The Rusted Shut Medical Kit sits in a frustrating spot in Arc Raiders’ economy. It looks like junk, drops rarely, and yet you cannot push your Medical Lab from level 2 to 3 without it. Most players need three of them, and many only realise that after they’ve already scrapped a few for coins or crafting parts.
Instead of sprinting blindly to Buried City’s Hospital every raid, it helps to understand what the item is, what it’s used for, and which medical locations consistently produce it.
Rusted Shut Medical Kit basics
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Item type | Recyclable material (rare) |
| Loot category | Medical |
| Weight | 3 |
| Stack size | 1 |
| Sell value | 2,000 coins |
| Recycled output | 2x Syringe, 1x Antiseptic |
| Salvaged output | 2x Syringe |
| Key use | Upgrading the Medical Lab to level 3 |
Every Rusted Shut Medical Kit you pick up is effectively a bundle of healing components. Recycling one produces two Syringes and one Antiseptic, which makes the item attractive even after your lab is maxed.
For progression, though, treat the first three you see as non‑negotiable upgrade keys. You need those to unlock stronger healing recipes at your Medical Lab in Speranza.
How many Rusted Shut Medical Kits you actually need
The Medical Lab upgrade from level 2 to 3 is where Rusted Shut Medical Kits become relevant. The upgrade cost centres on medical salvage:
| Upgrade | Requirement | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Lab level 3 | Rusted Shut Medical Kit | 3 |
| Medical Lab level 3 | Antiseptic | 8 |
| Medical Lab level 3 | Surveyor Vault | 5 |
Those numbers mean two things for routing:
- You cannot ignore medical loot zones; you need three separate Rusted Shut Medical Kits and a lot of Antiseptic.
- Any route that feeds both Rusted Kits and Antiseptic is inherently more efficient than one that only targets the rare item.
That’s why high‑density medical points of interest like Hospital and Testing Annex dominate most farming plans.
Best medical loot locations for Rusted Shut Medical Kits
Rusted Shut Medical Kits sit inside the Medical loot category, so they appear in places that are clearly clinical: hospitals, pharmacies, treatment rooms, and test labs. Across the current maps, a few locations stand out for both consistency and density.
| Map | Area | Type | Why it’s good |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buried City | Hospital | Major POI | Only fully medical POI; concentrated loot, high competition |
| Dam Battlegrounds | Testing Annex | Medical / Commercial | Reliable medical hallway on second floor; easier to repeat |
| Buried City | Plaza Rosa Pharmacy | Pharmacy | Focused medical loot, near a zipline extraction |
| Buried City | Research | Mixed | Chance for medical drops alongside other loot |
| Buried City | Piazza Arbusto / Plaza Rosa area | Mixed | Extra rolls while moving toward Hospital or Pharmacy |
| Dam Battlegrounds | Research & Administration (Medical room) | Medical room | Targeted medical shelves on top floor |
| Spaceport | Departure Building (Medical room) | Medical room | Compact room with multiple medical spawns |
| Buried City | Town Hall key room | Office with drawers | Desks and drawers can roll Rusted Kits; gated by Town Hall Key |
| Blue Gate | Fortress puzzle room / cellar | Hidden/locked | Consistent Rusted Kit drops once you know the puzzle and layout |
You do not need to hit every location every raid. Instead, build short, repeatable loops around the spots that fit your loadout and comfort level.
Buried City Hospital: high‑risk, high‑density Medical loot
Buried City’s Hospital is the obvious first stop when chasing Rusted Shut Medical Kits. It’s a tall complex in the northern part of the map with multiple floors of patient rooms, treatment spaces, and storage areas.
The upside is clear:
- The POI is dedicated to medical loot, so the loot pool is less diluted than mixed‑type buildings.
- Gurneys, shelves, cabinets, and trolleys pack the space, giving a lot of individual rolls for Rusted Shut Medical Kits, Antiseptic, and other medical materials.
The catch is that almost everyone knows this. Hospital draws heavy PvP traffic, especially early in a raid or during relevant events. It’s easy to arrive and discover the place already stripped or to get pulled into ARCs and players at the same time.
For many players, Hospital works best as part of a path, not the sole focus. You can start at a quieter Buried City location, sweep a pharmacy or Town Hall, then push Hospital if your gear and timer allow.
Testing Annex (Dam Battlegrounds): the most reliable Rusted Shut Medical Kit farm
If Hospital is the loud, obvious play, Testing Annex in Dam Battlegrounds is the more measured option. The building sits in the southeastern sector of the map and mixes medical and commercial loot, but a specific part of the interior is strongly medical‑leaning.
The key layout details:
- The second floor on the western side of the building contains a corridor lined with medical shelves, tables, and drawers.
- Most Rusted Shut Medical Kits that drop here come from that corridor and its connected rooms.
- The Red Lakes Balcony Lift sits nearby, offering a fast extraction route if the area heats up.
On a clean run, it’s common to walk away with at least one Rusted Shut Medical Kit from this Annex hallway, plus extra Antiseptic. Laboratory Reagents can also appear here, feeding into Explosives Station upgrades at the same time.
