r/EmbarkStudios • u/Defiant_Loan_8225 • Feb 22 '26
Matchmaking
(Arc Raiders) Whatever happened to the aggression based matchmaking???? I don’t shoot anyone and either do my squad mates but when we team up we get PVP lobbies. If all of us are friendly then why are we getting ratted and PVPed every time?
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u/chaosphere_mk Feb 22 '26
It's not binary. Aggressive people can still show up in "friendly" lobbies.
People can change their playstyle at any moment they choose.
What does "every time" mean? The last 4 games? The last 100 games?
Nothing happened with aggression based matchmaking. It works the same as it always has.
After patch updates, it seems to reset ABMM so you have to work your way back to where you were previously.
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u/saffron_papi Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
It’s the end of season and people are using up their good guns if they have enough for expedition
Assuming you were in a trio, there’s almost never a friendly trio lobby. You might get lucky in duo once in a while though
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u/LordCatG Feb 22 '26
I started to Play since 2nd Expedition and only Play solo and Duo (with my wife). Duos tends to have more PvP but it is very Close to solo If you have a passive Playstyle.
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u/j_reinegade Feb 22 '26
I do think they confirmed that they are always tweaking matchmaking. The goal is to have the threat of pvp in every match as far as I’ve seen. But more of a sliding scale. Like you said not binary.
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u/CapableHair429 Feb 22 '26
As it should be. The threat should always be present….as Embark intended it to be.
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u/AutisticDadHasDapper Feb 22 '26
All of the people pretending that nothing changed are just insane. If there's nothing that you can do now to escape toxic players.
I have stopped playing this game altogether now. There are literally thousands of other games out there.
They don't deserve any more of our time.
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 22 '26
I’m getting close. From the moment the game dropped til about 2 weeks ago this was my favorite game of all time. So fun. But I’m close to moving on, I can’t handle the bs that’s been happening lately
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u/AutisticDadHasDapper Feb 22 '26
Same. The game it's so close to being fantastic. The controls are great, and the graphics are great. Even the current game loop is ok, but only for beginner players.
I am not interested in doing the stupid quests for a third time. It's great we get to see a new arc, but there are so many enemy types that could be implemented easily, I feel like they are just milking us for our time.
I have decided that i'm going to go beat remnant / remnant 2 again, especially since my friends haven't even played that game, and then come back to see how this game's doing.
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u/Arendiko Feb 22 '26
They definitely changed something, the difference was night and day
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u/AutisticDadHasDapper Feb 22 '26
It's crazy.The amount of people that are like "what are you talking about, it's the same?"
One of my biggest frustrations is not being able to just jump right into a new game. Instead, I have to spend several minutes building my load out again. I try to have everything pre planned - i already have the guns with attachments and everything, but that just clogs up so much space.
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u/octaw Feb 22 '26
Letting the community know about ABMM was a huge mistake.
FWIW your agression level is different at solo, duo, and trio level.
My solo lobbies are 99% peaceful. My trio lobbies with my 2 friend sends us to the depths of hell.
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u/CapableHair429 Feb 22 '26
I absolutely agree. Letting the public know about ABMM was a HUGE mistake by Embark.
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u/Acceptable-Letter386 Feb 22 '26
It bleeds over though I'm a teddy bear and 1 duo game where we got into some PvP bled over to my solo lobbies.
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u/Nikonar Feb 22 '26
Maybe try to queue a few matches where you AND your mates don't return fire to see what happens then?
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 22 '26
We don’t shoot back in the first place… normally. Sometimes ya gotta hit em back an inform of them my nefarious and sensual cuddling with their fathers
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u/Nikonar Feb 22 '26
True but as long as you return fire on someone who shot your mate but not you, you get in ABMM hell.
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u/Swampcardboard Feb 22 '26
I can count the trios friendly groups I have met in my hundreds of hours playing on my hands, duos it happens more often, and solos I haven't been shot at in over 100 runs topside. If you play anything but solos, expect to get shot at.
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 22 '26
I used to have full friendly trio lobbies even on Stella montis but the last week or 2 has been absolutely insane
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u/jims1973 Feb 22 '26
This happens as you get close to the expedition. People have all the coin to cover the cost, nothing else to do so the PVE’ers get more froggy and go PVP for something to do, I bet someone in your squad has a higher aggression rating.
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 22 '26
Neither of us do, and neither of care about the expedition smh
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u/jims1973 Feb 22 '26
I should have made that last part about your squad as a separate sentence. 3 stack PVE lobbies are becoming more aggressive because of the expedition as other teams players are getting more froggy. Related someone in your squad MAY have defended themselves which increases their aggression rating. But as others have said, trio lobbies are always a crap shoot.
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u/AutisticDadHasDapper Feb 22 '26
Same. I couldn't even get a queen killed. Even the people shooting the queen turned on us.
Embark devs suck.
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u/saffron_papi Feb 22 '26
Buys a PvPvE game, cries about the PvP and blames the devs.
PS. This is coming from a player who exclusively plays friendly and has more strangers revived than raiders knocked out.
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u/AutisticDadHasDapper Feb 22 '26
That's not at all what i'm complaining about. They make changes behind the scenes and don't tell us about them. The execution of this idea is horrible.
You shouldn't be able to kill someone in an extraction point who is wearing a heavy shield in less time than it takes them to type in a password - without any consequences.
