New ARC Raiders Update for January 28 Fixes Unintended…

Embark Studios has released a brand-new hotfix patch for ARC Raiders today after the studio made some unintended changes this week as part of the game’s major Headwinds update, which was released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on January 27. While the 1.13.0 update for ARC Raiders was filled with tons of new bug fixes, general improvements, and new features, there were no weapon balancing changes to be seen, which left fans confused when some fan favorite weapons had seemingly been nerfed.

Last week, ARC Raiders finally shared a snippet of its 2026 roadmap, confirming what major content updates Embark has planned from now until April. The first patch, known as Headwinds, debuted this week, adding a permanent map condition that will rotate weekly on the map Buried City. There’s also a new player project for players to work on, which requires players to take on some of the game’s deadliest ARC to display their parts in a new buildable case. And if that wasn’t enough, the Headwinds update also brought about a controversial new matchmaking option that gives PvP enjoyers the chance to go against full teams as a solo player for some additional XP.

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By Josh Cotts

ARC Raiders Reverts Weapon Changes In New Update

Some fans were disappointed to see that yesterday’s update didn’t include any new weapon balancing. At least, that was according to the patch notes. After jumping in to check out the update, fans quickly discovered that fan favorite weapons, such as the Kettle and Venator, had their fire rate reduced by a noticeable amount. Embark promptly revealed that this was an unintended change made as part of ARC Raiders’ Headwinds update and has now been reverted in a new hotfix for January 28. The patch is available to download now on PC and PlayStation 5, with the Xbox version delayed for an unknown reason. Xbox users will be unable to use crossplay while Embark works on releasing the hotfix for Series X and S.

While no intentional changes were made to the Kettle, it did receive a fire rate nerf earlier this month as some players were abusing macros to fire the weapon at a faster rate than intended. As such, Embark reduced its fire rate from 650 to 400, while also finally nerfing the Trigger Nade after it was dominating nearly every PvP encounter in ARC Raiders for weeks on end. The grenade now takes longer to detonate and has a reduced damage radius.

Another unexpected change that fans quickly picked up on was the time it was taking for loot to reveal. According to the official patch notes, which can be found further down this article, this issue has also been rectified. Embark says it has rebalanced the speed at which the first item appears when looting and that the looting speed before the 1.13.0 update was unintended. Those with the Looter’s Instinct skill unlocked will once again see loot revealed faster than those without the skill.

Unfortunately, ARC Raiders players are experiencing severe server issues at the time of writing this article, as the shooter, along with Embark’s other title, The Finals, is experiencing an extensive, coordinated DDoS attack. This has resulted in players lagging out mid-game, crashing, and some being unable to log in completely. Embark has urged players to avoid playing for the time being, as many users are losing their gear due to lag during raids. Issues first began after the release of yesterday’s Headwinds update, and have been intermittently occurring ever since. The studio has said it is making progress and should have things back to normal soon.

ARC Raiders January 28 Hotfix Update Patch Notes

Yesterday’s update introduced a handful of unintended issues. We are rolling out a hotfix that addresses the most impactful ones we’ve identified so far. Xbox will be delayed but we are actively working on it and during this time, Xbox players will unfortunately not be able to cross play.

Fixed an issue that caused unintended fire rate changes to several weapons.,

Dev Note: Following yesterday’s update, some weapons were affected by a bug that reduced their rate of fire. This was not an intentional change. We always aim to include all changes in our patch notes, and we appreciate you flagging this quickly.

Fixed an issue where some cosmetics available through Raider Tokens were missing from the customization menu if they hadn’t been purchased yet.,
Fixed an issue where parts of the Ukrainian localization unintentionally appeared in the game.,

Dev Note: We’re actively working on a full Ukrainian translation among other languages for ARC Raiders and will release once they are ready.

We have heard you wondering about the loot appearing too slowly. We have rebalanced the speed at which the first item appears when looting. The looting speed before 1.13.0 was unintended. Players with the Looter’s Instincts unlocked will still see loot faster than those without.

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