Arc Raiders is a hilarious game. >> All right, as soon as we extract you all want to go play Call of Duty Black Ops 7, >> but it's equal parts beautiful. I love the scrapyard aesthetic and beautiful sci-fi environments on display here.
Not to mention the just immaculate retro wave soundtrack. This game overall is such a vibe which sent me on a mission to fully understand the lore and universe of Ark Raiders. And this is perfect timing as with the new year and Christmas, Arc Raiders has underwent some changes, meaning the universe has even more lore to dive into.
For those of you who don't know what Ark Raiders is, what are you living under a rock or something? Well, I was since I just started playing it. This is the first shooter game I've played where one match has me getting assassinated and jumped for all my loot.
Hey, don't shoot. >> Okay. All right.
Okay. And the next I meet the nicest guy around who offers to show me all his looting spots and gives me legendary loot. Hey, howdy.
>> You're so nice in that door right there. >> Oh, you're too kind. Holy Yeah.
You ain't kidding. You sure you don't want this? It truly is a chaotic wild west of social tension and goofy Mexican standoffs.
>> I'm getting shot at. >> See him? Point him out.
I see him. >> Hey, we can be nice. We can be friends.
He threw a grenade. All right. So, y'all don't want to be friends then, huh?
Hey, we can Hey, hey, hey, let's deescalate. Let's deescalate. >> All right.
All right. I'm with you, brother. >> Oh, you're with us.
Okay. Okay, >> guys. He's deescalating.
>> Put my gun away. >> Put your gun away. I put mine away.
>> All right. Hey, how you doing, Nico? Good.
Good to meet you, buddy. >> Our creators pits us against each other in apocalyptic wastelands to scrap together weapons and equipment for survival. and you can do the same in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and today's sponsor.
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Since Ark is an extraction shooter, you lose almost everything on you if other raiders kill you or you're overwhelmed by robot enemies known as Ark. But who are these enemy droids? >> Oh, definitely get out, >> big guy.
Get out. [laughter] >> I can't sprint. I can't sprint.
>> Come to think of it, why is the world a post-apocalyptic wasteland? What happened? What is the lore behind the beautiful vistas and decaying mega structures of Calabrada?
When it comes to universes I find interesting, I always want to know every little bit to [music] the lore, especially Ark Raiders, considering it offers a beautiful apocalyptic world that silently whispers [music] a broader narrative through hidden clues and codeexes. We've covered Hell Divers, Battlefield, and even Lethal Company. Now, it's time to explore the complete lore of the Arc Raiders universe.
First of all, where in the world are we? We know Ark Raiders is set on Earth, but the global map offers some named cities and locations that don't exist in 2026. Toledo, Sparansza, a spaceport, Stella.
There's an imposing mountain range that dominates the landscape as it stretches from the northwest to the southern coast called the Rust Belt Ridge. The land formation itself is not represented exactly by anywhere on Earth. However, it's heavily implied that Ark Raiders is set in southern Italy, likely in the Calabria region.
Many of the locations on the map are named after Italian towns throughout Sicily as well as various parts of Italy. In other locations share the names of translatable Italian words. [music] The mountainous landscape complete with a volcano is highly indicative of Italy as well, but the landscape itself is not identical to any location in Italy geographically.
Fans have found that the game map is strangely almost a complete carbon copy of one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, despite the game itself being set in Italy. Weird, I guess. The map itself is closest to the shape of the southern coast in Calabria, [music] which is similar to the game's world named Calabrada.
Now, check this out. This is buried. Yo, editor, you got to calm down, dog.
This is Buried City. The Buried City is the world's largest metropolitan area in game so far, which lines up near the location of Reio Calabria. Also, the Buried City has an authentic pizza shop that isn't Domino's or Little Caesars, [music] which all but confirms we're not in America.
We at the pizza Roma. It's a pizzeria. But the buried city is completely overtaken by sands and the geological formations [music] are twisted and contorted from the real map of Italy.
How did this happen? Ark Raiders takes place in 2180. But to know what led to the collapse of organized society, we need to turn the clocks back many generations.
As humanity flourished, stretching their reach into the stars with spaceports and advanced robotics, an environmental [music] disaster of biblical proportions wrecked humanity. Overwhelmingly vast floods, violent earthquakes, apocalyptic wildfires, and total annihilation of civilization. The collective anarchy and environmental destruction led to the deaths of almost all of the globe's population.