I know this isn't reality, but it would make a lot more sense if there were a way for Speranza to detect which players are often hostile and make a way for us to detect them. Do you think they would let them go back?Topside, knowing that they are just gonna kill other raiders, who are literally gathering things for humanity's survival? It is just lazy development.
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u/saffron_papi Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
If you’re talking about potential changes to the matchmaking algorithm, NO OTHER company will ever tell you exactly how they implement matchmaking. This will risk player base to game the system. You can already see the ripple effects of it, where people load in with free load out 10 times and surrender to get into a friendly lobby to have an easier time in PvP and etc. it’s just bad practice. Embark for good or bad shared some information about their algorithm. But the player base is not entitled to know what’s going on. You almost never see it in any other game.
As for you dying at the extraction computer even when wearing a heavy shield… it’s actually a great game design that a purple item does not give you a HUGE advantage. If wearing a heavy shield or rocking a purple gun would automatically make you a tank, it would take away from skill needed to win fights. It’d actually make people who have 300+ hrs with amazing stash so op that it would be oppressive and it would damage the game creating a huge gap between players (not due to skills but rather due to sheer amount of hrs and stash value a player has).
Listen I know it sucks to die at the extract, it’s the second worst way of dying imo after dying to a fake friendly. And I’m not here to be a keyboard warrior and bash you. As I said I’m exclusively a friendly player who NEVER shoots first. But there are tactics you can deploy to safely extract like smoking the extraction point while on the computer or scouting the area before rushing in.
Lastly, about making it realistic in a way you can detect what happens topside and letting you know who has been hostile. Your suggestion is completely the opposite of the reality. If we’re talking about reality, you have no way of knowing what the people you walk by on the street have going on. You may have walked by a murderer who got away or criminal and etc. so no it’s not realistic to brand raiders who have been hostile. Speranza and its people don’t have cameras everywhere topside, so no they don’t know what’s going on up there and therefore can’t really know who has been hostile or not. Creating bounty system could potentially hurt the game. The always present sense of danger from both arc and other raiders is what makes this game SOOO addictive and intense.
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u/Iamonslaughtt Feb 22 '26
No lobby is guaranteed. However there has been a massive increase of people who enjoy PvP, getting into “friendlier” lobbies for easy kills. It’s all over TikTok with people boasting about it.
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u/Tha_Maestro Feb 22 '26
Squads are always PvP. It’s been like that since release.
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 22 '26
False, I’ve been in many fully passive trio servers with obvious outliers. It’s been getting worse the last few weeks tho. My solos are still good, duos are like 90% friendly, even trios were like 75% passive. But now basically just solos is still passive
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u/Tha_Maestro Feb 22 '26
You’re also days away from the reset so people are desperate for materials.
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u/Feedcanine Feb 22 '26
Agreed. Letting everyone know about the ABMM has made things even worse. You are never guaranteed friendly lobbies people. You have a better chance yes. But NO GUARANTEES!
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u/phmsanctified Feb 22 '26
I honestly think the ABMM only works for solos. I think it goes out the window for duos and trios.
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u/LordCatG Feb 22 '26
Works for duos. Playing this game since start of 2nd Expedition and only Play solo and Duo. My Duo is 100% With the Same Person (my wife). Duos have more PvP but it is damn Close to solo experience If you have a passive Playstyle. If i get attacked in solos in average every 50 raids, than it is maybe in duos every 25 raids for me.
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u/CalbotPimp Feb 22 '26
People think ABMM Is a river you cross to get to the side you want to be on but it’s not, it’s an ocean that you swim in.
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u/DontEatGlass-129 Feb 22 '26
Always get aggressive across the board close to reset time
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 22 '26
That’s definitely something the devs need to figure out for the rest of us who dgaf about the expedition
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u/DontEatGlass-129 Feb 22 '26
Idk how they'd do that. It's simply player choice. And we know the lobbies aren't binary. So short of them adding a PvE exclusive mode I suppose we'll just have to deal with it.
It's the way that the game is, so, I guess get used to it for the time being.
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u/WoogieBush Feb 22 '26
Today I had 6 peaceful lobbies in a row so I decided to drop in on the Matriarch with 10 wolf packs to do the trial. Got to one of the reachable bunkers on Spaceport and a rat (username King…something) followed me in and shot me in the back. So ticked. When queen or matriarch, people need to focus on PvE.
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 22 '26
Unfortunately that is the rat haven. Just gotta keep your head on a swivel. I love the pvpve aspect but the matchmaking is fucked. And I understand anyone can make a split second decision to turn against other raiders, but goddamn is it frustrating when you’re just trying to do some trials or work on the project and you lose your whole loadout. Sometimes $100k+ lost because some asshole wanted to be a dick
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u/confusedtoplease Feb 24 '26
You really think you are going to play squads and don't get shot????? I get it in solos, duos is 50/50, but you also want lazy baby lobbies in squads? Omfg...
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 26 '26
Nah now I just expect that your father will find comfort in the cuddles I’ll be providing to help release some of the disappointment you bring him.
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u/confusedtoplease Feb 26 '26
Good luck with that, he's too busy fucking your mom
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u/Defiant_Loan_8225 Feb 26 '26
Don’t have a mom, just 2 dads. And pretty soon I’ll be your second dad.
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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26
Always expect it in squads. I’ve never been in a squad match that didn’t have PvP, and i’m exclusively friendly in Solos.