🎯 Extraction Shooters & Looters

An extraction shooter (or extraction looter) is a PvPvE or PvP game built around one loop: you drop into a map, fight AI and/or other players, gather loot, and try to reach an exit to “extract” — keeping whatever you carried out. Die before you extract and you usually lose your gear. Escape from Tarkov popularised the format; the genre now spans hardcore sims to faster, friendlier takes.

Based on the gameplay modes Steam lists, these support a single-player or co-op mode: ARC Raiders, Arena Breakout: Infinite, Dark and Darker, Delta Force, Dungeonborne, Escape From Duckov, Escape from Tarkov, Gray Zone Warfare, HAWKED, Hunt: Showdown 1896, Incursion Red River, Level Zero: Extraction, Marauders, Off The Grid, Reaper Actual, Road to Vostok, SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada, The Forever Winter, ZERO Sievert, ZERO Sievert 2. Note that some games marketed as “solo-friendly” still put you on a shared map with other players — always check the modes on each game’s page.

Steam lists these as Free to Play: Arena Breakout: Infinite, Dark and Darker, Delta Force, Off The Grid, Vigor.

No. Both drop you into a shrinking-stakes match, but a battle royale ends when one player/team is left, and you keep nothing material. An extraction shooter is about getting loot OUT — your progress is the gear you successfully extract, and there’s usually no “last one standing” win condition.