economy.
There’s also a genuinely funny tweak: if ARC enemies down you in PvE, crawling around might make them notice you again, but staying perfectly still means they’ll ignore you completely. So the meta for surviving PvE is to play dead like a possum and hope the robot loses interest. Beautiful.
Grøndal Says The Split Is Very Possible
When asked directly whether Arc Raiders could eventually become two separate games, Grøndal didn’t hedge. “I mean, the community is already split along those lines,” he said. “If the game eventually will represent that? Quite possibly.”
He also acknowledged the internal drama, saying not everyone at Embark was “high-fiving Aleks” when the PvE test idea came up. There were real concerns expressed on both sides of the argument. But he also said the studio needs to answer this question, both for themselves and for the players. That’s about as close to a confirmation as you can get without actually announcing a permanent mode.
Arc Raiders Players Choose Peace Over Pew
The funniest part of this whole saga is the historical context. Arc Raiders was originally pitched as a pure PvE co-op game about fighting giant robots. Embark pivoted to the PvPvE extraction format late in development, presumably because that’s what the market wanted in 2025. Then the players showed up and collectively decided they’d rather not shoot each other, thank you very much.
ore than 95 percent of players use proximity chat, often just to shout “Peaceful!” at strangers or strike up conversations about their kids. The game’s own community rejected the game’s core premise. Now Embark is testing a mode that basically says, fine, you win, here’s the game you actually wanted to play the whole time.
The Test Might Fail and That’s Fine
Embark is being very careful to say this isn’t a promise of anything permanent. The official blog post explicitly states the test could fail and the toggle will be removed on October 20. But here’s the thing. If 51 percent of your player base wants a mode, and 40 percent of your PvP players also want fewer hostile encounters, the math is pretty simple.
The real question isn’t whether PvE works. The real question is whether Embark can support two different games under one roof without gutting the tension that makes the PvPvE experience special. Grøndal said they don’t necessarily want to create a game that has two games in one. That’s a noble sentiment. It’s also probably not up to him anymore.
Arc Raiders Just Wants Everyone to Get Along
Look, I’m biased here. I’m the guy who plays Arc Raiders exclusively in friendly lobbies and feels genuine guilt when I accidentally shoot someone who was just trying to complete a quest. The PvP crowd can keep their adrenaline and their extraction camping and their gear fear.
Give me a server where everyone is crouching at each other, and nobody is mad. The PvE toggle test is the best thing Embark has announced since launch, and if it works, Arc Raiders might finally become the game it was always meant to be: a bunch of weirdos cooperating to fight giant robots while occasionally playing dead to avoid getting noticed by said robots.
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