Dune Awakening Is Better With Friends — And I Wasn't Ready for That

I went ahead and bought Dune Awakening. Not because the game is setting Steam on fire or because influencers are fawning over it. Truth is, I play-tested Dune Awakening for a good stretch over the past year, and I walked away feeling… lukewarm. The survival systems felt grindy, solo play was a slog, and the world—while beautiful—felt empty.

Then my friends jumped in.
And with nothing better to do, I reinstalled the game, hopped on my sandbike, and joined them. What I discovered surprised me: Dune Awakening is way better with friends.

Yet another heartlessgamer awakens

The Test Phase vs. The Real Thing

During testing, I mostly played solo. Any player interactions I had were random: impromptu squads tackling a challenge or strangers passing by. It was functional, but forgettable. The core systems—crafting, grinding, building—quickly became repetitive.

This time was different. 

My friends had already left the newbie zone behind and were holed up in a base far from the starting area. I zipped across the dunes to catch up, and what followed felt like an entirely new game.
 

Zipping to my friends base... and I better zip faster

Skip the Grind, Embrace the Game

When I arrived at their base, I was immediately drenched in generosity—literally showered (pun intended) with water, tools, weapons, and armor. Suddenly, I wasn’t scraping by for resources. I wasn’t stuck in the slog of early survival. I was on pace with my group, and for once, I could let them make the rookie mistakes and discoveries I had already been through in the tests.

It was… relaxing.
Dare I say, fun.

Movement Is King

If there’s one thing Dune Awakening nails, it’s freedom of movement. You can climb nearly any surface. Suspensor belts let you float. Grappling hooks (from the Trooper tree) open up vertical play. There are speed boosts, dashes, leaps—you name it.

If a direction exists, you can probably travel that way.

These traversal tools are normally locked behind hours of progression, but because I had friends, I skipped straight to the good stuff. 

Watching your friend almost get eaten by Shai-Hulud (he just made it to safety)

 

The Ornithopter Express

Then came the ornithopter.

My group had already unlocked one (while I was still several hours away from myself), and they graciously let me borrow it. I even got to share how to carry a passenger by having them hop on top. Of course, that also meant I had the honor of teaching them the hard way what happens when your pilot sucks.

Dune made the smart choice to not gate being able to use vehicles behind your own progression. If it exists in the world you can most likely use it even if you can't craft it yourself.

The game changes entirely once you have access to an ornithopter

Why It Works Now

With three of us working together, life on Arrakis is smooth sailing. There's always water at the base. Always a vehicle available. Always enough solari (the in-game gold) to get by. The punishing grind that wore me down before? Gone. Replaced by collaboration, shared goals, and just enough chaos to keep it fun.

The Final Word

Dune Awakening hasn’t suddenly become a perfect game. I still have my complaints. But I’m having actual fun, and that matters more than any patch note or feature list. It’s proof that even a game I once shelved can come roaring back to life—all it took was the right people beside me.

Lesson learned: survival is better with friends. Especially on Arrakis.

TL;DR:

If you're playing Dune Awakening solo and bouncing off it, try it with a crew. It just might change everything.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts and specifically in this post, the snarkiness, are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI. 

New World 0.5... Chrono Odyssey Beta Test Thoughts

 So I played a few hours of New World 0.5... err, I mean the Chrono Odyssey beta test. Here are some thoughts.

The tutorial starts out with a giant dragon flying in the near distance

 

A fast travel point... hmmm.. looks familiar

 First, for anyone who doubts the New World comparisons—especially coming from a player like myself who has spent thousands of hours in New World—I suggest taking a look at some of these discussions and videos:

• Reddit: I copy your homework

• Reddit: New World copy pasta

• Twitch: A literal exact copy of the fort and war camp from New World

 The evidence is stark. There are areas in Chrono Odyssey that are exact copies of New World. And since New World is not built on a proprietary engine—nor on something common like Unreal Engine—it’s very, very unlikely that Chrono Odyssey just happened to use the same store-bought assets. Not only are the visuals strikingly similar, but the rest of the game—even the UI—is eerily familiar. I’m fine with games copying systems and features, but this feels like a whole new level of copying.

Is that a sandworm!?

