ARC RAIDERS: A História SOMBRIA que o Jogo Esconde

0:00The year is 2180.

0:03The community lives hidden

0:06beneath the Earth, while

0:08giant machines patrol the surface.

0:10But the question that nobody answers

0:13is, where did these machines come from?

0:16And more importantly, who built them?

0:19Because I have a theory, and

0:23it's much darker than it seems.

0:24Everything about this theory

0:27and the dark story of ARC

0:28Raiders, right after the break.

0:32Hey, folks, Hadomancer in the

0:35house, the one who has spent

0:36more time investigating

0:38graffiti on destroyed walls

0:40than, actually, farming loot,

0:42and today we're going to dive

0:43deep into the history of ARC Raiders.

0:46And when I say deep, I mean really deep.

0:49Because ARC Raiders doesn't hand

0:51you this story on a silver platter, right?

0:53The Tala is hidden in the map

0:56descriptions, in graffiti on the walls, in

0:59dialogues with the NPCs that the vast majority ignore.

1:02But by putting all of this

1:04together, you can assemble a

1:05timeline that explains a lot

1:07about what's happening to the world.

1:12To begin with, let's establish

1:13what we actually know.

1:17The year in Arc Raiders is 2180

1:20and humanity lives underground.

1:22We're more specifically in a

1:24place called Speranza, which

1:24is a neighborhood of a

1:27larger city called Toledo,

1:30located in what used to be Italy.

1:32And here's an interesting detail.

1:34Speranza is not a military

1:36base, it is not a secret bunker.

1:39It is literally a neighborhood that

1:41was swallowed by holes in the ground

1:44and the people adapted there to live.

1:45Not everyone in Speranza is a raider.

1:48In fact, the raiders are

1:51a very small portion of

1:52the community, who are

1:54the crazy ones who agree

1:56to go up to the surface

1:57and face the killer

1:58machines and bring resources back.

1:59Shani, who is the head of security,

2:01makes this very clear right at the start.

2:04If you want to stay in

2:06Speranza, you have to prove

2:07you can manage up there,

2:09that is, become a raider or get out.

2:12The surface is called

2:15the Rust Belt or rust-belt.

2:17That name isn't for nothing, right?

2:19Abandoned buildings, rusted

2:21vehicles, wreckage everywhere.

2:24And patrolling all of this, the arcs.

2:26Machines of all sizes.

2:28Flying drones, ground robots and

2:31even monstrosities the size of a building.

2:34And here comes the first question.

2:37What does arc mean?

2:39Officially, the game doesn't explain.

2:41It could be a reference

2:42to the arc shape that

2:44appears on the radar

2:45when they enter the atmosphere.

2:46It could be an acronym for

2:48autonomous robotic builders.

2:50The community speculates a lot.

2:52But what we know is that

2:54these machines fell from

2:56the sky and started killing.

2:58But to understand

3:00how we got here,

3:01we need to go

3:02back a little in time.

3:03Well, we need to go back quite a bit in time.

3:08It all starts with the environmental collapse.

3:11And here we need to

3:12do a bit of math, people.

3:15On the map of the buried

3:17city there is a

3:17description of a mall called galeria.

3:20The description says that the place

3:21has been out of use for 200 years.

3:242.180 minus 200 gives 1980.

3:28And that matches another piece of evidence.

3:30The fashion posters scattered

3:31across the maps there.

3:33The style is clearly the 80s.

3:36Hair, makeup, clothes,

3:37everything frozen in time.

3:39That is, around 1980,

3:41the world began to end.

3:44A global environmental collapse,

3:46climate change, pollution, natural disasters.

3:49Civilization, as we

3:50know it, went to shit.

3:52But that's where the interesting

3:53part of this story comes in.

3:563.

3:58The planet melting.

3:59Well, the planet melting.

4:00Humanity had the brilliant idea of...

4:03It leaked there, right?

4:04This was called the Exodus.

4:06A mass evacuation

4:08off the planet.

4:10And we have a

4:10specific date for that.

4:12In the teaser for the Stella Montes

4:14map, an auditor from the company J.

4:16Cosma Ventures, with

4:19the words, humanity

4:20our most valuable

4:22shipment yet, into orbit 2082.

