Containers Explained: Slots, Effectiveness and Inner Protection

The container decides how many artifacts you carry and how strong they are. Three numbers matter: the number of slots, the effectiveness and the inner protection. Some containers also add fixed modifiers. This guide explains each one and how they interact.

Slots

Slots are the simplest number: each slot holds one artifact. Containers in the current data range from 4 slots (SMC, Utility Vest ADR-WRBT) to 7 slots (Sheaf, Barrel). More slots mean more stats, but also more downsides and more infection to manage.

Effectiveness

Effectiveness multiplies every beneficial artifact stat:

value × effectiveness ÷ 100

A 115% container turns +20 Stamina into +23. What it does not touch matters just as much:

• •Infection purges are never multiplied. Radiation, temperature, bioinfection, psy-emission and frost purges are worth the same in every container.
• •Downsides are not multiplied either. They depend only on the artifact's rarity roll.
• •Burning and bleeding reductions, recoil and sway reductions and all positive stats are multiplied.

So a high-effectiveness container boosts your benefits without boosting your penalties.

Inner protection

Inner protection reduces the infection your artifacts add. For each of radiation, temperature, bioinfection and psy-emissions, the site adds up every artifact in the build, and if the total is positive it is reduced:

final = net artifact accumulation × (1 − inner protection ÷ 100)

With 50% inner protection, artifacts that together add +4 radiation contribute +2. Three details are easy to miss:

• •Inner protection works on the total, not on each artifact. A purge on one artifact cancels accumulation on another before inner protection applies.
• •A total of zero or less is left as it is.
• •Frost is never reduced by inner protection.

Container modifiers

Some containers add fixed stats of their own, for example:

• •Overton: +28.3% healing effectiveness.
• •CRAW-6: +23 bullet resistance and +46 laceration protection.
• •Sheaf: +1.0 frost.
• •ZIVCAS ArcticSafe-6: −2.5 frost and +0.5 psy-emissions.
• •Freezer: −2.5 temperature and +0.5 bioinfection.

Modifiers are added after inner protection and are not multiplied by effectiveness. Sheaf's frost therefore always counts in full, and frost from artifacts adds on top of it.

Comparing containers

A rough way to compare the stat budget of two containers is slots × effectiveness. Barrel (7 slots at 92.5%) scores 6.48; Chitin Backpack (6 slots at 115%) scores 6.90; SMC (4 slots at 120%) scores 4.80. This rule of thumb has limits:

• •It overrates containers whose slots will hold purge artifacts, because purges ignore effectiveness.
• •It ignores inner protection, which decides how many hazardous artifacts you can carry.
• •It ignores modifiers, which can be worth a slot on their own.

Matching a container to a build

• •Combat builds with many bullet-resistance and vitality artifacts gain the most from high effectiveness, because those stats scale.
• •Builds full of hazardous artifacts need high inner protection, or room for purge artifacts. SMC (95%) and Hive (89.5%) trade slots for protection.
• •Sustain builds can use Overton's healing effectiveness modifier.
• •Cold areas: ArcticSafe-6's negative frost helps; Sheaf's positive frost works against you.

Check a container before you buy it

The Build Calculator shows how a container changes your whole loadout, including the infection totals after inner protection. The Artifact Optimizer searches artifact combinations for a chosen container and keeps results within the infection limits you set.