The PvE Toggle Beta Is Live: Start Time, Rules and What Changed

The PvE Beta at a Glance

• No player damage, including throwables. Stun and fire items don't affect other Raiders.
• Barricades and ziplines still work normally. Other Raiders can still block a doorway or use your zipline.
• Lower loot. Overall loot value is reduced in PvE. Embark hasn't given numbers.
• Mixed squads. Squad sizes aren't kept apart, so Solos, Duos and Trios meet more often.
• Five conditions stay PvPvE: Night Raid, Locked Gate, Hidden Bunker, Frigate and Redirection.
• Downed grace period: 8 seconds in which ARC won't target you.

What Changed Since the Announcement

• Redirection is now on the excluded list. In September it was Night Raid, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate and the Frigate. Redirection joins them.
• Exact times: the test runs 11:00 CEST to 11:00 CEST, a full seven days.
• Throwables are spelled out: stun and fire items can't affect other Raiders, while physical items like barricades and ziplines are untouched.
• The downed rule is concrete: instead of "crawling can draw ARC back", there's now a fixed 8-second window before ARC can re-acquire you.
• Normal raids keep their matchmaking. Embark wants this test's data before changing matchmaking more broadly, and warns of longer queues in low-population regions and quiet hours.

What It Means for Frozen Trail Farming

The Emperor key is still a PvPvE job. Redirection is where you call down Emperor Payloads for the couplers and the conduit blueprint, and it's excluded from PvE. The blueprint can also drop from a Surveyor Vault, so taking down Surveyors is the one way to chase it in a PvE raid. Our Fallen Emperor guide has the full route.

So is the Frigate. The ARC Frigate condition won't come up in PvE. If you want the full Frigate run, the best bet is still a friendly PvPvE lobby where the whole server works the power cores together: see our Frigate guide.

Good PvE runs this week: learning Pendola Pass, the Outpost materials (see Planks and Sheet Metal), plants like Candleberries, and research items for amplification. Just remember the loot is worth less, so a high-value farm can still pay more in the classic queue.

If ARC Downs You in PvE

You have 8 seconds in which ARC won't target you. After that they can re-acquire you, especially if you crawl into view. With no Raiders to fear, the safe play is to stay put behind cover and let a squadmate reach you.

How to Give Feedback

Embark asks PvE-minded players to play the toggle and report what works and what doesn't, to shape any future PvE systems, and PvPvE players to keep playing and say whether the test changes their raids. A detailed survey follows after October 20.

PvE Toggle Beta FAQ

Why Embark is running the test, the player data behind it and the September rules are in our PvE toggle announcement breakdown.

See you Topside, Raiders.

— Arc Raiders Hub