Weathering and erosion brought about ecological disasters never dreamed of before. A desert of vast sand dunes drowned a major city on the west coast of Calabrada. This is the same city we talked about earlier, the one that lines up with Reio Calabria.
But in game, this city was once officially known as Morano, which can be gathered from street signs that have been left behind. Much of the urban areas worldwide were completely destroyed. But the sand dunes here provided a natural shield that preserved the city to remind surviving explorers of what life once was.
After the collapse, generations passed on and the memories of life before the apocalypse mostly faded into obscurity. Regions were renamed and it [music] appears this is how Calabria or wherever we are in Italy was renamed to Calabrada. And the geological formation of the region was changed so much from reality.
The collapse was so intense it seems to have contorted the earth's crust [music] itself, carving new rivers, coastlines, and volcanoes never seen before. As the world ripped itself apart during the collapse, handfuls of survivors in Italy boarded rocket ships. The Calabreda Spaceport hosted a number of interplanetary vehicles.
This was humanity's ticket off-world to escape annihilation. These ships launched and haven't been seen or heard from since. Some wonder if these rockets burnt up in space or perhaps the space fairing humans found some hope somewhere [music] else.
All that remains of the Exodus is the colossal launch towers of the Asera spaceport. Of course, Asera is a town in Naples, farther north of Calabria in our Italy. And so is Morano.
It's a town within Naples, but it's not necessarily a port city like it is in Ark Raiders, which means Ark probably had some creative liberties with both the map and the real cities throughout it. I wonder if the developers at Embark visited Naples, saw a bunch of named neighborhoods throughout the city and said, "You know what? We're going to name multiple parts of the game after this.
We're just It's basically Naples Simulator. " Faced with annihilation, large pockets of human survivors began to emerge from safety and wandered back into the ruined Earth. The era of Sunrise came generations after the collapse.
The people of Ohio, I mean, the people of the Rust Belt began reconstruction. These settlers set up camp around the Alcantara Dam. These survivors put human ingenuity and determination to work.
They crafted makeshift weapons and rediscovered modern construction methods, but needed food to make all of this possible. In order to facilitate civilization's return, much like our ancestors in Mesopotamia and the Indis River Valley, a sustainable form of agriculture was needed. So they created farms, specifically the hydroponic domes.
[music] This could provide food for the camp as well as electricity. Thanks to the use of solar panels, the settlers left hunting and foraging behind. Humanity has become agrarian once again, and they even attempted to genetically engineer a more resilient strain of wheat to handle harsh weather, though this was largely unsuccessful.
The world was healing, but unfortunately for the humans, no one told them they were living in the book of Revelations. The Clankers arrived. Killer robots of unknown origin began raining from the skies.
This took the settlers off guard and threw a wrench into the survivors plans. These machines took to attacking the humans directly and their intentions for doing so and overall purpose remained unknown. But humanity held the line.
The silver lining here was the state of these machines. They were rudimentary and simple. Human warriors had little trouble uncovering their weak points and exploiting them.
This led to the birth of the raiders. Armed with weapons made from scrap metal and scavenged trash, these raiders fired the machine's own ammunition back at them. They unified into a makeshift fighting force, taking the initiative and launching an offensive against these robots.
Raiders began establishing structures and camps, which can actually be found in game today. They used these camps as [music] outposts to hold ground and assault the machines. Nonetheless, combat was vicious.
The wreckage of machines and bodies of slain raiders littered Calabrada, but humanity ultimately succeeded. The Battle of Victory Ridge. This was the final decisive engagement of the First Wave.
Raiders launched their attack on machines from elevated positions on the rocky ridges just west of the Alcantara Dam. The most deadly of the First Waves machines was the Baron, a Titanic six-legged walker. Fighting was fierce and brutal, killing an untold amount of raiders and laying waste to countless war machines, including an undisclosed number of these baronss.
Thanks to the decisive command of Major Ava, several days into the battle, the robots were defeated after the war had raged for 10 years. Major Ava ultimately sacrificed her life in the fighting and most of the raiders never came home. Despite this great victory, the unity of the raiders fractured.
Faction splintered off. Many fought over riches and resources obtained from the robots. Others bickered over strategic errors throughout the war and a memorial constructed to commemorate the Battle of Victory Ridge was vandalized by some frustrated raiders.
