Arc Raiders' most daring and lucrative exploit is being patched before launch, but Embark's impressed by your efforts

I miss Arc Raiders. At the time of writing, it's been three whole days since its Server Slam wrapped, and I've thought about little else. Thankfully, its full launch is just around the corner, but Embark is making a few tweaks before the big day based on what it learned during its recent open playtest. Alongside tweaks to visuals following concerns of a downgrade versus its Tech Test earlier in the year, and a rebalancing of its flying Arc machines, there's unfortunately some sad news for those of you that rinsed the Server Slam's biggest exploit. You won't be able to parkour your way into the Dam Tower loot cave anymore.

For the unaware, the Dam Tower is one of the main hives of activity in Arc Raiders' Dam Battlegrounds map. Not only is it a great vantage point and a central location, but there's a locked room near the top that contains loads of desirable loot. The only way you should be able to get in there is with a key that's scavenged from the map. Or perhaps you kill someone with the key in their possession and pluck it from their corpse. Either way, getting inside should be a very rare occurrence. But it didn't take long for players to find a different route in the new multiplayer game.

Make your way to the very top of the Dam Tower, shuffle to the edge of the roof, and drop to the ledge below. You can then pull yourself up, and stroll on into this loot-stuffed room with just a few small Arc machines to destroy. Or you'll mistime the ledge grab and plummet to your death. It's a risk-reward method, but one that could definitely be mastered. Because you can unlock the door to the room from the inside, it also means there's an easy, safe route out of there once you've grabbed everything you want.

Embark is impressed with your efforts in working this exploit out, but it won't be in the game at launch. "We watched many of you bravely, and perhaps a little too easily, access the Launch Tower on Dam Battlegrounds," it says in a new blog post. "It was fun to watch, but a bit too accessible for a key loot location. That's been fixed to keep the challenge sharp."

Elsewhere, Embark has seen your feedback on flying Arc machines like the Snitch and the Hornet that can detect enemy movement and hone in on you. Despite your best efforts to conceal yourself behind environmental objects, these machines could often still spot you - an occurrence that happened to me a few times. The studio admits "their awareness was a bit too high," and so at launch they should be less effective at detecting you through things like trees and bushes.

It also addresses concerns about a visual downgrade. Those that participated in past playtests felt that Arc Raiders looked less sharp and vibrant, and an Embark community manager said earlier this week it was the result of "optimization to ensure higher and more stable framerates on low and mid spec hardware."

In the new post, the studio confirms that "the default settings did change a bit to favor more performance, and we are looking into tuning further to strike the right balance."

A fun infographic full of stats from the Server Slam was also shared, which you can check out below. It's nice to know that I wasn't the only one getting caught out by its epic thunderstorms…

Ahead of the game's release on Thursday, October 30, be sure to get yourself up to speed on the Arc Raiders system requirements. We've also got plenty more survival games for you to play in the meantime if you want to challenge yourself in yet more harsh environments.

If you took part in the Server Slam, head to the PCGamesN Discord to let us know what you thought and whether it convinced you to jump in at launch.