What This Build Does
This is the PvP Brawler. Combat Mk. 3 Aggressive, Heavy shield, entity:bettina as primary, entity:anvil as secondary. The whole kit is built around one idea: when the shooting starts, you out-trade everyone on the field and regen back to full before the next fight. You are the Raider that pushes toward gunfire, not away from it.
Run this build if you want to hunt other Raiders at extractions, hold a loot room against a three-stack, or solo your way through Stella Montis by taking the fights other players are running from. Heavy Ammo through both guns means armored ARCs die to the same loadout that deletes squads. One kit covers PvP and the hard PvE encounters on the same raid.
Do not run this build when you are carrying a high-value run you cannot afford to lose. The Aggressive augment has no Safe Pocket, no entity:adrenaline-shot on shield break, no entity:binoculars. You trade insurance for damage. Do not run it if you prefer stealth; 65-weight kits move slow and the Heavy shield's slowdown is loud over open ground. And do not run it if you plan to play at extreme range. The entity:bettina's 51.3 meter ceiling is enough for standard extractions but snipers with a entity:jupiter will shoot you off a ridgeline before you can close (arcraiders.wiki weapon data).
Under a minute to prep at Speranza. The whole kit is craftable from Workshop blueprints once you hit mid-game.
Core Loadout
Augment: Combat Mk. 3 (Aggressive). 18 backpack, 65 weight, 4 quick-use slots, Light/Medium/Heavy shield support, +2 HP / 5s regen with a 30-second combat pause (arcraiders.wiki Augments page). The regen is what separates this from entity:combat-mk2. +1 HP versus +2 HP sounds minor until you take a entity:bettina burst to the chest plate and realize Aggressive refills your health bar in the 30 seconds between engagements while Mk. 2 is still chugging.
Shield: Heavy. 80 total charge, 52.5% mitigation, 9.0 weight, -15% movement penalty (shields overview, wiki confirmed). A 40-damage hit lands for 19 health damage through Heavy versus 24 through Light. The per-hit gap looks small; the total-charge gap is the real story. Heavy absorbs twice the shots of a Light shield before breaking. In a firefight where two Raiders trade bursts, whoever has shield charge left wins.
Primary: Bettina. Heavy Ammo AR, 14 damage at 32 rounds per second, full-auto, 51.3 meter effective range (arcraiders.wiki weapons). The Heavy Ammo profile is the hidden value. The Bettina is the only AR with serious armor penetration, which means the same gun you use on a Raider's shield is the gun that punches through a entity:bastion's plate. entity:tempest has a higher fire rate but Medium Ammo; entity:ferro hits harder per shot but fires once every 0.15 seconds. Bettina is the right compromise.
Secondary: entity:anvil. Hand cannon, 40 damage per shot at 16.3 rounds per second, Heavy Ammo, single-action, 50.2 meter range (arcraiders.wiki weapons). Two-tap kill on most Raiders. The entity:anvil exists so you do not waste Bettina mags on a finisher. Empty into the target with the Bettina, swap to Anvil, one-shot the downed Raider before their teammate arrives.
Quick-use (4 slots):
- 2 heavy healing items (medkit + bandage)
- 1 entity:shield-recharger
- 1 frag grenade
Stun grenades are a common swap for the frag. The frag wins in the open; the stun wins in Buried City corridors where you want to lock a doorway, not clear one. Pick based on your map.
Why Each Slot
Why Aggressive over Flanking. Flanking Mk. 3 gives 20 backpack and a 33% faster pistol/hand cannon swap, but locks you to Light shield only (augments overview). That trade collapses the whole build. No Heavy shield means no sustained trades. Flanking is a swap-finisher kit; Aggressive is a brawler kit. The Anvil already swaps fast enough; you do not need the 33% on top.
Why Heavy over Medium. Medium shield is 42.5% mitigation, 70 charge. Heavy is 52.5% mitigation, 80 charge. The 10-percentage-point mitigation difference turns a 3-shot death into a 4-shot death against most Heavy Ammo guns. That one extra shot is the window where you kill the other Raider or pop a entity:shield-recharger. The -15% movement penalty is real but the skill tree cancels it (see allocation below).
Why Bettina + Anvil over Bettina + entity:vulcano. The entity:vulcano is a higher-damage option at point-blank (49.5 per shot, shotgun data confirmed on arcraiders.wiki). But you are already running an AR primary; a shotgun secondary means you have two weapons that want you to close. The Anvil covers the 50-meter bracket the Bettina struggles in. A Raider who drops behind cover at 40 meters gets finished by two Anvil shots, not chased down. Keep entity:vulcano for the variant below.
