7 Harsh Realities Of Playing ARC Raiders With Random Teammates

If you decide to play ARC Raiders alone, you have to choose between raiding entirely solo or with two random teammates. There’s nothing wrong with the former, and solo matches can be quite friendly and accommodating, but there’s another level of PvP to be found in trios, and friends aren’t always available to play. Even the most optimistic Raiders will tell you that matchmaking with random teammates can be a huge gamble.

Part of ARC Raiders‘ massive popularity is due to the social aspect of the game, not only in team coordination but also in interacting with other squads. Viral clips show all sorts of unexpected emergent stories, and they’re great at showing the community’s ingenuity and welcoming attitude. As with any multiplayer game, though, ARC Raiders‘ glorified social experiment can turn sour, and that unfortunately happens most often when you’re solo queuing into trios. Here are some harsh realities you might experience playing with randoms in ARC Raiders.

You May Get Paired With Loot Goblins

Yes, I know, we’re all loot goblins in ARC Raiders. Sifting through detritus is a major component of the game, so everyone’s greedy for loot to some degree, but it can be obnoxious when you get paired with a capital-L, capital-G Loot Goblin. They sprint ahead, looting very quickly, making no effort to ensure an area is divided at least somewhat equally amongst the squad. They don’t ping potentially useful items they leave behind, and don’t bother to stick together before moving onto the next place.

The real issue is the lack of coordination and awareness. Just one person in a squad getting surprised by hostile Raiders in trios is enough to doom a run. I can always come back for more junk, but getting dragged into a firefight in which you’re immediately at a disadvantage because a teammate was too busy breaching every container half a building away never feels great.

Someone May Run Off To Do A Quest

ARC Raiders Character Running Through a Forest

Listen, I’m down to help strangers with their quests. All you have to do is ask and make sure our third is on board as well. It’s much more practical to do quests in solos, where people are generally friendlier than in teams and you aren’t dragging teammates around the map to potentially out-of-the-way places, but I won’t be at all upset if someone wants to knock out a quest in trios.

The issue is people just running off to do it themselves without saying anything. I only have two options in that scenario: follow and hope our other teammate does as well, or stick with our other teammate and split the squad. The longer you run after someone to some unknown destination without stopping to loot anything or being cautious, the more frustrating it becomes.

You Can’t Coordinate Loadouts With Randoms

Weighing the risks of what to bring into a raid is an important facet to ARC Raiders‘ gameplay loop, without which there would be none of the tension that the extraction genre is known for. There is a wide range of weapons and utility items that can benefit a squad, and playing with two friends makes it easy to divide the burden of the items you might want to collectively risk. You’ve got multiple safe pockets among you, so it’s not unreasonable to divvy up the responsibility of bringing things like room keys, Raider Hatch Keys, or Wolfpack grenades.

But when you solo queue into trios, you have no idea what your teammates are bringing. You might be looking to loot Stella Montis with some of your best weapons because you know trios there tends to be a bloodbath and you want to be prepared, but there’s nothing stopping the game from pairing you with two randoms who are bringing in free loadouts precisely because the close-quarters map is so notoriously dangerous. You also don’t want to be the underpowered one, caught in a firefight feeling like you’re unable to equally contribute.

You Might Get Paired With A Duo In Party Chat

There’s nothing wrong with a little privacy, and in most online multiplayer games, I refuse to use game chat simply because they’re usually toxic. ARC Raiders is one of the few exceptions, however, where communication is essential, and being out of the loop with two players paired up and talking in party chat or a Discord voice call can make things very difficult. Being just a body in a pair’s squad can be disheartening; you’re only there to even the numbers in a scuffle.

I’ve had plenty of people who were obviously friends be very welcoming to me in game chat, but just like when you get paired with an egregious loot goblin, being dragged around the map by a duo clearly coordinating without you is frustrating. I would even prefer no voice chat – I’ve had many wonderful games with randoms where we fumble through communication with the emote and ping wheels. It’s much better than being left out of the conversation.

Strangers Are More Likely To Bail If You Get Downed

Sun shining on the facade of a building in ARC Raiders' Buried City map. — Sun shining on the facade of a building in ARC Raiders’ Buried City map.

Understanding doesn’t make it any less annoying, but I get it: strangers don’t necessarily have an obligation to risk their loot to save my virtual life. I do, however, think it’s against the spirit of teaming up in a game. For better or worse, the random people you get paired with are your teammates, and I think you should make every effort to get your whole squad to extraction.

It’s very easy to get jumped in ARC Raiders, and often your only hope of surviving an initial volley is to get timely back up from your teammates. Some randoms see a health bar rapidly declining and take that as a sign that it’s time to bounce – immediately. Getting downed in solos is what it is; either I got outplayed or circumstances simply didn’t fall in my favor. Getting downed, knocked out, then spectating to see your random teammate is already half a kilometer away from the fight makes you question why you even bothered solo queuing.

There’s A Chance You Become An Accomplice To Villainy

Dam Battlegrounds Map Promo Art ARC Raiders

Even worse than being abandoned in a tight spot is becoming complicit in a playstyle you don’t support. ARC Raiders wouldn’t be the same without people causing trouble, but it’s difficult to be put in a situation where your teammates play in a way you loathe. A particularly nefarious strategy I do not like to be roped into involves feigning cooperation, telling another team you’re friendly before shooting them as soon as their backs are turned.

The easiest way out is refusing to participate and abandoning your squad, but then you’re stuck in a trios match alone. Extraction camping is another strategy I try to avoid, but it’s ultimately the same outcome: your only option is to put yourself at a disadvantage by striking out on your own.

Random Teammates Might Take Your Stuff If You Get Downed

A loading bay in ARC Raiders' Stella Montis map. — A loading bay in ARC Raiders’ Stella Montis map.

ARC Raiders has proven to bring out the best in people, but it can also bring out the worst. By far my most frustrating experience was getting eviscerated by a Rocketeer near the Launch Towers on Spaceport. I was with two random teammates who had run from the flying robot in a different direction and clearly found more effective cover than I. Luckily, I was able to crawl all the way to their hiding spot in the tunnels. Just in time, too – my health was almost gone. When I dropped in right next to them, they just… watched me bleed out and looted my body.

If you can, play ARC Raiders with a couple of buddies. I don’t want to dissuade anyone from solo queuing into trios – I’ve met a lot of very nice people in-game – but you should be aware that, as a stranger, others might not necessarily care what happens to you on a raid. A great community has sprung up around ARC Raiders in its early weeks, and most matchmaking has been very smooth with great teammates, but there are some unfortunate harsh realities of joining a squad of randoms.