ARC Raiders Flashpoint Augments Tier List 1.22

The headline augment change from 1.22 is deceptively simple: Free Augments can now be recycled into 6 plastic and 6 rubber parts. That sounds like a footnote. It is not. It means the floor on running a garbage loadout finally has a consolation prize attached to it. The question is whether that prize changes your build decisions. Spoiler: it does not, and this guide will explain exactly why your carry weight still deserves better.

• Free Augment recycling: now yields 6 plastic + 6 rubber parts. Small. Still relevant for material loops.
• Custom loadout matchmaking bias: players with built loadouts are now more likely to join fresh servers. This matters for augment investment.
• Close Scrutiny ARC Operation: less map loot, concentrated rewards around the Assessor. Augment carry weight becomes critical.
• ARC Vaporizer: new flying enemy, laser attacks, unpredictable patterns. Shields take more pressure.
• Shredders on all maps: previously confined to Stella Montis. Now everywhere during certain conditions.
• Increased locked room loot value: scale by key rarity. Safe pockets matter even more for key runs.
• Loot spawns from Baron Husks increased: more incentive to engage rather than extract rat-style.

The best ARC Raiders augments for flashpoint are not new. They were already strong before 1.22. The patch just turned up the difficulty dial on every map, handed Shredders a universal passport, and added a flying death laser to the rotation. What was already true about augment quality is now simply more brutally obvious.

WARNING Close Scrutiny runs with reduced map loot mean every extraction attempt carries more weight. An ARC Raiders best augment decision now directly determines how much your run is worth when you finally leave. Carry limit is not a stat to ignore anymore.

Full Augment Tier Table

The ARC Raiders augment tier list flashpoint 1.22 breakdown below covers every craftable and loot-drop augment currently in the game. Tiers reflect performance across both PvE, PvP, and loot-focused playstyles after the Flashpoint changes.

There are two augments that sit above the rest in this ARC Raiders augments tier list 1.22. Both are Epic rarity. Both require materials that will make your eyes water. Both are worth every part you spend because Flashpoint's new map conditions do not care about your budget feelings.

Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor)

The passive on Looting Mk. 3 Survivor is a self-revive mechanic that regenerates 75% of your HP while downed. In Solo vs. Squads this is practically a cheat code. In a squad run it turns a wipe into a clutch extraction. Three safe pockets mean you bring in a key, two high-value items, and none of them disappear when the Vaporizer decides to introduce your face to a laser beam.

Post-Flashpoint, with Close Scrutiny loot concentrated around the Assessor, you will be taking more fights to get good rewards. More fights mean more downs. More downs mean the Survivor passive saves more runs than any other stat on any other augment. It is not subtle and it does not need to be.

CRAFT NOTE This is Epic rarity. The craft cost is painful. The alternative is dying and losing everything. Do the math and stop complaining.

The integrated Shield Recharger passive with unlimited charges and a cooldown is the reason Combat Mk. 3 Medic earns S tier. It eliminates an entire consumable slot from your loadout and replaces it with guaranteed utility. You are not hunting for a recharger in a sidepack mid-fight. It is just there, doing its job, like a tool that respects your time.

Heavy shield compatibility combined with three safe pockets makes this the best ARC Raiders augment for any squad combat role. The Vaporizer hits hard and fast. The Assessor in Close Scrutiny is a contested objective. Heavy shields and built-in recharging are not a luxury in those scenarios. They are the entry fee for surviving contact.

A tier augments are not failures. They are strong choices with one or two specific weaknesses that prevent total dominance. If you cannot craft S tier yet, these are the ARC Raiders augments that will keep you competitive in Flashpoint without embarrassing your squad.

Tactical Mk. 2

The Auto-Smoke passive is three seconds of free cover when your shield cracks. Against a three-man squad or during a Matriarch push, those three seconds are the difference between a corpse and an extraction. For a Rare augment, the passive punches far above its rarity, which is why Tactical Mk. 2 earns a strong A tier placement despite lacking the raw carry weight of Epic options.

This is also the ARC Raiders augment you run when Close Scrutiny turns the map into a contact sport and you need an escape tool baked into your kit rather than an extra grenade slot. It pairs exceptionally well with aggressive entry plays where the enemy shield breaks before yours does but only just.