The wreckage of war still dots the countryside years later. The raider camp still litter the surface and offer loot. Rusted wreckage of fallen barons also can be found out and about and the hydroponic domes lie abandoned near the dam.
Though Major Ava helped lead humanity to victory, after her death, most forgot about her, but her daughter Tienwin remembers her actions to this day. Years after the first wave, the machines returned. At some point, they were named Ark.
Because when humans watched for their return from orbit on radar screens, their entry left glowing, colorful arcs across the screen. Ark was back, and they were more advanced than before, not to mention far more deadly. Their tactical ability and arsenals upped the ante.
The second wave is the current form of arc machines. They are the enemies that we fight in game and they come in a variety of deadly and fun forms. And you know what that means?
It's war. >> RIFLE 200 M. >> ENEMY TARGET DOWN.
RIFLEMAN 15 ME. Enemy down. >> Enemy.
>> Enemy down. Oh, hey guys. >> Hey.
>> Not much. >> If you heard shouting earlier, it was this guy right here. He's really loud.
I'm sorry. >> No, it wasn't. >> Engaging.
>> Hostile down. Enemy 15 m. [laughter] Run.
>> Quadcopters like wasps and hornets pursue raiders from the sky and turn them into Swiss cheese with their automatic weapons. Ticks cling to ceilings like spiders and jump unsuspecting raiders. Pops and fireballs roll towards targets and attempt to either blow them up or cook them with a flamethrower.
Whoa. >> Leave them alone. >> Oh [ __ ] There goes.
>> Oh [ __ ] >> I'm on fire. >> What is this room? >> What the is happening?
>> Then there are the more terrifying machines. Bombaders and bastions are walking fortresses with thick armor plating. Bleepers pounce on raiders and attempt to blast them with concussive energy.
Ark even curiously makes use of defensive installations. Turrets litter the abandoned structures of human antiquity with some variants even being armed with highcaliber cannons. Snitches spot out humans to call in reinforcements [music] and spotters will usually accompany bombaders to sniff out targets.
But these pale in comparison to some of the largest threats. [music] Queens are extremely dangerous massive mechs. Oftentimes they deploy to defend [music] harvesters that are up to some sort of suspicious purpose.
And matriarchs are [music] sights of terror to behold. Oh, and you rocketeers. The rocketeer came for me.
Why me? What did I [ __ ] do? I did nothing.
You two shredders, you suck, too. But I'm coming in. >> And you did.
I didn't make it. >> Both of you are. >> Hang on.
I'm coming in. I'm coming in. I'm coming in.
Amidst their offensive capabilities, probes and surveyors [music] latch to the Earth, searching for something. Humanity is not quite sure yet, but they know that Ark is probing [music] the surface and amping up their efforts. Huh?
Huh? Huh? Oh, he hit me.
He ran me over. This scourge of machines forced humanity to concede the planet's surface, [music] retreating far underground to survive. surviving humans established [music] Spiranza, a neighborhood under the crust, halfbuilt out of buildings absorbed by sinkholes during the collapse.
This bustling city began to grow, which ultimately led to survivors branching out and establishing other underground neighborhoods, ultimately forming a massive underground sprawling city dubbed Toledo. Spironza itself translates from Italian to hope, which humanity could really use a lot of right about now. Celeste was part of the first group of nomads that established Spironza.
And thus, she became the de facto leader of the neighborhood that attracted settlers far and wide, including Tienwin and a medical android left over from before the collapse. The machine still doesn't know its origins, but takes interest in the fallen androids you can find throughout the ruins [music] on the surface. Spironza and the rest of Toledo are connected by an underground tube network that launches raiders and settlers to and from the surface [music] and other towns.
These underground cities are self-sufficient but still require resources taken in from the surface. Thus, the raiders make frequent visits topside. For Spironza, everything has value.
From lowly trinkets and expired food items to more useful materials such as car parts, batteries, electronics, and even all sorts of sci-fi marvels left behind by the humans who ultimately either perished or left the planet. These raiders either loot the ruins in squads or solo, encountering each other, sometimes fighting, other times unifying. All the while, Ark threats own the surface and oftentimes attack the raiders or third party them whenever they get into a firefight.
