ARC Raiders augmented slots, explained

Inventory management in ARC Raiders is built around augments. They decide how much you can carry, which shields you can equip, how many items you can keep on quick access, and, at higher tiers, which “extra” slots you get for specific item types. Those locked extras are the augmented slots.

What augments do before augmented slots enter the picture

Every raider equips a single augment before going Topside. That one item defines several core limits:

• Backpack slots – how many generic inventory squares you have.
• Weight limit – total kilograms you can carry before you are encumbered.
• Safe Pocket slots – items here extract with you even if you die.
• Quick Use slots – items you can keep on your hotbar for instant use.
• Shield compatibility – which shield tiers (Light / Medium / Heavy) you are allowed to wear.
• Weapon slots – how many primary weapons you can bring.

Augments cannot be swapped during a raid. Durability only drops when you die, and it falls in 30‑point chunks rather than on every hit. Early augments (Free Loadout, Mk.1 variants) only juggle backpack, weight, safe pockets, quick use, and shields. Augmented slots appear starting with Mk.2.

What augmented slots are (and what they are not)

Augmented slots are extra inventory spaces that only accept one category of item. They sit next to the normal backpack grid and Quick Use bar and are hard‑locked to a type such as trinkets, grenades, utilities, or healing items.

Key points:

• They do not act as Safe Pockets. Items stored there are lost if you die, unless they also sit in a Safe Pocket.
• They do not get their own keybind. You still equip and use items via Quick Use or the equipment wheel.
• They do increase total capacity, but only for the designated category.
• Most of them mirror normal slots in behavior: you still have to extract alive to keep the contents.

Conceptually, they are closer to a grenade bandolier or a trinket pouch than to a free‑for‑all expansion of your backpack.

Augmented slot types by augment line and tier

Only specific augments include augmented slots, and each one fixes the category and count. The table below focuses on those extras and leaves out stats that do not change the basic idea.

Lower‑tier augments without an entry under “Augmented slots” simply do not provide these category‑locked extras.

Looting Mk.2: how trinket slots change economy runs

Looting Mk.2 is the first big inflection point for augmented slots. It brings:

• 22 standard backpack slots.
• 2 Safe Pockets.
• 4 Quick Use slots.
• 3 Trinket augmented slots.
• Light shield compatibility.

Those trinket slots only accept diamond‑marked items, the ones intended mainly for selling, decoration, or upgrades (such as ornaments for your shelf or items for projects). In practice, that means three extra “money” slots that never compete with ammo, meds, or mission items for backpack space.

There is no extra safety attached to those three slots: if you die and the trinkets are not in Safe Pockets, they are gone like any other loot. The benefit is simply that a full backpack can still pick up three more trinkets, and that those trinkets stay visually separated from the rest of your inventory.

For early and mid‑game, where cash and materials are often the bottleneck, that separation is strong. Runs focused on farming diamond items become more predictable because there is always reserved room for them.

Combat Mk.2 and Tactical Mk.2: grenades and utilities on a leash

Combat Mk.2 and Tactical Mk.2 show a different use of augmented slots: locking in combat tools instead of loot.

• Combat Mk.2 adds a single grenade augmented slot on top of 18 backpack slots, 1 Safe Pocket, 4 Quick Use slots, and broad shield compatibility up to Heavy. On top of that, it passively regenerates 1 health every 5 seconds, with a 30‑second pause after taking damage.
• Tactical Mk.2 offers 17 backpack slots, 1 Safe Pocket, 5 Quick Use slots, and Light / Medium shields, plus 1 utility augmented slot. Its passive deploys a small smoke grenade when your shield breaks, on a fixed cooldown.

The grenade or utility slot is essentially “one more normal slot” that must hold a grenade or a utility item. It is not inherently better than a generic backpack square; its value is that it cannot be taken over by something else.

That leads to a pattern:

• Combat Mk.2 keeps at least one grenade in your loadout even if you stuff your backpack with loot later in the raid.
• Tactical Mk.2 ensures there is always room for a deployable or gadget, while a fifth Quick Use slot makes it easier to actually bring and use that tool.

For some players, this feels like extra micromanagement; for others, it is a way to stop themselves from sacrificing grenades or gadgets the moment their backpack starts to fill with sellable items.

Mk.3 augments: specialization through augmented slots

Mk.3 augments push the same idea further, trading general capacity for highly focused roles.

