Arc Raiders player asking to recycle rubber ducks accused of "blasphemy," and presumably blacklisted by famed duck collector: "You mess with the duck, you mess with all of us!"

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Arc Raiders player asking to recycle rubber ducks accused of "blasphemy," and presumably blacklisted by famed duck collector: "You mess with the duck, you mess with all of us!" News By Austin Wood published 8 January 2026

Rubber ducks are Arc Raiders canon now

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The speed at which the Arc Raiders community collectively adopted rubber ducks as an icon of the game, a beacon for all we fight for in the Rust Belt, never fails to make me laugh. Embark did some of the heavy lifting with the duck's item description – "Always there to lend an ear, should you need it" – but I wonder if even the developers anticipated this sort of devotion. Exhibit A: even mentioning the idea of recycling or salvaging the ducks for rubber parts will get you thrown out of Speranza faster than a raider can say "friendly."

This lesson was recently learned by Reddit user Velcr0Wallet, whose post in the Arc Raiders subreddit would make for useful evidence in a report by future historians on the game's strange duck religion. "Why on earth can't we break these down to rubber parts?" they wondered innocently.

The obvious answer is that rubber ducks are salvage-proof trinkets designed to be sold, thrown to spread the good word of the duck, or collected in the thousands by the truly devout, but the truth, some players would tell you, runs deeper.

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"Can you break true love down into chemicals and hormones?" reasons checks notes SperginInSperanza. "Can you break the beauty of music into electromagnetic disturbances and electrical activity within the brain? Can you break God down? Maybe, but even if you could, why on earth would you want to? The Rubber Duck is the Rubber Duck."

"Don't listen to him! He is not in a right mind," another user says of the post.

"Blasphemy!" exclaims Valky9000. "Why would you ever want to?"

"You mess with the duck, you mess with all of us!" writes another.

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The kernel of truth underneath all this is probably closest to this response from Kolby9241: "Those are relics of a day in which there was more prosperity. A gem of the old world. You can NEVER destroy them. Plus if you sit on them they make a cute noise." The ducks are one example of player behavior contributing to a game's culture and tone – a fascinating side effect of a world and sandbox like Arc Raiders'.

Selling the ducks is, of course, permitted, if only so that they might end up with someone who appreciates their true value. (I like to believe there's dozens of them keeping Scrappy company in his coop.) But destroying them? And for common rubber parts? Unthinkable. Unconscionable. Unforgivable.

"The first dialog we had was obviously centered around [GTA 6]": Arc Raiders devs "did not want to be close" to Rockstar at launch, but were just fine challenging Call of Duty.

CATEGORIES PS5 Xbox Series X PC Gaming Platforms PlayStation Xbox Austin WoodSocial Links NavigationSenior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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Logout Read more Arc Raiders legend dedicated to collecting rubber ducks has now amassed an army of 4,200 of them with no end in sight    "Embark, please fix": Arc Raiders player discovers glaring flaw after collecting over 600 rubber ducks in the extraction shooter, only to find they can only show off 9    "Naked Man" Arc Raiders scientist conducts diligent "social experiment" on player greed for loot, reports no one wants to see you naked and will kill you 63 out of 75 times    Arc Raiders update nerfs a gun "capable of outgunning full squads" and may answer a fan who asked Embark to let them show off 600+ rubber ducks: "Your Raider Den has been ducked out"    The backbone of Arc Raiders, Scrappy the rooster, is based on a real bird who crashed a dev Zoom meeting and was photoscanned in as something "we'll definitely replace later"    After 30 million rounds and 816,162 rubber ducks, Arc Raiders celebrates successful Server Slam open beta with some prompt bug squashing: "We took immediate action"    Latest in Third Person Shooters "A lot of Helldivers will die," Arrowhead CEO says of the next Helldivers 2 major update, teasing roadmap update    Arc Raiders is becoming a "waste of time" thanks to cheaters, says Shroud, who's considering a break until it's fixed    Arc Raiders devs "did not want to be close" to GTA 6 at launch, but were just fine challenging Call of Duty    Arc Raiders devs were inspired by Helldivers 2 when they shifted from free-to-play to a $40 game    Arc Raiders' Trigger Nades are so busted in PvP it's a wonder they lasted this long, Embark is "looking into" changes    Arc Raiders players say there's "cheating like crazy," former FPS pro says it "might be worse than peak Call of Duty"    Latest in News Arc Raiders player asking to recycle rubber ducks accused of "blasphemy," and presumably blacklisted by duck collector    After Baldur's Gate 3's famous bear scene, Larian makes a threat or perhaps a promise about Divinity's lizards: "I am doing it right now"    Elder Scrolls Online unveils 2026 roadmap, devs say "new approach" to transparency and more is "key" to the MMO's future    Hytale lead previously told a fan his "dream" feature was just a dream, but a one-word follow-up suggests it's real    Metroid Prime 4 devs wanted to "make sure" MacKenzie "wasn't annoying"    The Last of Us 2 multiplayer might still be possible thanks to modding efforts 2 years after the spin-off was canceled    GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

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