The Burletta is ARC Raiders' Uncommon semi-automatic pistol: Light Ammo, a 12-round magazine, 10 damage per shot and a 2.5x headshot multiplier, with Very Weak ARC armor penetration. It's one of the most common sidearms Topside, and Frozen Trail 2.0 made it amplifiable. When Embark first previewed the system, a fully-automatic Burletta was one of its headline examples. The question players keep arguing about on r/ArcRaiders is which way to take it. Burst or full-auto? And is a Burst Burletta worth two Queen Reactors? This Burletta amplification guide answers both with the numbers. It covers all four nodes (Burst Fire, Increased Burst, Full-Auto and Sprint Shooting) with their tooltip values and costs from the ARC Raiders Wiki amplified-weapons table, the research behind each one, and the shots-to-down math against every shield.
Quick answer (TL;DR): The Uncommon Burletta needs one Amplification Module Mk. II to reach Level 5, after the Gunsmith and Research Station both hit Level 4. Burst Fire and Full-Auto lock each other out, so every amplified Burletta is a burst gun or a full-auto gun, never both. Burst Fire (2 Queen Reactor) gives a 3-round burst. Increased Burst (2 Pressure Regulator, needs Burst Fire) makes it 5 rounds and adds 3 to the magazine, for 15 rounds: enough to down a Raider through any shield in one magazine (body shots, every shot landing, no mag mod). Full-Auto (3 Pneumatic Actuator) is the cheap option, but damage drops from 10 to 8, so a stock 12-round magazine can't down even an unshielded Raider on body shots. Sprint Shooting (4 Fluted Rotor Core) stacks with either. Our pick for PvP: Burst Fire, Increased Burst, then Sprint Shooting.
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What is Burletta amplification?
Weapon Amplification arrived with Frozen Trail 2.0 on October 8, 2026. Amplified weapons can be upgraded to Level 5, which unlocks amplification slots that change how the gun works (Amplified Weapons, ARC Raiders Wiki). The Level 5 upgrade consumes an Amplification Module that matches the weapon's base rarity. The Burletta is Uncommon, so it takes an Amplification Module Mk. II, the second-cheapest tier. Every Level 5 weapon also gets +70 Max Durability before you pick a node.
Two rules shape every Burletta build:
- Activated amplifications are permanent. You can't remove or swap a node once it's on the gun.
- Burst Fire and Full-Auto conflict. Taking one rules out the other, and Increased Burst can only follow Burst Fire. That makes the first node a one-time fork.
The stock gun explains why the nodes exist. At 10 damage per body shot, an unshielded Raider takes 10 hits, and you're clicking every one of them. Players defend the Burletta as a close-range gun ("it's a weapon intended to be used within 20m of your target," as one Raider put it in an r/ArcRaiders thread on the Burst Burletta), and every node pushes that close-range role further. If you're still choosing what to amplify, the best weapons tier list and the amplified weapons hub compare the roster.
What are the Burletta amplification nodes?
The Burletta has four nodes. Here's each one from the wiki's Pistols table:
| Node | Effect | Research | Materials | Rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burst Fire | Fires in a burst: +2 projectiles per burst | Burst Assembly Recovery | 2 Queen Reactor | Conflicts with Full-Auto |
| Increased Burst | +2 projectiles per burst, +3 magazine size | Extended Burst Cycles | 2 Pressure Regulator | Requires Burst Fire |
| Full-Auto | +60% fire rate, -2 base damage, 60% lower headshot multiplier, +50% vertical and horizontal recoil, 100% longer dispersion recovery, +50% base and ADS dispersion | None listed | 3 Pneumatic Actuator | Conflicts with Burst Fire |
| Sprint Shooting | Lets you fire while sprinting | Mobile-Fire Grip Fittings | 4 Fluted Rotor Core | None |
ARC Tracker's upgrade tree for the Amplified Burletta matches the wiki: Burst Fire needs the Burst Assembly Recovery research and costs 2 Queen Reactor, Full-Auto rules out Burst Fire and costs 3 Pneumatic Actuator, and Sprint Shooting needs Mobile-Fire Grip Fittings and costs 4 Fluted Rotor Core.
