Join The Club
Literally since launch, free loadouts have been a source of contention in Arc Raiders. They're great if you just want to chill, shoot some things, and not have to worry about losing loot. But on the flip side, their prevalence undermines the loot economy and incentivises everyone to avoid risk. Why use your best gear when your opponent has nothing on the line, and you've got nothing to pilfer?
Well, alongside the surprise Forgotten Relics event and Converging Paths project, update 1.33 finally looks to address this issue with an experiment. Free loadouts have been outlawed specifically on Night Raid and Close Scrutiny—two of the hardest map conditions.
"We are disabling free loadouts for Night Raid and Close Scrutiny to increase the barrier of entry," the patch notes read, "so that players commit to appropriate risk and reward in these scenarios that have better loot."
However, this is only for the next three weeks, ending on (presumably) July 7. Judging by how this experiment goes, "We may add this limitation to more map conditions in the future after we’ve observed its impact," the devs explain.
I'm surprised it took this long to run a test like this—maybe I'm just too used to Bungie's willingness to experiment with every Marathon update—but I'm glad it's here. Night Raid and Close Scrutiny are among the hardest activities in Arc Raiders, and it was always a bit silly that you could face off against players with free kits. Even if you beat them, you'd have nothing to gain. It undermined the difficult and risk-reward balance that these modes were aiming for. Now you'll at least have to pony up something of value.
On the topic of free loadouts, Embark has also made a number of quality-of-life improvements. Firstly, your current loadout is no longer cleared when you choose to use a free loadout until you're loading into a match, in case you need to make a last-minute change. And when you are ready, your inventory will now display the free loadout's equipment, rather than an empty inventory. Small but neat changes for those who love running with the basics.
