Home → ARC Raiders → Unknown Error
Unknown Error ARC Raiders

ARC Raiders Lag Spikes and Rubber Banding - Complete Fix Guide

📅 Published: 2026-02-03 🔄 Updated: 2026-02-03 👥 Reports: 23 ⚡ Severity: 🟡 Medium

🎯 Quick Answer

The primary fix for random lag spikes and rubber banding in ARC Raiders is to force a dedicated server connection by using the `-tcp` launch command and ensuring your network meets the game's strict latency requirements.

SECTION 1: OVERVIEW

This error occurs when the ARC Raiders client experiences severe network desynchronization or a local performance bottleneck, resulting in a temporary but catastrophic interruption of gameplay. The technical manifestation is a client-server state mismatch, where the player's inputs are not processed by the game server, while the game world continues to update. This is commonly perceived as a sudden freeze, rubber banding, or the inability to interact with the environment. The problem is platform-agnostic, affecting all versions of the game, but is most severe during high-intensity activities such as combat with multiple enemies or during extraction sequences. The severity is critical, as it directly leads to permanent loss of loot and progression. While no specific error code is displayed in-game, the underlying conditions are consistent with high packet loss, server instability, or local hardware stuttering.

SECTION 2: SYMPTOMS

The application exhibits a sudden and severe degradation of responsiveness. The player character becomes unresponsive to control inputs for a period of 2 to 10 seconds. During this period, other entities, including enemies like the Rocketeer, continue to move and attack normally. Following the freeze, the game may rapidly re-synchronize, causing the player character to "rubber band" or teleport to a previous location. Interaction prompts, such as elevator buttons or loot pickups, fail to activate on the first several attempts despite the prompt being visible. The game world may continue to render visually, but all networked gameplay logic is halted from the player's perspective. These symptoms cluster in specific high-activity zones, such as Dam Battlegrounds during Sentinel engagements or during final extraction.

SECTION 3: COMMON CAUSES

SECTION 4: SOLUTIONS

Solution 1: Enforce a Stable Wired Connection and Benchmark Network

Difficulty: Medium Time: 15 minutes Success Rate: High Steps: Why it works: A wired connection eliminates RF interference. Actively monitoring packet loss and jitter identifies if the problem is on your local network. QoS ensures game traffic is prioritized over other data.

Solution 2: Optimize ARC Raiders Network Launch Parameters

Difficulty: Easy Time: 5 minutes Success Rate: Medium-High Steps: Why it works: The -tcp launch parameter forces the game to use the TCP protocol over the default UDP for certain communications. TCP includes error correction and guaranteed packet delivery, which can stabilize a connection prone to UDP packet loss, at the cost of slightly higher average latency.

Solution 3: Update Network Adapter Drivers and Configure for Performance

Difficulty: Medium Time: 10 minutes Success Rate: High Steps: * Set Energy Efficient Ethernet, Green Ethernet, or 802.1az Power Save Mode to Disabled. * Set Power Saving Mode or Selective Suspend to Disabled. Why it works: Manufacturer-provided drivers include optimized performance profiles. Disabling power management features prevents the OS from throttling the network adapter, which is a common cause of intermittent lag spikes.

Solution 4: Verify Integrity of Game Files

Difficulty: Easy Time: 5-15 minutes Success Rate: Medium Steps: Why it works: This process replaces corrupted or modified local game files, including scripts and assets that manage network prediction and entity state, with a clean version from Steam's servers.

Solution 5: Configure Windows for Maximum Performance

Difficulty: Medium Time: 10 minutes Success Rate: Medium Steps: Why it works: This reduces background graphical processing and CPU load, ensuring system resources are dedicated to ARC Raiders. Game Mode actively prioritizes game processes.

Solution 6: Perform a Clean Boot to Identify Software Conflicts

Difficulty: Hard Time: 20 minutes Success Rate: Low-Medium (Diagnostic) Steps: Why it works: This diagnostic step eliminates all third-party software as a variable. If the problem persists in a clean boot state, the cause is almost certainly hardware, network, or the game itself.

SECTION 5: PREVENTION

Prevent recurrence by establishing a maintenance routine. Update your network adapter and graphics drivers monthly. Before each gaming session, conduct a brief packet loss test using the Command Prompt ping command. Use a wired Ethernet connection as a permanent standard for gaming. Regularly verify the integrity of ARC Raiders game files through Steam, particularly after major game updates. Configure your router to assign a static IP to your gaming device and maintain its QoS rules. Monitor system temperatures using tools like HWiNFO64 to ensure thermal throttling is not inducing performance stutters.

SECTION 6: SUPPORT ESCALATION

Contact official Embark Studios support only after exhaustively testing all client-side solutions in this guide and confirming your local network exhibits no packet loss or abnormal latency. When submitting a ticket, you must provide specific diagnostic evidence. This includes: the exact time (in UTC), date, and region of the affected raid; a video recording of the incident showing the network statistics overlay (enable in-game if available); the results of a continuous ping test (ping -t) from during the session; and your ARC Raiders account ID. Support requires this data to investigate potential server-side instance issues.

🔗 Related Errors