This sent the raiders into an arms race with their Ark enemies. The survivors have begun repurposing salvaged Ark machines into supplies, weapons, and even energy shields. A whole arsenal of firearms have been crafted from the junk salvaged from around Calabrada, like they're straight out of the Kyber Pass.
many of which are fairly poor in quality, like the Rattler, an assault rifle, can I even call it that? That can only be reloaded two rounds at a time and resembles a Shosha, which is a French World War I era machine gun with a notably funky banana-shaped magazine. Then there's the Stitcher, another weapon that resembles one from our past and is absolutely broken right now.
It looks like a Stin SMG with a Mac 11 charging [music] handle. Other weapons resemble leveraction rifles and revolvers as well as shotguns. It appears that the knowledge of oldworld firearms was not lost as humanity has crafted all [music] sorts of designs that resemble guns that we have in our own reality.
Many of which offer large magazines, high fire rates, high stopping power, and enough lethality to make liberals cry. Some of these weapons feature complicated bullpup designs. This indicates that although humanity is on the backfoot, Ark technology has enabled them to turn trash into highly advanced treasure.
And I haven't even mentioned the energy weapons that raiders have [music] created as well. There are legit crazy designs here that make me wonder why the raiders don't all team up to fight the machines. And I'm not even going to be getting into all the advanced grenades and gadgets that the raiders field on a daily basis to help them take down some of the more challenging foes.
Raiders also assist in the information war, bringing in valuable intel on how Ark functions. Sometime around 2180, humans underground have managed expansion efforts. The underground tunnel network was recently expanded to the Blue Gate.
An absolutely stunning cold mountain range to the northeast of the dam. Here, evidence of other surviving humans was [music] found. The Blue Gate nomads.
They've never been witnessed by the raiders before, but flags and makeshift structures can be found all across Blue Gate alongside a [music] destroyed Ark deforester, which brings into question, who are the mysterious survivors throughout this valley that [music] have wre havoc on Ark. And I wonder if we'll ever get to see them. >> Watch out over here.
>> You got grenades. That'd make breaching this room very easy. Okay, maybe not like that.
Although the raiders often kill and betray each other for riches, and some do it just because murder is fun, they all work for a [music] common goal, the security and protection of Sparansza and Toledo, feeding supplies and intel to the traders and officers of the underground city. Things look bleak for the raiders and human settlers alike. The neighborhoods themselves are independent and rarely collaborate.
The tube network owners act as a sort of powerful governing body that manipulate people against each other for their own gain. Even the raiders are at odds with each other as the unity they once shared when they defeated the first wave of machines has been [music] lost for years. But still, humanity finds hope through the candleberry banquet.
In wintertime, the Spironzins still celebrate this holiday. [music] It's very reminiscent of Christmas, to be honest with you. and candleberries themselves were once used to create signal lanterns and [music] medical supplies during the first wave winters.
This spawned a tradition where raiders gathered to share rations and protect one another. And this winter, snowfall began settling across the numerous regions of Calabreda, freezing the surroundings in blissful [music] snowfall. But then there's Stella Montis.
This mysterious research facility locked deep in the snowy mountains to the north offers more questions than answers. It accumulated a legendary status similar to that of Area 51. Raiders who enter face very deadly arc machines as well as other hostile raiders.
It isn't common that friends will be made between strangers here, but I mean, I've still managed to find a whole lobby where nobody shot each other. It was a genuine miracle. It was ridiculous.
I don't want the microplastics. Oh, wait. Hold on.
Watch out. Those kill you, bro. Just be careful.
>> Oh, no. >> Oh, no. The microplastics got him.
No, >> my friend. >> Oh no. >> But despite this one moment of peace, it has become accepted by raiders that Stella Montis is an area for the itchiest trigger fingers where shoot on site is mandatory in most cases.
But whatever this grand facility was meant for remains a total mystery. Fallen androids and scientific equipment imply a purpose so grand perhaps the raiders could never possibly understand it. It's doubtful that anything significant will be learned from Stella Montthus for some time considering the raiders themselves are basically living off garbage and are dressed with whatever they could find from the microtransaction shop.
And now trimmers and earthquakes have been escalating in intensity over time with one fracture destroying some buildings throughout Toledo. As Ark ups their efforts on the surface, fractures sourced from the Blue Gate area imply an impending doom is on the horizon. Still, the raiders are daring and will still venture back into the wastes, even if there is no home left to return to.
Despite how dreary everything may seem right now, there's something larger going on within the Ark Raiders community. The raiders throughout the entirety of Calabretta have strangely begun unifying. Now, not everyone.
