Arc Raiders sets new two-week PvE event, encourages players to be nice to each other

Arc Raiders has been around long enough now to have a "subculture" of its own. For the most part, millions of players have swarmed into Embark Studios' hit extraction shooter because most raiders found topside are... surprisingly nice. So far, the developers have been fostering a welcoming community even if PvP is an option, and the new event is all about experimenting with PvE further.

On 9th February, Embark announced the 'Shared Watch' event with a cute little trailer, and the patch notes released the following day confirmed a substantial update before February's 'Shrouded Sky' content update continues to escalate the Arc threat. Saint Valentine's nears, so let's be good to each other.

What is it exactly about, you might ask? "Players will earn merits from destroying, assisting and damaging ARC and earn rewards. No merits will be earned from PvP encounters." You know what to do if you want to maximize your grind and meta progression!

The official post describes the Shared Watch as "an annual holiday that reminds us of the true enemy," so expect it to be a yearly tradition. For the most part, the solo queues have been quite peaceful since launch, with most raiders choosing to help fellow scavengers. Uncommon evildoers aside, that's been a fantastic way to enjoy Arc Raiders in a more relaxed, less sweaty manner. It's good to see Embark play around with the game's core premise in conversation with the community though.

Before those who favour PvP encounters start whining about the studio paying a bit too much attention to the calmer side of Speranza recently, let's remember late January gave high-level players the opportunity to join even tougher versus-centric lobbies, so this feels natural if you ask me. In spite of all its success, Arc Raiders is still in its infant months, and with Bungie's Marathon soon coming in hot with a stronger focus on PvP, it'll be interesting to see how Embark reacts to the community's movements.

As surprise extras, the 1.15.0 update also adds two new cosmetic sets and brings back the Cold Snap map condition, as we're still technically in wintertime. Of course, more tweaks and bug fixes are part of the package, and we'd be surprised if there are no more minor patches before this month's major Escalation update.