Arc Raiders Fixed the Worst Part of Extraction Shooters by Just Giving Us Free Stuff
I have a confession to make: I absolutely despise extraction shooters.
I hate the anxiety. I hate the "gear fear." I hate spending 20 minutes organizing a loadout in a menu only to get headshot by a camper in a bush 30 seconds after spawning. In games like Tarkov, that loop makes me want to uninstall life.
But Arc Raiders? I can’t stop playing it. And there is exactly one reason why: the Free Loadout button.
A recent Reddit thread blew up discussing this exact mechanic, and I am here to co-sign it with my blood. This single feature is the only thing keeping the casual player base alive, and if Embark listens to the "hardcore" crowd and nerfs it, they will kill their game.
The Cure for the "Doom Spiral"
In any other extraction game, a bad night is a tragedy. You lose your good gun. Then you lose your backup gun. Then you run out of money. Suddenly, you're doing "hatchet runs" or waiting 20 minutes for a Scav cooldown just to play the videogame you installed.
Arc Raiders looked at that system and realized it was stupid.
Here, you click "Free Loadout," and you are back in the action. No cooldown. No cost. No 15-minute inventory Tetris session trying to scrape together a pistol.
I had a run of bad luck yesterday that would have made me quit any other game. I tried to drop into Stella Montis, the sweaty, terrifying urban map, and I died instantly. Ten times in a row.
If I had to manually re-gear after every one of those deaths, I would have put my fist through my monitor. Instead, I just laughed, clicked the button, and went again. It turns a rage-inducing failure loop into a "one more try" addiction loop.
The "Zero to Hero" High
The beauty of the Free Loadout isn't just that it's free; it's that it's capable.
You get a basic weapon, perhaps a Kettle if your lucky, some meds, and a dream. You are weak, sure, but you aren't helpless. This enables the "Zero to Hero" run, which is frankly the best feeling in gaming.
There is nothing quite like loading in with a trash-tier kit that cost you nothing, outplaying a guy wearing full blue armor, and taking his stuff. It’s pure profit. It’s free real estate.
Don't You Dare Nerf It
I'm already seeing the "hardcore" players complain. They say it's "too easy" or that there should be a cooldown to punish death.
To those people, I say: shut up.
The Free Loadout is the safety net that allows casuals to exist in the same ecosystem as the sweats. It keeps the servers full. It keeps the loot flowing. If you take this away, the casuals leave, and then the "hardcore" players are just left alone in a lobby to shoot each other until the game dies.
So, please, Embark: do not listen to the sweats. Keep the free kit exactly as it is. It’s the only safety net keeping my sanity intact.