For a while now, the whole debate over free loadouts in Arc Raiders has been bubbling away, and lately it feels like it’s hitting breaking point. You’ve got one side yelling to just scrap them entirely, others saying tone them down until they’re basically useless, and a few suggesting odd ideas like forcing anyone with a free kit to spawn late as a kind of punishment. Thing is, none of these fixes feel like they’d actually solve much. They’re more like quick patches slapped over a deeper problem. On paper, the free kit is simple – a low-tier gun, some ammo, basic shield, a couple of heals – yet on maps like Stella Montis it’s enough to be dangerous in the right hands. And if you’re wondering why people care so much, well, once you’ve put time into your own ARC Raiders Items, watching someone run at you with nothing to lose gets frustrating fast.
Stella Montis is where all of this really blows up. It’s tight, chaotic, and built for close fights. There’s no hiding for long; shots get heard and fights happen quick. Aggressive players with free kits thrive here. They don’t have to worry about losing anything, so they push every sound, every corner, without caring if they fall. Meanwhile, geared players who’ve worked to get their loadout end up playing slower, picking their engagements carefully. That simple difference – risk versus no risk – changes the whole pace of a match. On Stella, one reckless push can flip the outcome in minutes.
The real problem isn’t that the free gear is too strong. It’s that the mindset of a free-loadout player is just… different. When dying has no consequence, your decisions change completely. You’ll rush into fights you wouldn’t dare take otherwise. And sure, sometimes these players wipe out better-equipped squads just by being unpredictable. It’s not always skill, but the fearlessness means they’ll catch people off-guard. It’s almost like two games running at the same time – one for people who care about their loot, and one for those just chasing fights.
Taking free kits away completely would make life hard for new players or those having bad matches. They’d be stuck farming gear before they could even play properly, which isn’t fun. Nerfing them too much just makes them pointless, and adding delays feels clunky and unfair. The trick here is finding a way to make players value survival even with a free loadout. That way they still get to jump in, but the reckless push-everything style stops dominating certain maps. Risk needs to mean something again – that’s the balance extraction shooters rely on. Until then, the tension between careful players and those charging in blind will keep boiling over, especially on maps like Stella Montis where every second counts. And nothing takes the wind out of your sails quite like losing hard-earned ARC Raiders Items buy to someone who never had anything on the line.