Embark Studios plans a balance update for Arc Raiders on Tuesday, January 13 that targets two of the game’s most complained-about items: the semi-auto Kettle rifle and the ubiquitous Trigger Nades, design lead Virgil Watkins said.
Watkins said the Kettle’s current fire-rate ceiling is so high it can produce near-instant kills when pushed. “We even saw videos of people doing it manually, they’re just that fast,” he told GamesRadar, and Embark will lower the gun’s max possible fire rate so it still performs but cannot be abused.
Trigger Nades will keep their identity as precise, high-damage explosives, but they will demand more exact placement. Watkins described two technical changes: a tighter damage falloff curve so only close, well-placed hits deal full damage, and a change to the grenade’s trigger timing so “you can’t have it leave your hand and just blow it up immediately. You require a bit more lead time.”
Watkins also said Embark is looking at the broader balance picture, including how rarity and upkeep costs line up with each item’s effectiveness. Those economy and rarity adjustments are part of a wider plan and won’t land in the January 13 patch.
The studio is also actively addressing other early issues in Arc Raiders, including a surge of cheating that Embark says it’s tackling with improved detection and bans. The developer’s anti-cheat work is outlined in recent community updates and reporting, which has prompted a separate response from the team about enforcement; more detail is available in our coverage of the cheater situation here.
Short, focused changes like these aim to reduce gameplay moments that feel accidental or impossible to react to while leaving the intended tools intact. Watkins framed the adjustments as surgical: keep the Kettle useful at normal speeds and preserve Trigger Nades as high-skill, high-reward equipment rather than a catch-all insta-kill.
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ARC Raiders
Developed by Embark Studios
ARC Raiders is a multiplayer, extraction adventure, set in a lethal future earth, ravaged by a mysterious mechanized threat known as ARC.
- Genre: Shooter
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Modes: Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release: 2025-10-30
- Publisher: Embark Studios
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Age Rating:
ESRB T / PEGI 16 / GRAC 15+ / USK 18 / CLASS_IND 14 / ACB M
- IGDB Rating: 89.7/100