 

New World comparisons aside: how was the actual game?

 Chrono Odyssey was... OK.

 Performance was the biggest issue during the test. Like many testers, I suffered from poor frame rates and desync. Walking in crowded areas felt more like skipping along. The developers have stated that this was an older build and that performance should improve in future tests, so we’ll see.

 Graphically, the world is a bit wild. There are massive backdrops with all sorts of over-the-top visuals. The tutorial includes an amazing scene featuring a massive dragon flying overhead. The starting zone has a mix of giant, ominous beings floating in the sky.

Some of the bizarre backgrounds of the starting area

 Combat is mediocre. It uses action combat that lets players equip two weapons, each with up to four skills, plus a basic left-click attack and a special right-click move (e.g., blocking with a shield). There’s also a target lock-on feature—which is controversial in action combat games. Personally, I’m fine with it, but I ended up playing without it most of the time. It made me feel like I was losing control of my character, especially when the camera whipped around too much.

 The biggest issue I had with combat was the lack of weight. It felt like I was floating just above the ground, sliding around—especially with target lock enabled. My character felt like they were getting whiplash from all the turning. Weapon abilities just felt like “bigger numbers” you cycled through before swapping weapons and doing it all over again. Overall, combat felt generic.

A familiar weapon skill tree screen

 That said, I still preferred this action combat over traditional tab-target systems. There’s potential here—if the devs can carve out something unique.

 There were a few things I did like. The game gives you a mount early on, which is nice. PvE content poses a challenge early, requiring players to either gear up or get better to progress. There are also chrono abilities that seemed interesting—and were the biggest departure from its New World-inspired design—but I didn’t get far enough to comment deeply on them.

 Overall, my impression was very much “this is New World 0.5,” meaning it’s a worse version of New World. It was another game that just made me wish I were back playing New World. As I’ve said before, New World has spoiled me on MMORPG combat. I’ll argue with anyone: New World has the best combat on the market.

 The test topped out at a bit over 65,000 concurrent players, which is higher than similar points in New World's testing timeline. I can see Chrono Odyssey attracting a good audience—especially if they steer clear of shady pay-to-win systems (which the devs claim they will). If this test proved anything—both from the hype leading up to it and the actual player count—it’s that there’s still a strong demand for new MMORPGs.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.  

 

A Testing We Shall Go

 The Chrono Odyssey open beta is this weekend and I've been invited to give it a try.

 

Embark Disappoints

 

 I was wrong. ARC Raiders was not shadow-dropped at Summer Game Fest last week, as many of us had hoped. That was probably for the best, considering I lost internet for most of the weekend. What we did get was a new trailer and a release date: October 30th. After that deflating announcement—like my internet—the hype dropped for ARC Raiders.

 Am I less interested in playing ARC Raiders? No. I'm still looking forward to the game. I'll just have to wait a little longer. The game will likely be better for it, with extra time to add content and smooth out technical issues. It was unrealistic to expect a shadow drop. Shame on me.

 But I can’t stand here and say I’m not irritated about how things went down—especially considering this is the second year in a row I’ve had my excitement for a game crushed by a lackluster Summer Game Fest announcement. Last year, it was New World and their “big announcement,” and in a shockingly similar series of events, ARC Raiders followed suit this year.  Maybe it's Summer Game Fest?

 Last year, I was able to shift my perspective and stay interested in what New World's announcement meant for the game. I expect to do the same with ARC Raiders the game. Just like then, I'm sitting here every day checking news feeds, waiting for the next bit of info about the game.

 While I’m still excited for the game, I have to admit I’ve lost a bit of respect for Embark Studios. I really thought they were a different kind of developer—one that could actually surprise gamers. They built and fueled the hype after Tech Test 2: the hidden game files with the secret countdown timer, the bleeped troll video, the Summer Game Fest teaser featuring Scrappy the rooster. All of it now feels unwarranted, considering all they delivered was a ho-hum trailer and a release date. Basically, we had a secret countdown timer... to another countdown timer. That’s a fat L on Embark’s part.

 With that said, Embark did issue an apology (see image below post)—and it seemed genuine. My main concern, though, is that they had to see this coming. They had to know the level of hype and the tactics they used didn’t justify what they were actually delivering. If they didn’t... oof. That wouldn’t reflect well on their marketing and community teams. If they did... oof.

