Player recycles 109 Venator 4s live after Headwinds nerf, Embark rolls the change back
A player recycled 109 Venator 4 pistols live on Twitch after players noticed the weapon’s fire rate had slowed following the Headwinds update for Arc Raiders. The recycle drew immediate attention during the stream. Shortly after the action, streamer Nick ‘Nickmercs’ Kolcheff reacted by saying, “Chat, he just recycled 109 Ven4s.”
Players had begun comparing weapon behavior after Headwinds and found the Venator 4 was not firing the same as before. The weapon was not listed for changes in the update notes, and community testing showed a reduced rate of fire for several guns.
RIP to the guy who recycled 109 Venator 4s because of yesterday's accidental nerf.
Embark literally just reversed it 🤣
📽️nickmercs pic.twitter.com/KZBgvEovYo
— ARC Raiders PVP (@ArcRaidersPVP) January 28, 2026
Embark addressed the situation on January 28 on the official Discord. The developer wrote, “Fixed an issue that caused unintended fire rate changes to several weapons.” The team added, “Following yesterday’s update, some weapons were affected by a bug that reduced their rate of fire. This was not an intentional change. We always aim to include all changes in our patch notes, and we appreciate you flagging this quickly.”
The incident came amid a wave of player reports about other Headwinds problems, including slower looting and intermittent login issues. Players raised those concerns on January 28 and further details were reported by a separate article on the update’s side effects here.
The streamer’s friend lost a large collection when the pistols were recycled before the reversal. Embark’s rollback restored the original fire rates, leaving that collection unrecoverable unless the player restocks their Venator 4s. The update also introduced new Epic augments that arrived with Headwinds.
More Arc Raiders updates are shared on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
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