Looting Mk. 2 is the best ARC Raiders augment for pure loot-focused runs where fighting is a regrettable accident rather than an intention. Twenty-two backpack slots, 60 kg carry weight, two safe pockets, and three trinket slots at Rare crafting cost makes it arguably the best value augment in the entire game if you are willing to accept light-shield-only as a lifestyle.

The auto-tick removal passive is mostly a quality of life bonus, but the inventory efficiency is real. With Baron Husk loot spawns now increased in 1.22, and locked room loot values up across the board, Looting Mk. 2 lets you fill that backpack and exit before the Vaporizer becomes your problem instead of someone else's.

Three safe pockets and an Epic-level carry capacity on light shields only is the trade you make with Combat Mk. 3 Flanking. The +33% draw speed for holstered pistols and hand cannons is a genuine playstyle enabler for anyone running the Ventor or Anvil as a secondary. Swap speed in close-quarters PvP situations is undervalued by most players right up until the moment they lose a duel because their weapon equip animation took half a second too long.

The light-shield limitation is what keeps this out of S tier. In a Flashpoint meta where the Vaporizer attacks from angles you did not expect and Shredders now patrol maps they previously ignored, going light shield requires discipline. Flanking rewards the disciplined. Everyone else should look elsewhere.

B tier augments are the transition gear. They have passives that almost matter and stats that almost compete. The ARC Raiders augment meta after 1.22 has not been kind to this bracket because every new map pressure point exposes exactly what these augments are missing.

Looting Mk. 3 (Cautious)

The largest backpack in the game at 24 slots and 70 kg. Spectacular on paper. The weakened Adrenaline Shot passive grants infinite stamina on shield break, which sounds useful until you remember you are on light shields and the thing that broke your shield is already shooting at you. Epic crafting cost for two safe pockets and light-only compatibility is a tax that the Survivor simply does not charge.

Run it if you are committed to pure loot ratting on maps where combat is avoidable. In Flashpoint, with Shredders now on every map and the Assessor drawing raiders into contested space, pure loot ratting is a significantly more optimistic strategy than it used to be.

Combat Mk. 2

Combat Mk. 2 supports every shield type, which sounds like a complete solution until you learn the passive regenerates one HP every five seconds and pauses for thirty seconds after any damage. In ARC Raiders, where damage arrives in consistent intervals from enemies that spawn on every map in 1.22, the regen passive is basically decorative. You will die looking at your HP bar wondering when the number will move.

It earns B tier because all-shield compatibility and a Utility Slot for grenades is a decent platform for new players still learning the meta. It will not carry you through Close Scrutiny. Nothing about it suggests it was designed with the Vaporizer in mind.

The best ARC Raiders augment for pve and the best choice for PvP are not always the same thing. The table below separates the two modes to help you decide what to build toward based on how you actually play rather than how you think you play.

C and D Tier: The Landfill

C tier augments exist as transition options for players who cannot yet access or craft the better alternatives. They are not broken. They are simply outcompeted by everything above them in ways that become increasingly embarrassing as the game difficulty increases with each patch. The ARC Raiders augments ranked at the bottom of this list are placeholders, not builds.

Combat Mk. 1: C Tier

Medium shield support at 45 kg makes this the strongest entry-level augment and the least useful option once you have spent any meaningful time in the game. The passive does not exist. One safe pocket is the minimum survivable configuration. Run this while you save materials for something that does not make experienced players feel sad when they see it in your loadout.

Looting Mk. 1: C Tier

50 kg carry weight and light shields for a craft cost that barely hurts. It is the correct augment when you are starting out and an incorrect augment for approximately every scenario after that. The ARC Raiders augment meta in 1.22 demands more than 16 inventory slots and a prayer.

Free Augment: D Tier

Post-1.22, the Free Augment now recycles into 6 plastic and 6 rubber parts. This is a material loop change, not a quality change. Thirty-five kilogram carry weight, fourteen slots, zero safe pockets, and zero passive means every item you collect in a run is a complete loss on death. The Vaporizer does not care about your loot. You should care about your loot. Run a real augment or accept the consequences of your choices with the same dignity you expected from your opponents.

1.22 NOTE The Free Augment recycling change in Flashpoint is primarily useful for players who regularly receive unwanted Free Augments and want to turn them into crafting materials. It does not make the Free Augment worth using in actual raids. If you are using this change as justification to run Free Augments voluntarily, this guide has failed you and you have failed yourself.

