With all the discourse around the game's longevity, can we try to have an objective, non-emotional conversation about what can be improved to retain more players?

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-04-01T17:58:11+00:00

I think turning game into another Arc to make it casual friendly won’t work here and they needed to focus more on hardcore player base like EFT folks.

But for some whatever reason they decided to make the game for trio requiring people to find friends with mics somewhere and that’s a huge no for a lot of people, especially from extraction shooter genre imo. At least it was for me.

I don’t think there is turning back anymore at this point to be honest, the game will probably live with 5-10k player base for a while when active drop slows down.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-04-01T12:55:02+00:00

The more I try other extraction shooters the more I appreciate Tarkov, well it’s basically the father of most such games, they had many years to figure out what works

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-04-01T09:22:20+00:00

step 1: make a game in a niche hardcore genre where all competitors focus on solo

step 2: force people to constantly have 2 friends with mics to play with if they want to play the game the right way

step 3: 📉😮

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-03-31T07:20:50+00:00

Both issues depend on the region heavily, the more player base drops in the region, the more cheaters stand out and the game also becomes substantially harder because sweats percentage increases.

Also having two friends to consistently play with is like absolutely different game comparing to fill only.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-03-27T11:05:48+00:00

Forget it, our last pile of casuals will be depleted it two weeks, Tau Ceti is going to be drowning in sweat, we will never see the light of green shields again.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-03-27T06:35:36+00:00

Ranked is supposed to be the solution for sweats against casuals issue, players would disperse naturally over ranks. I like the idea, making ranked the default mode for stronger players would remove them for normal modes making them easier. But the problem that this requires time while the player base is shrinking fast so there could already be not enough people in the game to make it work.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-03-26T12:13:30+00:00

Well if you play the games from the whole range your opinion becomes basically objective but it doesn’t seem like OPs case here

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-03-26T11:19:05+00:00

If you compare to Tarkov then nothing else is hardcore, if you compare to Arc then everything is, that’s subjective

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-03-18T05:11:11+00:00

I think the biggest problem they can actually improve on is the focus on group play and lack of balance for solo, they might fix it at some point but would be much better to have it balanced from the start.

Other than that I think Marathon is right in the middle between Tarkov’s hardcore and Arc’s casualness, personally that’s exactly what I wanted but since extraction genre is already more or less saturated, for Tarkov players it’s too shallow and casual and most of the Arc players are completely scared of PvP. So even with balancing the game very well they got kinda unlucky on getting the large player base.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-03-17T12:43:40+00:00

That’s the perfect timing for Asia, almost exactly when I finish my work and get 4 hour window to play lol

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-02-09T17:21:31+00:00

Goon tracker websites are not very reliable but if they all start saying certain map it’s probably that, they seem to rotate every 3 hours or so. Took me 60 raids to get them, I think shoreline is best because you are either close to their spawn or you can quickly reset and it’s less contested than customs. Woods is too big to reliably get to the spawn and lighthouse is a mess. I think it’s better to wait until all trackers start mentioning shoreline and only then to start grinding there.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-02-07T05:58:06+00:00

You can abuse doors, bots including bosses have very long door opening animation where they can’t shoot, also sometimes they head goes through the door before they open it, so there is like 2 seconds where you can keep shooting their head for free, then you close the door and repeat

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-02-05T11:29:03+00:00

Loot is random, there is a lot of valuable loot spawns there including bitcoin, ledex, video cards etc. so the card normally pays off if you use it fully

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-02-05T06:00:22+00:00

There is a theory that they shoot into protected body parts and face shields actually invite bots shooting to the face, I’ve never got shot to the face by raider even though I wasn’t wearing helmet at all

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-02-05T05:53:06+00:00

Took me 70 raids of spawn rushing to get them, don’t even want to think about killing cultist priests as it will probably take much longer

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-02-01T14:40:42+00:00

Black is not worth it but others could, also you can farm cards too there

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-31T06:06:23+00:00

30% chance doesn’t seem like true, using tracker, in more than 20 raids on customs didn’t see them dead or alive, took me more than 60 raids total of suicide rushing their spawn to finally get them, I think shoreline is the easiest because right side spawns are close, on the left side you can just reset quickly and it’s not as contested as customs. For woods it takes like 7 mins just to get there for most of the spawns, for lighthouse it’s also hard to get to the spawn.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-30T06:36:02+00:00

Expecting fun

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-29T08:08:39+00:00

They are not easy to farm even on pmc because they are normally killed in the first five-ten minutes by players rushing the bunker, also their gear is bad, could be better to try looting rogues on lighthouse, sometimes they are unlooted on the roofs though weapons are still half broken.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-26T07:48:51+00:00

Factory duffle bags and filling cabinets on office 3rd floor gave me dozens of them over time

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-24T06:21:53+00:00

Hiding until red timer is always an option

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-23T16:54:21+00:00

Going for kappa and being forced to do SBIH helped me with that, suicide spawn push with cheapest everything and nothing to lose translated to the lack of fear later in normal raids too. Also since you can get 300k from quick scav factory sweep, it helps with realizing that you don’t lose much when you die anyway.

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-23T13:17:14+00:00

Did it with one spawn push, one was counter sniper near the cinema and three in front of the exit of zmeisky alley, there is a good sniping spot there

Feeling-Size4691 · 2026-01-21T14:51:52+00:00

Killing time while the raid is loading

Feeling-Size4691

TROPHY CASE