Crashing in Arc Raiders With a "BREADCRUMB_ERR" Message? Here Are the Fixes

Alright, so you're all geared up to jump into Arc Raiders, you hit "play," and... "An Unreal process has crashed: UE-PioneerGame" followed by some cryptic bullshit like "BREADCRUMB_ERR_EMPTY_QUEUE". Your game dies, your hopes are dashed, and you've already tried the obvious: updating drivers, updating Windows, verifying files, and reinstalling (which may not have worked).

Welcome to the club. This "UE-PioneerGame" crash seems to be plaguing a ton of people, especially during the tutorial or on launch. The good news is, after digging through a bunch of community threads, I've got a list of fixes that are working.

THE FIXES

Let's do this logically. Start with the easiest, fastest fixes first. Don't go scorching earth on your PC until you've tried the simple stuff.

Fix 1: kill All Overlays and Background Crap (The #1 Culprit)

This is the most common and successful fix I'm seeing. Unreal Engine, especially with Easy Anti-Cheat, hates other programs trying to hook into it. You need to shut everything down.

• Disable Steam Overlay: Right-click Arc Raiders in Steam > Properties > uncheck "Enable the Steam Overlay...".

• Kill Discord Overlay: Go into Discord Settings > Game Overlay > turn it off.

• Kill GPU Overlays & Monitoring: This is the big one. Close NVIDIA ShadowPlay/AMD Record & Stream, and fully exit MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner, NZXT CAM, or any other hardware monitoring/overclocking app. Seriously, I saw reports that just having NZXT CAM's "mini mode" running was causing the crash.

One user reported that after disabling "antivirus and background applications," their game finally started. So yeah, go scorched earth on your background apps before you try anything else.

Fix 2: Admin Rights & Compatibility Mode (The 1-Minute Fix)

This is basic, but it's a step everyone skips.

1. Find the game's .exe file (Right-click Arc Raiders in Steam > Manage > Browse local files).

2. Right-click the game's .exe > Properties > Compatibility tab.

3. Check the box for "Run this program as an administrator".

4. While you're there, check "Disable fullscreen optimizations" too.

5. Hit Apply and try launching again.

Fix 3: Force DirectX 11 (The Launch Option Fix)

Sometimes, Unreal's default DX12 mode just doesn't play nice. You can force the game to run in the older, often more stable DirectX 11 mode.

1. Right-click Arc Raiders in your Steam Library.

2. Go to Properties.

3. In the Launch Options box, type: -dx11

4. Close the window and try launching the game.

Fix 4: Repair Easy Anti-Cheat

If it's not overlays, it might be the anti-cheat itself.

1. Go to your game's installation folder (Steam > Manage > Browse local files).

2. Find the EasyAntiCheat folder and open it.

3. Run the EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe as an administrator.

4. Find Arc Raiders in the list (or select it) and choose the "Repair" option.

5. Let it finish, then try launching the game again.

Fix 5: Tweak Your GPU Settings (Underclocking/Undervolting)

This one's more advanced, but it's a known fix for persistent Unreal crashes. Sometimes, a high-end GPU's factory overclock is just unstable enough to crash the engine. The fix? Slightly reducing its power.

One user on Reddit fixed their crash by "undervolting the GPU slightly". Another fixed an "unhandled exception" crash by using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to reduce the performance core ratio. If you use MSI Afterburner (which you should have closed for Fix 1, but open it for this), try lowering your Core Clock by -50Mhz or -100Mhz and see if it stabilizes.

Fix 6: The "Reinstall But Better" Method (The Last Resort)

I know, I know, you said you already reinstalled. But how you reinstall matters. Sometimes leftover files in your config folders are the real problem. If (and only if) nothing else has worked, do this:

1. Uninstall Arc Raiders through Steam.

2. Go to your Steam library folder (steamapps/common/) and manually delete the Arc Raiders folder if it's still there.

3. (Optional, but recommended by some) Use an uninstaller tool like Revo Uninstaller to hunt down and kill all remaining registry keys and appdata files.

4. Reboot your entire PC. A full, proper reboot. Don't just restart.

5. Reinstall the game on a fast SSD.

Hopefully, you don't even get to step 6. For most people, killing those overlays (Fix 1) or forcing DX11 (Fix 3) seems to do the trick. Good luck.

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