What This Build Is For
The Pure Looter ends the raid with double the loot of every Raider on the killcam. item:looting-mk3-cautious Looting Mk. 3 Cautious, item:light-shield Light shield, item:stitcher Stitcher SMG primary, item:burletta Burletta pistol secondary. When fights start, you walk away, and your extract bag is heavier than the bag of whoever won.
Run this if you treat raids as economic problems. The 24-slot backpack on Cautious is the biggest in the game, the integrated Binoculars cost zero quick-use slots, and the Adrenaline Shot trigger on shield break is your panic eject when stealth fails (arcraiders.wiki Augments). IGGM's Flashpoint augment tier list slots Cautious at S for those reasons.
It is the brawler's mirror. Where the PvP Brawler runs item:combat-mk3-aggressive Combat Mk. 3 Aggressive, item:heavy-shield Heavy shield, and item:bettina Bettina plus item:anvil Anvil toward gunfire, this kit walks the other way. For the fight kit, read the PvP Brawler Build Guide.
It is not a fight kit. Stitcher plus Burletta puts out roughly 295 raw DPS at point-blank, and Light shield's 40 charge at 40% mitigation absorbs maybe two clean hits before breaking (arcraiders.wiki Shields). Light Ammo penetration against ARC armor is rated very weak on both guns, so Bastion and Wasp swarms are problems you route around.
Weight math: Stitcher 5.0 + Burletta 4.0 + Light shield 5.0 = 14.0 floor on a 70 cap. With item:broad-shoulders Broad Shoulders, the cap rises to 80. That leaves 56 to 66 weight for loot, roughly twice what the brawler brings home.
Core Loadout
| Slot | Item | Key Numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Augment | Looting Mk. 3 (Cautious) | 24 backpack, 70 weight, 5 quick-use, Light shield only, integrated Binoculars, Adrenaline Shot on shield break |
| Shield | Light | 40 charge, 40% mitigation, 5.0 weight, no movement penalty |
| Primary | Stitcher | Light Ammo SMG, 6.5 dmg, 45.3 fire rate, 20 mag, 42.1m range, 1.75x headshot, 5.0 weight |
| Secondary | Burletta | Light Ammo pistol, 10 dmg, 28 fire rate, 12 mag, 41.7m range, 2.5x headshot, 4.0 weight |
| Quick-use 1 | Medkit | Heavy heal for the run home |
| Quick-use 2 | Bandage | Top-up between rooms |
| Quick-use 3 | Shield Recharger | Refills the 40-charge bar pre-extraction |
| Quick-use 4 | Smoke grenade | Breaks line of sight when you are spotted |
| Quick-use 5 | Hornet Driver | Stuns ARC threats at the extract zone |
Stitcher and Burletta share the Light Ammo pool, so one ammo stack covers both. Stitcher per-page on arcraiders.wiki: 6.5 damage at 45.3 fire rate, 1.75x headshot. Burletta: 10 damage, 28 fire rate, 2.5x headshot, 24 stealth (highest in the pistol pool).
Why Each Slot
Augment: Looting Mk. 3 Cautious
Cautious is the only Mk. 3 looter augment that stacks all three structural advantages: 24-slot backpack, 5 quick-use slots, integrated Binoculars (arcraiders.wiki Augments). The other two give one up. item:looting-mk3-survivor Survivor trades 4 backpack slots for an 80-weight ceiling and item:medium-shield Medium shield access. item:looting-mk3-safekeeper Safekeeper trades 6 backpack slots and 1 quick-use for the Safe Pocket, which protects one item across deaths. Safe Pocket is insurance, not loot economy. Run Safekeeper the one raid you haul a Legendary roll home from Buried City; Cautious is the daily driver.
The Adrenaline Shot trigger on shield break makes the build playable when stealth fails. Light shield's 40 charge strips in two clean hits, which is when you most need to sprint to cover. The auto-Adrenaline gives a stamina spike at the right moment, free of the slot a manual one would cost. The Binoculars are the second free tool: every other archetype eats a slot for them or plays without scouting.
Shield: Light
Light is required by Cautious, so the choice is made. The 5.0 weight, zero movement penalty, and 40% mitigation are the right shape for a kit that does not plan to take hits. The 40 total charge is the smallest in the game, but the looter's plan is to leave before the trade starts. The Adrenaline Shot trigger makes the small bar acceptable: shield breaks, augment kicks the stamina spike, looter sprints to cover before the second magazine lands.
