Arc Raiders has officially nerfed two of the strongest weapons, the Trigger Nade and the Kettle, as previous stats created 'an unfair dynamic that favours using 3rd party software'

arc raiders medic — (Image credit: Embark)

It's all gone, there's nothing else left for me now, my beloved Kettle and Trigger Nade are dead in the dirt, as good as trash. How will I go on? Ok, that's slightly dramatic, but I do feel a pang of loss after Arc Raiders' latest patch notes, as it has now officially nerfed the Kettle and Trigger Nade after mountains of community complaints.

"Trigger Nade currently dominates PVP encounters, and players favour picking it over all our other grenades," the January patch notes explain. "This nerf aims to make it less usable as a 'trigger-in-air' grenade, whilst keeping its usefulness as a sticky bomb.

Arc Raiders Paving the Way - Rooftop — (Image credit: Embark Studios)

"Damage falloff has been rebalanced to concentrate the damage closer to the centre of the explosion and deal less damage further away. The delay between triggering the grenade and its detonation has been increased from 0.7s to 1.5s, giving players more time to react and making it harder to time the detonation in the air."

The Kettle, which is a basic gun, has also been nerfed, following complaints that players were turning it into a rapid-fire machine gun. "Reduced fire rate from 600 to 450," the dev notes explain. "The previous fire rate was only realistically reachable by players using macros, which creates an unfair dynamic that favours using 3rd party software."

These nerfs have been in the works for some time now. Last week, Embark promised that "significant changes" were on the horizon for overpowered weapons, and even before that, in the game's official Discord, there was talk of nerfing the Trigger Nade. Needless to say, it's been a long time coming.

Alongside these nerfs, there are also a couple of changes. One is a fixed exploit that now prevents players from keeping room keys after using them. The other has lowered lighting in some areas on Stella Montis' Night Raid, which will make "flashlights more relevant".

The basic weapons have been way too strong for what they're worth, with the Kettle actually being the best cost per shot for a while now (not anymore though, rip). So nerfing basic weapons is a good start, but what I really want to see is some serious buffs coming in for the odd epic weapon, or at least Embark providing more incentives for players to risk their pink weapons and use them during matches.

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

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