What does Burst Fire do?
Burst Fire switches the Burletta from single shots to bursts, adding +2 projectiles per burst. Read against a one-shot semi-auto trigger, that's a 3-round burst: 30 body damage per pull instead of 10. Damage per bullet, recoil and magazine size stay as they are. It's also the expensive node, at 2 Queen Reactors, and it's the gate to Increased Burst.
What does Increased Burst do?
It adds another +2 projectiles per burst, for a 5-round burst, plus +3 magazine size (12 to 15). No damage or recoil penalty is listed. The research text is the best line in the whole system: "A burst has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The middle could probably use more bullets." (Amplified Research, ARC Raiders Wiki).
What does Full-Auto do?
Full-Auto makes the Burletta fully automatic with +60% fire rate. It's the harshest trade-off of any Burletta node. Base damage drops from 10 to 8, the headshot multiplier is cut by 60%, recoil goes up by 50% both ways, base and ADS dispersion rise by 50%, and dispersion recovery takes twice as long. It's also the only Burletta node with no research listed in the wiki's table, so if that holds in-game, it can go on as soon as the gun hits Level 5.
What does Sprint Shooting do?
The tooltip: "Ergonomic fittings that allow the weapon to be comfortably fired while sprinting." No stat changes are listed and it doesn't conflict with anything, so it stacks with the burst path or with Full-Auto.
Burst vs Full-Auto: which needs fewer shots?
This is the real choice. The comparison below is about shots and magazine fit, not time-to-kill. Assumptions: the stock 10 damage per shot (8 with Full-Auto), every shot a body shot that lands, a Raider at full health and full shield, and no magazine mod. It uses the wiki's shield formula: while a shield has at least 1 charge, each hit's HP damage is cut by the shield's mitigation percentage and the shield loses charge equal to the full damage. A Raider has 100 HP (Shields, ARC Raiders Wiki).
| Target | Stock or burst (10 per shot) | Full-Auto (8 per shot) |
|---|---|---|
| No shield | 10 shots | 13 shots |
| Light Shield (40 charge, 40%) | 12 shots | 15 shots |
| Medium Shield (70 charge, 42.5%) | 13 shots | 17 shots |
| Heavy Shield (80 charge, 52.5%) | 15 shots | 18 shots |
Now put those counts against the magazine each build carries:
- Stock or Burst Fire only (12 rounds): one magazine downs an unshielded or Light Shield Raider if every shot lands. Medium and Heavy Shields need a reload. With Burst Fire that's 4 trigger pulls for no shield or Light.
- Burst Fire plus Increased Burst (15 rounds, 5-round bursts): 2 bursts down an unshielded Raider and 3 bursts down any shield, Heavy included. A Heavy Shield takes exactly 15 shots, a full magazine. That's the case for the burst path.
- Full-Auto (12 rounds): with no magazine mod, not one shield case fits in a magazine, not even the unshielded one (13 shots). The higher fire rate gets the shots out faster, but you're reloading before the Raider is down. The Burletta takes Extended Light Mag mods, which can close part of the gap.
A cross-check: ARC Tracker's time-to-kill panel for the Amplified Burletta lists 10, 11, 13 and 14 shots for no shield, Light, Medium and Heavy at 10 m. That's one shot fewer than our math for Light and Heavy, most likely a modelling difference. It doesn't change any conclusion above.
Headshots shift the numbers for the burst path. A 25-damage headshot takes four hits off an unshielded Raider instead of ten. Full-Auto loses most of that. The wiki says only that the multiplier is cut by 60%, so the exact Full-Auto headshot value depends on how the game applies it, but either way you're giving up the main reason to aim high.
Two caveats. These are perfect-accuracy numbers, and the wiki says most weapons gain baseline improvements at Level 5 without listing the Burletta's. Treat the counts as a floor for the stock gun's 10 damage, not a promise.