There's still plenty of psychopaths and violent individuals who do get what they deserve in the end. But most of the raiders themselves are actually quite compassionate, especially when dropping alone into the various arenas. They instead of fighting often unify, showering each other with gear and weapons before fighting some of Ark's most terrifying threats and downing them together, including queens, bastions, and even matriarchs.
It's impressive to see that human resilience has brought what's left of humanity on the brink to unify even when it might not make much sense to team up as killing each other and taking each other's loot. That would make a lot more sense. that would do more for an individual.
But still, human compassion seems to win in the day, which is both heartwarming as well as surprising in a shooter game. To be honest, you'd expect them to be more toxic. But there's something beautiful going on here.
And I think that's the best part of the story from Arc Raiders. >> Level four. Got all It's got all the stuff on it.
No, you take it. I don't want it anymore. I got four more at home.
I don't want to use it. >> Oh man. Okay.
Thank you. You're You're seriously way too kind. I appreciate it.
But some things are still missing. Things left unknown. For example, who created Ark?
What are they doing laying siege to Earth? Why do they come from orbit and possess weapons seemingly created by humanity like machine guns and flamethrowers? I have a couple theories with all of them rooting from my most important personal theory that Ark was created by humans.
It is likely that they were a form of autonomous military force that was built to wage war. But why do they fall from orbit? Where do they even come from?
Perhaps this will never be officially answered, but I have two theories. Theory one, when a group of humans left Earth in rockets during the Exodus, they either set up civilization aboard these rockets or on a space station or maybe on Mars or the moon or something. [music] From there, they developed the Ark and sent them back to Earth to harvest the planet for vital resources that the people in space need to survive.
you know, things that they can't actually acquire from space. So, basically, the raiders are fighting the machines sent by humans in space for the ruined Earth's resources. In a funny way, it's basically just humans fighting other humans indirectly.
Of my two theories, this one is the more likely one. Now, we get to theory two. The same humans in space created Ark and Ark either betrayed the humans all Skynet style or got out of control and the machines somehow became a sentient hivemind.
From there, they invaded Earth to harvest it for resources so that Ark may continue to expand their machine empire. For this theory to work, Ark likely has a space fleet orbiting Earth or something, continuously dropping machines to the crust to search for riches while brushing aside the pesky raiders. this all to further propagate and expand their army of robots.
And backing up how humans made Ark, I just can't see an alien origin being possible considering these machines behave like ones made by man. They use bullets and methods of propulsion invented by man. Quadcopter drones are already a thing anyway, and alien robots would likely use different weapons or locomotion.
Now, what about Calabrada? What's with all the renaming? I really don't know.
Personally, the port town of Morano doesn't exist in real life. Perhaps the renaming was Embark Games taking a little creative liberty. Or maybe their intentions were that this is a real town in southern Italy that was renamed sometime in our future.
Who knows? My guess is that the game mashed together multiple parts of southern Italy and then plopped them all on a map of the Canary Islands while avoiding making an exact copy of a specific location in Italy. unless it's supposed to be based on a real part of southern Italy and the collapse terraformed the area completely.
Either way, this is a really weird choice for a game world. Ultimately, the world could have faced severe terraforming that changed the continent, but that still wouldn't explain Morano being a port city before the collapse. I think the devs are just basically expressing creative liberties and this map was just kind of a mishmash of ideas so that they wouldn't have to be so constrained by a real part of Italy and they could add whatever levels or maps or do anything they wanted to in the future.
With all this being said, that's all I got for theories and speculation and that's the entire lore of the Arc Raiders universe. I got to say the lore in this game is a little halfbaked. There's not a lot of cutscenes or anything, but perhaps in the future with how popular this game has been, they could flesh out the story even further.
And hopefully they could get some better voice acting cuz the AI voice acting in this game is so bad. Wait a minute. All the guys in charge of Spironza are AI.
No, they're robots. They're dirty clankers. They're working with Ark.
Oh, that's the craziest twist ending. Am I right? >> Yeah.
Thank you guys very much for watching this video. If you enjoyed and you got something out of it, be sure to drop it a like and subscribe to the channel. Drp any theories you have below about Arc Raiders.
And do let me know what you want to see next from this channel. If you want to see more Arc Raiders, give me a shout. I'm actually currently addicted to the game.
I got to be honest with you. It's really fun and I don't even like extraction shooters. So, there you go.
Go play it yourself if you haven't yet. And as always, I'll see you on the next one. Peace.
