How Crossplay Affects Your PvP Experience on PC vs Console

Ever since its release, ARC Raiders has been steadily growing in popularity, somehow managing to surpass its peak player count several times over the past few weekends. While plenty of the success behind ARC Raiders comes from its unique setting and close relationship with the community, it’s the player interactions that make it stand out the most compared to other offerings on the market.

The surprise popularity of ARC Raiders has introduced a whole new market to the relatively niche extraction shooter genre, so there have been plenty of players having trouble adjusting to the mix of PvE and PvP content. To make matters even worse, one portion of the playerbase seems to have a significantly different experience than the rest, which can thankfully be helped with one simple setting.

Crossplay can Drastically Transform Your ARC Raiders Experience

Crossplay has already been a consistent topic in the gaming world throughout the years, with frequent conversations about aim assist advantages given to controller players or the precision of keyboard and mouse users. ARC Raiders, in particular seems to be adding an even bigger disconnect between the two sides of its playerbase.

Plenty of ARC Raiders players have shared their mixed experiences with other raiders already, and the latest dissertation on the topic might be the most interesting yet. Reddit user Monstras-Patrick recently detailed their findings that console players have a significantly higher number of betrayals and hostile PvP engagements as a whole compared to their PC counterparts.

There has been plenty of speculation that age differences or inexperience with the genre is what causes console players to have much higher numbers of betrayals or instantly attacking on average compared to PC players. Nonetheless, it’s hard to pinpoint one single reason for the difference.

Thankfully, the built-in crossplay functionality does offer some control to help self-moderate the kind of ARC Raiders experience you want to have. If you’re on a PC, simply turning off the crossplay functionality while matchmaking has a much higher chance of offering more positive interactions during solo play. Unfortunately, the same can hardly be said for trio and even duo matches, regardless of hardware.

Crossplay is enabled by default for all systems, but can be quickly changed under the gameplay settings menu in the Online tab.

A small group provides much more survivability against the ARC as a whole. Since a trio will already have to split loot between them, this tends to be where the differences between systems start to fall apart, as most players attack each other on sight rather than work in additional teams.

Even if you’re playing on consoles and want to have a more cooperative ARC Raiders experience, enabling crossplay if you have it turned off can somewhat help to mitigate these problems. More aggressive PvP players are likely to disable it to avoid having to face off against potentially deadlier keyboard and mouse users.

PvP Is Already One Of The Most Controversial Elements Of ARC Raiders

Even among the more peaceful PC side of the community, PvP and its gameplay consequences are still the most controversial aspect of ARC Raiders as a whole. After having been gunned down while trying to complete a quest for the third time or being betrayed right before extracting, it’s easy to see where all the frustration is coming from, especially for console players at a significant disadvantage without using crossplay.

A large portion of its playerbase has even gone as far as to demand a PvE-only mode to allow players to farm for blueprints or complete challenging quests without having to worry about getting shot in the back in the process.

On top of removing more random factors from the experience, it’s not hard to see why so many players are interested in a PvE-only mode. Compared to more simplistic AI in extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov or Delta Force, ARC is a unique and highly adaptable threat for anyone to come across.

The main problem with the concept of separating ARC Raiders‘ PvP and PvE modes is that it would ultimately kill the careful balance that the experience provides. PvE lobbies lack the same tension and higher stakes, while PvP-centric servers would offer little to no room for teamwork and simply turn into a generic shooter.

Even if it’s unlikely that ARC Raiders‘ developers would make such a drastic change to their award-winning gameplay formula, the ability to swap between crossplay can still offer some flexibility in your experience. It’s especially worth considering if you want to go for a more PvP-focused run without guilt or want to work alongside other raiders in solo play with raiders on PC.

PvE Alone Isn’t Enough To Keep ARC Raiders Relevant

ARC Raiders character running towards The Queen

Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a more PvE-focused experience out of ARC Raiders, it’s hard to see the game ever having nearly as much impact or staying power without the mechanic being present. Despite the complaints, this uncertainty is exactly what makes the ARC Raiders formula work so well.

After the initial shock and awe over how creatively deadly ARC enemies can be, many of the most iconic or memorable moments from the ARC Raiders community often come from interactions with other players and the unlikely bonds or betrayals that form between players during a raid.

Even if a PvE-only mode was eventually added to the ARC Raiders experience, some of the toughest AI in the game can be trivialized with the right weapons and knowledge, becoming more of an obstacle and reliable source of loot than any real threat. While this doesn’t apply to massive ARC enemies like The Queen or The Matriarch, even larger enemies like Bastions and Rocketeers can lose their fear factor with overpowered weaponry, and not having to worry about attracting other raiders to fight over rewards would further trivialize matters.

The fully trust-based system of ARC Raiders‘ anonymous playerbase might not be perfect for those trying to play fairly and cooperate with other raiders, but it does create some of the most interesting tension-filled moments in ARC Raiders. There’s plenty of room for revenge and working together to overcome aggressive players or ARC willingly, rather than being forced to.