After 100 Hours in ARC Raiders, It’s Time to Do Something About Grenades

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I’ve spent over 100 hours playing Arc Raiders and I’m really enjoying it. What keeps me coming back isn’t just the excitement of a successful raid or outsmarting other players, but the constant feeling that anything could happen. This tension is what makes Arc Raiders special in the increasingly popular extraction shooter genre. However, the game’s combat has become a bit too reliant on grenades, which can be frustrating and disrupt the flow of gameplay.

Since launching on October 30th, ARC Raiders has received 11 updates focused on improvements, bug fixes, and balancing gameplay. The developers at Embark Studios have consistently shown they listen to players – for example, they increased how often map events happen after players voiced their concerns. However, even with these changes, grenades still feel overly powerful and disruptive in combat, and the issue goes deeper than just tweaking numbers – it’s a core part of the game’s design.

Embark Nerfed Trigger ‘Nades in January

Before the recent update to ARC Raiders (Update 1.11.0), grenades were a major problem for players. Online discussions were filled with complaints about how easily grenades could control key areas and unfairly impact fights, especially when trying to escape after a mission. The developers recognized this issue, confirming that grenades, specifically the Trigger ‘Nade, were being used far too often in player-versus-player combat and were significantly affecting the game’s balance.

In response, developers made specific changes to Trigger ‘Nade mechanics to curb its effectiveness.

  • The detonation delay between arming and explosion was more than doubled, from 0.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds, granting opposing players more time to react.
  • Alongside this, damage falloff was reworked so that explosions concentrated their impact closer to the center, dealing less damage at the outer edges of blast zones.
  • These adjustments were intended to make air-trigger tactics less reliable while preserving the grenades’ overall utility.

This update confirms that players aren’t just feeling that Trigger ‘Nades are overpowered – there’s a real imbalance. Embark has admitted players prefer them because they effectively solve any challenge in the game. While grenades generally provide focused damage, Trigger ‘Nades are uniquely versatile: they can force enemies out of cover, create traps, scout areas safely, and quickly restart fights. They’re effective against both players and the ARC enemies. This isn’t exclusive to Trigger ‘Nades, though; remote detonation is a feature of many strong grenades in ARC Raiders.

The Issue is Bigger than Trigger ‘Nades

Image via Embark Studios

The problems stemming from the overuse of grenades are deeply rooted in the game’s design. They’re starting to overshadow the intended core gameplay of ARC Raiders‘ player-versus-player combat, which should focus on strategic positioning, listening for enemy movements, and making quick, thoughtful decisions. Mastering weapons usually requires precise aiming, managing ammunition, and understanding a weapon’s recoil, all while being vulnerable to attack. Grenades, however, don’t require any of that skill.

A major problem with ARC Raiders is that it encourages players to immediately attack and then figure out what’s happening. This ruins the strategic gameplay it should have. Instead of using smart tactics like flanking or stealth, most encounters just become a race to see who can spam explosives until someone falls. It’s a much less exciting way to play, and it doesn’t deliver the thrilling action that first drew me to the game.

Okay, so the recent update, 1.11.0, definitely helped with the grenade spam, but honestly, it didn’t fix the issue. They tweaked the fuse time and how much damage they do, which made the really annoying stuff less frequent, but it still feels off. Grenades just do too much in this game – they can kill you, force you to move, and give away enemy positions, all for basically nothing. It’s not just that grenades are powerful, it’s that they’re good at everything with hardly any effort needed to use them effectively. That’s the core problem, I think.

ARC Raiders shines when players face enemies in unpredictable situations that rely on quick thinking and understanding the environment, or when they need to negotiate and strategize, rather than just relying on explosions and repeating the same tricks to duplicate powerful items. Games like Call of Duty and Battlefield are built for fast-paced, chaotic combat where grenades are just one of many useful tools. ARC Raiders aims for something different – a more tactical experience with unpredictable conflicts and meaningful choices between being aggressive and playing it safe. When one particular item disrupts this balance, it undermines the entire game system.

How Can Grenades Evolve With ARC Raiders

Image via Embark Studios

Since the game was updated to version 1.11.0, we’ve seen some changes, but players still heavily rely on grenades. While raiders aren’t stockpiling ‘Trigger ‘Nades’ as much, it hasn’t stopped the overall use of explosives – even in recent events like the Bird City event for ARC Raiders. Explosives are often the go-to solution because other tactical options feel less effective. Although things like mines, barricades, and zip lines are available, they don’t really stop someone who has a lot of powerful grenades like Light Impact or Blaze Grenades.

As a player, I think grenades in ARC Raiders feel a little too powerful for how easy they are to get. They really reward just throwing a bunch, and that kind of takes away from the careful, strategic gameplay the game seems to be building towards. I’d love to see some changes – maybe limiting how many we can carry, making them cost more resources to craft, or even tying them to specific skills in the character progression. I know some players might not want super restrictive limits like in some other games, but I’m worried that if grenades aren’t balanced better, they’ll end up overshadowing everything else and making strategy less important.

Fixing the explosive issues isn’t about small timing changes or minor damage adjustments. It requires a fundamental rethink of how explosives work within the game. Right now, they’re too powerful, not because they’re good weapons, but because they break the core gameplay of ARC Raiders. I hope the developers at Embark Studios revisit and rebalance throwable items. It’s not just for my enjoyment, but for all players who are unfairly eliminated while doing simple tasks like opening a cabinet.

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2026-02-06 01:07