Alice B is leaving RPS, come say goodbye

Maybe scream a little

On a Monday in early 2018, Adam Smith, Rock Paper Shotgun’s deputy editor at the time, handed in his notice. On Thursday that same week, I emailed Alice Bell, a person I’d never spoken to before, to ask if she would consider applying for the role.

Alice thought it over for a week, and then emailed her response: no.

Thank god I was able to change her mind, so I could spend the next six years giving her shit about it. But now Alice is leaving RPS, and you should join me in saying goodbye.

Alice’s writing sounds like how I want RPS to sound: funny and smart, yes, but best of all able to be strongly critical while still unafraid to be a fan of a game she loves. These are a mixture of qualities that it’s almost impossible to find in a writer, and typically you get an imbalance towards one or t’other: too cynical, or too game-pilled, or funny but insubstantial, or thoughtful but so, so dry.

Yet the balance is present across Alice’s work for the site. TFI Friday . Announcing her love for giant women . Recurring confusion at video game merch - from bath bombs to trainers . Coming up with the idea to commission a tabletop RPG based on Rezzed , so readers could experience it when it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Conceiving of and delivering our ethnic minority work experience programme . Her Ritual Of The Moon diary , about a game designed to be played for five minutes per day for 28 days. The Electronic Wireless Show podcast , the only podcast you need in her opinion (which will return, with Alice still hosting). More reviews and shitposts than I can possibly link to.

That’s not to mention Alice’s work behind the scenes. Consider the context of RPS at the time Alice was hired. Back in 2018, we were about to double the size of the team by hiring six people and branching into video, guides and hardware coverage. I told Alice that we’d gently introduce her to the various tasks of her new role, an intention I sincerely held until around 11am on her first day - a change of mind Alice has been giving me shit about for the past six years. I dumped a mountain of work on Alice that day, and while I haven’t been editor-in-chief of RPS in a few years, she never let me down while I was.

I’m conscious that I’m personally getting the balance all wrong here, that this sort of sappy outpouring of praise without jokes is very un-Alice. In a more perfect world, we’d all be roasting her for leaving, but we don’t live in that world. Instead, I need to address the redundant elephant in the recently acquired room. Last month, Rock Paper Shotgun’s parent company Gamer Network was bought by Ziff Davis, and following that transaction the decision was made to cut staff within Gamer Network. Alice’s role was one of those cut.

I can’t properly articulate how angry and sad I am about this, and I won’t try. I know most of you reading this already feel the same way.

I’m confident that RPS will be fine, eventually, as it always has been when great people have left before. I’m confident that Alice will be better than fine; Alice is going to conquer the world, as former RPS writers often do. (You should buy her novels , if you haven’t already.)

This confidence doesn’t make me any less angry or sad. Instead, I’ll hold onto the fact I’m friends with Alice outside of work, where I get to experience the best of her: not the supportive, thoughtful colleague everyone describes below, but the funny, gossipy, gleefully mean friend who shares my love of four-hour YouTube videos and obscure internet drama. Thank god I was able to change your mind.

Ed: Back in the golden era of the office days, I remember Alice and I first bonded over Love Island when she heard my former work sidekick James and I talking a bit too loudly about it in our Metabomb corner (the esports site we used to work on). Every morning from then on she’d join us for a quick daily “DID YOU SEE LAST NIGHT” debrief. That’s when I knew we’d get along just fine.

I started at RPS a few years ago, having been absorbed by the first of The Takeovers. I went from an esports-y guides writer who’d done a couple of features for our pals at Eurogamer (cheers to Donlan for giving me a chance), to a staff writer all of a sudden. It was a big change! I knew a few of the folks already, but above all else, Alice really helped me settle in. She took me under her wing, gave me loads of guidance on words and were just like, really nice.

Over the years she’d land on my work and dissect it in a way that I look back on and think, “Only Alice could’ve done that”. She’d sit with me and explain through clear, concise points how I could improve or rejig or think differently about things - to better my confidence.

I owe Alice a lot, to be honest. I wouldn’t be where I am without her fighting my corner, as she believed I could edit other people’s words when I ummed and ahhed over the step up. Later, she’d happily lend me advice on how to manipulate letters so they’d look nice on a page and read much betterer. I’m still working on how I relay those nuggets of word advice to those I work with, but Alice has instilled in me a lot of certainty I didn’t have previously. One thing I’ve taken away which she’d be pleased with: trust my gut when it rumbles.

She might think these very words on this very page are a bit daft, or a bit much, or a bit cringe. She should know by now that I am not only fond of cringe, I bathe in cringe. She’s probably still got CMS access, so she might try to attack the unpublish button, but as you read this I’m probably fending her off with a copy of Grave Expectations in one hand and Displeasure Island, its sequel, in the other. I grabbed my copies from my local bookstore, so you certainly can too. I could use the help! Oh god, she’s about to hit me with The People’s Elbow.

I won’t launch into how much she’s done for the site itself and for so many others. It’s immeasurable, really. Just know that it has been a joy. And will continue to be a joy, as I pester her and distract her from the exciting projects she’ll be beavering away at otherwise.

Jeremy: When Alice B interviewed me for this job and asked what games I was personally looking forward to, I told her one of them was Sherlock Holmes: The Awakening. She replied with an intrigued eyebrow raise and asked ‘Really,’ as if she too had a bemused appreciation for the rough-around-the-edges feel of Holmes versus Cthulhu as envisioned by Frogwares, a developer you can’t help but root for despite the fact that everything they make is sorta falling apart at the edges.

