A gameplay clip from Nickmercs‘ ARC Raiders stream has gotten big online after viewers noticed his aim behaving in ways that looked suspiciously locked-on. The clip shows him shooting at a flying drone enemy called a Hornet, with his crosshair repeatedly snapping to and tracking the drone’s rotors with minimal visible input.
Shortly after the clip started spreading, users discovered that the full VOD had disappeared from both Twitch and YouTube. Screenshots show the YouTube video displaying “Video Unavailable” even though a tweet linking to it was still live. The Twitch VOD was similarly gone.
The clip itself remained accessible through mirrors and continued to circulate. In the footage, Nickmercs’ reticle doesn’t just smoothly follow the flying target. Instead, it appears to jump directly to the center of the drone’s rotors and stick there, even re-locking onto specific parts after being pulled away.
Nickmercs is a longtime controller player on PC, which puts him directly in the middle of ongoing aim assist debates. In ARC Raiders, controller aim assist against PvE enemies like drones can be extremely strong, especially with certain weapons. Some players have reported experiencing similar “sticky” behavior themselves when fighting ARC enemies with specific guns.
Controller aim assist typically includes multiple layers like slowdown near targets, rotational tracking that matches enemy movement, and pull toward hitboxes. When combined with high framerates and specific target geometry like weak points, these systems can produce tracking that looks almost mechanical in isolated moments.
The timing raises questions
Nickmercs doesn’t typically delete his VODs, which made the removal timing stand out. A clip of him reacting to the viral footage exists, but it was captured from another streamer’s VOD since his own was already gone by that point.
The debate remains split between three camps. Some players insist this is just how ARC Raiders aim assist works against drones on PC controller. Others see clear evidence of external assistance. A third group suspects something in between, like input manipulation devices or game bugs related to weak point targeting.