Which Burletta amplification build is best?
Rank them by what you use the Burletta for:
- PvP main or sidearm: Burst Fire, then Increased Burst, then Sprint Shooting. Five-round bursts and a 15-round magazine make it the only Burletta build that downs a Heavy Shield Raider without reloading, on body shots and without a magazine mod. Sprint Shooting goes last because it adds mobility, not damage.
- Budget run-and-gun: Full-Auto plus Sprint Shooting. It's the cheap path: 3 Pneumatic Actuators and no research listed for Full-Auto. Pair it with the biggest Extended Light Mag you have. It's a close-range panic button, not an upgrade to a precise sidearm.
- No Queen Reactors yet: Sprint Shooting first. It doesn't conflict with anything, so it's a safe first node while you farm Queens for Burst Fire.
Our verdict: go burst if you can afford the Queen Reactors. The 15-round, 5-round-burst Burletta is the build the numbers support. Full-Auto is fun and cheap, but at 8 damage on a 12-round magazine it can't down even an unshielded Raider on body shots without a mag mod or a reload.
How do you unlock Burletta amplification?
The chain is the same for every amplifiable weapon (Amplified Weapons, ARC Raiders Wiki):
- Get a Burletta. It's one of the easiest guns in the game to get. Tian Wen sells it (8,700, 3 per day), you can scavenge one, or you can craft it at Gunsmith 1 from 3 Mechanical Components and 3 Simple Gun Parts once you know the blueprint (Burletta, ARC Raiders Wiki). Tian Wen's Industrial Espionage quest hands you a Burletta I and rewards the Burletta Blueprint when you finish it.
- Raise the Gunsmith to Level 4.
- Raise the Research Station to Level 4. The Outpost build guide covers the order.
- Upgrade the Burletta to Level 5 with one Amplification Module Mk. II.
- Finish the research and activate your nodes. Full-Auto has no research listed. The other three need theirs done first.
The research projects
Amplified Research projects have two steps: a challenge, then 5,000 Research Points plus ARC components. Once a project is done, the node is permanently available on every eligible Level 5 weapon (Amplified Research, ARC Raiders Wiki).
- Burst Assembly Recovery (Burst Fire): the weapons table names it, but the wiki's Amplified Research list doesn't publish its challenge or cost yet. Check the Research Station before you plan around it.
- Extended Burst Cycles (Increased Burst): deal 10,000 damage with a Burst Burletta or Charged Burst Aphelion, then submit 5,000 Research Points and 10 Comet Igniters. Comet Igniters come from Comets destroyed without exploding. The challenge accepts damage from either gun. If you already own a Charged Burst Aphelion you can clear it there; otherwise you'll be firing your Burst Burletta for a while before Increased Burst unlocks. Either way, Increased Burst on the Burletta still requires Burst Fire.
- Mobile-Fire Grip Fittings (Sprint Shooting): visit seven locations in a single round: Electrical Substation, Truck Stop, Old Town, Almatera Station, Researcher Lodgings, Deep-Space Telescope and Commissary Supermarket. Old Town and Almatera Station are Pendola Pass locations, so plan it as one long Pendola Pass loop. Then submit 5,000 Research Points and 20 Skulker Targeters, scavenged from destroyed Skulkers. Our Bully, Skulker and Hydra kill guide covers the Skulker fight.
If Research Points are your bottleneck, see which research pays best.
The materials
- Queen Reactor (Burst Fire, 2 needed) is Legendary, scavenged from destroyed Queens or the leg armor segments blown off mid-fight. It's the priciest part of the burst build. Our Queen and Matriarch kill guide and reactor guide cover the fight and the drop.
- Pressure Regulator (Increased Burst, 2 needed) is an Epic Topside Material. The wiki lists the Harvester Payload as its source.
- Pneumatic Actuator (Full-Auto, 3 needed) is Epic, scavenged from ARC and from the ARC Frigate. The Pneumatic Actuator and Pressure Regulator farm guide covers both.
