Arc Raiders China Beta: All Features You're Not Getting

The Arc Raiders China beta is a separate Tencent-published client with its own servers, its own dev team, and its own content roadmap. Steam region-locked the game in China in January 2026, so Chinese players run this or nothing. It does not share servers with global. Nothing here is confirmed for Western audiences.

The announcement video broke a million views before Western outlets wrote a single word. That should tell you everything about how starved people are for this content.

Tencent frames this as a "single-run adventure atmosphere product." Not an extraction shooter. That framing is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Rebellion Incident: The PvE Mode Nobody Is Allowed to Have

The centerpiece. The Rebellion Incident map condition — also called Security Agreement — is the closest Arc Raiders has ever gotten to a dedicated PvE mode. By default, all players spawn as allied. You cannot shoot anyone. You farm ARC enemies, loot, progress. Normal raid, minus the constant paranoia.

Want PvP? You opt in manually. Triggering "rebellion" paints a red icon on your backpack and broadcasts your location on the map compass to the entire lobby. You become public enemy number one to a map full of PvE players who now have permission to kill you. Good luck with that.

• Default state: full player immunity, shared map, cooperative farming
• Opt-in PvP: manual rebellion trigger, red backpack marker, visible on compass
• Loot density: significantly higher than standard raids
• Difficulty: low — designed for onboarding and resource accumulation

Global players have asked for Arc Raiders PvE mode since launch in October 2025. Embark has repeatedly explained why they can't simply turn PvP off. Tencent just did it anyway and 16 million people sold their disbelief for the privilege of watching.

Loadouts: The Feature That Should Have Shipped at Launch

Three saved Arc Raiders loadout presets. You set them up once. When you have the resources, one button press assembles everything and drops you into the raid. No inventory tetris, no manual crafting queue, no wasted five minutes before each run.

This exists. It works. It is in the Chinese beta right now. The main game does not have it. There is no announcement for global. Moving on.

Gear-Based Matchmaking

The Chinese version tests gear-based matchmaking on top of the existing aggression system. The logic is simple: the game reads your loadout and predicts your intent. Kinetic converter on a Bobcat 4? You're getting PvE lobbies. Equalizer with deadlines? You're going into a lobby where people actually want to fight.

It doesn't use gear value. It uses gear potential — what your build is designed to do. Empty loadout for a loot run matches you with other people who are also not there to shoot anyone. Whether this survives contact with reality remains unknown. It's a beta. Adjust expectations accordingly.

New Augments

Two confirmed additions. The Combat Mark III is a PvP-oriented support augment with 18 main slots, four quick-use slots, two grenade slots, and two safe pockets. Shields slowly regenerate after leaving combat. Fine.

The Mobile Augment is the interesting one: a self-replenishing adrenaline shot built directly into the augment. Regenerating defib has been in the game. Regenerating shield recharger too. A regenerating adrenaline shot is new and anyone who has burned through chemicals on long runs will immediately understand why this matters.

All translations from Chinese. Some of this may be slightly wrong. All of it is still better than nothing.

New Items at the Workbench

The workbench now goes to level five, unlocking items progressively. Most of these don't exist in the global version.

1. Security Agreement (Rebellion Incident)

Covered above. The PvE opt-in mode. The one everyone wants. The one that isn't coming to global any time soon.

2. Double King

Double King mode puts the Queen and the Matriarch on the same map simultaneously. Both guarding the harvester. Loot value in the harvester increases to compensate. High-end late-game lobbies will farm through this in under two minutes. Mid-tier lobbies will learn respect.

3. City Alert

Armored snitches fly through the map in formation, escorted by waves of rocketeers. Shoot a snitch, pull aggro from every nearby ARC flier simultaneously. Arc Raiders City Alert increases loot from destroyed ARC enemies as a reward for surviving the inconvenience. Difficulty reads as high given the rocketeer density.

4. Enhanced Probe Event

A recolored probe event with substantially better rewards. Break one open and get a blueprint, a full weapon, attachments, and actual useful loot. The main game's equivalent events currently reward an Arpeggio II for fifteen minutes of effort. This is the version that respects your time.

Feature Comparison: China vs. Global

Will Any of This Come to Global

Embark has not commented on any beta findings. The Frozen Trail update arrives October 2026 and is the most likely vehicle for any crossover content, with PvE mode being the most-discussed candidate. Tencent exclusives migrate to global eventually. Nothing is announced. Assume nothing, expect something, plan for neither.

Rebellion Incident's opt-in betrayal mechanic preserves tension in a way a hard PvE lock doesn't. That design choice probably travels better to global audiences than a full PvP disable would. Whether Embark agrees is a different question entirely.

Meanwhile, Arc Raiders weapon skins are confirmed for the Chinese version, with the dev team explicitly stating they want to stay within the game's existing visual theme. No cartoon crossovers. No mouse ears on helmets. One of them added mouse ears on a helmet anyway.

How to Access the China Beta (You Probably Can't)

The Arc Raiders beta access requires a Chinese Tencent account, real-name verification, regional eligibility, and a survey qualification process. Beta slots are limited. Steam region-locked the game in China in January 2026. The client runs at arc.q.com. International players without a VPN and a tolerance for bureaucracy need not apply.

NDA status is unclear. Content is leaking anyway.