Players have spent months trying to figure out ARC Raiders matchmaking. Some thought the game secretly sorted people into “friendly” and “hostile” servers. Others believed one bad raid could ruin your account forever.

Now, Embark Studios has stepped in with a proper explanation, and it clears up quite a lot.

According to the developer, matchmaking starts with one simple goal: fair squads. The system first tries to match teams with similar party sizes before anything else happens.

After that, Arc Raiders looks at how people actually play. Aggressive players are more likely to meet other aggressive players over time, while cooperative players slowly drift towards calmer lobbies. But Embark says it is not a hard divide.

There are no “good” or “bad” servers hidden in the background. Most players apparently sit somewhere in the middle.

Embark also shut down several community theories that have been floating around since launch. PvE-only lobbies do not exist. End-of-match ratings do not affect matchmaking either. Crossplay settings, squad level, and even looting defeated raiders also have no impact on where you end up.

One important change is still coming though.

The studio confirmed that defending yourself in a fight will soon be treated differently from starting one. That should help players who only shoot back when attacked instead of hunting everyone on sight.

Embark also plans to reduce the influence of low-activity raids on your long-term matchmaking profile.

At this point, the system sounds less like a hidden punishment machine and more like a slow behavioural tracker that adjusts over time.

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