Arc Raiders will return items to your inventory if you lose them to cheaters, saying it is “committed to skill and fun, not unfair advantages”.
While finding and losing gear in extraction shooters is a key part of the experience, developer Embark Studios is working to ensure that players who lose out due to “unfair play” are compensated, regardless of whether or not they’re the one who reported the cheaters in the first place.
As pointed out by Arc Raiders News on X/Twitter and discussed by players on Reddit, if Embark catches cheaters, it’ll automatically refund lost gear, even if the affected player hadn’t been the one to report the cheat.
“Your items were lost due to unfair play, but we managed to get them back for you!” Embark said in a message to a player dated yesterday, 31st October.
“They’re now available for you to claim and take with you on your next journey Topside.
“We’re committed to building an environment where gameplay is about skill, teamwork, and fun, not unfair advantages. Thank you for being part of this mission! Together, we’re building Arc Raiders into a fair and fun experience for everyone.”
It prompted several other players to jump in and confirm the surprise refund had happened to them, too.
Yesterday, we reported that Arc Raiders had surpassed a peak concurrent player count of 250,000 on Steam, only a day after its release, although that record has been broken again today (1st November), topping 328,062 simultaneous players. This makes it the most popular Steam release for a PvP extraction shooter to date, and the fifth biggest game on Steam over the last 24 hours.
In Eurogamer’s Arc Raiders’ preview, we wrote: “Arc Raiders is, simply put, a third-person extraction shooter. It is a factory that mass produces tense moments, by its own nature a source of intense anxiety: high stakes, devastating losses, rapturous victories. Pulling back, it’s a game of gradual self-refinement, both of your inventory full of resources and your characters abilities, and likewise your own know-how.”