Animal Well review: an unmissable creature feature

Putting the animal in AI

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bigmode

• Developer: Billy Basso
• Publisher: Bigmode
• Release: May 9th 2024
• On: Windows 10
• From: Steam
• Price: $25/£21/€25
• Reviewed on: Intel Core-i7 12700F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060, Windows 11

Computers have always been animal wells, in a sense. They’re havens for creatures of many shapes and degrees of literalness, all the way down to the metal. As in ecologies at large, the most abundant and widespread are probably the bugs, beginning with the moth that flew into that Harvard Mark II in 1947 and ending with the teeming contents of the average free-to-play changelog. A little further up the food chain we find “worms”, like the Creeper that once invaded the ARPANET, and " gophers “, a directory/client system written in 1991 for the University of Minnesota. There are computer animals spawned by branding - foxes of fire and twittering birds and the anonymous beasts that haunt the margins of Google documents. There are computer animals that are implied by the verbs we use in computing - take “browser”, derived from the old French word for nibbling at buds and sprouts, which suggests that all modern internet searches are innately herbivorous.

Billy Basso’s Animal Well feels like a celebration of all these unreal organisms, of their whimsy and uncanniness and persistence between layers of technological change, and of the more explicit, quasi-Jungian animal figures and symbols we find in videogames from Zelda to Fallout. Not to bury the lede under fancy parallels here, but it’s also an absolutely brilliant metroidvania platformer, and a game that manages to be at once deeply intuitive and utterly, utterly mysterious.

In Animal Well you play one of the simplest, most adaptable and adorable forms of videogame wildlife - a small, squishy ball with titchy limbs and perpetually surprised eyes, a lesser-known species of Kirby but without Kirby’s big mouth. You’re dropped without preamble into a sepulchral yet thriving 2D cave system of dripping pixels, swinging blue lanterns, and countless, imposing statues.

Your initial goal is to gather certain things from the map’s four corners, saving your progress at the old-timey dialphones that dot the world and which, together with the floppy disc icons for saving, anchor this project as a love letter to the pre-broadband era. Doing this takes you into the realm of different clusters of animals, some helpful and some hostile, with traits and behaviours that plug into elegant single-screen platform puzzles involving doors, pulleys, switches and buttons. Along the way, you’ll find tools - although “tool” feels like the wrong word for something like a frisbee or a bubble wand - which are both straightforwardly applicable to the nearest obstacles and rich with more elaborate uses you’ll discover when you revisit areas an hour or so later.

Finding the initial four of these curious toys is, I think, necessary to gather each of the Things you’ll need to reach the credits, so you can expect a fair bit of the usual metroidvania backtracking after running into an impassable barrier. There’s no checkpointing, either, so you’ll often have to trudge back a few screens from a saveroom after tumbling your emoji-wanderer into a spike pit or a cloud of seething purple faces.

Animal Well has more friction than you might expect from a game without combat or killing, then. The more advanced puzzles require you to think beyond the bounds of a single screen, considering how the machinery might join up across a biome, and it’s while solving these more dispersed areas that you’re most at risk of coming a cropper and having to retrace your steps. But Animal Well stops well short of being a grind. Health-restoring fruits are generally just a few jumps away, and while there are terrain hazards, above all shadowy labyrinthine chambers in which you’re hunted by something reminiscent of Pac-Man , you’ll never take damage from falling into water - a game-making concession in a world that puts me heavily in mind of Sonic’s Labyrinth Zone. And then there’s the all-important question of your jump, which is note-perfect whether you’re precision hopping between dangerous surfaces, button-mashing your way up a laddered chasm or performing a leap of faith into what you’re hoping is a hidden chamber (of which there are dozens).

Beyond these broad strokes, I fear to spoil, because Animal Well does such an amazing job of teaching you things and ushering you towards other things without resorting to text. It’s this wordlessness, of course, that makes it such a mystery, one that may occupy you for considerably longer than the 5-10 hours it takes to complete the initial run.

There are more obvious prompts and cues - a squirrel who is always fleeing off-screen, gargoyles whose eyes light up under certain conditions, and above all, the irresistible pull of the next puzzle. But there are other sights and sounds that take awhile to dawn on you, things you might want to circle back to after you’ve rolled the credits - which, according to publisher Bigmode, means you’ll have seen around half of what Animal Well has to offer. Some of these late-game revelations put me in mind of Polytron’s Fez . Among the things you can discover is a pencil you can use to scribble on the game’s map, and suffice to say that this is a game in which you might wish to take notes.

Again, I don’t want to give too much away. But I can at least tell you a little more about the animals, who range from enormous geckos through absolutely nightmarish ostriches to inconveniently boisterous dogs. If the puzzles make me think of Fez, Animal Well’s creatures recall Rain World , but there’s no entangled predator-prey ecology here that chases you between screens, and much less raw Darwinism to your relationships with the other critters - though there are definitely a few who want to eat you.

Image credit:Bigmode

These are openly videogame animals, rather than attempts at simulating a flesh-and-blood critter. They have many traits and foibles you might recognise from daily life, like the way a panting dog falls still when it senses something nearby, or the achingly slow movements of a starfish. But they have other capacities that reveal them for the descendants of other computerised creatures - the fauna and flora of Metroid and Oddworld and more recently, Amanita’s Creaks and even Subnautica .

They form a spectrum of naturalism into daydream. Some creatures are little more than animalised platform game fixtures, like the spectral mice heads that roll vertically and horizontally. Others are little animated portraits, like the vast capybara you see lounging in the background. A few of these animals have more complex behaviours that suggest a life beyond their function for the player, but most are obviously mechanical, and yet somehow endearing.

How should we feel about them? Mixed, I guess. Pleasantly on-edge, perhaps. Playing Animal Well reminded me strongly of John Berger’s old 1977 essay “Why Look At Animals?”, in which he argues that animals have been excluded from the lives of humans under capitalism in proportion to how imagery of animals has become widespread and commercialised. There is no way of recovering what Berger styles an ancient, totemic companionship between humans and animals because our methods of observation, representation and circulation are always hiding animals from view. “They are the objects of our ever-extending knowledge,” he writes. “What we know about them is an index of our power, and thus an index of what separates us from them. The more we know, the further away they are.”

I have no idea what Berger would make of Animal Well, or of representations of animals in videogames at large, but Basso’s game feels like a gentle, cyberpunky rebuttal of his conclusions. It takes the idea that animal images have excluded animals as its premise, and explores how our technologies of knowledge-making and representation may have become animalistic in response. Above all, the game’s confusing, hybrid creatureliness comes across in how these animals sound. Sometimes they cry out like beasts that are turning into software, with moans and yaps and howls and hisses that appear to have been relentlessly resampled and distorted. And sometimes, they cry out like software that has grown bestial and unruly for being left too long underground.

This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the developer.

Find out how we conduct our reviews by reading our review policy .

Animal Well

PS5 , PC , Nintendo Switch

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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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