Following a recent duplication exploit, Embark Studios has concluded its investigation into the issue, giving ARC Raiders players insight into that process while also announcing “enforcement actions” to accounts deemed to have taken advantage of it. Since it launched back on October 7, 2025, ARC Raiders has been a smash hit for Embark Studios, reaching impressive player milestones, selling incredibly well, and even earning numerous gaming industry awards. Even with all the success, the road for ARC Raiders hasn’t always been smooth.
While there have been minor frustrations here and there, especially with certain balance changes, ARC Raiders has seemingly managed to avoid major controversies and pitfalls that some games fall into. However, things changed recently due to ARC Raiders hitting its first major controversy with a February update that introduced a glitch allowing players to duplicate items. Many in the community were frustrated and disillusioned with the glitch, as some players took the opportunity to generate items like Trigger Nades and spam them, hurting the game’s playability in general. Worse yet, players then discovered an infinite ammo glitch following a hotfix to address the duplication issue, compounding the community’s frustration.
Over 16,000 ARC Raiders Fans Agree That the Game Desperately Needs 1 Fix
Thousands of fans urge Embark Studios to fix one ARC Raiders issue as soon as possible, and it’s not about exploits or glitches.
ARC Raiders Reveals Account Bans and Punishments
While Embark again moved quickly to hotfix the infinity ammo exploit in ARC Raiders, the studio announced plans to review accounts that it deemed to have duplicated excessive amounts of items. The vague wording left many players to wonder how the studio would judge accounts on a case-by-case basis and determine a specific thresh hold for punishment. Others argued that the exploit was a mistake caused by Embark itself, nothing that players did maliciously, so a punishment or ban seemed unfair.
Regardless, Embark confirmed that its lengthy investigation has finally wrapped, and it was ready to dole out punishments. In an attempt at transparency, Embark’s blog dove into why the investigation took time despite many in the community calling for swift action. Embark wanted to act with fairness and accuracy, taking action on what it could “define, prove, and stand behind”, including validation reports against data, confirming exploit usage, its impact, and removing any accidental or edge case behaviors. Ultimately, the blog indicated that the studio wants to only act once, with both intention and confidence that it has done the right thing as it’s the first time Embark has had to handle an incident of this scale in ARC Raiders.
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With the investigation concluded, the studio is now taking action against accounts that have been identified as fitting the criteria noted above. Punishments are based on severity and overall impact on the game, ranging from simple warnings for those who had a low impact or abused the glitch on a limited basis, to suspensions for more severe cases where the impact was more substantial on the in-game economy or for other players. In addition, any coins earned through using exploits are also being removed. Embark wrapped up its blog by thanking players for reporting the issues and reassuring everyone that not only do they take this seriously, the studio has already improved its detection and tracking systems, safeguards, as well as internal review tools to hopefully prevent issues like this in the future.
Reaction to the news has been mixed, with some fans thanking the studio for acting against those taking advantage of the exploits and attempting to safeguard and protect the experience. However, as expected, there’s also been a wave of push back from others who feel like punishing ARC Raiders players for using a glitch that was introduced by Embark is harsh, especially if the suspension number is higher than expected. The argument is that the exploit was introduced and wasn’t addressed in a quick enough manner, which gave players time to utilize it. There’s even a small faction that feels like suspensions aren’t enough, pushing Embark to take stronger action against certain streamers and YouTubers who highlighted the exploits for others.
- Released
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October 30, 2025
- ESRB
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Teen / Violence, Blood
