The Arc Raiders community believes high framerates and aim assist may be to blame for some suspicious gameplay clips after players accused streamer Nick ‘Nickmercs’ Kolcheff of cheating.
Fans took a magnifying glass to the controversial controller accessibility feature after Reddit users took aim at a questionable gameplay video from the streamer last week. The post, which comes in at just 11 seconds long and accrued 2.4K comments on the social media platform, sees Nickmercs using a Renegade rifle (and an Xbox controller) to shoot down two Arc drones.
It’s the kind of clip many wouldn’t bat an eye at in passing, but a closer look reveals almost robotic precision.
“This is super sketchy,” one user commented shortly after the post was published, “controller does have aim assist on ARC but it’s not like this.”
“Yeah that’s not aim assist,” another user added at the time. “I mean that’s just blatantly a cheat engine. The way it locks onto a rotor and then he has to move it off the Arc entirely to get it to lock onto the back rotor instead is sus as f**k.”
The video’s showcase of inhuman, snappy aiming quickly convinced a crowd of users the streamer must be using cheats to boost his performance for his audience. Upon closer inspection, however, it looks like Nickmercs’ may only have Arc Raiders and developer Embark Studios’ built-in aim assist feature to thank.
While no one was able to exactly reproduce the streamer’s mechanical control on console without a cheat tool, PC players had a little more luck. Just hours after fans caught wind of the cheating allegations, Reddit user roartex89 published a video showcasing what seemed to be a drastic difference in aim assist sensitivity on PC vs. console.
Further investigation from users like Razukee, awhaling, and ttvimShinyatheninja seemed to find the culprit behind magnetic aiming wasn’t exactly platform choice but frames per second (FPS) values. PCs able to achieve higher framerates seem to be able to use aim assist to snap between targets with ease, while those on the lower end may see little to no benefit from the feature. So, for example, a popular streamer with a high-end PC reaching as much as 240fps would be able to use aim assist to snap to targets with more ease than a player on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X | S, where Arc Raiders is capped at 60fps.
“This basically [makes] aim assist pay to win,” ttvimShinyatheninja said in their post. “Whoever has the better PC wins. Everyone else is at a huge disadvantage and this [needs] to get fixed asap.”
Nickmercs, who went on to deny the cheating allegations during a January 12 livestream, seems to have been let off the hook, as the Arc Raiders community shifts its focus from one potential cheater to a wider discussion about aim assist. Embark is now being looked to for answers, with players taking to the company’s official channels across Reddit, X/Twitter, Discord, and more to ask for clarity or, ideally, a proper fix.
Without comment from the studio, a section of the community questioning whether it’s fair for console players to be matched against PC players has emerged. From cheating allegations to general confusion about how and why aim assist works, these fans now want to spread the word that crossplay should be turned off for now.
“Until resolved console players should not be playing with PC players to preserve a fair environment if one side can do something another isn’t capable of,” one Reddit user commented.
“PC already have superior inputs with [mouse and keyboard] and now they also have better aim assist?” another replied. “Yeah not a chance I’m ticking that crossplay box on Xbox.”
The streamer happened to find himself in the crosshairs of a gaming community that had just spent recent weeks pleading for Embark to crack down on what many felt was a cheating epidemic. As nefarious fans took advantage of exploits to illegitimately gain the upper hand on other Raiders, the studio finally stepped in, promising to clean up lobbies as January rolls on.
Arc Raiders launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S on October 30, 2025. It’s steadily marching through its third month in players’ hands, with Embark currently working to address feedback with updates that should arrive sooner rather than later. Recently, fans have spent their days learning to manipulate the aggression-based matchmaking system to land in PvE-only lobbies.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