4:24That is, humanity our

4:25most valuable cargo.

4:28In orbit, not even 2082.

4:31Nice, huh?

4:32But there's a problem.

4:33Not everyone went.

4:35On the spaceport map

4:36there are graffiti on the walls.

4:38And those graffiti tell a story

4:40very different from the one told by J.

4:42Cosma.

4:43One of them says, make space for everyone.

4:46Or make a space for everyone.

4:48Another says, o Guaglianza per tutti.

4:51Which would be

4:52equality for all, in Italian.

4:53The most revealing thing is

4:54on the map of the buried city.

4:57Only loirik vanu via de questo esquifo.

5:00That is, only the rich leave this shit.

5:03I told you it was going to get bleak, right?

5:05The exodus wasn't a

5:07humanitarian evacuation.

5:09It was a luxury escape.

5:11Those who had money bought tickets.

5:13Those who didn't have it, were left to die.

5:15And there's one more piece of evidence that supports that.

5:17On the dam map there's a

5:19graffiti in the style of

5:22Bunksy that shows the logo

5:23of a company called Astra Adventure.

5:25Transformed into a wolf,

5:26biting a little girl there.

5:28It's a symbol of corporate control.

5:31About who could or couldn't escape.

5:33You know the phrase, enlis resist, that

5:36appears in all the game's promotional material?

5:38It also appears in graffiti

5:39at the time of the exodus.

5:41The Rolari resists.

5:44Which was probably a

5:46rallying cry of the poor,

5:48demanding the right to leave the land.

5:49And that later was

5:52re-signified as a call of

5:54resistance to fight against the arcs.

5:55Interesting, right?

5:57But the story doesn't end there.

6:01After the exodus, those

6:03who remained on earth

6:04entered a period that the

6:06game's Codex calls the Dark Age.

6:08We don't know much

6:10about that period,

6:11because it was

6:13probably decades of brutal survival.

6:14No structure, no

6:15organization, no hope.

6:18But eventually things

6:19began to improve.

6:21And this was called

6:22Sunrise, or the Nacer do Sol.

6:25The Codex describes this

6:27period as an era of rebirth

6:29and rediscovery, alive in

6:30the memories of the few old

6:32people who are still out there.

6:34The planet began to recover.

6:36The ecology showed signs of restoration.

6:39And humans rediscovered

6:40ancient technology.

6:42In the Rust Belt,

6:44survivors gathered

6:45around the Alcântara dam.

6:47And built hydroponic domes.

6:50And began to produce food.

6:52They used old solar

6:53panels to generate power.

6:55It was a start, a sign of hope.

6:58And then, machines began to fall from the sky.

7:02The first wave of Arcs.

7:08And here we can estimate the

7:10date based on some characters.

7:13Celeste, who is the leader

7:15of hope, was 9 years old

7:17when the first wave began.

7:19She appears to be between 30 and 40 years old now.

7:22So, doing the math in

7:24reverse and by

7:25guesstimate, the first

7:27wave probably started around 2150.

7:30And it wasn't some little invasion, no.

7:32The Codex says that the raiders fought for

7:34more than a decade against those machines.

7:37A decade of war.

7:39Constant fighting, horrible losses.

7:42You know those raider

7:44camps scattered across

7:44the surface that we find

7:46in the fear-game, which

7:47are now completely abandoned?

7:49They were built at

7:51that time, when

7:53humanity still

7:55thought it had a chance to win.

7:55It didn't.

7:56But they fought anyway.

7:59And eventually, in a

8:01battle called Victory

8:02Ridge, the raiders

8:04managed to make the Arcs retreat.

8:05That was humanity's

8:06first victory.

8:08But that victory came at a price.

8:10Tianwen's mother, the

8:12greatest Aiva, died in that battle.

8:14She was a legendary commander.

8:16And Tianwen was only a child.

8:19And that loss marked her deeply.

8:22And it explains why she

8:23hates the raiders to this day.

8:25She saw her mother die for a cause.

8:28And she saw the next generation

8:30forget who fought for their safety.

8:32But, beyond the personal losses, the

8:35Battle of Victory Ridge broke something larger.

8:37Unity.