Close Scrutiny Augment Strategy

The Close Scrutiny ARC Operation introduced in Flashpoint 1.22 changes the fundamental economics of a standard run. Less loot on the map means more concentrated value around the Assessor, which means every surviving raider with half a brain is converging on the same point for the same rewards. This is not a loot run. This is a controlled disaster with prizes for the last person standing.

The ARC Raiders best augments for Close Scrutiny operations are not the budget picks. Three safe pockets, heavy or medium shields, and passives that work under sustained pressure are non-negotiable for anyone trying to extract from the Assessor zone with something worth showing for the run. The Survivor passive on Looting Mk. 3 is tailor-made for this scenario. The Combat Medic with its integrated recharger turns the sustained shield pressure from ARC density into a manageable problem.

ASSESSOR ENGAGEMENT WARNING The Assessor is a concentrated loot target surrounded by coordinated ARC activity and contested by raiders who made the same survival mistake of underestimating it. Bring medium shields at minimum. Light-only augments in Close Scrutiny are a donation to the enemy economy.

With custom loadout players now being prioritized for fresh servers in 1.22, investing in a proper ARC Raiders augment build also means you are more likely to start a run on a map that is not already picked clean by the wave before you. The matchmaking change rewards the augment investment twice: once through better kit and once through better server timing.

The ARC Vaporizer is a new flying enemy type in Flashpoint 1.22 that fires laser beams with patterns the patch notes politely describe as unpredictable. The community has described them less politely. What matters for this ARC Raiders flashpoint augments tier list is what the Vaporizer does to your shield and therefore to your augment selection.

Laser-based damage from a flying enemy that moves erratically does not care about your positioning habits. It does not care that you ducked behind a wall. It does not announce itself like a Rocketeer. It simply arrives, fires, and decides whether your shield tier was adequate for the moment. Combined with Shredders now having map-wide presence in certain conditions, Flashpoint 1.22 is the patch that finally punishes light-shield augments consistently rather than occasionally.

• Heavy shield (Combat Medic): Absorbs the most damage per hit from Vaporizer lasers. Highest survivability floor.
• Medium shield (Looting Survivor / Tactical Mk. 2): Workable with proper positioning and the Survivor's regen buffer.
• Light shield (Looting Mk. 2, Flanking): Functional in runs where you avoid the Vaporizer entirely. Viable until it is not.
• No shield (Free Augment): A philosophical stance on mortality. Not recommended.

Crafting Priority Guide

Knowing which ARC Raiders augment is best is one thing. Knowing which one to craft first when your material stockpile looks like a crime scene is another. This section addresses the ARC Raiders augment crafting order for players working up from scratch in Flashpoint 1.22.

1. Combat Mk. 2 first: All-shield compatibility at an accessible craft cost gives you the most flexibility while you grind materials. The passive is genuinely bad but at least you can run heavy shields.
2. Tactical Mk. 2 second: The Auto-Smoke passive is a real PvP tool. Rare rarity means it is achievable before Epics and the medium shield support keeps you competitive.
3. Looting Mk. 2 if loot-focused: If your playstyle prioritizes avoiding contact over winning it, this is your first Rare augment target. The crafting cost is low relative to its performance ceiling.
4. Combat Mk. 3 Medic or Looting Mk. 3 Survivor last: Both are Epic rarity. Both require significant material investment. Both are worth the grind and neither should be rushed at the expense of a functional mid-tier kit that keeps you in runs long enough to accumulate the materials needed to reach them.

The increased loot value in locked rooms after 1.22 means your material grind for Epic augments has a faster route than it did in previous patches. Key room loot scaled to rarity rewards the investment of higher-tier keys, which means the ARC Raiders augments upgrade path is self-funding if you run the right rooms with the right key tier.

The ARC Raiders flashpoint augment tier list 1.22 conclusion is not complicated. The S tier augments were the best before Flashpoint. They are still the best after Flashpoint. The patch added reasons to need them more urgently rather than reasons to reconsider them. The Vaporizer, the Assessor, the Shredder expansion, and the Close Scrutiny economic pressure all point toward the same answer: more shields, more safe pockets, and a passive that works under fire rather than in the comfortable silence between engagement zones that increasingly does not exist.

The best ARC Raiders augment for flashpoint 1.22 is Looting Mk. 3 Survivor for players who want the most complete kit, Combat Mk. 3 Medic for players who prioritize sustained combat survivability, and Tactical Mk. 2 for players who want a real passive without grinding Epic materials first. Everything below those three is a concession to circumstance, not a strategic choice.