Some ARC Raiders on PC have reportedly managed to bypass the game's camera limits by editing a hidden configuration setting, giving themselves a much wider field of view and a huge advantage that comes with it. The exploit appears to have been inadvertently enabled by a recent ARC Raiders patch, although developer Embark Studios seems to have already patched it.
Like every other remotely popular multiplayer game out there, ARC Raiders have had issues with cheaters since it was released. Over time, many of these problems can be traced back to paid trainers that bad actors sell on third-party sites, allowing other bad actors to gain various unfair advantages. Sometimes something much less premeditated occurs, allowing opportunists to take advantage. In the latest example of the latter, some FOV settings have recently been adjusted by players in unintended ways.
ARC Raiders second optional expedition window date revealed by new countdown
A new countdown appears for players who have decided to globally reset their account in ARC Raiders, which also reveals the second expedition date.
Recently discovered ARC Raiders exploit allowed ridiculous FOV
In the last few days until January 10, there have been reports of ARC Raiders players who found a way to change the game's field of view have surfaced online. The story became so widespread that several clearly cheating individuals with outrageously wide FOVs sometimes streamed their exploits on Twitch. Based on the VODs reviewed by Game Rant, ARC RaidersRecently introduced Stella Montis was among the most cheat affected maps earlier this month. It's not because the exploit was harder to replicate at another level; in all likelihood, the over-representation of Stella Montis among FOV cheaters' preferred maps possibly has something to do with it being specifically designed with frequent PvP in mind, making any kind of advantage – fair or not – potentially much more lucrative.
Embark reportedly already fixed ARC Raider's FOV exploitation
According to an official message posted on the game's Discord server on Saturday, Embark had already found a way to fight back ARC Raiders cheaters who rely on this particular technique as of January 10, just over a day after knowledge of it became widespread. A studio representative suggested that the problem was due to an accidental ability to activate the so-called “NewConsole” command in a PC version of the game, and consequently be able to change one's field of view. “This feature was never meant to be aimed at the players,” the official wrote. While Embark patched out a particular method of editing the FOV, the developer is currently monitoring telemetry data and other sources of information for any related exploits that may have slipped through the cracks as well.
The FOV adjustment was just one of several ways console commands allowed players to gain an unfair advantage, assuming they knew what they were doing. Using the very basic toolset of Unreal Engine 5, it is possible to exploit its console to disable individual visual effects such as shadows, dust and fog, all of which improve visibility and therefore offer a notable advantage in competitive shooters, extraction or otherwise. In this case, activating the console was reportedly as easy as editing a configuration file on PC. It's not uncommon, but it's also usually easy to prevent, as Unreal Engine 5 allows developers to easily disable console access in game builds. Although this is usually applied in ARC Raiders updates it seems the step was missed in the latest patch.
This feature was never intended to address the player.
It is still unclear how many players were directly affected ARC Raiders cheaters who exploit this specific oversight. On the one hand, the fact that the exploit became widespread enough to appear on Twitch suggests that it had been active for some time. On the other hand, given the game's broader cheating problem, it's difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish this particular exploit from others that use publicly available data. As for Embark Studios, the developer still reimburses players for items lost in matches involving confirmed cheaters. However, this compensation appears inconsistent and depends on the studio's ability to identify perpetrators after the fact.
- Released
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30 October 2025
- ESRB
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Teen/violence, blood
Source: MP1st