WE’RE BACK: ARC Raiders Is Circling the Drain | CTE Episode 23

After almost two months in the metaphorical grave, Camping the Extract is back, louder, rustier, and somehow even less organized.

Toxic and Nicky return to examine the current state of ARC Raiders, including aggression-based matchmaking, separate behavior ratings for solo, duo, and trio players, and the magnificent scam where players deliberately step into somebody else’s gunfire so the game classifies them as the victim. According to Nicky, this is no longer matchmaking. It is slip-and-fall insurance fraud with high-caliber ammunition.

The boys also dig into the PvE debate, duplication exploits, accidental expedition resets, free-loadout restrictions, declining interest in the game, and the increasingly uncomfortable question hanging over the entire podcast: Is Embark sanding away everything that once made ARC Raiders dangerous, unpredictable, and worth talking about?

With ARC apparently circling the drain, Toxic investigates possible escape routes. Zero Parades for Dead Spies enters the conversation, followed by Mistfall Hunter, a fantasy extraction game featuring classes, skill trees, bosses, an auction house, and seasonal resets capable of murdering Toxic’s enthusiasm approximately four minutes after he discovered them.

Also included in this glorious return:

Weaponized cyclospora lettuce.
Nicky’s commitment to cured meats.
A proposed rebrand to Salt, Sauce & Shitty Devs.
The movie Nonnas and a future Staten Island pilgrimage.
A listener from Cumbernauld, Scotland.
Nicky’s Steam Deck landing in Guinness and possibly human waste.
A Scottish pub fight that receives three separate beginnings and absolutely no ending.

The rats are back. The game may be dying. The podcast appears to have survived through spite alone.

NICKY’S BODY COUNT: EPISODE 23

2 podcast hosts resurrected from metaphorical death.

1 ARC matchmaking algorithm indicted for insurance fraud.

47 wolves discovered wearing peaceful-player cardigans.

3 separate aggression ratings added to Nicky’s permanent criminal record.

15 pounds forcibly extracted by weaponized lettuce.

6900 PvE herbivores relocated to a protected farming biome.

1 produce aisle condemned under the Geneva Convention.

23 expedition inventories reset through administrative malice.

4 medieval sticks rejected for insufficient stopping power.

9 magic-wand assholes ganked before reaching the auction house.

1 Steam Deck baptized in Guinness, pub filth, and unidentified Scottish moisture.

38 Cumbernauld roundabouts leading directly into hell.

1 Scottish bar fight started.

0 Scottish bar fights concluded.

12 potential podcast rebrands investigated.

1 acceptable rebrand discovered: Salt, Sauce & Shitty Devs.

64 minutes of evidence presented against future sponsorship eligibility.

8,471 confirmed casualties, 2.6 hostile salads, one structurally compromised Scottish pub, and a podcast dragged out of the grave by concentrated spite.

Two-Month Resurrection-Fu, Diarrhea Lettuce-Fu, Aggression Matchmaking-Fu, Slip-and-Fall Insurance Scam-Fu, Wolves-Pretending-to-Be-Sheep-Fu, PvE Care Bear-Fu, Expedition Reset-Fu, Medieval Stick Extraction-Fu, Cumbernauld Concrete Gulag-Fu, Unfinished Scottish Pub Fight-Fu

Chapters:

00:00 Two Months Later12:37 ARC Matchmaking Insurance Scam24:38 PvE, Wipes, and a Dying Game39:42 Mistfall Hunter Enters51:01 Cumbernauld Has Entered Chat