Arc Raiders Sells 12 Million, Nerfs Trigger 'Nade And Kettle

"The Trigger 'Nade's nerfage is a bit more significant. The throwable device, designed to be used as a sticky grenade when fighting drones and stompy bots in the game's PvE, became a favorite of PvP players who realized it could be used for mid-air detonation. So Embark has rejigged it such that "damage falloff has been rebalanced to concentrate the damage closer to the center of the explosion, and deal less damage further away." In other words, to ensure it still remains useful as a sticky explosive, but less effective for "trigger-in-air" attacks. There's also been a huge increase in the delay before it explodes, going from 0.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds, "giving players more time to react and making it harder to time the detonation in the air.""

"The Kettle assault rifle wasn't ordinarily overpowered for the regular user, but rather the sorts who just ought to have their gaming machines taken away from them: the likes who use third-party software. According to Embark's patch notes, the maximum fire rate for the Kettle has been reduced from 600 to 450, which sounds like a big drop until you learn that 600 was only possible using macros by cheating scumbags."

"The January Update, numbered 1.11.0, adds a new cosmetic set called Abyss, and is also accompanied by the news that Arc Raiders has sold over 12 million copies. Apparently the game was preparing a 10 million player giveaway, a Gilded Pickaxe Raider Tool, when the game sold an extra two million over the holidays. Hoo boy, I bet Embark are glad it picked a $40 price point instead of the original plan to be free-to-play."

Update 1.11.0 reduces the Kettle assault rifle's maximum fire rate from 600 to 450 to limit macro-enabled speeds and third-party software abuse. The Trigger 'Nade's damage falloff now concentrates damage near the explosion center and deals less at range, and its fuse time increased from 0.7 to 1.5 seconds to reduce mid-air detonation exploits while preserving sticky utility. An exploit allowing players to retain key cards after use has been removed. A new Abyss cosmetic set is added. The game has surpassed 12 million copies sold, affecting plans for a 10 million-player Gilded Pickaxe giveaway.

Read at Kotaku