The days of bypassing reload animations to maximize DPS are officially over. Update 1.4.0 for ARC Raiders has arrived, and Embark Studios has taken a sledgehammer to the most prevalent exploits in the current meta. This patch focuses almost exclusively on competitive integrity, removing cheese tactics that allowed players to access locked loot rooms without keys and fire weapons faster than intended.
The End of the Quick-Swap Meta
If you've been engaging in PvP recently, you've likely run into Raiders who seemed to be firing semi-automatic weapons with impossible speed. The "quick-swap" exploit allowed players to cancel recovery animations by rapidly switching guns, effectively bypassing the intended fire rate caps. It made certain loadouts oppressive and trivialized the risk-reward balance of combat.
Update 1.4.0 has patched this mechanic entirely. You will now have to respect the intended fire rates and reload times of your arsenal. This is a massive shift for the combat meta—positioning and accuracy are going to matter a lot more now that you can't just spam inputs to out-DPS a mistake.
How do the map fixes affect loot runs?
The other major pillar of this update addresses map integrity. Players had discovered ways to glitch into locked rooms—specifically the Spaceport Control Tower—without actually unlocking them. This broke the game's economy by allowing squads to farm high-tier loot with zero resource investment.
Embark has implemented mitigation mechanisms across all maps to prevent these breaches. Specifically, the exterior access point to the Spaceport Control Tower has been physically blocked to stop the clipping exploits used to bypass the door. If you want the loot inside, you're going to have to find the key or hack the terminal like the rest of us.
Physics and Movement Cleanup
Finally, the patch addresses a physics exploit where players could push each other by jumping on a teammate's back. While this often led to hilarious moments, it also allowed squads to boost into unintended areas or break out of bounds. This interaction has been stabilized to keep Raiders grounded within the playable area.
ARC is dangerous enough with its escalating destruction; we don't need players breaking the laws of physics to add to the chaos. This update puts everyone back on equal footing.
Soren