Primary: Stitcher
Light Ammo SMG, fully-automatic, 6.5 damage at 45.3 rounds per second for ~294 raw DPS at point-blank, 20-round magazine, 1.75x headshot, 5.0 weight, very-weak ARC penetration (arcraiders.wiki Stitcher). Common rarity, so a botched extract costs little to replace. Crafted at the Workbench with Gunsmith 1 from 8 metal parts plus 4 rubber parts.
The 42.1-meter effective range and 73.8 agility mean it swings up fast, sprays into the chest of a panicking Raider at hallway distance, and goes back to the holster. It is not a weapon you fight with; it is a weapon you scare with. A burst from cover usually breaks the engagement and lets the smoke do the rest.
The item:bobcat Bobcat alternative runs 66.7 fire rate but costs 7.0 weight and Epic rarity. Run it only if you sit on Epic crafting parts.
Secondary: Burletta
Semi-auto pistol, Light Ammo, 10 damage at 28 fire rate, 12-round magazine, 2.5x headshot, 4.0 weight, 24 stealth (highest in the pistol pool), very-weak ARC pen (arcraiders.wiki Burletta). Sourced from the Industrial Espionage quest or 8,700 coins from Tian Wen. Two body shots drop most unalerted Wasps; one clean headshot at 25 meters drops most light Raiders.
item:hairpin Hairpin is the alternative: 3.0 weight, 20 damage, 70 stealth, integrated silencer. It wins for silent kills on Snitch ARCs and unalerted targets at range. The trade is fire rate and magazine: 9 fire rate slide-action with an 8-round mag against Burletta's 12 rounds at 28 fire rate when things go loud. Pick Hairpin for silent solo loops; Burletta if you ever expect to be discovered.
Quick-use: Medkit, Bandage, Shield Recharger, Smoke, Hornet Driver
Standard fill: two heals (medkit plus bandage), one item:shield-recharger Shield Recharger, one item:smoke-grenade smoke grenade, one Hornet Driver. No frag, since the looter never initiates and the explosive slot goes to smoke. Smoke breaks line of sight the moment a Raider rounds the corner. Hornet Driver fills the ARC slot; bring two if the route runs through Bastion zones. The Shield Recharger pre-extraction matters more than mid-fight: the 40-charge bar should be full when pad audio starts pulling attention.
Skill Tree Allocation
The cap is level 75 with 76 points across three trees (arcraiders.wiki Skills). Survival-heavy, Mobility support, zero Conditioning. Every Conditioning point is wasted because the build never plans to take a hit long enough for stamina-on-damage or Heavy shield skills to matter.
Level 20 (21 points): item:looters-instincts Looter's Instincts 5pt for 25% faster container reveals: the difference between leaving the room before a Raider hears you and not. Broad Shoulders 5pt pushes the Cautious cap from 70 to 80, the single best point in the tree. item:marathon-runner Marathon Runner 5pt and item:youthful-lungs Youthful Lungs 5pt stack for longer sprints. Carry The Momentum 1pt capstone (15 Mobility prereq) gives free sprint after a dodge roll: the panic-button combo when a Raider rounds a corner inside 20 meters.
Level 40 (41 points): item:silent-scavenger Silent Scavenger 5pt cuts the audio cone of every container search. item:looters-luck Looter's Luck 5pt is double-reveal chance per container. item:effortless-roll Effortless Roll 5pt pairs with Carry The Momentum. item:in-round-crafting In-round Crafting 1pt capstone unlocks field-crafting of nine consumables and utilities, the highest-utility 1-point capstone here.
Level 75 (76 points): item:calming-stroll Calming Stroll 5pt for stamina regen while walking, on the clock the entire raid. item:slip-and-slide Slip and Slide 5pt for cover-to-cover slide distance. item:security-breach Security Breach 1pt capstone (Looter's Luck or One Raider's Scraps + 36 Survival prereq) unlocks Security Lockers, the highest-value loot tier in the game and the reason the Survival spine ends here.
Skip Conditioning. Used to the Weight is for Heavy shield kits, Fight or Flight is for kits that plan to be hit, Loaded Arms saves weight on weapons heavier than 5.0.
Map and Route Philosophy
Looters do not pick fights. They pick rooms. Routes start at the densest container cluster and end at the extract with the best cover approach.
