Can you play Arc Raiders solo, or PvE only, without ever getting shot in the back by another human? It is the question every cautious solo player types in before buying the biggest extraction hit of the year, and the lazy answer is “no, it’s PvPvE, deal with it.” That answer is technically true and completely useless. So let me give you the version that actually helps.
The hard caveat first: there is no PvE-only mode, and no offline. As of mid-2026 Arc Raiders has no dedicated PvE button, no single-player campaign you can wall off, and no offline mode to fire up on a plane. Every raid you load is a live, shared instance with real people in it. Embark has been asked for a proper PvE-only option many times and, as PCGamesN put it bluntly, has not caved so far. If your line in the sand is “I will never share a server with another player,” this is not your game, and I would rather tell you that now than after you have spent the money. Go read my Gray Zone Warfare solo and offline breakdown instead, because that one genuinely does give you a sealed PvE mode against AI.
Now the useful bit: solo is the closest thing to PvE Arc Raiders has. And it is a lot closer than the doom-posters admit. The trick is one toggle. On the Play menu, bottom-right, there is a Fill Squad option. Switch it to Off before you queue. That stops the game handing you random teammates and drops you onto the surface alone. You queue solo, you raid solo, you extract solo. No squad, no voice chat with strangers, no babysitting.
Here is the part nobody puts in the headline: the matchmaking is on your side. Arc Raiders uses what the community calls aggression-based matchmaking, or ABMM. Embark’s Patrick Söderlund confirmed it plainly, saying they “matchmake based on how prone you are to PvP or PvE.” Instead of building separate PvE and PvP lobbies, the game ranks players on a spectrum by how often they shoot other raiders, and it tries to put the killers with the killers and the looters with the looters. It also generally keeps solos matched against other solos rather than throwing you to a coordinated trio.
So your behaviour shapes your lobbies. Play a few raids where you avoid fights, ghost past other Raiders, wave instead of shoot, and prioritise extracting over engaging, and ABMM gradually slots you into calmer company. It is not instant and it is never a promise. Embark are clear there is “no guarantee you’ll never be attacked,” and you can still round a corner into a sweaty third party. But over a session it absolutely thins out the hostility. This is why the standing joke on the Steam forums is that “solo queue is the PvE mode.” It is half a joke. The high friendly-encounter rate in this community is real, and a surprising number of strangers will nod and move on rather than open fire.
The numbers back this up. Embark have said roughly 30 percent of their players engage almost purely with PvE, another 30 percent are PvP enthusiasts, and the remaining 40 percent flit between the two. That is a huge chunk of the population that wants exactly what you want, and ABMM exists specifically to pool you with them. You are not a weirdo for wanting a quiet run. You are a third of the player base.
There is even a level-40 toggle worth knowing about. The Headwinds update added a separate Solo vs Squads option, letting a high-level solo deliberately queue into the squads pool. That is the opposite of what most PvE-minded players want, so leave it off, but it tells you Embark are actively tuning who you get matched with rather than leaving it to chance.
And then there are the events. Periodically Embark run co-op-flavoured windows like the Shared Watch event, which ran February 10 to 24, 2026. During it, you earned merits for damaging, destroying and assisting against the ARC machines, and zero merits from PvP. It did not switch off player damage, so it was not true PvE, but it made shooting other Raiders pointless for progression, which nudged the whole server toward teaming up against the robots. When one of these is live, it is the most PvE the game ever feels. Watch for them.
So here is the honest scorecard. Dedicated PvE-only mode, no. Offline single-player, no. Solo play, yes, and it is one toggle away. Pseudo-PvE through low-aggression matchmaking, yes, and it genuinely works if you play the part. If “solo, mostly peaceful, occasionally tense, always online” sounds right, Arc Raiders gives you that far better than its reputation suggests.
Still weighing it up? My is Arc Raiders worth it in 2026 verdict is the unvarnished take, Arc Raiders vs Escape from Tarkov is the comparison if you want something less forgiving, and if the whole genre is new to you, PvE vs PvPvE explained sorts out which camp you actually belong in. More breakdowns live over on the intel index.
I take the game seriously. Not myself.
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FAQ
Can you play Arc Raiders solo?
Yes. Turn Fill Squad to Off on the Play menu before you queue, and you drop into the raid alone with no random teammates. You still share the map with other players, but the game tries to keep solos matched against other solos.
Does Arc Raiders have a PvE-only mode?
No. As of mid-2026 there is no dedicated PvE-only mode and no offline single-player. Every raid is shared with real players. Solo play plus the game's aggression-based matchmaking is the closest you get to a PvE experience.
Is Arc Raiders aggression-based matchmaking real?
Yes. Embark matchmakes partly on how prone you are to PvP versus PvE, so low-aggression solo players gradually filter into calmer lobbies. It reduces hostile encounters but never guarantees you will not be attacked.
How do you turn off random teammates in Arc Raiders?
On the Play menu, bottom-right, switch the Fill Squad option to Off before you queue. You then queue solo, raid solo and extract solo, with no squad, no voice chat with strangers and no babysitting.
What is aggression-based matchmaking in Arc Raiders?
Embark ranks players on a spectrum by how often they shoot other raiders and tries to put killers with killers and looters with looters. Play peacefully and the system gradually slots you into calmer company, though it never guarantees you will not be attacked.
How many Arc Raiders players actually want PvE?
Embark have said roughly 30 percent of players engage almost purely with PvE, another 30 percent are PvP enthusiasts, and the remaining 40 percent flit between the two. Wanting a quiet run puts you with a third of the player base, not on the fringe.
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