8:39The Codex says that after the

8:41victory, the survivors began

8:42to blame one another for

8:44tactical failures and started

8:47fighting over the spoils of war.

8:48The unity that defeated the Arcs

8:51fragmented into bitter rivalries.

8:53A monument was even built

8:55to commemorate the

8:57victory and was soon

8:59vandalized by disillusioned raiders.

9:01Humanity being humanity, right?

9:07And then, years later, when

9:09the dust had settled and

9:12people thought the worst was

9:14over, the Arcs returned in a second wave.

9:17Only this time the machines

9:19were different, more

9:22advanced, more brutal, more organized.

9:26The surface camps

9:27completely abandoned.

9:29The armed resistance, crushed.

9:32Humanity was forced

9:34underground, into the

9:36tunnels, into the holes, into hope.

9:39So, that's where we come in.

9:41In 2080, the present, the raiders rising

9:44to the surface toward Catal, what was left.

9:47Avoiding the machines,

9:49avoiding each other sometimes.

9:51And here's an interesting

9:53detail about PVP.

9:55Inside Hope,

9:56violence is prohibited.

9:58The Celeste makes this very clear.

10:00But on the surface, no one monitors anything.

10:03Raiders fight each other, steal

10:06from each other, knock each other out.

10:09By having people get knocked out, the game

10:13justifies it by saying that no one really dies.

10:16You are dragged back

10:18to Hope by another

10:19raider who passed by.

10:20Also, have you noticed

10:22that when you die, your

10:24character releases an

10:25automatic signal flare.

10:26That red flare.

10:28So, this is an

10:30emergency system to

10:32alert others that you are in danger.

10:33But in practice it became an indicator

10:35that you killed someone in PVP.

10:37But you know what's more interesting?

10:40Even with all that

10:43rivalry, when the arcs

10:44attack for real, the raiders gather.

10:46The Cod mentions that

10:47There are other neighborhoods in Toledo.

10:50And each one takes care of its own.

10:52But when the threat is too

10:55great, they band together to fight.

10:56In other words, the true

10:58enemy never changed.

11:00It's always been the arcs.

11:01This brings me to a big question.

11:07Where did these machines come from?

11:10I know you must be

11:11thinking, they're aliens.

11:13It makes a lot of sense, they fell

11:16from the sky, advanced technology,

11:17no one knows where they came from.

11:19But there's a problem.

11:21When you take down an arc and inspect

11:23the parts, you find letters and numbers.

11:27Human letters and numbers.

11:29Or Roman characters.

11:31On supposedly alien machines.

11:34This opens up two

11:36possibilities that I

11:36find much more

11:39interesting than simply an evil alien.

11:40Remember the Exodus, where

11:42the rich fled the Earth in 2082?

11:45What if they didn't disappear?

11:46What if, after nearly a

11:49century in space, the

11:51descendants of those people

11:53built the arcs and sent them back to Earth?

11:56Think with me, the reaper,

11:58that giant structure that the

11:59queen protects, collects

12:02resources and sends them into space.

12:03Literally, that's what she does.

12:05You see the capsules

12:06being ejected into the sky.

12:09The inspector, that little

12:11dot that rolls across the

12:12map, keeps pointing a laser

12:14upward and seems to be

12:15conducting a geological survey.

12:17On the dam map, the

12:19descriptions mention

12:21iron-rich water, mud full

12:23of metal and magnetic anomalies underground.

12:26The arcs might be mining there,

12:28literally extracting resources

12:29from the ground and sending them

12:31into space to whoever's up there.

12:33And if that's the case, the

12:35raiders aren't fighting aliens,

12:37they're fighting the

12:39descendants of those same rich

12:42people who abandoned humanity 200 years ago.

12:45And maybe, just maybe,

12:48they're cleaning the Earth

12:50and preparing the ground

12:52for an eventual return,

12:55after all, why share the

12:56planet with a bunch of poor

12:57survivors when you can simply remove them.

13:00But there's another possibility too.

13:02What if the arcs

13:04weren't sent by anyone?

13:05What if they simply decided?

13:07Before the collapse, humanity

13:09had advanced technology.

13:11Androids existed, we know that

13:13because the thing, the

13:15doctor is one, and we see

13:17several androids in estela-mode.