 I’ll hold onto my own dumb hope that Embark wanted to shadow-drop the game and just came up short. In my odd little gamer mind, that’s the only explanation that makes sense for revving the hype engine up as much as they did.

 So, Embark takes a few steps back on my developer list. ARC Raiders stays at the top of my “want to play” list. Now I just need to figure out what to play until October 30th.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI. 

 

Embark Apology screenshot 

 

0th. 

I'm not playing Dune Awakening (yet)

 Dune Awakening, the new survival game pretending to also be an MMORPG, launched this week into early access. The Steam charts are peaking, YouTube videos are flooding in—and yet, here I am, not playing. Can I really call myself an MMORPG gamer?

 First, I want to note that I was a long-time tester for Dune Awakening. I’ve already gotten into a squabble about "breaking the NDA" once, so I’ll be careful not to let any of my opinions here be influenced by those NDA test periods. Even mentioning I was in the tests is technically breaking NDA... but whatever—the game is live now. My comments will be based on the public tests and general community feedback so far.

To start, I’ll pull a quote from Belghast’s early access impressions:

"I am in this weird state of equilibrium with the game where I don’t love it and I don’t hate it."

 That sums up my feelings as well. It's why I haven't rushed to get into early access or the standard launch (yet). I’ll keep adding “yet” because I’m not playing much else right now, and a new game—even one I don’t see long-term potential in—is tempting.

 One area of concern is Dune Awakening’s server setup. Players share servers, but different areas have different restrictions and player caps. Depending on demand for your “slice” of the servers, you might be locked out of progress entirely if you can’t reconnect to the area where your base is located. Can I move servers? Can I move my base? These questions are flooding community sites. It’s more confusing than it needs to be.

 All of this server weirdness cuts at the heart of what makes an MMO an MMO: exploration and organically running into other players. Dune Awakening feels less like an open world and more like loosely interconnected hubs. There were many times in the public tests where I didn’t encounter another player at all. Later in the game, players are drawn together more often—but server caps and restrictions still undercut any sense of “massive.”

 Then came the announcement: players can buy private servers. I groaned. When you add that to the already limited planned server capacity—which, when you do the math, is below the number of players trying to get in so far—it just doesn’t feel great. I’ve never followed an MMORPG that sold private instances to its players. It’s a baffling design decision.

 Some readers may remember I heaped praise on Once Human, a game very similar to Dune Awakening.  Like Awakening, Once Human was also a quasi-MMO survival game. Once Human was buggy and janky, with a similarly questionable server strategy (caps, instances, planned end dates and relaunches). And yet, I loved Once Human during the time I played it. I can’t explain why the server stuff bothers me more in Dune Awakening. Maybe it’s because I expected more from Funcom than I did from the relatively unknown developers behind Once Human.

 Another issue: the combat. As a Dune fan, the thing that always made Dune’s combat interesting was how shields rendered ranged weapons mostly ineffective. Melee mattered. In Dune Awakening, melee combat... isn’t great. They’ve made changes, they’ve talked it up—but based on launch day streams, it still doesn’t look good. Meanwhile, ranged weapons are overused, making the game feel more like a generic shooter than something rooted in Dune lore.

 Speaking of lore—that’s another sticking point for me. I get that the game had to make choices, but water feels too easy to come by. One particular source—blood—is used far too frequently. In Dune lore, purifying blood into water is a rare, revered act. In the game, it’s something you do every few minutes. Again, I understand the design trade-offs, but it breaks immersion. That’s a me problem, I admit.

 Even though it’s been several months since I played Once Human, I still feel worn out on survival games. The idea of harvesting rocks for the hundredth time just doesn’t excite me. Dune Awakening adds a twist—you have to trace a pattern on objects to break them open. Neat the first few times. Tedious after that.

 There are UI quirks I don’t like, either. The crafting menus feel cluttered and unintuitive. There are eight usable item slots, which you have to mix weapons and utility items into. Eight is a lot—it requires finger stretching to make use of them all. And you need them all. Everything from sucking blood to summoning your vehicle takes up a slot. Many of these actions could’ve been bound to separate hotkeys. I’d prefer weapons were statically tied to 1/2/3 rather than needing to assign them manually.

