Does Arc Raiders really have a story?

As a multiplayer PvPvE game first and foremost, it doesn't seem like it ARC Raiders would have much of a story. On its surface, the story of ARC Raiders seems to serve more as a background for why players chase ARCs and fight other raiders. But the depth of ARC Raiders' learnings show that it has a much more impactful story than what you see when you first walk into Speranza.

Community is a big theme for ARC Raidersboth in its story and its gameplay initiatives, as players can team up in friends' parties or with other solo raiders to take out the game's biggest enemy threat from the ARC. This cooperative game fits well with the story and the story of ARC Raiders' world, serves to enhance the experience for players who take the time to piece together the game's story. While ARC Raiders doesn't present a straightforward story in the traditional sense, it provides players with enough lore and live service updates to create a cohesive story that extends beyond a simple game-making tool.

The story of ARC Raiders so far

ARC Raiders set in the far future year 2180, where humanity is all but extinct except for those who have either fled Earth or taken to the safety of underground cities, bunkers and subway stations to survive. While a global environmental collapse was the catalyst for humanity's downfall, the real fight came when the ARC machines attacked. The story ARC Raiders the player's experience takes place in the Rust Belt, a place that was once part of pre-apocalypse Italy, which has become a wasteland of deserts and ruined cities.

The Exodus caused a rift between the survivors of humanity

As a way to escape environmental collapse, the wealthiest members of society were able to escape Earth in rockets through an event known as the Exodus. While these survivors of humanity had the opportunity to colonize new systems outside of Earth's atmosphere, the majority of humanity's remnants were left to fend for themselves at home, creating a lingering resentment towards those who had abandoned the planet. In the wake of this exodus, a new faction of raiders arose to brave the surface world in search of the supplies necessary to care for the underground communities, such as the city of Toledo, where ARC Raiders player calls home.

The first wave of ARC pinned humanity to a wall

Sometime after the exodus, the ARC machines appeared in what became known as the first wave. In response, raiders banded together to take on this new threat to humanity's survival and took a stand against the invading ARC enemies. Although it is not clear where the ARCs come from – whether they are a product of humanity or extraterrestrial invaders – attackers were able to learn their patterns and behaviors during the First Wave invasion, providing valuable data for future attackers despite the heavy casualties they suffered.

The ARC Raider mission reveals what happened in the Rust Belt

In the current timeline of ARC RaidersThe story, the Speranza neighborhood of Toledo hosts raiders and serves as a headquarters for those who go on missions above. There are many missions ARC Raiders players can take on from the various NPCs in Speranza. These quests play an important role in revealing part of the story of ARC Raiders' the world, the exodus and the first wave.

For example, in the Keeping The Memory quest, Celeste wants the player to visit a memorial to those lost in the First Wave in the Formicai Hills at the Dam Battlegrounds. Here, players will need to search through the wreckage of First Wave ARCs to find the helmet of a raider who lost his life in battle. The environmental narrative in this quest is representative of the types of lore drops and storytelling techniques ARC Raiders uses to naturally fill players in on the details of the world they live in. Each of the quest givers usually provides some commentary on why players are doing what they are doing to help piece together the story of ARC Raiders.

ARC Raiders Dam Battlegrounds Control Tower

Each of ARC Raider's maps fills in a piece of the puzzle

The first map players have access to in ARC Raiders is the Dam Battlegrounds, which was home to a major clash between raiders and the first wave of ARC machines. Throughout the map, players can find clues to what happened during this battle in areas such as the scrapyard and nearby Wreckage of First Wave machines, which paint a picture of the damage the ARCs did to the dam's own infrastructure and its power grid.

ARC Raiders' Buried City Map serves as a glimpse of life before the collapse of humanity, the exodus and the first wave. It has the ruins of buildings that have been swallowed by sand, including apartments, a library, a hospital and a shopping district. Most notably, the town appears to have once been called “Marano” based on the signs marking the map's train station.

Lost transmission ARC Raiders Control Tower A6

The Spaceport map reveals ARC Raidersstory with Exodus, as it features locations such as the Rocket Assembly, Control Tower, and Launch Towers that players can explore to see how the wealthy few escaped Earth during the apocalyptic collapse.

Reduced to Rubble Quest Guide in Arc Raiders 5

Blue Gate seems to be a fairly new discovery in the world of ARC Raidersas many of the quests that take players there involve examining and repairing structures around it. This map tells the story of raiders rebuilding a place after the destruction caused by the first wave.

ARC Raiders North Line updates Stella Monti's abandoned facility

Perhaps the most enigmatic map in ARC Raiders is the new Stella Montis map, set entirely within an abandoned research facility located in the snowy mountains north of the Rust Belt. The environmental narrative in this map suggests that humanity had been preparing for some kind of apocalyptic scenario and was trying to preserve humanity in the face of Earth's destruction.

Much of the knowledge about these maps can be found in ARC Raiders Code.

While ARC Raiders does a good job of laying the groundwork for its story through Codex entries and environmental narratives about the history of its world, the true story of the game is told in real time through player interactions and live service updates. With the release of ARC Raiders update 1.2.0, players worked together to access Stella Montis by contributing resources to unlock it. Now that the map is unlocked, players can participate in the Breaking New Ground event as they search for Stella Montis to find the secrets it may hold.

This type of storytelling ties into ARC Raiders' theme of community, where not only is there a vibrant community of raiders dealing with the trauma of the past in-game, but this community extends to the players in real life. The nature of a live service game means the story of ARC Raiders is ongoing and largely society-driven. Players get a bit of the background ARC Raiders' lore, and they're left to uncover the rest as they clear maps, participate in community events, and send their characters out on expeditions to expand the game world ARC Raiders.