Please stop scooting around while you're downed in Arc Raiders: it's making you die faster

Arc Raiders: A downed player looking up at a Rocketeer hovering over an extract lift near rusted cars.

(Image credit: Embark)

I don't know about you, but when I go down in virtually any game, I'm immediately crawling around, going on a journey. I'm on the brink of death, sure, but that's not gonna stop me dancing and shimmying about for literally no reason other than it's hard to sit still, like I'm a child who's had too many energy drinks.

I'm no different in Arc Raiders. If I'm playing with a buddy and I go down first, yes, I want a front row seat to the shootout, so I'll crawl around for the best view and start doing doughnuts to distract the enemy. Surely this could have no downsides whatsoever…is what I thought until today.

ARC Raiders Mythbusters #1 - YouTube

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It turns out that your down timer decays faster when you're moving compared to staying stationary, and it's quite a drastic difference. It's hard to gauge specifics from the video, but you can cling to life for at least a good few seconds more if you sit your ass down.

So all those times I've been needlessly hobbling about, I've been inching closer and closer to death, too. Lesson learned. I'll now shimmy over to cover if I need to and patiently wait it out until I can be revived, hands off the keyboard. I'll really try, at least.

You can increase the time before you collapse using the Downed But Determined skill, or even by having another player bandage you up. Personally, I'd recommend spending your skill points elsewhere, but it can't hurt if you've got points to spare. But Jinko confirmed in the YouTube comments for the above video that the players involved in testing bleed-out speed "had zero points in any of the relevant skills that could have changed the outcome of the test."

What I want to know next is whether the Crawl Before You Walk skill, which increases crawl speed when you're downed, effectively speeds this process up or slows it down. Given you'd be crawling for less time if you move faster, I'd assume it's the latter, but we've learned that lots of the Mobility skills don't quite work how you would expect them to.

Rory has made the fatal error of playing way too many live service games at once, and somehow still finding time for everything in between. Sure, he’s an expert at Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and more, but at what cost? He’s even sunk 1,000 hours into The Elder Scrolls Online over the years. At least he put all those hours spent grinding challenges to good use over the years as a freelancer and guides editor. In his spare time, he’s also an avid video creator, often breaking down the environmental design of his favourite games. If you can’t track him down, he’s probably lost in a cave with a bunch of dwarves shouting “rock and stone” to no end.

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