 That said, there are things to like. I expect we’ll see strong peak player numbers (it was already nearing 100k on day one of head start). The atmosphere can be phenomenal. The desert at night, with ships hovering overhead, oozes menace. Your first encounter with a sandworm won’t be forgotten—though your gear will be if the worm catches you. Players always surprise with creative buildings. And there’s PvP later in the game.

 We’ll see what comes out of Summer Games Fest announcements tonight for ARC Raiders, and I’ll also weigh whether I want to engage more with New World Season 8 before making a final decision on Dune Awakening. Launch periods of MMORPGs—even quasi-MMOs like Dune here—are often the most memorable. If I’m going to play, it’ll be soon. But for now, I’m watching Dune from the sidelines.

 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.

ARC Raiders: The Final Countdown

 

 Today (6/6/2025) is Summer Game Fest, and just like last year, I find myself waiting for yet another BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. Last year ended in tragedy with New World's nothing-burger news after hyping the announcement to the moon. Once again, a year later, many of us in the gaming community are waiting on bated breath for what's next for ARC Raiders, developed by Embark Studios.

 In a flashback to the New World announcement last year, a developer from Embark trolled the ARC community with a recorded video that bleeps out all the words being said about ARC Raiders. My mind jumped right back to when the New World developers pulled the same stunt last year. What I said then:

They better have a banger of an update for June, otherwise this video will likely be forever held up as the moment "remember when New World died?"

 The same could be said for Embark Studios and ARC Raiders. The hype for ARC is unprecedented, and Embark has a specific history that supercharges it. Embark's first game, The Finals, "shadow dropped" 32 days after it held a closed beta. No one expected the game to launch—and yet, BOOM, there The Finals was in all its glory. It was a very well-received launch.

 Now we sit exactly 32 days from the last ARC Raiders tech test, which received universal praise and is responsible for everyone's excitement. Embark has left clue after clue about something BIG on 6/6. There was the secret game update pushed to Steam that teased 6/6. There's the counting of letters in the ARC Raiders slogan "Enlist. Resist."—6 and 6. And of course, there’s the aforementioned bleep video.

 If this announcement isn't a banger, I will sincerely be worried that I’m cursed to follow games made by flunkies with poor taste in how to deliver a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. So what do I think we're going to get later today?

 Realistically? A new trailer, a release date, and a beta test announcement.

 But I'm not known for staying within the bounds of reality in these situations, so here’s what I think is going to happen: Embark Studios is going to shadow drop ARC Raiders. By end of day, we’ll be playing it live. The buzz will be insane.

 Why do I think it will be shadow dropped? I’ll spare you links to all the theoretical supporting evidence—like major streamers hinting at an undisclosed game they’ll be streaming tonight. For me, it comes down to my faith in Embark Studios. They are not your average dev studio. They feel very much like a "game-and-gamer-first, business-second" developer.

 The Finals, while not as popular now as it was at launch, was an unexpected gem. Embark shadow dropped it to wild success. They can and will do the same for ARC Raiders—but this time, the hype is on another level. I’m also hopeful that Embark wants to maintain a reputation as a developer willing to surprise gamers. Again, that "game-and-gamer-first" vibe I get from them.

 They will drop ARC Raiders today. See y’all on the surface.

 

 

 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI. 

New World Aeternum Season 8: Season of the Divide

 I did something recently that I haven't done in months: I logged in and played New World: Aeternum. Why? Because Season 8—Season of the Divide—went live, bringing with it the new Outpost Rush (OPR) map, Coral Divide. No more preview periods. No more changes. Just live smashing, slashing, and running on a new OPR map. So much running. Wait—where did all of this haste come from!?

 First, the gorilla in the room for the Season 8 patch is the performance issues—frame rate drops, hitching, crashing, and confusion around flip-flopping between DX11 (now labeled as the "old client") and the current state of DX12. It’s definitely put a damper on enjoying the patch, and I hope the devs get a fix out sooner rather than later.

