As a multiplayer PvPvE recreation in the beginning, it does not appear to be ARC Raiders would have a lot of a narrative. On its floor, the story of ARC Raiders appears to serve extra as a backdrop for why gamers are trying to find ARC and preventing different raiders. Nevertheless, the depth of ARC Raiders‘ lore reveals that it has a way more impactful narrative than what meets the attention upon first coming into Speranza.
Neighborhood is a serious theme of ARC Raiders, each in its story and its gameplay initiative, as gamers can crew up in events of associates or with different solo raiders to take down the sport’s biggest ARC enemy threats. This cooperative gameplay matches properly into the lore and historical past of ARC Raiders‘ world, serving to boost the expertise for gamers who take the time to piece collectively the sport’s narrative. Whereas ARC Raiders does not current a simple story within the conventional sense, it supplies gamers with sufficient items of lore and live-service updates to create a cohesive storyline that extends past a easy gameplay framing software.
The Story of ARC Raiders So Far
ARC Raiders is ready within the distant future yr of 2180, the place humanity is all however extinct, save for many who have both fled the Earth or have taken to the security of underground cities, bunkers, and subway stations to outlive. Whereas a world environmental collapse was the catalyst for humanity’s downfall, the true wrestle got here when the ARC machines attacked. The story ARC Raiders players experience takes place within the Rust Belt, a location that was as soon as a part of Italy earlier than the apocalypse, which has turn into a wasteland of deserts and ruined cities.
The Exodus Induced a Rift Between the Survivors of Humanity
As a strategy to escape the environmental collapse, the wealthiest members of society have been in a position to flee Earth in rockets by way of an occasion generally known as the Exodus. Whereas these survivors of humanity had the means to colonize new programs exterior the Earth’s ambiance, the vast majority of humanity’s remnants have been left to fend for themselves again dwelling, making a lingering resentment in direction of those that had deserted the planet. Within the wake of this Exodus, a brand new faction of raiders arose so as to courageous the floor world within the quest for the provides vital for caring for the underground communities, just like the city of Toledo, the place ARC Raiders gamers name dwelling.
The First Wave of ARC Pinned Humanity In opposition to a Wall
Someday after the Exodus, the ARC machines confirmed up in what grew to become generally known as the First Wave. In response, raiders teamed as much as tackle this new menace to humanity’s survival, making a stand towards the invading ARC enemies. Whereas it is not clear the place the ARCs originate from — whether or not they’re a product of humankind or extraterrestrial invaders — raiders have been in a position to be taught their patterns and behaviors in the course of the First Wave invasion, offering helpful information for future raiders regardless of the heavy casualties they confronted.
ARC Raiders’ Missions Reveal What Occurred within the Rust Belt
Within the present timeline of ARC Raiders‘ story, the neighborhood of Speranza inside Toledo performs host to raiders and acts as a headquarters for these going out on missions topside. There are quite a few quests ARC Raiders players can take on from the varied NPCs in Speranza. These quests play a serious function in revealing a number of the historical past of ARC Raiders‘ world, the Exodus, and the First Wave.
For instance, within the Keeping The Memory mission, Celeste desires the participant to go to a memorial to these misplaced within the First Wave within the Formicai Hills on the Dam Battlegrounds. Right here, gamers might want to search by way of the wreckage of First Wave ARCs to seek out the helmet of a raider who misplaced their life within the battle. The environmental storytelling of this quest is consultant of the sorts of lore drops and storytelling methods ARC Raiders makes use of to naturally fill gamers in on the small print of the world they inhabit. Every of the search givers normally supplies some commentary on why gamers are doing what they’re doing to assist piece collectively the historical past of ARC Raiders.
Every of ARC Raiders’ Maps Fills in a Piece of the Puzzle
The primary map gamers have entry to in ARC Raiders is the Dam Battlegrounds, which was dwelling to a serious conflict between raiders and the First Wave of ARC machines. All through the map, gamers can discover clues to what occurred throughout this battle in areas just like the Scrap Yard and close by Wreckage of First Wave machines, which paint an image of the injury the ARCs did to the infrastructure of the dam itself and its electrical grid.
ARC Raiders‘ Buried City map serves as a glimpse at life earlier than the collapse of humanity, the Exodus, and the First Wave. It options the ruins of buildings which were swallowed up by sand, together with flats, a library, a hospital, and a procuring district. Most notably, town appears to have as soon as been referred to as “Marano” based mostly on the indicators that label the map’s prepare station.
The Spaceport map reveals ARC Raiders‘ history with the Exodus, because it options areas just like the Rocket Meeting, Management Tower, and Launch Towers that gamers can discover to see how the rich few made their escape from Earth in the course of the apocalyptic collapse.
Blue Gate appears to be a reasonably new discovery inside the world of ARC Raiders, as lots of the quests that take gamers there contain investigating and repairing buildings round it. This map tells the story of raiders rebuilding a location after the destruction attributable to the First Wave.
Maybe probably the most enigmatic map in ARC Raiders is the new Stella Montis map, which takes place totally inside an deserted analysis facility positioned within the snowy mountains to the north of the Rust Belt. The environmental storytelling of this map means that humanity had been getting ready for some sort of apocalyptic state of affairs and sought to protect humanity within the face of the Earth’s destruction.
A lot of the lore surrounding these maps might be discovered within the ARC Raiders Codex.
Whereas ARC Raiders does an awesome job of laying the inspiration of its narrative by way of Codex entries and environmental storytelling concerning the historical past of its world, the true narrative of the sport is being advised in actual time by way of participant interactions and live-service updates. With the discharge of ARC Raiders update 1.2.0, gamers collectively labored to entry Stella Montis by contributing sources towards unlocking it. Now that the map is unlocked, gamers can take part within the Breaking New Floor occasion as they search Stella Montis to seek out no matter secrets and techniques it might maintain.
One of these storytelling ties again to ARC Raiders’ theme of neighborhood, the place not solely does a vibrant neighborhood of raiders coping with the trauma of the previous exist in-game, however this neighborhood extends to the gamers in actual life. The character of a live-service recreation means the story of ARC Raiders is ongoing and largely community-driven. Gamers are given a number of the background for ARC Raiders‘ lore, and they’re left to uncover the remainder as they scavenge maps, take part in neighborhood occasions, and ship their characters out on Expeditions to broaden the in-game world of ARC Raiders.
- Launched
-
October 30, 2025
- ESRB
-
Teen / Violence, Blood


