ARC Raiders PvE toggle test: Dates, rules and loot trade-offs

ARC Raiders will trial a PvE matchmaking toggle for one week in October, giving players a queue with no player-to-player damage. The compromise is deliberate: loot value will be lower, several of the game’s highest-tension conditions will be unavailable, and Embark Studios has not committed to making the option permanent.

The official PvE Toggle Beta Test announcement says the test will run from October 13 through October 20, 2026. During that window, players will be able to choose between ARC Raiders’ usual PvPvE matchmaking and the PvE option, then switch between the two. Embark has not published exact start or end times.

ARC Raiders PvE test dates and matchmaking rules

The most straightforward change is that PvE sessions will have “zero player-to-player damage,” according to Embark. Other players will still share the session, but they will not be able to damage one another.

It is not a separate solo-only queue. Embark says solo players, duos and trios will all be placed in the same PvE sessions. That makes the test a lower-conflict version of the shared extraction experience rather than a private co-op mode.

• Choose PvPvE or PvE: players can switch between the two options during the October 13–20 test.
• No player damage in PvE: the test queue has zero player-to-player damage.
• Mixed party sizes: solos, duos and trios will be pooled into the same PvE sessions.
• PvPvE rating is protected: playing PvE will not affect a player’s PvPvE matchmaking rating.

That final point matters for players who want to try the alternative rules without changing the matchmaking rating attached to their PvPvE games. The established queue also remains available, so choosing PvE does not amount to leaving PvPvE permanently.

Why PvE loot value will be lower

Embark is adjusting rewards to preserve a reason to play in the more dangerous queue. The studio says PvE will have lower overall loot value because of its relative safety, while PvPvE sessions will receive slightly higher baseline loot values during the test.

That makes the choice less about selecting a strictly better way to progress and more about deciding what kind of tension a player wants from a session. PvE removes hostile-player damage, but PvPvE retains the possibility of greater value in exchange for its added risk.

“There is a risk that introducing a PvE matchmaking toggle could reduce some of the tension that the game was built around,” said Aleks, ARC Raiders’ executive producer, in Embark’s announcement.

That is the central trade-off behind the experiment. Embark is testing whether it can accommodate players seeking a less confrontational co-op experience without undermining the uncertainty associated with its extraction-shooter format.

Night Raids, Frigate and other excluded conditions

The PvE queue will not include every ARC Raiders condition. Embark has excluded Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate and Frigate from the test because those conditions rely on the uncertainty of encountering other players.

For players interested in the Frigate, that exclusion is especially important. Embark’s Frozen Trail preview presents the Frigate as a high-stakes encounter involving other Raiders, so it will remain outside the lower-conflict trial.

The announcements cited here do not specify which maps will remain available in PvE, whether quests, achievements and other progression systems will work identically in both queues, or precisely how Embark will assess the test after it ends.

Is ARC Raiders getting a permanent PvE mode?

Not yet. The October event is a limited beta test, not confirmation that ARC Raiders will receive a permanent PvE mode.

“This test is not a promise that there will be a PvE mode in the future, but take this as an indication that we are seriously considering it,” said Aleks in the official announcement.

Embark has already been refining matchmaking around different ways people play. In July, it said playstyle would be tracked separately across solo, duo and trio rounds. Read alongside the limited duration and continued availability of PvPvE, the PvE toggle is better understood as another matchmaking experiment than evidence that Embark is abandoning the game’s established format.

The studio also says 51% of players in its own survey expressed interest in a dedicated PvE option. That is Embark-reported internal data rather than an independently verified survey result: the announcement does not provide the methodology, sample size, field dates or question wording.

For now, the practical answer is that players who want to avoid damage from other Raiders can choose the PvE queue from October 13 through October 20, but they should expect lower-value loot and fewer special conditions. Players who want the full PvPvE risk-and-reward structure can remain in the normal queue. For another example of an online game introducing a lower-dependency way to play, see our guide to Dune: Awakening’s dedicated solo ruleset.