Skill Tree Allocation
Character cap is level 75, 76 total skill points across 40 skills (progression data from arcraiders.wiki skills page). This build is Conditioning-heavy with Mobility support. Survival gets nothing until endgame.
Level 20 (21 points spent):
- entity:marathon-runner (5pts), Mobility, stamina cost reduction
- entity:youthful-lungs (5pts), Mobility, max stamina increase
- entity:used-to-the-weight (5pts), Conditioning, cancels Heavy shield slowdown
- entity:fight-or-flight (5pts), Conditioning, stamina recovery when hit
- entity:carry-the-momentum (1pt capstone, requires 15 Mobility), free sprint after roll
This order is non-negotiable. entity:used-to-the-weight is the difference between the Heavy shield feeling playable and feeling broken. Without it you move 15% slower than every other Raider on the map and lose every foot race. At level 20 you have a functioning kit.
Level 40 (41 points spent): 6. entity:loaded-arms (5pts), Conditioning, reload speed 7. entity:survivors-stamina (1pt capstone, requires 15 Conditioning), stamina recovery while critically hurt 8. entity:looters-instincts (5pts), Survival, faster loot reveals on bodies 9. entity:effortless-roll (5pts), Mobility, reduced dodge stamina cost 10. entity:broad-shoulders (5pts), Survival, carry capacity
Survival finally enters the picture here. entity:looters-instincts is the only PvP-relevant Survival node because it speeds up body looting after a kill, which matters when a third party is probably already rotating on the gunfire.
Level 75 (76 points spent): 11. entity:back-on-your-feet (1pt capstone, requires 36 Conditioning), health regen while critically hurt 12. entity:flyswatter (1pt capstone, requires 36 Conditioning), one-hit melee on Wasps and turrets 13. entity:slip-and-slide (5pts), Mobility, slide distance 14. entity:calming-stroll (5pts), Mobility, stamina regen while walking 15. entity:silent-scavenger (5pts), Survival, quieter looting
entity:back-on-your-feet is the late-game payoff. Combined with Aggressive's +2 HP / 5s, you regen from critical through to full without consuming a medkit as long as you break combat for 30 seconds.
Against Each ARC Class
Heavy Ground (entity:bastion). Bettina headshots through the plate at mid range; Anvil finishes when the plate pops (ARC overview wiki). entity:hornet Driver is not in this kit; you do not need it. Heavy Ammo damage on both guns is enough. Stay at 25-35 meters where entity:bastion's weapon falloff hurts them more than yours.
Heavy Aerial (entity:rocketeer). The Bettina's 32 fire rate eats Rocketeers out of the sky before they commit to a rocket volley. Anchor behind cover, burst, reposition. The Flashpoint 1.22.0 entity:rocketeer rocket damage nerf makes this fight significantly safer than it was in 1.20.
Bosses (entity:queen, entity:matriarch). This build is not a boss kit. You can participate in a entity:queen or entity:matriarch fight but you will not out-DPS a entity:hullcracker + entity:jupiter squad. Skip the boss arenas unless you have squadmates already committed. See the Boss Hunter archetype for that swap.
When The Build Fails
Open-ground snipers. A entity:jupiter user on a ridgeline with line of sight to the extraction pad will shoot you before the Bettina is in range. The Heavy shield mitigation helps but one 70-damage Jupiter headshot deletes your shield and your health in the same trigger pull. Counter by picking approach angles with cover at 40-meter intervals and never crossing open terrain at a sprint.
Coordinated squads flanking. Three Raiders who split and hit you from two angles beat your +2 HP / 5s regen. The math: Aggressive regen assumes you get 30 seconds without taking damage. A coordinated flank means you are always in combat. Drop a frag on your position if you are caught, pop entity:shield-recharger, break line of sight, reset. If the flank was already inside 20 meters, you lose.
Variant: Vulcano Swap For Tight Corridors
For Buried City interior raids or Stella Montis lower floors, swap the Bettina for a Vulcano (shotgun, 49.5 damage per pellet, 26 meter range, semi-auto). Keep the Anvil, keep Aggressive, keep Heavy shield. Drop entity:loaded-arms from the skill tree; reload speed matters less on a shotgun-secondary kit than on an AR-primary one. Replace with another Conditioning node.
The Vulcano deletes anyone who closes to 15 meters. The Anvil handles the 30-50 meter bracket where the Vulcano loses range. You give up the anti-ARC performance of the Bettina, so bring a entity:hornet Driver if the raid has Bastion spawns on the route. Against Raiders in interiors, this variant wins more one-on-ones than the AR build.
One counter-pick to call out before you press Ready: a squad running entity:tempest ARs at 40 meters in an open hallway beats Vulcano + Anvil every time. Do not take the shotgun swap onto a map you do not know.