When Being Nice Gets Boring
Arc Raiders is built for tense raids, clutch fights, and high risk looting. But what happens if you play it as a pure pacifist for dozens of hours? For PC Gamer writer Morgan Park, the answer was simple: it got a little dull.
After 43 hours of mostly peaceful runs, avoiding Arc patrols and letting other players loot in front of him, the same old routine started to drag. He went on three raids in a row without firing a single shot. The game was still solid but the loop had lost its edge.
At that point, a lot of solo players might flip to the dark side. It is tempting to start camping extraction points, picking fights with randoms, or pulling that classic survival game move of betraying someone right after agreeing to a truce. Arc Raiders has fun PvP and it would have been very easy to lean into being a villain.
Instead, Morgan doubled down on being the good guy and turned Arc Raiders into something totally different. Inspired by a Reddit clip of a player calling themselves a rescue raider, he launched his own solo mission: become a full time combat medic.
He gave his new role a name too. Welcome to Park Ambulance Dispatch.
Becoming A Combat Medic
The plan was simple on paper. Load up on defibrillators, drop into solo raids, and sprint toward every flare from a downed player. Find them, revive them, and move on. No strings attached. No ambush. Just rescue runs.
The first problem was cardio. Most players were already dead and gone by the time he reached them. Solo raiders usually assume nobody will help, so they quit out quickly and do not expect a random stranger to be carrying defibs just for them.
After a full night of chasing flares, Morgan had only saved two people. That was not enough. So he rebuilt his whole approach around response time and map knowledge.
- He stayed near the center of the map to be closer to most flares.
- He favored the smaller maps Buried City and Stella Montis for faster travel.
- He dumped skill points into Mobility for more stamina and better climb speed.
- He always called out in voice chat as he approached so players knew a friendly medic was coming.
With this setup, Arc Raiders suddenly felt like a different game. Rooftops became race tracks. Ziplines were emergency shortcuts. There was no time to sit in a bush and wait for danger to pass. The pressure to reach someone before they bled out created a completely new main quest: save lives first, loot later.
The results were huge. He started reviving at least one player per raid, often more, and sometimes the same person multiple times. Every rescue felt like a tiny story. One grateful raider even hit him with the rare in game chant: My hero.
Then came the surprises. Many rescued players were not just thankful. Some dropped rare loot at his feet as a thank you. Bastion Cores, Leaper Pulse Units, Bombardier Cells, and other high value parts he had never actually earned in combat stacked up in his inventory. Good karma apparently pays.
But there was a catch. Being a medic in Arc Raiders is not cheap.
Defibrillators are not a basic craft recipe, and he still has not found the blueprint. That means buying them from the Clinic for 3,000 coins each. A full stack of three costs 9,000, and on busy nights he burns through roughly 50,000 coins in defibs alone. Some runs use them all, some end early when he dies, and some leave leftovers. Either way, the bill is serious.
The Dark Side Of Being A Hero
Money is not the only problem. Running straight toward trouble is a great way to get shot.
Roughly half of the flares he responds to are not from players who were downed by Arc enemies but from PvP. That means their killer might still be nearby and very ready to shoot whoever sprints into their kill zone yelling I am a medic, do not give up.
And yes, that has happened a lot. Entire stacks of medical supplies gone in an instant because the supposed rescue operation turned into a firing squad. Time for a smarter plan.
- Get good at reading danger around flares.
- Treat every flare like a crime scene.
- Fight only when needed.
- Always prioritize the revive when it is safe.
This is where the medic fantasy turns into a kind of detective gameplay. Morgan started paying close attention to the soundscape before a flare went up. Did he hear rockets and explosions that sounded like Arc units, or did the gunfire sound like two players trading shots across rooftops
That audio detective work sets the tone. If it sounds like PvP, he approaches quietly, staying low, watching rooftops and corners. If he is quick, he can still save the victim and sometimes even catch the killer in the act.
When he arrives late, the situation can be much murkier. One body on the ground. One raider looting. No obvious context. Who started it
His solution is both ruthless and oddly fair. He downs the survivor first, then asks questions. If their explanation makes sense and feels honest, they get a revive. If his gut says they are lying or just farming weaker players, their raid ends right there. It is a personal justice system built entirely out of situational awareness and a limited number of defibs.
Of course, some murderers will slip through the net. He has almost certainly revived a few aggressive players by mistake. But these awkward social moments are part of what makes this playstyle so fun. One example from Buried City stands out. He downed a raider who had just killed someone in a hospital. The player insisted it was self defense and that they never heard his friendly voice calls. Their basic gear and starter outfit made it believable. He decided to trust them and used his last defib to bring them back.
The player was shocked, thanked him repeatedly, and slowly backed away. Later that night, he received a friend request from the same person. Maybe Park Ambulance Dispatch will not stay a solo operation forever.
In the end, turning Arc Raiders into a personal rescue simulator completely refreshed the game. It turned well worn paths into urgent routes, random players into patients and suspects, and every raid into a chance for genuine human moments. It is risky, expensive, and sometimes a terrible idea.
But for at least one player, it is the most fun way to play.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/i-became-a-full-time-paramedic-for-strangers-in-arc-raiders-and-ended-up-showered-with-more-rare-loot-than-i-could-carry/
