Arc Raiders' experimental PvE mode is intended to offer a less confrontational alternative to the extraction shooter's standard player-versus-player tension. But early player videos and accounts suggest that eliminating friendly fire does not eliminate hostile behavior. Instead, some Raiders are reportedly finding indirect ways to endanger, delay, or frustrate teammates and strangers in PvE lobbies. The tactics being discussed range from camping locked loot rooms to using enemy robots as weapons near extraction points. In a game where surviving with loot is the central objective, that can be more than an annoyance.
The situation highlights a familiar challenge for multiplayer designers: players do not need a direct damage button to grief one another. If a game includes valuable resources, physical collision, powerful AI enemies, and tools that influence enemy behavior, there can be plenty of room for antagonistic play. Arc Raiders' PvE experiment appears to be testing that principle almost immediately.
A safer mode with new ways to cause trouble
In the usual Arc Raiders experience, uncertainty around other players is a major part of every raid. A stranger could cooperate, ignore another squad, steal an opportunity, or open fire. That unpredictability gives extraction shooters much of their suspense, because every encounter carries the possibility of betrayal or a fight over the gear everyone is trying to bring home.
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PvE changes the most obvious part of that formula. Players cannot simply shoot another Raider to take their equipment. The enemies on the map, known as Arc machines, remain dangerous, however, and reports from the new mode indicate that certain players are exploiting that danger rather than confronting opponents directly.
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One frequently shared behavior involves the Bull Rush ability. Players can apparently use it to slam into Raiders who are attempting to extract. The direct impact may not be lethal in the way a weapon would be, but a badly timed shove can push someone into an exposed position, interrupt their movement, or leave them vulnerable while hostile machines are nearby. If the victim dies to Arc enemies rather than another player, their loot may then be available without the attacker having fired a shot.
That distinction matters in a PvE ruleset. A system designed around preventing player-on-player killing can struggle when the game cannot easily distinguish between legitimate movement, accidental collisions, and deliberate attempts to feed a teammate into an AI threat. The result is a form of aggression that operates in the gap between the mode's intention and its mechanics.
Extraction zones are becoming pressure points
Extraction is naturally one of the most stressful moments in any extraction game. It is where a successful raid becomes permanent progress, and where losing focus for a few seconds can erase a run's rewards. In Arc Raiders PvE, some players are reportedly turning those zones into traps by throwing lure grenades that pull enemy robots toward people trying to leave.
The problem becomes especially severe when the enemies drawn into the area include a Shredder. Bringing a dangerous machine into an extraction point can force players to abandon cover, spend valuable ammunition and healing supplies, or fight while their escape window is threatened. Even if everyone survives, the disruption can cost time and make an otherwise smooth run much riskier.
Unlike an ordinary combat mistake, the concern is intent. Lure grenades are useful tools when deployed to redirect hostile machines or create an opening. Used around friendly players at an extraction point, they can instead function as a means of manufacturing danger for someone else. It is difficult to imagine a PvE group enjoying that kind of "help," particularly if the person throwing the grenade stands to benefit from loot left behind by a downed Raider.
Body blocking has also emerged in player complaints. One account described a session in which lure grenades were thrown around a player and their wife during an Arc encounter. After she was downed, the remaining player said they were blocked and shoved while attempting a revive. This is the kind of behavior that turns a cooperative mode into an argument about collision rules, revive protections, and whether participants have meaningful options when another player decides to interfere.
Locked loot rooms create a different kind of standoff
Not every alleged PvE griefer is trying to get another Raider killed. Some are simply waiting by locked loot rooms for somebody else to arrive with a key. The player with the key then faces an awkward decision: open the room and race everyone else for the contents, potentially share the find, or walk away and preserve the key for a future match.
In a PvP lobby, a dispute over a valuable room could quickly turn into a firefight. PvE removes that direct answer, replacing it with an uncomfortably literal loot scramble. Whoever can get to the items first wins, while the player who supplied the key may have little practical ability to secure the reward they enabled.
