If you’ve been diving into the extraction runs of ARC Raiders, you already know that your choice of augment defines your entire tactical loop. Among the high-tier Epic loot out there, few items split community opinion quite like the Combat Mk. 3 (Flanking) Blueprint.



Labeling it under "Combat" has thrown off a lot of players. On paper, it looks contradictory: a battle-oriented upgrade that strips away your heavy defenses but hands you a massive inventory toolkit. Here is a realistic, numbers-driven breakdown of what the Flanking Mk. 3 actually changes in your gameplay, where you can find the blueprint, and whether it’s worth the heavy investment to craft it.



Combat Mk. 3 (Flanking) Stats & Effects

The core philosophy of this augment is prioritizing high weapon swap speeds and gadget flexibility over raw, brute-force shield health. When you equip a fully manufactured Flanking Mk. 3, your baseline parameters shift toward rapid execution:



Passive Perk: Stowed or unequipped Pistols and Hand Cannons equip 33% faster.



Shield Compatibility: Restricted strictly to Light Shields.



Weight Limit: 65.0 kg maximum load capacity.



Inventory Footprint: 18 Backpack slots, 4 Quick-use slots, 2 Weapon slots, and 1 Safe Pocket slot.



The immediate sticking point for many Raiders is the strict Light Shield restriction. In high-stakes PvP encounters, running into a squad while locked out of Medium or Heavy shields feels like an automatic death sentence.



However, looking strictly at the survivability drop ignores what you gain in structural control. The augment gives you deep utility options—allowing you to pack things like Jolt Mines, Anvils, and Ziplines simultaneously. The 33% weapon swap speed essentially turns your secondary weapon into your primary tactical answer. Instead of waiting out a long reload animation in a close-quarters showdown, swapping to a high-impact revolver or secondary pistol lets you sustain pressure without skipping a beat.



Where to Find & Farm the Blueprint

Securing an Epic blueprint is notoriously subject to RNG, but active runners have narrowed down the most reliable high-tier drop zones across the maps. If you want to targeted-farm this drop, structure your runs around these three key areas:



Reinforced Reception Room (Blue Gate): This is widely considered the highest-probability area. You’ll want to navigate down into the lower level reception zone on the Blue Gate map and watch for the high-yield loot rooms locked behind breach doors.



The Buried City Hospital: During standard raids in the Buried City, the medical wing structures are hot zones for high-end electronic and gear blueprints. Focus your search explicitly on blue drawer units, graded square drawers, and black rectangular security containers.



Spaceport Sub-levels: A solid alternative route means clearing past the main assembly storage sectors of the Spaceport and dropping into the lower sub-levels, where elite containers frequently spawn.



Because of the steep competition in these extraction sectors, high-tier blueprints are incredibly tough to pull out alive. If the brutal extraction RNG isn’t treating you well and you want to bypass the endless farming loop entirely, you can find secure, third-party trading spaces like U4N to pick upcheap arc raiders items like this blueprint directly from verified players, keeping your crafting terminal running without the headache.



Augment Crafting Requirements

Once you survive the extraction and bring the blueprint back to your base, you can't just slap it on. You’ll need to unlock Gear Bench III and clear out a substantial chunk of your stash to cover the resource cost:



[Gear Bench III Crafting Cost]

├── Advanced Electrical Components: 70x

├── Processors: 3x

└── Credits (Fee): 5,000

Saving up 70 Advanced Electrical Components requires hitting tech-heavy areas consistently and ignoring generic scrap. The 5,000 credit fee is standard for Epic-tier gear, but when combined with the low drop rate of the components, it means a fully realized Flanking Mk. 3 represents hours of focused, intentional playtime.



The Verdict: Is it Worth It?

If you try to play the Flanking Mk. 3 like a standard frontline assault build, you will end up back at the respawn screen within seconds. The lack of shield health means you cannot win traditional head-to-head DPS races against players rocking heavy setups.



Where this augment actually shines is in guerilla trapping and extreme close-range ambush styles. The massive utility access allows you to completely lock down interior chokepoints with traps and door blockers. You use the 33% faster pistol draw time to execute lightning-fast burst damage—chipping away an enemy's health with a primary tool, swapping instantly to a high-damage hand cannon to finish the kill, and vanishing before their teammates can re-frag. It is a highly specialized, high-skill-ceiling piece of kit that rewards players who play dirty and leverage map geometry over raw health bars.