Dam Battlegrounds and Buried City have the densest clusters per Overgear and TheArcRaiders. Dam offers unattended industrial containers along the lower decks; Buried City offers tight indoor rooms where Silent Scavenger pulls real value because the walls reflect every footstep. Both reward a looter who arrives in the first 90 seconds and clears before brawlers finish positioning. Stella Montis upper floors are dense but loud; run them only with Silent Scavenger maxed and a route that avoids the central atrium.
Walk routes with cover at every 30-meter interval. Scout the extract from 80 meters out with the Binoculars, identify the brawler camped on the pad, and route around. Most extracts have two viable approach lanes; pick the one with the longer cover chain. If the pad is loud, wait. Extract audio pulls every Raider in earshot for the spawn-timer window, so a looter who arrives 30 seconds before the timer ends extracts clean. Patience is mechanically free.
When the Build Fails
Combat Mk. 3 Aggressive brawlers at extraction. The brawler kit out-trades you on every range. Bettina at 50 meters wins; Anvil at 25 meters wins; Heavy shield absorbs your entire Stitcher mag and still has charge left. The only answer is not being there. Route to the second extract zone or wait for the pad to time out. For the build that hunts looters on those pads, see the PvP Brawler Build Guide.
Snipers on a pad lock. A item:jupiter Jupiter or item:osprey Osprey user with line of sight to the pad shoots you before the smoke deploys. Light shield's 40 charge dies to one clean Jupiter headshot. Counter by flanking the angle, or waiting for a third party to engage the sniper and slipping through during the trade.
Cornered without a smoke. Tight room, one exit, Raider pushes while smoke is on cooldown, you lose. Counter by keeping one smoke unspent until extract phase and mapping a back-out route for every cluster before committing.
Coordinated three-stack raids. Stealth assumes solo or duo opposition. Three pairs of ears defeat Silent Scavenger because the audio cone matters less when one of three is always in the right room. Switch maps or run off-peak; this is not a loadout problem.
Bastion-heavy routes with no detour. Light Ammo penetration against ARC armor is very weak on both guns, so a route that forces ARC contact through Bastion zones is a route you cannot shoot through. Bring two Hornet Drivers if unavoidable, and accept the second eats the slot smoke or Shield Recharger would otherwise hold.
Variant: Survivor Swap For Solo Runs
Looting Mk. 3 Survivor is the swap when the run plan demands weight headroom or Medium shield access: 20 backpack slots, 80 weight, 5 quick-use, Light or Medium shield, 75% health regen while stationary (arcraiders.wiki Augments).
The trade is four backpack slots and the integrated Binoculars. Four slots is real loot lost on every container, and the missing Binoculars means scouting eats a slot or you skip it. The 75% stationary regen is a solo feature; it ticks while you stand still, which the looter rarely does on busy maps. Run Cautious as the daily driver. Swap to Survivor for solo runs on quieter maps where Medium shield buys a real margin.
Quick Reference
Total loadout weight floor: Stitcher 5.0 + Burletta 4.0 + Light shield 5.0 = 14.0
Looting Mk. 3 Cautious cap: 70 weight, 24 backpack slots, 5 quick-use slots
With Broad Shoulders applied: 80 weight cap (matches Survivor's ceiling)
Remaining for ammo + heals + grenades + loot: 56 to 66 weight
Light shield math:
Total charge: 40
Mitigation: 40%
40-damage hit through Light: 24 health damage, 40 charge consumed
Number of 40-damage hits before break: 1
Stitcher sustained damage:
Raw DPS: 6.5 dmg * 45.3 fire rate = ~294 per second
Per mag: 6.5 * 20 = 130 raw, dropped to ~78 through Heavy shield (52.5% mitigation)
Burletta two-tap math:
Headshot: 10 * 2.5 = 25 health damage before mitigation
Body shot: 10 raw, ~6 through Heavy shield
(Burletta is a finisher, not a primary kill weapon)
Skill point spend (76 total at level 75):
Survival: 26 points (Looter's Instincts, Broad Shoulders, Silent Scavenger,
Looter's Luck, In-round Crafting, Security Breach)
Mobility: 26 points (Marathon Runner, Youthful Lungs, Carry The Momentum,
Effortless Roll, Calming Stroll, Slip and Slide)
Conditioning: 0 points
Other: 24 points spent on prerequisite chain skills
Citations: arcraiders.wiki per-weapon pages, Shields, Augments, and Skills; IGGM Flashpoint augment tier list (Cautious S-tier); Overgear, TheArcRaiders, and GameRant for cross-validation on the looter skill spine.