Arc Raiders update adds controversial solo versus squads matchmaking and new punishments for cheaters

Unveiled last week, the new Arc Raiders update has finally arrived. Titled Headwinds is one of the biggest updates since launch, with a new Arc-slaying Project, a map condition that will push you to the rooftops of Buried City, and its Solo vs Squads matchmaking queue, which will either be a genius addition to keep high-skill players entertained or a total disaster. However, with the full patch notes now live, there are a few more details to make you aware of, including a new chain of punishments for cheaters.

Headwinds is the first stage of Arc Raiders' ambitious roadmap for the next few months. The most talked about feature in the build up to Headwinds dropping is the Solo vs Squads matchmaking setting. Only raiders that are level 40 or above can select this queue, which will drop them into a lobby full of three-player teams. As well as being an arena for PvP-minded players to flex their skills, there's also another incentive to take the risk - "When opting in, players will receive +20% bonus XP at the end of the round on both successful extract, and defeat," Embark Studios confirms in the new patch notes.

The Trophy Display Project is similarly designed to give the multiplayer game's top players a reason to keep grinding. This "long-term" quest currently has no end date, and it requires you to take out increasingly difficult Arc foes, grabbing their components, extracting successfully, and submitting them to each stage of the Project. With the completion of each of the five steps, you'll be able to add a new commemorative item to the Display Case, and rewards also include blueprints and Raider Tokens. Finishing the entire project will not only earn you all five trophies but an exclusive Howl emote, a guitar item, and 300,000 coins.

Buried City also gets a new map condition today called Bird City. An influx of birds has resulted in increased bird nests, and valuable loot could be found in these unassuming piles of twigs. This means more rooftop gameplay in order to find them, and Embark has helpfully added more ziplines to help you get around. However, it's also increased the amount of flying Arcs, and of course the entire lobby will be keen to get up high as well, so there's a lot of risk involved.

Seven new quests are now available from the game's traders, and there's now an 'open party' option that lets anyone on your friends list seamlessly hop into your squad without the need for an invite - they can even join a party while you're mid-match and queue up alongside you for your next run. Two new Epic Augments have arrived as well, and while I haven't been able to log in and look at them myself, screenshots I'm seeing online show them to be a 'Safekeeper' variation of Looting Mk.3 and a 'Revival' variation of Tactical Mk.3. The former adds a safe pocket that "allows any item to be stored," while the latter lets you regain one health point every five seconds while out of combat.

Following plenty of criticism from PvP-focused fans about Embark's efforts to tackle cheating, a new set of punishments have been introduced. Described as a "three strikes progressive system," cheaters will first be given a 30-day ban if caught. If they're detected for a second time, they'll get a 60-day ban. If Embark catches you cheating a third time, it'll be a permanent account ban. For many, I can imagine this isn't severe enough - if you're ruining players' games, why are you even getting second and third chances? But it does at least establish Embark's position on the matter.

Elsewhere, there are loads of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks. Stella Montis gets several improvements, including a fix for the Seed Vault extraction issue that could see people stay in the extraction point after it closes. Embark has also increased the chance of finding high-tier weapons in weapon cases but lowered the number of containers that spawn "condition-specific blueprints" for Electromagnetic Storm, Hidden Bunker, and Locked Gate lobbies. To check out every single change that's just arrived, head to the full patch notes here.

The Arc Raiders Headwind update is live right now for all players.

While most of this update gets the thumbs up from me, I'm still intrigued to see how this new matchmaking experiment goes down. While Arc Raiders does take PvP aggression into account when matching players, I do wonder if squads are now going to start bumping into increased numbers of high-skill, bloodthirsty raiders. If it annoys more people than it pleases, I can't envisage it staying around for long, but we'll see.