Combat‑wise, Testing Annex is not free. Pops and Fireball ARCs roam outside, and other players often pass through to hit the lift. Night raids with a free loadout and low profile tend to be the safest way to loop it until you have your three kits secured.
Plaza Rosa Pharmacy (Buried City): discreet medical farm with quick extraction
Plaza Rosa in Buried City hides one of the better low‑profile spots for Rusted Shut Medical Kits: a pharmacy with a breachable entrance. If the breach prompt is intact when you arrive, chances are good that no one has looted it yet.
Once inside:
- Check the ground‑floor shelves for loose medical items.
- Clear any upstairs rooms for cabinets and smaller containers.
- Look out for Antiseptic and Laboratory Reagents along with Rusted Kits; both have a chance to spawn here.
The pharmacy’s biggest advantage is its position. A zipline extraction point sits nearby, so you can quickly bail once you’ve hit the shelves and any upstairs containers. That makes Plaza Rosa a strong option for repeated, short raids aimed purely at Medical Lab progression.
Additional Rusted Shut Medical Kit spots worth routing through
Beyond the headline locations, several smaller rooms and gated areas give you extra rolls on Rusted Shut Medical Kits while you’re already moving through a map for other aims.
| Location | Access detail | What to loot |
|---|---|---|
| Buried City Pharmacies | Breachable doors on street level | Front‑room shelves and back rooms for medical loot |
| Buried City Town Hall key room | Requires Buried City Town Hall Key, second floor | Desks and drawers; can yield multiple Rusted Kits in one visit |
| Dam Battlegrounds Research & Administration (medical room) | Top floor of the building | Dedicated medical room with beds, tables, and cabinets |
| Spaceport Departure Building (medical room) | Upper floor of Departure Building | Compact treatment room with multiple medical containers |
| Spaceport Arrivals Building (medical room) | Mirrors Departure medical room layout | Similar loot table to Departure; good to chain both in one run |
| Blue Gate Fortress cellar and puzzle room | Reachable via fort interior; puzzle gate for secret space | Cellar and secret room have very high Rusted Kit rates once unlocked |
Several of these spots exist in pairs that make natural mini‑routes. For example, running both Departure and Arrivals medical rooms in one Spaceport raid stacks your odds for Rusted Shut Medical Kits and Laboratory Reagents with almost no wasted time.
When to recycle Rusted Shut Medical Kits (and when not to)
Rusted Shut Medical Kits are tempting to break down. Each one becomes a small pile of healing components, either through recycling or salvage:
| Action | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Recycle | 1x Rusted Shut Medical Kit | 2x Syringe, 1x Antiseptic |
| Salvage | 1x Rusted Shut Medical Kit | 2x Syringe |
That makes each Rusted Kit a flexible resource even after your Medical Lab hits level 3. The main guidelines are simple:
- Before Medical Lab level 3: do not recycle or salvage any Rusted Shut Medical Kits unless you already have three reserved specifically for the upgrade.
- After Medical Lab level 3: prefer recycling over salvaging if you also need Antiseptic, since the recycling path gives both Syringes and Antiseptic.
The 2,000‑coin sell price is nice early on, but in most loadouts, the extra healing capacity and upgrade progress are worth more than the cash. Selling Rusted Kits tends to be a late‑game move once you have surplus healing materials and no remaining use for the upgrade requirement.
Putting it all together into practical farming routes
Three Rusted Shut Medical Kits is not a huge number, but randomness and PvP pressure turn the hunt into a small project. A few short, repeatable paths help you get it done without burning out.
| Route | Map | Stops | What you gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annex sprint | Dam Battlegrounds | Spawn → Testing Annex second floor (west wing) → nearby extraction | High chance of 1 Rusted Kit per clean run, plus Antiseptic and Lab Reagents |
| Plaza pharmacy loop | Buried City | Spawn near Plaza Rosa → breach Pharmacy → optional Hospital → extraction | Safe Rusted Kit and Antiseptic farm, with an optional high‑risk Hospital finish |
| Spaceport twin medical | Spaceport | Departure medical room → Arrivals medical room → extraction | Compact double‑medical run ideal for stacking Rusted Kits and Lab Reagents |
| Fortress cellar sweep | Blue Gate | Push fort → cellar and puzzle room → extraction | Very strong Rusted Kit and industrial loot once you know the path and puzzle |
Align these loops with your other goals. If you still need Surveyor Vaults, for example, pairing medical runs with Courier hunting or Surveyor routes saves time. If you’re short on industrial items, running Dam Battlegrounds routes that include both Testing Annex and nearby storage trucks can cover multiple upgrade tracks at once.
The key is to stop treating Rusted Shut Medical Kits as pure RNG. They live in specific types of medical containers in specific rooms. Once you learn those spaces—Testing Annex’s second‑floor corridor, Plaza Rosa’s pharmacy, key‑locked town offices, fortress cellars—the item stops being a wall and becomes just another piece of the Arc Raiders scavenging puzzle.