 Gone with Season 8 are the PvP servers from Season 7. I transferred heartlessgamer2 to his new home on Hudsonland and checked out what happened to my PvP server gear. The advertised plan—that it would convert to 710+ GS items—was technically accurate, but not quite what we expected. What I wound up with was a mix of blue/green/purple 700+ GS items... basically junk. That was unfortunate, so I’m glad I didn’t waste time grinding PvP gear at the end of Season 7.

 The Springtide Bloom event is live again, so I headed out with heartlessgamer2 to blow up some flowers and gather some goo. The event is the same as past years, with a few new rewards. The bug requiring you to do bleed damage to get goo seems to be fixed—I was quickly racking up goo this year. The only new reward I’m really interested in is the horse mount.

 The patch also brought several changes that affected my main build (Frigid Dawn + Burnanator), so I logged out of heartlessgamer2 and into heartlessgamer proper to test how the build held up. The big change was to the Frigid Dawn armor pieces, which make up four out of five armor slots in my build. This set was great because it had an illegal perk combo—two of the strongest defensive perks. With the patch, the devs nerfed each of the perks to account for the illegal combo.

 So, how did it feel? Not too bad. The decreased defensive effectiveness was noticeable, but the build didn’t feel gutted. Frigid Dawn was a popular armor set and long overdue for balancing. I think it's in a good place now, and it opens the door to trying new armor without feeling like I'm giving up a best-in-slot set.

 The Burnanator fire staff and the rest of the build remain mostly the same. The defensive side is what gives the build staying power, letting me keep the flamethrower going and stack those burns.

There are also some new things I’ll have to try out:

New Gem Types

Jade:

• Plagued: Basic attacks inflict a stack of disease, reducing the target’s incoming healing by 2.5% and outgoing by 1.25% per stack for 3s (max 10 stacks).

• Plagued Ward: -6.2% disease duration per armor or trinket with this gem slotted.

Turquoise:

• Penetrating: +12% armor penetration.

• Hardened: +3% physical and elemental armor per armor/trinket with this gem slotted.

New Perks to Consider (or Defend Against)

• Sundering Stacks: Main-hand weapon perk. Inflicts 4% Rend per stack (6s duration, max 5 stacks).

• Alternating Enchantment: Melee perk. Basic attacks increase next ability hit by 10%, and vice versa, within 5s.

• Vital Synergy: Chest perk. While below 50% health, gain 20% stamina regen. While below 50% stamina, incoming healing is increased by 20%.

• Hardcore Parkour: Footwear perk. Gain 18% haste for 5s after a traversal action.

• Stop, Drop, and Roll: Amulet perk. Dodging reduces the duration of all Burn DoT effects on you by 25%.

Heartgem Changes

Dark Ascent got buffed and may be worth using instead of Stoneform:

• Increased iframes at startup from 0.5s to 1s (15 to 30 frames).

• AOE size increased from 3m to 4m. 

Open World PvP Camps Change

 A big quality-of-life change: you can now destroy camps created by PvP-flagged players. Before, if you killed someone, they could just respawn right back at their tent a few feet away. Now you can hunt down and destroy their camp. This makes tent placement a lot more strategic—and placing; then hiding your own tent suddenly matters a lot more.

Coral Divide – New OPR Map

 As mentioned at the top, Coral Divide is now live and is the big attraction of the patch. The map has way more nooks and crannies compared to the standard wide-open layout. I really liked the preview events and enjoy playing it. It’ll be even better once map rotation becomes hourly instead of static.

Capture the Flag – First Look

 We also got our first hands-on with the new Capture the Flag mode. It was fast-paced and fun, and I had some nail-biter matches. The interaction with the flag felt inconsistent—sometimes I thought I had the flag, only to realize I didn’t. It’s also unclear what causes the flag to be dropped. I’d prefer they just block actions while carrying the flag to remove confusion. Looking forward to this being a full-time mode and not just a limited-time preview.

Barebones OPR – In Preview

 While I was out on vacation, Barebones Outpost Rush went into preview. I haven’t tried it yet, but the concept is cool: everyone uses set 725 GS gear with all perks disabled. From what I’ve heard, it brings combat back to that early-game feel—no self-heals or haste perks. Slower, more tactical. Sounds fun, and I’m eager to try it.