- Fluted Rotor Core (Sprint Shooting, 4 needed) is Epic. The wiki only lists it as scavenged, with no specific source yet.
Where do you get an Amplification Module Mk. II?
The wiki lists two sources for Amplification Modules: the Fallen Emperor on Pendola Pass, opened with an Emperor Gateway Conduit, and the cargo inside the ARC Frigate during the ARC Frigate event. The Amplification Module farm guide compares them. Mk. II is a low tier, which is part of why the Burletta is one of the cheaper guns to amplify.
What happens if you lose an amplified Burletta?
This trips up a lot of players. The research is one and done: once Burst Assembly Recovery or Extended Burst Cycles is complete, it stays unlocked. The module and node materials are spent on that one gun. If you're knocked out, your amplified weapon drops with its durability cut to 10%, and if you don't get it home, the next amplified Burletta costs another Mk. II module, and two more Queen Reactors if you want Burst Fire again.
Level 5 weapons can only be repaired with Amplified Fragments. ARC Tracker lists 10 Amplified Fragments for a 50% repair and an Amplified Burletta sell value of 16,000, against 10,000 for a Burletta IV on the wiki. That's not much of a premium, but two Queen Reactors are a lot to lose on a pistol. Bring the burst build to fights you expect to win.
Is amplifying the Burletta worth it?
Yes, for PvP, and it's one of the cheaper amplifications. The module is only a Mk. II and the gun itself costs almost nothing. The real price is the two Queen Reactors for Burst Fire. The full burst build (Burst Fire, Increased Burst, Sprint Shooting) costs a Mk. II module, 2 Queen Reactors, 2 Pressure Regulators and 4 Fluted Rotor Cores, plus 10 Comet Igniters, 20 Skulker Targeters and at least 10,000 Research Points for the research the wiki has published. In return you get a 15-round pistol that downs a Raider through any shield in one magazine on paper. If Queen Reactors are out of reach, Full-Auto is a fine cheap toy, but it's the weaker build.
For how the rest of the roster compares, the ARC Raiders amplified weapons hub lists every amplifiable gun and node, and the Aphelion and Kettle guides cover two more builds.
Skip the Burletta grind? timesaver.gg can cover the blueprint, the Queen Reactors and the research for you:
- Burletta Blueprint: craft your own Burletta from Gunsmith 1 without finishing Tian Wen's questline.
- The Queen Kill: a guaranteed Queen kill for the Queen Reactors that Burst Fire needs.
- Outpost Research Boost: push the Research Station to the level that unlocks amplification.
FAQ
Can you have Burst Fire and Full-Auto on the same Burletta? No. The wiki lists them as conflicting nodes, and ARC Tracker's tree shows Full-Auto ruling out Burst Fire. Amplifications are permanent once activated, so pick one path per gun.
Is a Burst Burletta worth 2 Queen Reactors? For PvP, yes, if you also take Increased Burst. Burst Fire alone keeps the 12-round magazine, so it only changes how fast you fire the shots. With Increased Burst you get 5-round bursts and 15 rounds, enough to down a Heavy Shield Raider in one magazine on body shots.
If I lose my amplified Burletta, do I need Queen Reactors again? Yes. Research is permanent, but the Mk. II module and the node materials go into that specific gun. A replacement Burst Burletta needs another module and 2 more Queen Reactors.
Does Full-Auto need research? The wiki lists no research for the Burletta's Full-Auto node. It costs 3 Pneumatic Actuators once the gun is Level 5.
What module does the Burletta need? The Amplification Module Mk. II, because the Burletta is Uncommon and the module has to match the weapon's base rarity. Modules come from the Fallen Emperor on Pendola Pass and from ARC Frigate cargo.
Does Sprint Shooting work with the burst build? Yes. Sprint Shooting doesn't conflict with any Burletta node, so it stacks with Burst Fire and Increased Burst or with Full-Auto.
