ARC Raiders Heavy Shield vs Medium Shield After the 2.3 Charge Buff

Live Update 2.3.0 raises Heavy Shield base charge from 80 to 90 on the ARC Raiders Items ladder. The same note frames the bump as a small survivability gain that should not open too large a gap versus Medium Shield, and it says use rates for Heavy are still being watched. This page locks the post-patch Heavy numbers next to Medium Shield—charge, damage reduction, move penalty, craft, Lance stock, and the fight cases where the extra 10 charge actually changes a depleting bar.

Shields cut a fixed percentage of incoming damage while they still hold at least 1 charge. Charge itself drains by the full hit value, and durability ticks down as charge is spent. That is why a larger base charge pool matters even when the mitigation percent stays the same: you stay under the Heavy reduction for more total damage before the bar empties.

What Live Update 2.3.0 Changed on Heavy Shield Charge

The only Heavy Shield number Live Update 2.3.0 publishes is base charge: 80 → 90. Damage reduction on Heavy stays 52.5%. The move penalty on the current Heavy kit is −10% (that −10% already replaced the older −15% line during the Frozen Trail 2.0 pass, alongside a durability-drain tweak the 2.3 note says showed clear data movement). No other Heavy Shield combat percent was rewritten in the 2.3.0 changelog text.

The 2.3 note also states the change is meant to lift survivability against most weapons a notch without creating too large a margin between Heavy and Medium, and that low-use equipment—including this shield—remains under monitoring.

Heavy Shield vs Medium Shield Numbers

Post-2.3.0, the two kits that share the mid/heavy augment gate compare like this:

On a body hit while the shield still has charge, Heavy lets 47.5% of the hit through to health (100% − 52.5%). Medium lets 57.5% through (100% − 42.5%). Headshot multipliers apply to the health portion after that mitigation. Charge still falls by the full damage amount on each mitigated hit, so the 90 vs 70 pool is a longer absorption budget under the same rule, not a change to how hard each point of charge softens a bullet.

Each blue gauge segment equals 10 charge. A full Heavy refill therefore paints nine segments; a full Medium refill paints seven. Mitigation does not weaken when charge is low—as long as 1 charge remains, the next hit still uses the full shield percent. Once charge hits 0 mid-raid, later hits land on health without that reduction until you refill.

How to Get and Equip a Heavy Shield

Heavy Shield crafts at Gear Bench 2 from 1× Power Rod and 2× Voltage Converter The same station tier also crafts Medium Shield from 4× Battery and 1× ARC Circuitry, so the bench gate is shared while the bill of materials is not. Station unlocks and scarce bench parts sit on the same ladder covered in the Workshop station levels and scarce parts path.

Lance sells finished Heavy Shields for 16,500 with a 1-per-day cap, and finished Medium Shields for 6,000 with a 3-per-day cap, matching the stock rows under ARC Raiders BluePrints. Scavenging, Raider Caches, and listed quest rewards also drop finished Medium Shields; Heavy additionally lists Expedition returns and the quests Greasing Her Palms and A Better Trifle among its non-craft sources.

Heavy Shield only equips on these Augments: Combat Mk. 2, Combat Mk. 3 (Aggressive), Looting Mk. 3 (Safekeeper), and Tactical Mk. 3 (Defensive). Medium Shield accepts a wider set that also includes Combat/Tactical Mk. 1–2 lines plus Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor) and Tactical Mk. 3 (Healing). If your loadout is locked to an Augment outside the Heavy list, the Heavy slot simply will not accept the item—blueprint hunting for the matching Augment line is covered in the Augment blueprint find routes.

The Used to the Weight skill reduces the movement-speed penalty on Medium and Heavy Shields. It does not change charge, damage reduction, weight, or Augment gates—only the move hit those two kits carry.

Where the Extra 10 Charge Shows in a Fight

Because charge drains by full hit damage while mitigation stays flat, the 80 → 90 bump is ten more damage points you can absorb under the 52.5% Heavy reduction before the bar empties. Against a steady 40-damage body line, that is one-quarter of an extra full hit of charge budget on top of the old 80 pool (80 ÷ 40 = 2 full drains; 90 ÷ 40 = 2 drains with 10 charge left). Against smaller chip hits, the same +10 stretches further across the gauge before you drop to unmitigated health.

Medium still starts at 70 charge with 42.5% reduction and a lighter −5% move cost. Heavy still starts at 90 charge with 52.5% reduction and −10% move. After the bump, the live contrast is still higher mitigation and a larger pool with a heavier move tax on Heavy, versus lower mitigation and a smaller pool with a lighter move tax on Medium—Medium is not removed as a tier.

Durability still burns as charge is spent. A shield at 100% durability can fully empty its charge pool about five times before it breaks under the standard durability rule. Repairing Heavy back toward that loop costs 2× ARC Circuitry and 1× Voltage Converter for +50 durability; Medium repairs on 1× ARC Circuitry and 1× Battery for the same +50. Power Rod and Voltage Converter sinks also show up in other workshop and feeding loops tracked in the Scrappy upgrades and feeding sheet, so plan those mats against both craft and repair, not craft alone.

Boundaries and Fail Cases After the Buff

• Wrong Augment: Combat Mk. 3 (Aggressive), Looting Mk. 3 (Safekeeper), Tactical Mk. 3 (Defensive), or Combat Mk. 2 are the only Heavy hosts. Survivor / Healing Mk. 3 lines and Mk. 1 kits that take Medium will not mount Heavy.
• Empty charge mid-fight: at 0 charge the 52.5% reduction is gone until you refill, even if the physical shield item is still equipped and not yet broken.
• Move tax still present: −10% on Heavy versus −5% on Medium remains after 2.3.0. Used to the Weight only softens that penalty; it does not erase the class difference.
• Mat mismatch: Power Rod + Voltage Converter (Heavy) is a different sink than Battery + ARC Circuitry (Medium). Being Gear Bench 2-ready does not mean both recipes are funded.
• Lance daily caps: Heavy is 1/day at 16,500; Medium is 3/day at 6,000. A sold-out Heavy row does not refill until the daily reset.
• Monitoring note: 2.3.0 still flags Heavy as relatively low-use and under watch—later patches can retune charge, drain, or adjacent kits. Re-check the live tooltip after each named Live Update.

Read the Live Bars Before You Swap Kits

Open the shield tooltip after a full refill and confirm base charge reads 90 on Heavy and 70 on Medium, with 52.5% / 42.5% reduction and the −10% / −5% move lines still printed. Then run one short topside where you watch how many hits empty the Heavy bar versus the Medium bar on the same Augment class you actually wear. That live gauge—not a patch headline—is the check that the 2.3.0 charge bump landed on your account.

Bank 1 Power Rod and 2 Voltage Converters (or the 16,500 Lance stock row), confirm your Augment is on the Heavy-compatible list, refill Heavy to a 90 charge bar, and stage one raid comparing how many full hits that bar eats versus a 70-charge Medium on the same route.

The U4GM Team