Hardcore Seasonal Server – Now Live

 Lastly, the new hardcore seasonal server is now live. I’m not sure I’ll jump in, but I’m sure it’ll appeal to some. It features accelerated everything, so you can level up quickly and see how long you last before becoming “fallen.” Unlike true hardcore modes in other MMOs, you don’t lose your character—you just switch status from “unfallen” to “fallen.”

---

Season 8 shows that New World is entering what I’d call its “experimental phase.” New game modes, twists on old ones, and another seasonal server with a gimmick. I don’t expect a wave of returning players, but for those of us still hanging around, there’s plenty of new stuff to keep us logging in.

 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.  

May 2025 In Review

 May 2025 has come and gone and with it so has 20 years since I started blogging!  And as is expected with this blog I am woefully behind getting to posting anything of merit to celebrate that 20 year mark.  Worry not dear reader for I am working on something that will be released.... sometime... soon... maybe.  In the interim let's take a look back at May.

The Blog

Blogger stats for April: 41,137 (note: below graph includes some June dates and is missing May dates)

 

In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 2 (I've been posting less these days so was honest with myself; post April review and post about 20 years; so 2 posts was the target)
• Posted: 8
• Difference: +6
•  Search Trends
• This past month had some shakeups to some long standing search trends.  Battlefield related search results dropped off the list while some old Once Human and some new New World searches popped in.
• "once human end game" and similiar searches hit the top spot and drove visitors to my completely out of date post: End Game Thoughts on Once Human
• "motherwell wishers coin" lead the pack of unique New World searches and delivered searchers to this post: New World: Obtaining Motherwell Wisher's Coin
• I am sure there is some sort of patch change that brought interest to this unique round shield in the game; which I am not even sure can be obtained anymore even with the guide I posted. 
• "new world wispy spritz" was the next New World related search trend which coincides with the Springtide Bloom event coming back with the recent Season 8 patch.  Searchers were probably disapointed to find my post just complaining about the cost of the crafting recipe... Why New World! Why!?
• And poking around lower in the list of search trends I found "heartless 2012 game" climbing along with "heartless game"; my assumption is searchers first try "heartless game" and are confused when they end up on my blog so they go back and try the 2012 search only to wind up back here.  Oh well!

What I Played

May marks the end of school for my kids and thus our annual beach trip so blogging and gaming were both limited.  I did get some time to play New World Aeternum and shared my thoughts on the start of Season 8 here.

Honestly I am just buying time currently waiting for ARC Raiders to have another beta test OR more hopefully just shadow dropping after June 6th and Summer Games Fest! 

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

In May of 2025 we were all waiting for the "big June announcement" for New World so while waiting for that I was off trying other games.  One of them was Elder Scrolls Online which I picked up after having not played it for over 10 years!

Wayfinder announced it was moving to an "offline" game model which was an unfortunate move.

5 Years Ago

May 2020 featured no blog posts.

10 Years Ago

May of 2015 marked my blog's 10 year anniversary!

15 Years Ago

May of 2010 marked my blog's 5 year mark!

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers (DotP) made it's way to PC and I suspect the success experienced with the DotP games lead to the eventual creation of Magic the Gathering Arena.

Frozen Synapse also launched in May of 2010 and to this day I still have fond memories of the game.  I especially liked the "publish to YouTube" feature of the game that automated recordings of games for easy publishing. 

20 Years Ago

I started blogging in May of 2005 and I owe y'all a longer exposition on the 20 year milestone, but if you are interested in how it all started you can read all of my posts from May 2005.  Enjoy the step back in time!

 

20 years!

Today marks 20 years since I started blogging!  But I'm at the beach on vacation so won't post more until I'm back home.

Four Ways ARC Raiders Could Level Up: My Wishlist After the Tech Test

 

 As my last post indicates, I’m excited for ARC Raiders after having a fabulous time in the recent tech test. And as often happens when I get excited about games I wasn’t previously following, my head fills with ideas about how the game could improve even further. And when that happens—my blogging activity picks up pace!

Idea 1: Add a Gadget Slot

 ARC Raiders includes gadget-like items such as binoculars, which have useful but relatively low-value functions. However, since they take up a full inventory slot, they're often among the first things discarded—or not even considered in the first place.

