17 February 2026

ARC Raiders’ Item Duplication Glitch Trapped Embark Studios Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By newsgame

Embark Studios’ popular extraction shooter ARC Raiders has seen a bit of controversy surrounding the recent crackdown on a duplication glitch that allowed players to create multiples of items in their inventories through unintended means. Loot is a massive part of ARC Raiders‘ gameplay loop, with players spending most of their time topside looking for valuable items while trying to survive against PvE ARC enemies and other raiders in PvP. To this end, it’s understandable why Embark would want to punish players who took advantage of this glitch to ensure all players are on an even field and discourage others from attempting to cheat the system in the future.

Duping items in ARC Raiders gives some players a massively unfair advantage, as players can essentially create an infinite number of powerful weapons like ARC Raiders‘ Trigger ‘Nades to barrage their enemies with. Part of the challenge of ARC Raiders is managing a finite number of resources while exploring topside, and being able to infinitely reproduce a powerful item like the Trigger ‘Nade takes all the skill out of the game’s combat. What’s more is that players were able to amass a vast amount of Coins by duplicating valuable items to be sold to ARC Raiders‘ merchants, giving them an unfair economic advantage.

arc raiders fans call for a change to default lighting.

Over 16,000 ARC Raiders Fans Agree That the Game Desperately Needs 1 Fix

Thousands of fans urge Embark Studios to fix one ARC Raiders issue as soon as possible, and it’s not about exploits or glitches.

ARC Raiders Will Have a Hard Time Justifying Duplication Glitch Bans

The duplication glitch in ARC Raiders has been fixed as of February 10, when an OTA hotfix squashed the bug a few hours after the February Update for ARC Raiders rolled out. However, there was a period where it looked like Embark Studios wasn’t going to address the glitch at all, since it wasn’t initially mentioned as a known issue in the update’s patch notes. However, Embark later clarified on social media that it would quickly roll out a hotfix for the glitch once attention was brought to it, and now it’s no longer possible to utilize it in-game.

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Why Some ARC Raiders Players Are Getting in Trouble for Duplicating Items

The initial response from Embark was somewhat vague on the consequences for ARC Raiders players caught using the duplication glitch. Performing this glitch required players to take a consumable item in their Quick Use slot and hold it in their hand, then go into their inventory, split the stack of that item, re-combine the stacks, then split the stack again, and they could then throw an unlimited number of that item. Players who participated in the glitch have already had any duplicated items removed from their inventory, but Embark is taking another step to crack down on ARC Raiders cheaters by subjecting those who heavily used the glitch to further review, with a potential ban for players deemed to have severely exploited the glitch.

This ARC Raiders duplication glitch primarily affected Quick Use consumables like grenades and Familiar Ducks, the latter of which could be sold by players for infinite Coins.

It Seems Unlikely that ARC Raiders Content Creators Will Get Banned for Using the Duplication Glitch

theburntpeanut quitting arc raiders cheaters

Popular ARC Raiders steamer TheBurntPeanut is one of the most notorious users of this duplication glitch, having frequently used it for spamming Tigger ‘Nades at opponents during matches. Arguably, TheBurntPeanut is part of the reason why usage of this glitch became so widespread in ARC Raiders prior to it being patched out, given the content creator has over 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and nearly 2 million Twitch followers. However, it seems unlikely that TheBurntPeanut will be punished too harshly for his participation in this glitch, given that he is one of the largest ARC Raiders content creators out there, but this puts Embark in an awkward position regarding all potential bans for the duplication glitch.

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ARC Raiders’ Duplication Glitch Deserves to Be Punished, But Embark Won’t Be Able to Pick and Choose Who is Affected

With Embark being so vague about its criteria for duplication glitch punishment, using a non-specific term like “excessive” to indicate which users will be considered for a ban, there is a lot of uncertainty about how widespread punishment for this glitch will be. On one hand, it doesn’t seem entirely fair to punish players for a mistake made by the developer. It’s not like ARC Raiders players were hacking the game to achieve this exploit; it was simply a bug that was discovered by players organically.

Arc Raiders Player Readying Grenade in Stella Montis

On the other hand, Embark may want to discourage players from attempting to abuse bugs like this in the future by making an example of players who “excessively” duplicated items and ban or temporarily suspend their ARC Raiders accounts. However, doing so would create a problem with no easy solution, since it would require the developer to ban massive content creators like TheBurntPeanut alongside regular players. This largely falls onto Embark to determine what constitutes “excessive” use of the glitch, but passing judgment either way has the potential to upset a section of the ARC Raiders fan base.

If Embark bans anyone who used the duplication glitch beyond a certain threshold, then it runs the risk of scaring away some of the biggest content creators from the game, potentially losing their followers as well. However, if these content creators are exempt from bans, then the players who are banned could view it as an unfair exception, or “streamer privilege,” potentially giving these creators license to abuse future exploits without fear of repercussions. TheBurntPeanut is already somewhat controversial among ARC Raiders players due to his Bungulators streamer war that plagued ARC Raiders back in November of last year. Any special treatment given by Embark could serve to further sow discord between players and the streamer’s fan base and create a more toxic gameplay environment in the long run.