When I did get this job, I was pleased to find that Alice truly did share snippets of my odd tastes, especially when it comes to underrated adventure games and schlocky movies. It’s rare to find a person who appreciates The Legend of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate and has actually spent time analysing the plot of Van Helsing, a movie that made the questionable decision of basing its storyline on Dracula’s eggs. This potent appreciation of weird is what made Alice such a great writer for this corner of the internet. She will be greatly missed, we are less without her, and next time I play a Frogwares game, I will do so in her honour.

Nic: Ah, but can we hire Alice’s clone ? Alice did Booked For The Week for me on Sunday, read that please.

Ollie: When I arrived at the office on my very first day, Alice immediately made me about 70% less anxious, seemingly without even trying. For the next five years, in between consistently writing some of the best words on the site, she would continue to make RPS feel like a second home and a second family. Even if she did think I’m a lot posher than I am.

James: Alice, I’ve been saying this a lot recently, in less printable language, but this is utter codswallop. Complete poppycock. A load of balderdash festooned with bunkum. I’m sorry that these circumstances preclude the send-off you deserve, which would likely involve barrelling out the doors on a golden chariot pulled by a dozen miniature horses, down an aisle of the finest scented candles and surrounded by confetti where every piece is a valid, obscenely profitable book deal.

Still, the cool thing about being as enviably talented as Alice Goddamn Bell is that we all know you’ll end up doing something great. Probably several, all at once. For now, I’ll just say thank you for making the site what it is, for countless good times on the podcast, and for being a pal. RPS will endure, but only because we’ve all become a bit more Alice-like from working with you.

Talk soon, yeah?

Brendan: The job of games journalist gets a few reactions. People recoil, or they say “cool”, or they have no idea what you mean. A select few, upon learning about this role, will deeply covet it. They will enlist in the career as if it is a war. When people tell Alice they want to be a games journalist because they love video games, she often gives them the following advice, the soundest, simplest counsel I have heard in our sickly trade: you may love to play games, trooper, but do you love to write?

Observe the truth of this. Anyone can play Assassin’s Creed, not everyone will feel compelled to write a tour guide to its regular Grecian inhabitants . Anybody can indulge in nostalgia by playing their favourite game from the early 2000s; few will be driven to write about their favourite online ASCII art for those games. Anyone can play obscure indie experiments about the moon, not everyone will devote 28 days to said game with ritualistic rigour . Alice does not simply love (some) video games, she is that person who loves to write. As if you needed more proof, she’s only gone and written two bloody crime novels . WHAT THE FUCK.

Her departure is a loss for RPS, but I suspect it will be a net gain for the world of writing. She is equally capable of a lethal takedown , a swell of kindness , and all the insight in-between . From the shadowrealms of redundancy, Alice appeared to us in a goodbye call and asked everyone at RPS to “stay weird”. And, gotta say, it was hard to sit there and pretend like my eyes were not blurring out every face on the screen like a really shit episode of Traffic Cops.

I am being professionally sad here. But also personally. Only a few months ago, I was let go from an industry job (tl;dr – Embracer bullshit) and, by some grace or cunning, the very next day Alice Bell appeared in my inbox offering work, like a grizzled hand reaching up from a trench to pull a lost dog of war back down to the safety of boards and muck. Today, it stings that I have no power to return the favour. But if there’s one thing I know, as Alice winks at the camera and dashes off into the overworld of smoke and words, it’s that she actually doesn’t need my help to clear her way. Doesn’t need my cover fire, my always-alliterative artillery, nor rounds of rhetoric celebrating her ability. I don’t care. I’ll stand up and fire a full belt of this shit all the same. AHHHHH-HHHH-HHH-HH-H-h-h-h!

Edwin: I first met Alice Bell when she did a summer internship for Official Xbox Magazine, where I was online editor till we all got laid off in 2014. I have one story I always tell about how she borrowed my Skyrim savegame for a feature, and proceeded to humiliate me in the office by complaining loudly that I’d barely done anything other than become Thane of Whiterun, then threw away all my carefully hoarded in-game books while I was away at a press event, for reasons I can’t recall. She also mocked me for listening to Keane, right in front of Edge. This kid will go far, I said to myself, through the tears.

Alice B, you contain and create immensities. You will shrug off the arbitrary terms of your departure and out-videogames-journalism us all, assuming you don’t level up and disappear triumphantly into another sphere. You’re the kind of writer I think the games media needs but probably doesn’t deserve – somebody with an appetite and imagination for things beyond games which can then be called upon to think about games differently, and who can draw in younger writers who are similarly adventurous. You are also incredibly funny, and a supportive, compassionate editor who has signed off on some of the least expected and most rewarding freelance pieces I’ve read.

There are many great writers in this space, but I think everybody struggles with the basic insularity of a form of journalism that is enthusiast by nature and which doesn’t allow the time for cultivating wider knowledge, because the games are so big, and the biggest of them want all the time we have. It’s a sappy cliché but genuinely, Alice, your work shines a light. Who else would write a whole column on Nancy Drew? Anyway, I’m about to overdo it so I’ll shut up now. I wish you the very best for the next thing. Whatever happens, we’ll always have Whiterun.

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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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