There are countless moments I can hark back to in my roughly 12 hours with the game so far. I failed to dispatch of a Snitch before it called for reinforcements, which led to me fleeing from a Wasp and a Hornet in the open, scrambling to both reload, heal, and take cover, just a shot or two from death, when another ARC Raiders Items player who had just finished looting a Baron Husk rocked up, ploughed two rounds into each of the drones, checked on me with a "You ok?", then disappeared into the night.

Or perhaps I should mention the player who shot me in the back as I was in a rush to extract, but as soon as I hurriedly held down my push-to-talk key and yelled "Fuck off, I'm friendly!", he apologized and asked where "the other one" was. Giving away there was another player in the vicinity, I explained I was in a rush to extract and I'm playing solo, another player emerged behind me, and the three of us advanced onwards. A Leaper was patrolling nearby, so we all hid in a bush, then ran into the elevator as quickly as possible, as a fourth player met us inside.

My favorite friendly encounter so far came on Dam Battlegrounds, the first map you visit. I had a key for a locked room, but it was in a building I'd never visited before, so I didn't know where to find it. I was looting up in a dark room when I heard a voice behind me: "Are you friendly?" I spun around, weapon equipped just in case, and replied "yep, I'm friendly." "Cool," came the reply, but before my non-enemy left, I asked if he knew where to find the locked door. He escorted me around the corner, then watched me enter and take all the loot I needed. When I had as much as I could carry, I let him take everything I left behind, then we embarked on a mission to extract together.

These moments are what make Arc Raiders special. PvP is always going to be part of the game; I've engaged in my fair share of gunfights when whoever I've encountered doesn't want to play nicely, and winning those feels fantastic, but solo queueing especially since you know you're not going to come up against a squad of three players thanks to how matchmaking works shows diplomacy is actually possible. All it takes is the risk of losing hard-earned loot and a threat greater than other cheap ARCR Items players in the form of Leapers, Bombardiers, Rocketeers, and god forbid, a Queen.