Atomfall review

Northern powerhouse

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebellion

• Developer: Rebellion
• Publisher: Rebellion
• Release: March 27th, 2025
• On: Windows
• From: Steam , Game Pass
• Price: £45/$50/€50
• Reviewed on: Intel Core 19-10900K, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, Windows 10

The villagers of Wyndham are miserable. Stuck in a military cordon with little to do except look up at the exploded power plant that put them there, escape made even less feasible by the bandits and forest cultists on the other side, even the stiffest upper lips are starting to sag. One such fed-up chappie moans that it’s so bad, he’d rather be back in Swindon.

First off, way to disrespect our towering cultural contributions , philistine. He’d have a much better time if he actually did make a break for those big metal gates to the outside, because while Atomfall is an unexceptional FPS and only a decent survival game , its sheer openness and barrels upon barrels of on-tap intrigue make it worth poking your head in. If, that is, you’re able to go looking for answers unprompted.

The year is 1962, and Atomfall’s alt-history retelling has upgraded the Windscale fire from merely “Britain’s worst nuclear accident” to “Chernobyl if it was an episode of Pertwee-era Doctor Who”. A chunk of Cumbria – split up into five sub-regions, including the village – has been sealed off to keep the sci-fi oddities in, and you’re the poor amnesiac sod that’s just woken up in the middle of it.

The first order of business is escape, Lake District views be damned. While you can potter around, chinwagging with the nicer residents RPG-style, enabling this escape regularly involves fighting off criminals and lost-the-plot Druids, either with an assortment of melee weapons or one of the few working guns that this corner of England can offer. This starts Atomfall off on, honestly, its weaker foot. The shooting is decent, your guns’ rustiness belying their punchiness, but there is a certain character to the scavenged arsenal of close-quarters tools. Sadly, whacking folk with a police truncheon or gardening scythe never evolves beyond sluggish left-click drudgery. Every now and then you might throw in a kick, knocking your attacker off-balance long enough for a few free swings, but there’s little compelling reason to stick with melee brawling once you start scrounging up enough bullets (and start landing enough headshots) to make guns your go-to killing machines.

The stealth approach also spends several hours undercooked, before maturing through skill tree upgrades: unforgiving enemy detection and the loudness of your basic neck-snap takedown make sneaking a frustratingly all-or-nowt endeavour. That’s fitting enough for the atmosphere (post-catastrophic misery, infused with deeply ironic toodle-pippery), but it prevents stealth from being a viable core playstyle until you eat enough skill chemicals to quieten yourself down.

The survival aspect is better, if streamlined to only cover straightforward scavenging/crafting and a stamina-adjacent heartrate bar. They’re just enough of a concern that you’ll need to get thinky about acquiring and rationing crafting materials, or take care to time your melee strikes to avoid hampering heartrate spikes, but it’s not so oppressive that you’ll be too scared to make moves that might cost a precious bandage or rifle round. Atomfall’s stoney ruins and shady science facilities also have just enough spare parts lying around to encourage stopping and searching, which can lead to far more interesting finds than repurposable junk.

Yes, the real pleasure of Atomfall lies not in its fighting, nor in its surviving, but in rifling through its stuff. It’s a mystery investigation game as much as an action one, if not more, to the point it literally uses “Investigations” instead of a conventional mission flow. Discover a note, trade for a key, or simply extract an errant mention through dialogue, and you begin an investigation into whatever matters most foul are being hinted at. So far, so much like standard questing, except Atomfall makes two crucial distinctions: one, you can advance any investigation, in any order, at any time, and two, you’re not always told specifically where to go or what to look for.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebellion

This is a masterstroke. Not only are investigations open-ended, able to be started (and, very often, resolved) in multiple ways, but unless you’re playing with navigation aids on, it becomes truly up to you to explore leads and hunt down evidence. I’ve never been one to complain about waypoint markers making us lazy but there’s something much more fulfilling about grabbing MacGuffins when I can track them down with what little observation and deduction skills I have left, rather than because I followed directions from a UI arrow.

