A few hours with New Arc Line reminded me that setting doesn’t mean much in an RPG if the characters aren’t interesting

Hands on with the upcoming Steampunk CRPG

Image credit:Fulqrum/Rock Paper Shotgun

When the trailer for steampunk RPG New Arc Line released in April, I was immediately taken in by its premise. To my shame, I’ve never gotten around to the social tensions and magic-meets-technology world of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura . A newer, shinier journey to a similar setting sounded like just the ticket. After spending a few hours with the preview build, I do have at least one bit of very positive news to share: I’m definitely going to play Arcanum now, because despite some fetching environments and potentially interesting social systems, New Arc Line just isn’t doing it for me.

If you missed that trailer, the setup here is that you’re an immigrant travelling to New Arc - a supposed shining beacon of progress that’s actually rotten at the core with corruption, danger, and prejudice. The trailer opened with a vignette showing an elven mother escaping captivity with her sick child, but my own entrance to the city was a lot less fraught. A customs officer in a bobby hat warned me about magic (magic I’d later cast openly on the streets to no reprisal - Athkatla, I miss you everyday). Then he told me how nice he thought elves were, and sent me on my merry way. My first quest: find my suitcase. Love a bit of luggage-based questing, I do.

But first: character creation. The preview build features two species (elf and human), and two classes - ‘diesel engineer’ or, uh, ‘voodoo shaman’. I went with the second because I liked the coat, chose elf, and proceeded to create the character I always do when out of better ideas: Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie with ridiculous conversation stats. I picked the ‘outsider’ trait for stronger magic and because the wording - “your debts in this world grow faster” - was suitably mysterious. You’ll allocate starting points to stats - constitution, strength etc - and skills, which are the more nuanced, interesting bits like survival and observation. I went hard on charm until I noticed a skill named ‘mockery’. Truly, the curse of the hack critic runs deep.

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Before you enter New Arc proper, there’s a bit of in medias rice krispies. Elf Bowie finds himself in a crumbling city reeling from a dragon attack, in a hospital gown, and you have to very slowly stagger out. Remember when Phantom Pain did this and it was a touch tedious but ultimately effective because it’s a third person action game where you’re given a real sense of your character’s ailing physicality? Well, remove that physicality and you’re just left with tedium, I’m afraid. Plod plod. The wrecked city is striking, at least; immediately conveying that split between nature and industry, all strewn massive coggery and luminous, reptile-skinned flora. Unfortunately, I can’t fully appreciate it because the camera keeps getting snagged on things.

There’s a few introductory skill tests as you make your way through the wreckage. A dwarf plummeted to his death when I lost my grip on the stretcher he was hanging on to, a couple jumped to their deaths when I failed to convince them life was worth living, an impaled human bled to death when I failed to find him help - tragic events of that nature. At one point, I got attacked by a lad accusing me of having caused the current chaos, and this came up again in another conversation. Ah, so this is all my fault? Interesting.

I eventually limp my way to safety, and it cuts to a scene between my character and a judge. I’m being interrogated for possessing agitprop. This scene sets up the political situation of the world quite well, although some of the writing and subsequent choices are less on-the-nose than they are up-the-nostrils: “Is it fair to mistreat someone just because they’re different?” reads one option. Must we really kick a homeless orphan in the face just because the system has deemed them a scruffy no-coin?

Image credit:Fulqrum/Rock Paper Shotgun

I’m going to skip ahead here, because the writing really is the soul of any good CRPG, and this is where New Arc Line most failed to grab me. The prose itself is quite good! I slapped a bystander to alertness at one point and the description of how his spittle soothed the burn on my cheek from the cigarette he’d also spat at me was nicely vivid. There’s some cute accented flourishes, too: “my sniffer feels like a plate of mashed taters”.

The issue, for me, was in the character archetypes. Aforementioned mashed-nose is a beefy bruiser-type that joins your party early, and there’s nothing to him really. He’s big and likes hitting people and sniffing magic cocaine and probably pronounces ‘thug’ as ‘tug’ and that’s about it. To gain access to a new area, I have to endear myself to a theatre troupe, and the playwright is every lazy, vaguely homophobic trope of an overly precious, flamboyant and effete artist you could fit on a plate of mashed taters. I’m supposed to help prompt his real script to his actors after they’ve been given an edited version stuffed with syndicate propaganda, and he trill-ingly refers to the syndicate leader as “a douchebag who never even had a manicure”. I feel like I’ve heard every line before it comes out of his mouth.

Image credit:Fulqrum/Rock Paper Shotgun

That quest is interesting, by the way. As the play goes on, I’m given sets of choices between lines and have to identify the original script from the syndicate propaganda. It’s not too taxing, sure, but I appreciate what it conveys about the stranglehold that the syndicates have on art in this world. Not something I’ve experienced before, if terrible memory serves.

Let’s wind back a bit. Before I meet the playwright, I have to find my suitcase with the help of my bruiser mate. Along the way, I discover a fun, risk-reward pickpocketing minigame, and also loot a few suitcases right next to their owners to no reaction. Occasionally, the game performs perception checks automatically. I’m not entirely sure what they actually do, but I think it’s loot related. I follow an objective marker to where my suitcase is supposed to be, some rodents-of-unusual-size jump out from a bin, and it’s time for combat.

Image credit:Fulqrum/Rock Paper Shotgun

Tradition dictates that a description of combat gets its own paragraph, but if you’ve played any turn-based combat with action points before, it really doesn’t need one. A slight twist here is that everyone gets an armour bar above their health that restores to full every turn automatically. I can perhaps see this becoming interesting later on, maybe offering the chance to spec out aggro tank characters, or force you to keep a certain level of agression up to avoid losing momentum. As far as these early combat encounters go, however, all it does is make them drag out an age - especially noticeable as you have so few options this early.

And that, eventually, was why I ended up quitting the preview build instead of poking around for secrets and sidequests, as I’d originally planned. I got into a fight with some tech zombies, there were five or so of them, and each one was taking me multiple turns to put down. I was already souring on the thing due to the writing issues mentioned earlier, and because I’d nicked a very elaborate hammer right in front of the carnival barker running the hammer game and he said absolutely nothing to me. The drudgery of combat was the last straw. I do think the bones are here for a decent CRPG in a potentially interesting setting, but it’s safe to to say the game doesn’t put its best foot forward. Hopefully it’s hiding in that nifty coat somewhere. Me? Arcanum, here I come.

New Arc Line

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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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

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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