Steel Hunters Players Raise Legitimate Concerns About Matchmaking

With Steel Hunters still in early access, more and more players are diving into this mecha-based hero shooter set in a high-stakes battle royale format. However, as is often the case with early access titles, the increased player count brings more attention to potential issues. One such concern that has recently surfaced in community forums is the game’s matchmaking system. So, let’s take a closer look at what players are saying—and what these concerns could mean for the future of Steel Hunters as a whole.

Steel Hunters’ Matchmaking Raises Eyebrows as Difficulty Spikes

If you've been racking up hours in Steel Hunters during its current early access period, you've probably noticed something frustrating: the higher your level, the tougher the matches become—and not always in a balanced way. Naturally, skill-based matchmaking means stronger opponents as you improve, but many players on Reddit are saying the difficulty scaling feels off.

As user u/L3via7h4n explained in a recent thread, things started out fine, but as they climbed into a slightly higher skill tier, "it felt like I couldn't do anything without getting destroyed immediately. I was taking so much damage and barely dealing any back, and it seemed like I was getting hunted down even when I wasn’t going for objectives."

Other players have echoed this, with one joking that once you hit level 18, you get "lumped in with the unemployeds." In other words, players who have significantly more free time to grind levels and upgrade their mechs are getting matched with those who have just started reaching higher brackets.

Now, it’s totally expected for games to include veteran players with more experience and time investment, but matchmaking should balance this by spreading players out into more accurate skill-based lobbies. In Steel Hunters, though, that doesn’t seem to be working as intended right now.

Speaking from personal experience, once I hit level 22 and started running Prophet, I found that without strong team communication, I was getting steamrolled. Earlier on, I could hold my own, even make big plays solo. But now? Without coordination, it’s an instant loss.

Sure, you could argue that climbing into higher ELOs means you need tighter teamwork and comms, but realistically, not every match is going to give you a duo with a mic—or someone who even speaks your language.

Some players think the issue might just be a matter of population. With fewer players in early access, the matchmaking system doesn’t have enough people to draw from, so it mixes new and veteran players more often than it should. Hopefully, that’s the case—and not a sign of deeper matchmaking problems.

At the end of the day, we can only hope that matchmaking improves as the game grows and more people jump in. Steel Hunters has serious potential, and it would be a real shame to see it stumble because of poor matchmaking.