• Looting Mk.3 (Survivor) remains a mule: 20 backpack slots, 80kg weight limit, 3 Safe Pockets, 5 Quick Use slots, and a single utility augmented slot. It gives up some shield flexibility compared with Combat augments but maximizes space and safety for loot.
• Looting Mk.3 (Cautious) reaches 24 backpack slots, 70kg, 2 Safe Pockets, 5 Quick Use slots, and one Integrated Binoculars augmented slot. Its passive fires a weak Adrenaline Shot automatically when your shield breaks.
• Combat Mk.3 (Aggressive) keeps 18 backpack slots and 64kg weight, 1 Safe Pocket, 4 Quick Use slots, and 2 grenade augmented slots, plus health regeneration at 2 HP every 5 seconds when out of damage for 30 seconds.
• Combat Mk.3 (Flanking) increases utility focus instead: 20 backpack slots, 60kg, 2 Safe Pockets, 5 Quick Use slots, and 3 utility augmented slots, tied to Light shields.
• Tactical Mk.3 (Healing) reorients Tactical into support with 16 backpack slots, 55kg, 3 Safe Pockets, 4 Quick Use slots, and 3 healing augmented slots. Its passive releases a healing cloud restoring 20 health over 10 seconds when you are revived, on a 30‑second cooldown.
• Tactical Mk.3 (Defensive) leans into survivability with 20 backpack slots, 60kg, 1 Safe Pocket, 5 Quick Use slots, and an Integrated Shield Recharger augmented slot, alongside compatibility up to Heavy shields.

Here, augmented slots stop being subtle. Two grenade slots on Combat Mk.3 (Aggressive) make it trivial to carry multiple throwables without eating into backpack squares. Three healing slots on Tactical Mk.3 (Healing) hard‑wire you into the medic role, with both Safe Pockets and augmented slots working in favor of survivability.

Quick Use, Safe Pocket, and augmented slots compared

Many players conflate three different systems that all involve small rectangles in the inventory UI. They behave very differently.

• Backpack slots accept almost anything and are fully disposable on death.
• Quick Use slots only control how you access items, not whether you keep them. Items in Quick Use still live in inventory or augmented slots underneath and are lost on death unless also stored in Safe Pockets.
• Safe Pockets are limited, general‑purpose slots that always extract with you, even if you are killed before leaving the map.
• Augmented slots are bonus capacity for one item category. They are not safe by default and do not change how you trigger items in combat.

A simple way to think about it:

• Backpack = convenience.
• Quick Use = tempo and responsiveness in fights.
• Safe Pockets = insurance.
• Augmented slots = role definition and self‑discipline.

Some augments also sacrifice weight capacity to raise Quick Use counts, particularly in the Tactical line. If you find yourself cycling through too many items in the heat of combat, you may prefer to keep Quick Use moderate and offload specialist tools into augmented slots so they stay present without cluttering your main cycle.

Why augmented slots feel “worse” than normal slots to some players

From a pure inventory‑math perspective, a generic backpack slot is always more flexible than a locked slot. An augmented grenade slot cannot hold meds; a trinket slot cannot take a key item; a healing slot cannot be repurposed for grenades.

That leads to two perceptions:

• If you want maximum freedom, an augmented slot can feel like a nerfed slot.
• If you want maximum predictability, an augmented slot is a guarantee that, for example, you always have three heals or two grenades regardless of how desperate your looting gets.

The game leans into the second interpretation. Higher‑tier augments do not simply inflate backpack counts; they constrain some of that gain into fixed categories that reflect the augment’s identity: income‑focused, aggressive, flanking, healing, or defensive. The more you commit to that identity, the more value you squeeze out of augmented slots.

How to get augments with more augmented slots

Progression toward more augmented slots is not random. Each step requires work in Speranza and at your Workshop and Gear Bench.

Step 1: Level the Workshop and Gear Bench so you can craft Mk.1, Mk.2, and later Mk.3 augments. Each Mk tier has a minimum bench level requirement.

Step 2: Unlock Looting Mk.2, Combat Mk.2, or Tactical Mk.2 at Gear Bench Level 2. These are the first augments that introduce trinket, grenade, or utility augmented slots.

Step 3: Continue upgrading to Gear Bench Level 3 to access Mk.3 variants such as Looting Mk.3 (Survivor), Combat Mk.3 (Aggressive), or Tactical Mk.3 (Healing), which add more or more specialized augmented slots.

Step 4: Buy augment blueprints and finished augments from Lance in Speranza once they are unlocked, or craft them directly using gathered parts.

Among Mk.2 augments, Looting Mk.2 offers the highest raw count of augmented slots early on, with three trinket slots. Later, Combat Mk.3 (Aggressive) and Tactical Mk.3 (Healing) stand out for grenade and healing‑focused playstyles.

Viewed narrowly, augmented slots are just extra spaces with annoying restrictions. Viewed as part of the broader loadout system, they are the rails that keep a build on‑theme: extra room for diamonds when you are running economy, for grenades when you are opening fights, for utilities when you are flanking, or for medical supplies when you are keeping a squad alive. The more deliberate your role, the more those locked slots start to feel less like a limitation and more like a promise.