13:19And if the arcs were,

13:22originally, a hiá of

13:23defense, or of

13:25infrastructure, or of any

13:26other thing, like a super-advanced PT chat?

13:27And at some point, that hiá

13:30looked at humanity and

13:33decided that the problem was us.

13:34It wouldn't be the first time science

13:36fiction explores that, right guys?

13:38SkyNet, Ultron, the machines

13:40from Horizon Zero Dawn.

13:42The difference is that, in arc

13:45raiders, we don't know for sure.

13:47The game left it open on purpose.

13:50And that, to me, is brilliant.

13:53Because it doesn't matter which

13:56theory is right, the result is the same.

13:57Humanity created

13:59its own destruction.

14:00Whether by directly building

14:03the machines, or indirectly

14:03creating inequality that forced

14:05the exodus and generated the

14:08resentment of those who were left behind.

14:10Speaking of mysteries,

14:15Stella Montes, the game's

14:17newest map, has details

14:18here that I find fascinating.

14:20This map didn't exist before,

14:23didn't exist in the sense of it was

14:24added in an update.

14:26In the game's lore, Stella

14:28Montes was discovered.

14:29The Hope community built a

14:31tunnel to get there, it was

14:33a collective effort that

14:35replicated inside the game for us.

14:37And what do we find there?

14:39A technological facility

14:41inside a mountain, taken over

14:42by ARC, full of pre-exodus

14:44material, which is highly valuable today.

14:47And the most disturbing?

14:49A bunch of abandoned androids there.

14:51Robotic workers

14:53that were

14:55probably left

14:56behind when the rich fled.

14:57Think about it.

14:58Even the robots were abandoned.

15:00Could this be what went wrong here?

15:02Could the ARCs be descendants

15:04of those forgotten workers?

15:06A mechanical working class

15:08that eventually decided that

15:10humanity didn't want them or

15:12that humanity didn't deserve to exist?

15:15Silo matrix?

15:16I'm just speculating here.

15:18But it's a speculation

15:19that makes a lot of sense.

15:22Embarque has already spoken and

15:26said it intends to expand this story.

15:28Over the next few years.

15:30New maps, new

15:31factions, new narrative arcs.

15:35And they have a lot of material to work with.

15:37After all, who are the humans from space?

15:39What do they want?

15:40Is it possible for us to communicate with them?

15:42Where exactly did the ARCs come from?

15:45Is there a collective mind behind them?

15:49Or is it just a program

15:49following its logic?

15:51And hope?

15:52Will it survive?

15:53Are we going to get to know

15:54other neighborhoods or other cities?

15:56Celeste is already

15:57preparing an evacuation plan.

15:59After all she knows that the

16:02underground won't be safe forever.

16:03The story of Arc Raiders

16:04is a story of abandonment.

16:06The rich abandoned the

16:08poor, the surface was

16:10abandoned and even the

16:12androids were abandoned by their creators.

16:14And now the raiders are the only

16:17stubborn enough to not abandon the fight.

16:21So that's it Zéquinha.

16:25The full story of Arc

16:28Raiders or at least

16:29everything I've been able to gather so far?

16:31This is a video I've wanted

16:32to make since the beginning

16:33because I think the game

16:35doesn't get enough credit for the

16:37The World Building it has.

16:39Because it's not just an extraction shooter

16:41where you kill robots and pick up loot.

16:44There's a story here,

16:46there's a story about

16:47inequality, about

16:48survival, about the

16:49consequences of the choices humanity makes.

16:52Everything is hidden in the

16:53walls, in the graffiti, in

16:55the descriptions, the items,

16:57you just need to pay attention.

16:58If you enjoyed this

17:00investigation, leave a

17:01like, it really helps the

17:03channel, share it to the

17:04four winds, that also helps a lot.

17:05And if you have another

17:08theory about what the arcs

17:09are or noticed some detail

17:11that I missed, comment below

17:13because I'd love to know more

17:15about people's theories and

17:16what I might have missed in my research.

17:18And if you want to see more about

17:21curiosities of arc raiders and

17:22things that many people don't

17:23know, a moreada in this video

17:25that's appearing on your screen right now.