“Our ambitions are definitely large” Arc Raiders’ robot bosses set to become even scarier as Embark looks to “escalate” PvE

After almost three months of scavenging and fighting, Arc Raiders players have become quite good at dealing with the extraction shooter’s PvE foes. Diehards might be worried about that side of the game becoming stale soon, but don’t worry: Embark could be about to unleash hell on us.

During a chat with GamesRadar, Arc Raiders design lead Virgil Watkins stated the team is “pretty happy” with the end-game loop of taking down the imposing Queens and Matriarchs.

The problem is that killing the same behemoths over and over again to get materials to craft better guns that excel at killing the same enemies can get pretty old, pretty quick. Of course, most players have yet to experience what Arc Raiders’ later progression stages and threat levels have to offer, but online shooters typically thrive or die based on how well-fed the hardcore crowd that lives in the end-game is.

Instead of coming up with new “giant spidery” robots, Watkins suggests Embark Studios could look at ways to put them to good use in different scenarios and/or events: “I think it’s looking toward where we take those types of experiences in the future to something else or something additional, seeing how we can escalate the experience for the player on the PvE side.”

A potential buff to the Arcs or shaken-up world state wouldn’t be limited to the boss robots, as drones are also becoming “much less of a threat to them” (that is, in regards to players deeper into the game). Nonetheless, some the smaller Arcs are simply meant to be annoyances we have to deal with as we rush through our favourite loot spots and (if we’re feeling naughty) go after unsuspecting raiders.

About the titanic Arc bosses that can often be seen in the background, Embark isn’t making promises due to the tech involved, but everything seems to be on the table: “We want to go wherever’s practical for us, or wherever feels fun, but then you start running into the practical side of, will this blow up the server? … Our ambitions are definitely large, and I’m not going to say that you’re going to meet one anytime soon, but obviously you see the giant walking ones in the background and stuff.”

For now, I’d say more than 12m copies sold and the glowing player sentiment are giving the studio plenty of space and time for experimentation.