Whether you can play Arc Raiders solo, or PvE only, without ever getting shot in the back by another human, is the question every cautious solo player types in before buying the biggest extraction hit of the year, and the lazy answer is that it is PvPvE and you should deal with it. That answer is technically true and completely useless, because it skips the toggle and the matchmaking habit that decide whether a solo raid feels like PvE or like an ambush.
There is no PvE-only mode, and no offline, because 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, so 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, and if your line in the sand is that you will never share a server with another player, this is not your game. I would rather tell you that now than after you have spent the money, and the place I would send you instead is my Gray Zone Warfare solo and offline breakdown, because that one genuinely does give you a sealed PvE mode against AI.
Solo is the closest thing to PvE Arc Raiders has, and it is a lot closer than the doom-posters admit, because the trick is one toggle. On the Play menu, bottom-right, there is a Fill Squad option, and if you 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, and you extract solo, with no squad, no voice chat with strangers, and no babysitting, and it is the single most important setting in the game for players like me, tucked away in a corner like an afterthought.
Arc Raiders uses what the community calls aggression-based matchmaking, or ABMM, and 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, while it also generally keeps solos matched against other solos rather than throwing you to a coordinated trio. Your behaviour shapes your lobbies, so 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, because I have had quiet, almost pleasant runs three deep and then been executed at the extract by someone who clearly had a different afternoon in mind. Embark are clear there is “no guarantee you’ll never be attacked,” and you can still round a corner into a sweaty third party, though over a session it absolutely thins out the hostility, which is why the standing joke on the Steam forums is that “solo queue is the PvE mode.” It is half a joke, and the high friendly-encounter rate in this community is real, because a surprising number of strangers will nod and move on rather than open fire. I have been waved at more in this game than in most games that are actually about co-operating, which still surprises me every time somebody chooses the nod.
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, which 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, because you are a third of the player base, and that share is why the filter exists at all. The Headwinds update added a separate Solo vs Squads option, a level-40 toggle worth knowing about, letting a high-level solo deliberately queue into the squads pool, and that is the opposite of what most PvE-minded players want, so leave it off.
It does tell you Embark are actively tuning who you get matched with rather than leaving it to chance, and if you play across a console and a PC, is Arc Raiders cross-platform, crossplay and cross-save explains how your progress follows you. Periodically Embark run co-op-flavoured windows like the Shared Watch event, which ran February 10 to 24, 2026, and during it you earned merits for damaging, destroying, and assisting against the ARC machines, with 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, and when one of these is live it is the most PvE the game ever feels.
The honest scorecard is that a dedicated PvE-only mode is a no, offline single-player is a no, solo play is a yes and it is one toggle away, and pseudo-PvE through low-aggression matchmaking is a yes that genuinely works if you play the part. If solo, mostly peaceful, occasionally tense, and always online sounds right, Arc Raiders gives you that far better than its reputation suggests, and I went in expecting to hate it and came out recommending it, which is not a sentence I type often. If you are still weighing it up, my is Arc Raiders worth it in 2026 verdict is the unvarnished take, while Arc Raiders vs Escape from Tarkov is the comparison if you want something less forgiving. If the whole genre is new to you, PvE vs PvPvE explained sorts out which camp you actually belong in, and more breakdowns live over on the intel index. I take the game seriously and myself rather less, which is how an execution at the extract stays funny enough to queue again.
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, though you still share the map with other players. The game tries to keep solos matched against other solos, which is a kindness rather than a promise, and I would still extract as if someone unfriendly had queued with the same idea.
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, because 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, and I would rather tell you that before the purchase than after the first extract goes wrong.
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, which reduces hostile encounters and never guarantees you will not be attacked. I have had quiet, almost pleasant runs three deep and then been executed at the extract, so I trust the filter and I still watch the door on the way out.
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, and you then queue solo, raid solo, and extract solo, with no squad, no voice chat with strangers, and no babysitting. It is the single most important setting for players like me, and it is tucked in a corner like an afterthought, which is why it is easy to miss if you only glance at the queue button.
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, so if you play peacefully the system gradually slots you into calmer company. It never guarantees you will not be attacked, which is the sentence I would keep next to the toggle rather than underneath a promise the studio did not make.
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 rather than on the fringe, which is why the matchmaking bothers to notice you at all.
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