 If the game added a dedicated gadget slot for items like binoculars, it would increase their value and usability. These items would no longer compete for valuable loot slots, allowing players to enjoy their benefits without sacrifice. Ideally, this slot would remain limited to simple gadgets like binoculars, and not include rare or powerful gear.

Idea 2: Let Us Upgrade Our Crowbar

 One of the signature items every Raider carries is their crowbar. Doors, probes, fallen ARC robots, lockers, chests, electrical cabinets—you name it, and Raiders are busting it open with their crowbar (other Raiders' skulls included). The crowbar is so important that you always have it on you by default, without needing to equip it. You also don’t lose it when you die—a rare design decision in an extraction shooter.

 There are even skills in the trees that affect how fast you can loot and break into things. It feels like a missed opportunity that these effects weren’t moved into an upgrade system for the crowbar instead. If crowbars could be upgraded, and those upgrades dropped on death like other gear, it would add an extra layer of risk and reward.

Idea 3: Let Us Bring Scrappy With Us

 I love the concept of Scrappy—the lovable, loot-gathering chicken who’s become the de facto mascot of ARC Raiders. He passively collects materials and lets players retrieve them through the workshop menu. This system ensures players always have a cache of basic materials (and rarer ones as Scrappy levels up).

 But wouldn’t it be awesome if you could switch Scrappy to an active mode where he follows you around on raids and gathers items at a faster rate? Imagine walking into a room and seeing another raider’s Scrappy picking through scraps. Upon spotting you, he squawks a loud BAWK and scrambles off, alerting you to where his owner might be but also having alerted everyone else to your arrival.

 Once he’s loaded up, you could send Scrappy off to extract, even as you continue exploring. But if another Raider catches him before extraction, they could pop him like a loot pinata. Or maybe that Scrappy is just bait. Part alarm system, part loot chicken, and maybe even a clever trap—it’s honestly a brilliant concept.

Idea 4: A Shared Social Hub

 Currently, everything in Speranza—the underground home of the Raiders—is accessed through menus. Visiting your workshop? Menu. Visiting traders? Menu. Forming a group? Menu. Meanwhile, in the background of the main menu, there's a beautiful, animated scene of a bar or shop with characters walking around, announcements playing, and life happening. It hints at a real depth of character in Speranza.

 So why not let us explore it? Turn Speranza into a shared social hub and housing area!

 I get that some players just want to jump from one raid to the next, and might get bored walking from one crafting station to another. But for those of us who enjoy social connections and showing off our accomplishments, a shared space would be fantastic.

 In fact, I’d argue that adding housing or a social hub could take ARC Raiders to the next level—which would be impressive, considering the buzz it's already generating. Plus, this is an extraction game. What’s better than extracting with an amazing reward you can permanently display to other players?

 And seriously—who looks at the stunning background of the main menu and doesn’t want to walk into that world and interact with the characters? Who watches the pre-raid “walking” loading screen and doesn’t wish they could walk there themselves?

 Maybe it’s just the MMORPG player in me wanting more from the game than just the raids—but I truly believe ARC Raiders would be even more awesome if Speranza were a place we could explore.

 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI. Curious what edits were made? See ChatGPT's explanation below.

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Explanation of Edits from ChatGPT

Here are the main types of edits I made:

1. Punctuation and Sentence Structure

   • Replaced semicolons and misplaced commas with proper punctuation to clarify sentence flow.

   • Broke up run-on sentences for easier readability.

   • Used em dashes (—) to emphasize interruptions or thoughts for a conversational tone.

2. Grammar and Word Choice

   • Corrected small grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement and verb tense.

   • Refined wordiness in places (e.g., “the higher level you upgrade Scrappy” → “as Scrappy levels up”).

3. Clarity and Consistency

   • Clarified ambiguous phrasing like “they are getting the benefits from them” to something cleaner like “allowing players to enjoy their benefits.”

   • Made style consistent (e.g., italicizing game titles like ARC Raiders).

4. Tone Preservation

   • Maintained your enthusiastic, personal voice. You use rhetorical questions and humor effectively, so I left those intact while improving grammar around them.