Arc Raiders is evolving its matchmaking behaviour yet again. The game’s latest update introduced a feature players have long requested. Patch 1.36.0, available now across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox allows the game to track your playstyle separately for its different matchmaking pools: Solo, Duo, and Trio.
For months after the extraction shooter’s launch, players suspected that its matchmaking system attempts to group players of similar playstyles together. This is particularly crucial in an unforgiving, PvPvE extraction shooter such as Arc Raiders, where some players can be ruthless and others more cooperative and friendly.
Developer Embark eventually confirmed that there’s a complex, sort-of aggression-based system under the hood, but that revelation wasn’t the end of it. In May, the studio admitted the game’s matchmaking system needed work.
While the idea behind matching players with others who share similar playstyles, i.e., friendly, cooperative players together and aggressive PvP players together, is welcome, the system had two core shortcomings. First, defending yourself from aggressors previously counted as starting a fight with another player, which caused some to be moved to a side of the matchmaking pool they weren’t compatible with. Second, the old system weighed “low-activity” rounds more heavily than it needed to, making it so an “off” round could have an oversized impact on a player’s matchmaking profile.
Both of these were recently addressed. The matchmaking now tracks behaviour in a more nuanced way, and the weight of rounds with minimal interactions has been reduced.
While most players welcomed the transparency, and the smarter matchmaking system, the changes exposed an issue that’s been bubbling under the surface for a while. Arc Raiders has separate pools for solo players, squads of two, and another for three-player teams. The problem? Your behaviour across all three counted towards your overall profile, rather than being confined to each one separately.
Thanks to this week’s update, however, Arc Raiders now effectively has three profiles for every player, each tracking their behaviour across the different playlists. This frees players up to mix up their playstyles depending on the size of their squad.
For example, a player could use their solo runs to farm materials and help others with PvE quests. The same player could then switch to a more aggressive, player-hunting style when they’re in a squad with their friends, and so on.
For the full change log of patch 1.36.0, hit up the official blog.
