Arc Raiders players are calling for an overhaul of aggression-based matchmaking

Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund recently confirmed that Arc Raiders has aggression-based matchmaking, meaning you're paired with players “based on how prone you are to PvP or PvE.” However, based on anecdotal first-hand experience and community-wide experimentation, players are unhappy with how the system punishes you for the way you play in squads.

“Your trio aggression shouldn't affect your solo queue,” u/MishRift wrote on the game's subreddit, racking up nearly 9,000 upvotes in just a few days. “It's mainly a message to the Embark team. I hope it gets to them.”

The argument is twofold: some, like u/MishRift, don't like PvP, so they feel it's unfair that when they play with their aggro buddies, they get into the PvP lobby when soloing. Still others prefer to play more aggressively in squads, but not solo, and don't think the system should paint all modes with the same brush.

“I generally play a lot more passive and even save other raiders on solos from time to time,” said one such player, u/En1gmaMontoya. “I enjoy PvP in triads and the sheer volume of it is great for improvement.”

Then there are those like u/A_noniempje who claim that it's simply “not viable to do no PvP in trios” even if you prefer friendlier PvE, meaning the whole mode will inevitably push your matchmaking towards aggro. “If you want to keep the solo friendly, you can't even play it,” they finished.

“I wonder if me and my teammates don't shoot anyone in trios, the game would put me in the pacifist trio lobby,” u/Sylosilvin said. “Do they even exist at this point”?

However, many have argued against the idea that trios and solos should be separated, arguing that this would mean “aggressive trios going solo to free up farm triggers on nade or other gear to be even more aggressive in trios”, although as some point out, this is already happening in the current system.

Should Embark confirm aggro-based matchmaking in Arc Raiders?

A raider looking from their surface pod in Arc Raiders.

Embark didn't describe exactly how aggression-based matchmaking works, so trios may not be weighted against solo queues anyway – there's a lot of debate on this point in the comments – but it led some to a “min-max” system, which sparked another conversation entirely about whether the studio should have confirmed aggro matchmaking to begin with.

“It's annoying, but an easy fix in 10 minutes max,” said u/Traditional-Row7925. “After you go on a killing rampage in threes, just walk in naked in solos and surrender 6-7 times in a row. Then do one freeload to make sure it works, start spamming 'don't shoot' and you'll hear people's responses. You're back in the friendly pool. It's not even subtle.”

To which u/hibari112 responded and received over 600 upvotes: “This is why I think the aggression-based notification [matchmaking] it was a terrible idea. Now instead of playing the game like a normal human being, people are aware of the system and trying to play it now. You either make people do this boring shit, run around naked trying to reset their imaginary aggression meter, or they assume they're in aggressive lobbies, so they shoot everyone in sight, which creates a negative feedback.”

I wish they never said anything about their “aggression based matchmaking” system because now people are trying to minimize it and we're seeing posts like this asking the game to move away from what makes the extraction shooter the player encounters in the first place – u/TheFlyingRazzberry.

Ever since the matchmaking system was confirmed, the Arc Raiders community has split into three camps: those who think there shouldn't be an aggro system at all, those who think Embark shouldn't have said anything, and those who think it needs an overhaul. As Söderlund said, it's not an exact science, so hopefully future improvements will fix some of these issues, but until then, maybe we should all be more like u/squidsauce.

“Having thought about it for a while, I'm not going to adjust my playstyle,” they said. “That's right. If I feel someone is being aggressive, I'll shoot. If not, I won't. I'm not interested in this auto-balancing scenario.”