8 Manor Lords combat tips and tricks

Win your battles in Manor Lords with these tips for strategic fighting

Image credit:Hooded Horse

Looking for some tips and tricks to win battles in Manor Lords? Aside from serving as a highly detailed medieval city-builder, Manor Lords brings Total War-style combat to the fray, letting you direct different units in fights against invaders, rival armies, and all other forces that might threaten your growing town. Prevailing over these battles can be a tricky affair, especially for folks more accustomed to city-building games that don’t involve legions clashing against each other.

Luckily, there are a few general strategies that you can keep in mind to turn the tides in your favour. In this guide, we’ll outline 8 combat tips for Manor Lords to help you reign victorious.

Check out the release date announcement trailer for Manor Lords here. Check out those lovely roads.Watch on YouTube

1. Invest in protective gear and advanced weapons for your troops

To get your men equipped with the finest hardware, go for the Armorer’s Workshop. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse

An army isn’t functioning at its best if it’s primarily composed of unprotected fellows with subpar pointed sticks. Our guide to making weapons and armor has the full details, but in quick summary, you’re going to need to upgrade your Burgage Plots in order to unlock building extensions that can truly aid your army. These include a Blacksmith’s Workshop, a Joiner’s Workshop, an Armorer’s Workshop, and a Fletcher’s Workshop.

Out of all of these options, the Armorer’s Workshop can go a long way towards making your units hardier in the field, as it allows for the production of helmets. If you unlock the Advanced Armormaking and Master Armormaking Developmental Upgrades , you can also build mail and plate armor, which will raise the defensive stats - and survivability - of your men.

2. Diversify your units

Technically not a greatly diverse selection of units, as these are all spear militia. Investing in a fair few archers would go a long way towards helping me win battles. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse

Manor Lords offers a few different unit types, including the specialised Retinue - which are the closest thing to elite soldiers in this game - as well as polearm fighters, spear militia, and archers. The best units in Manor Lords , aside from the Retinue and Mercenaries (more on them below), include the Militia Footmen , the Spear Militia , and the Archer Militia , and a good army should strive to have these three types, which nicely cover melee and ranged attacks while still offering up decent defence.

It’s possible that during your first few combats, you’ll only be able to afford one type of unit. We recommend going for the Militia Footmen and supplementing their ranks with a steady assault from Archer Militia. Continue expanding the army with Spear Militia once you can afford it.

3. Rely on your Retinue

Each Retinue member boasts a customisable uniform, a name, and even a fun fact. That’s how you know they’re elite. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse

You need to build a Manor before you can hire a Retinue , because these strong lads are specialised soldiers who hang out in the Manor all day long, just itching for a fight. It’s worth the time and effort, though, as Retinue members are the strongest melee combatants in Manor Lords .

Use your Retinue to lead your army, flank your enemies, and serve as tanks in the middle of a back-and-forth brawl. You’ll gain 5 Retinue units by default, and you can recruit Retinue soldiers to a maximum of 12. For even more of these dedicated fighters, open up the Castle Planner and build a Garrison Tower, which will boost the max Retinue size by another 12.

4. Don’t be afraid to pay for Mercenaries

45 Treasury seems a fair bit, but it’s better to lose that coin than lose the lives of your people. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse

Mercenaries seem expensive, but if they die, all that you’ve lost is a bit of coin in your Treasury . It takes time to gather Families to your settlement , and every deceased Militia member means a loss to your town’s overall productivity. So don’t be afraid to spend some money to hire these men-at-arms - it’s their job, after all.

On a more specific note, the Light Mercenary Infantry and Heavy Mercenary Archer are two of the best units in the game, and more than capable of supplementing your Militia forces.

5. Use Stances to direct your troops

My Retinue’s all primed and ready to catch some missiles, as you can see. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse.

Click on any collection of units in Manor Lords and you’ll see a row of icons pop up at the bottom of your screen. These are Stances , and they’re used to direct troops in combat. The stances range from Balanced, which is the default stance for units, to more concerted maneouvers like Missile Alert, which causes your units to block incoming arrows.

When dealing with minor skirmishes against Bandit Camps , you can usually keep your troops on Balanced and watch them wreck havoc. When fighting Raiders or a rival army, however, you’ll need to use strategy. We recommend watching the flow of battle and alternating between Stand Your Ground and Push Forward for your melee attackers. The former doubles their defence and is excellent for shield-bearers like the Spear Militia, while the latter makes frontliners go all-out on offence to break ranks. Meanwhile, have Archer Militia use Shoot at Will to fire upon enemies without shields. If you ever need to reorganise your forces or lure in enemies, make use of Spread Out and Give Ground . And if arrows come a-flying, make sure your boys use the aforementioned Missile Alert .

6. Flank your foes and attack from the rear

There’s nothing like a good flank - especially when your archers are cornering the enemy and raining down death from above. |Image credit:Hooded Horse

Whenever engaging in combat, it’s best to rely on tried and true techniques that have served armies well throughout history - flank your foes , and avoid getting flanked by them!

To set up flanking tactics, you can select a group of units, hold the right mouse button, and drag your mouse to adjust their formation. Always try to position your units so that they’re encircling enemies - oftentimes, the easy way to do this is to have your melee attackers on one side soaking up damage, while your archers sneak up from behind to deliver a steady supply of arrow blasts from the rear. Since they’re hardier than most of your other troops, the Retinue is perfect for holding the line long enough for your ranged combatants to deliver killing missiles.

7. Monitor Morale, Effectiveness, and Fatigue

The Effectiveness of these fellows is pretty awful. What caused this? The rain. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse

Click on your units to see a box that shows their overall Morale , Effectiveness , and Fatigue . Morale is basically an indicator of how willing your forces are to fight. You can keep it high if you have an overall high Approval rating for your settlement, and any militia forces fighting in their home territory will have higher morale automatically. If Morale dips too low, you’ll lose your ability to use certain stances, and units will run instead of fighting to the death.

Effectiveness and Fatigue, meanwhile, measure how your units are actually doing in the flow of combat. You’re going to want to pay attention to factors like terrain (see below) to confer buffs to your army’s overall Effectiveness, which will translate to multiplyers added to the offence and defence of your units. The weather during a fight (no troops like battling in the rain) and flanking can also affect Effectiveness. Meanwhile, Fatigue will inevitably occur over the course of a battle, but you can go a long way towards reducing it by using Stances, relying on a healthy selection of varied troops, and pulling tired units back from the throes of immediate combat.

8. Attack on the High Ground

These lines, viewable via opening the Manor Lords road planner and zooming in, give us a sense of what constitutes high ground. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse

Elevation plays a role in Manor Lords battles, and it’s always useful to be above your opponents when fighting, as your troops will recieve a High Ground buff to their Effectiveness rating. Enemies will recieve a Low Ground debuff, meanwhile. For maximum damage potential, try to position your archers on the high ground whenever possible.

If you’re ever wondering about the intricacies of terrain, open the Manor Lords road builder and zoom in close to the battlefield. You’ll see lines on higher terrain to indicate slopes and hills. You’re going to want your units to stand atop those.

If you take all of these bits into account, combat in Manor Lords should be a victorious affair more often than not! That said, Manor Lords is a truly expansive game, and if you’re searching for additional advice, head over to our beginner’s guide , which contains everything you need to know to survive your first year. For a general selection of hints that’ll help you in all aspects of this epic city-builder, take a look at our Manor Lords tips and tricks guide .

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

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