Despite lacking modern performance-boosters like DLSS, Atomfall runs smoothly on cheap and premium hardware alike. That includes the Steam Deck, which can produce between 40fps and 60fps on Medium quality. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebellion

Much has been said about how Atomfall cribs from Fallout , STALKER , and (if you’re an incorrect person ) Far Cry . There are also, maybe unsurprisingly in hindsight, strong notes of Rebellion’s own Sniper Elite series. Not so much in the sniping, but in how you’re dropped in a sandbox with one ultimate objective (kill the Nazi/Ditch Cumbria) and no particularly strict rules on how you go about it. Sniper Elite 5 , especially, rewards you for creeping into intricate, well-guarded interiors and finding clues on how you might be able to get through locked doors or engineer certain oberkommando-involved “accidents”. Atomfall is similar, except it’s even more trusting of your intelligence, near-constantly dropping leads for investigations that might need completing in an entirely different region, or that might need a few other steps completed first, or that might intersect with another investigation. Those are the best, especially when new discoveries help you realise that older leads had a whole other significance the whole time.

The abundance of criss-crossing lines of enquiry, many of which link in some way to your primary goal of escaping, means that it never feels like you’re wasting time, or doing busywork for its own sake. Everything is moving you along, often in unexpected ways. One investigation proved a red herring for my hopes of egress, with its main character fated to either die or disappear, yet still managed to make me think differently about a seemingly unrelated person, to the point that our friendly comradeship shattered into lethal distrust.

Even if not all investigations are as directly impactful on the climax, Atomfall is stuffed with examples like this, where an incidental glance or sidestep cascades into an interesting payoff. It’s a game where chancing upon a lost notepad leads to you springing a military prison break, or where stopping at random for a spot of metal-detecting has you stumbling upon the corpse of an NPC you thought you’d saved five hours ago – and, while reporting back to their bereft spouse, you spot the essential skill upgrade book you’ve been looking for on their dresser. For an adventure as freewheeling as this, you always seem to end up exactly where you need to be.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebellion

It helps that scampering around the five regions can be gratifying in itself, and not just because three of them are sprawling British countryside. These regions, like the investigations, are heavily interlinked, and you’d be doing yourself a disservice by only using the signposted checkpoints to move between them. Uncovering the plentiful hidden passageways that join them together – the steel threads in a patchwork exclusion zone quilt – is freeroaming exploration at its best. There’s a very particular thrill to discovering a new door or tunnel, both because its crevices may contain yet more starting points for fresh adventuring, and because each bypassed lock feels like an act of righteous defiance against your entrapment. You will escape, one abandoned mineshaft or quarantined bunker at a time. And, seriously, there are bloody loads of these things, stitching together every region at multiple points. I’d love to see the full playable area visualised – it must look like one of those aluminium ant colony casts , without the slaughtered ants.

One side-effect of having so many investigations, across such a density of locations, with such little hand-holding, is that it’s incredibly easy to miss stuff. That’s deemed acceptable, though, if not outright intentional on Rebellion’s part. Beyond marking some investigations with a “Main Story” tag, Atomfall is content to sit back and let you decide which jobs are the most urgent. I first rolled credits after about ten and a half hours, well short of the 25-hour average that’s been bandied round in the news lately, yet I was still satisfied by a journey in which I’d chosen my allies and gathered all the requisite endgame gear entirely on my own initiative.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebellion

Also, without wanting to spark a game-length-equals-quality debate, I did appreciate how Atomfall valued my time. It’s wide enough to get lost in for a spell (I’ve since dumped another nine hours into sidequests and alternative endings) yet doesn’t bother padding itself out in some mad pursuit of life-consuming open world bigness. Likewise, it never attempts to convey a scale beyond its means, thus avoiding an Outer Worlds -style problem of feeling disappointingly small by the end. Its size is, in Goldilocks measurements, just right.

It’s a shame that next to the investigating, Atomfall’s shooting, sneaking, and cricket batting don’t deliver the same joys. Still, they’re competent enough not to get in the way, and with a little finesse it’s possible to enjoy extended bouts of that rich, intricate sleuthing without doing a single violence at all. Don’t let those village pub bores get you down: there are far worse places for a forgetful soldier-detective to be.

This review is based on a review build provided by the publisher.

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

Atomfall

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , 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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