Embark confirms Arc Raiders' new update broke looting speed and made it a lot slower: "The team is aware of this, as it's not intended"

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2. Third Person Shooters
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Embark confirms Arc Raiders' new update broke looting speed and made it a lot slower: "The team is aware of this, as it's not intended" News By Austin Wood published 27 January 2026

It's not just you, loot really is taking longer

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Raiders across Speranza are eagerly digging into Tuesday's big Headwinds update, part of the Arc Raiders Escalation roadmap. At least, they would be if they weren't stuck slowly digging into loot containers that were much easier to plunder before the update.

Through unknowable technical fumbles, Headwinds has noticeably slowed looting speed, giving countless players whiplash like they just got off the interstate and shifted to a school zone speed limit.

Every loot container in Arc Raiders, from glorious red lockers to enemy backpacks, slowly unscrambles contents once you open it. After Headwinds, that unscrambling process takes (very anecdotally) about 30% longer, and that's with the skill Looter's Instincts active, which increases looting speed.

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Another skill, Looter's Luck, has a low chance of identifying two lootable items at a time instead of just one, and its effects thankfully seem unchanged.

Players have reasonably speculated that this looting speed change could be the result of Looter's Instincts bugging out. Post-Headwinds, my looting speed with this skill active does feel comparable to what I experienced before unlocking the skill, but I haven't been able to compare it to a skill tree-free experience.

On the Arc Raiders Discord, players have pointed to several other issues accompanying the patch, including that one that hurts the fire rate of several weapons. This has formed a smokescreen of sorts, leaving some to wonder if this looting speed was part of the stealth nerfs. Community admin Ossen confirmed that Embark is "actively investigating" this firing rate problem.

Community manager Birdie commented on the looting speed issue directly, telling one user, "The team is aware of this, as it's not intended."

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"It's not intended. The team is aware," Birdie reiterated elsewhere, no doubt hurriedly putting out fires as they spring up.

I've reached out to Embark for details on the bug and its impending fix. For now, brace yourself for the unspeakable horror of slightly slower loot. Precious seconds, lost. How will we recover?

Arc Raiders just nerfed the most popular way to farm Queen and Matriarch reactors, but hey, at least gun cases won't spit out worthless Burlettas as often.

CATEGORIES PC Gaming PS5 Xbox Series X Platforms PlayStation Xbox Austin WoodSocial Links NavigationSenior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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