ARC Raiders Plans to Nerf Popular Weapon in Next Update

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The developers of ARC Raiders, Embark Studios, have announced they will be reducing the effectiveness of the Stitcher in an upcoming update. The Stitcher, a popular and easily upgraded submachine gun, has recently become a favorite among players, sometimes even performing better than harder-to-obtain weapons. While players have been enjoying its power, Embark Studios plans to balance the game by making the Stitcher less powerful in a future patch.

Now that the new year has begun, players are eagerly awaiting the first update for 2026. The last major update, Cold Snap for ARC Raiders, came out in December. It included a lot of improvements, bug fixes, and new content to enjoy during the holidays. The biggest new feature was the Cold Snap map modifier, which adds dangerous weather that can quickly harm players who aren’t careful. The update also introduced new quests, items, a new set of Raider challenges, an event, and other additions.

ARC Raiders Confirms Stitcher Nerf Inbound

Embark, the studio behind ARC Raiders, has announced plans to rebalance some in-game weapons, including the Stitcher. A Community Manager shared the news on the game’s official Discord, explaining that the holidays caused a slight delay. While nerfs to the Trigger Nade and fixes for macro exploits with the Kettle were previously announced, this is the first confirmation of changes coming to the Stitcher. Many players felt the Stitcher, a commonly crafted weapon, was too powerful, even outperforming rarer, more powerful weapons like the Bobcat. Embark hasn’t detailed exactly how they’ll adjust the Stitcher, but more information will be released in the official patch notes.

Embark has confirmed they’re working on balancing the Trigger Nade, which isn’t unexpected for players of ARC Raiders recently. This C4-like item has been causing problems in most raids because of its high damage and large explosion area. Players often use Trigger Nades in every fight, as just two can quickly eliminate a whole team.

Last month, after launching the Cold Snap update, Embark announced they were switching their weekly updates and store changes from Thursdays to Tuesdays. They also mentioned a holiday break, but said they’d still address any urgent problems and plan fixes for the new year. Players expected the first update of 2026 this week, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Although Embark hasn’t officially announced when the next update will be released, it now appears likely to come on January 13th, alongside the next store rotation.

The first in-game store update of 2026 didn’t go over well with players. While the new ARC Raiders skin was added to the Marco Set on January 6th, many quickly criticized Embark for misleading advertising. The issue stemmed from the store image showing a white helmet that isn’t actually available in the game, even though the skin has three different color choices. Players were also frustrated by visual glitches where the pants clip through the boots.

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2026-01-07 15:04