‘Arc Raiders’ Just Added 2 Powerful New Items In January ‘Headwinds’ Update

Arc Raiders

Credit: Embark

The big January Arc Raiders update is live today, and it comes with new quests, a new Trophy Display Player Project, new map conditions, quests and much more.

One of the stealth additions to the game, however, is a pair of new MK.3 Augments. Augments are the core of a player’s loadout. They determine how many looting and quick use slots a player has access to, what kind of shield you can use and how many safe pockets you can load extra rare loot into.

The two new Augments are pretty useful, though one perhaps more than the other. They also serve very distinct purposes.

The Looting MK.3 (Safekeeper) Augment’s description reads “A looting augment that trades wight and utility for increased looting potential.” It has a weight limit of 65, includes 18 loot slots, 4 quick use slots and 2 trinket slots. It can be used in tandem with Light, Medium or Heavy shields – rare for a Looting Augment. But the real cherry on top? You can put any item in the safe pocket, including guns. No other Augment can do this.

Where this will come in handy is mostly in large Arc hunts. If you have an Epic or Legendary gun that you want to use to take down a Queen or Matriarch – or maybe a Hullcracker to bring into Stella Montis to take down Shredders – you can now keep it in your safe pocket when it’s not being used. That’s incredibly handy, since many of the more powerful weapons in the game are great for Arc, but not quite as useful against other Raiders in PvP.

The Tactical MK.3 (Revival) Augment is more combat-oriented. Its description reads “A tactical augment focused on utility over defense and looting). I’m not sure this is entirely accurate. The base function is the same as the MK.2 Tactical, restoring 1 health every 5 seconds. This effect is paused for 30 seconds if you take damage. The big difference is a built-in defibrillator that you can use to revive teammates, though it has a 4-minute cooldown between uses, which makes it a lot less useful than just loading in with a stack of defibs.

Still, having an extra defib frees up a loot or quick use slot and could come in handy in a pinch. Unfortunately, only Light shields work with this Augment, which makes it a lot less attractive than something like the go-to Looting MK.3 (Survivor) Augment, which allows Medium shields and has three safe pockets as opposed to two. Like other Tactical Augments, the Revival Augment has five quick use slots. It has just 16 loot slots, however.

All told, the Safekeeper is a great new piece of kit that will certainly be used by many players for Arc hunts, but the Revival needs to be tweaked if it’s ever going to join the meta. A much faster cooldown and Medium shields would make this great for a “Medic” class.

Read all about the new update right here.