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ARC Raiders design director Virgil Watkins says extraction camping is a valid in-game tactic, but not a risk-free or especially common one. Asked whether someone is a bad person for waiting at an elevator to kill players trying to extract, he answered: “No. It is a tactic.” That is a game-design answer, not a blanket endorsement of toxic conduct.
What did the ARC Raiders developer say about camping?
In a Kotaku interview published October 29, 2025, Claire Jackson asked Watkins, identified in the interview as ARC Raiders’ design director, whether camping an elevator to kill extracting players made someone a bad person. Watkins replied, “No. It is a tactic.” The interview was lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
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Watkins did not say that every form of camping—or every way of treating other players—is acceptable. The interview separately recognizes that player freedom and social tools can be used in toxic ways. His answer addresses the specific gameplay choice of waiting to ambush players at an extraction point.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsHow common is extraction camping?
Watkins said Embark’s telemetry suggested that “the incidence rate, as far as we can tell, of extraction camping is incredibly low.” That is his qualitative description, not a published statistic: the interview gives no underlying figures, sample size, time period, or measurement method. It therefore supports reporting what the developer said, but not estimating how often camping happens or treating the claim as independently verified data.
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Why does the game allow for counterplay?
Watkins described several mechanics that can make waiting at an extraction point an uncertain choice. In the October 2025 interview, he pointed to alternate ways out, including hatch-key exits, and said the number of available extraction points decreases as a round progresses. He also said combat flares and investigating drones can draw attention to a camper.
His description frames camping as opportunistic rather than guaranteed: an ambush might produce a loot opportunity, but it can also expose the camper. These are Watkins’s account of the game’s design in that interview, not a tested guide to current tactics; mechanics may change with updates.
Why isn’t prone movement available?
Watkins said animation work was one obstacle to adding prone movement, but also raised a balance and pacing concern: “Having people default to proning and hiding kind of disrupts that.” He added that ARC Raiders’ weighty movement could make getting back up dangerous if an ARC enemy attacked. These are the design reasons he gave in the interview, rather than an independently verified account of the game’s technical constraints.
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Watkins described approachability as a design tenet and cited systems intended to make a failed run less punishing. Quests can make progress without a successful extraction, a safe pocket can protect quest items, free loadouts offer a way to return without bringing in owned gear, and Scrappy provides crafting materials. These safeguards do not remove the risk of an extraction shooter; they give players ways to retain some progress or re-enter after a loss.
Steam describes ARC Raiders as a multiplayer extraction adventure from Embark Studios, released October 30, 2025, with solo play or parties of up to three and online PvP and co-op features. Its store description also notes that battle noise carries and other Raiders may listen. View ARC Raiders on Steam.
Read Claire Jackson’s interview with Virgil Watkins at Kotaku.
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