That is not necessarily griefing in every instance. Players grouping around an objective can be a normal consequence of a shared online world, and some may simply hope for a cooperative split of the rewards. But repeatedly waiting for keyholders, pressuring them to open rooms, or attempting to claim everything once the door opens turns a communal objective into a source of resentment.
The dispute cuts to a core question for Arc Raiders' PvE design: should a player who brings a rare access item receive any protection or priority over the loot behind it? If not, the mode may encourage players to keep keys secret, avoid others, or skip rooms altogether when strangers are nearby. Those responses would be understandable, but they would also undermine the more relaxed social environment PvE is supposed to foster.
Why an experimental mode is revealing so much so quickly
Arc Raiders' PvE option is explicitly experimental, so the current behavior should not be treated as a final statement on the mode or its rules. Experimental modes exist to uncover exactly these sorts of edge cases: incentives that look harmless on paper but become disruptive once a large community starts testing every ability, route, and interaction.
The early reports nonetheless demonstrate that the mode cannot rely only on disabling damage between players. Indirect harm is still harm when it costs someone a raid, a revival, equipment, or access to a high-value reward. If players can reliably profit by maneuvering Arc machines into allies, physically blocking them, or exploiting an extraction sequence, then PvE needs systems that address those outcomes rather than just their most obvious cause.
Possible responses could include changes to player collision near extraction, clearer protections for reviving teammates, adjustments to how lure effects target or travel near friendly Raiders, and safeguards against ability-based displacement. Loot-room rules may be more complicated. The developers could leave them as free-for-all spaces, alter how loot is distributed, or create incentives for keyholders and nearby players to cooperate. Each solution would come with tradeoffs, especially in a game built around scavenging and high-stakes decisions.
The loot economy may be part of the tension
There is another concern surrounding the PvE test: rewards. Loot is said to be reduced in the mode, yet players have been posting runs that appear to yield very strong equipment. If PvE is seen as a comparatively dependable way to build up valuable gear, some PvP-focused players may view it as a shortcut that affects the wider economy or drains activity from the standard mode.
That does not prove every disruptive player has the same motivation. Some may simply be selfishly chasing loot. Others may be experimenting with the mode's limits, enjoying the chaos, or treating friction with strangers as entertainment. There is also speculation that a portion of PvP players would prefer the PvE experiment to disappear so more potential targets return to traditional lobbies. Whatever the motivation, the practical issue is whether players can sabotage one another with little chance of consequences.
Arc Raiders has already experienced debates over player conduct. Following the game's explosive launch last December, a player gained attention for repeatedly hunting relative newcomers, casual players, and people carrying little or no loot. That episode prompted arguments about the difference between harsh but legitimate PvP and behavior that feels needlessly predatory. The PvE situation shifts the terms of that discussion. Here, the expectation is not merely that combat is permitted; it is that direct combat has been removed.
Finding a role for PvE without losing Arc Raiders' identity
The arrival of PvE comes shortly after a major Arc Raiders update that introduced grappling hooks, a new map, and additional content. That update helped drive a player resurgence on Steam, reaching concurrent-player levels not seen since March. A thriving population gives an experimental mode more data and more opportunities to find its audience, but it also means more people testing its loopholes.
Whether PvE becomes a permanent pillar of Arc Raiders remains an open question. Extraction shooters derive much of their identity from uncertainty and the possibility of conflict, and a separate mode can risk fragmenting the player base or creating disagreements over progression. Other games in the genre are confronting the same accessibility problem, including Marathon, which has announced plans to add PvE modes.
For Arc Raiders, the immediate lesson is straightforward: a peaceful ruleset needs more than a ban on friendly fire. Players can weaponize AI, movement abilities, space, and objective timing when valuable rewards are on the line. If the experimental mode continues, its next changes will likely need to focus on protecting basic cooperation at the moments players are most exposed: during revives, at locked rooms, and especially at extraction.
Until then, Raiders entering PvE may find that the absence of bullets from other players does not necessarily mean the absence of player-created danger.
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