Avowed review

Avoid?

Image credit:Obsidian/Rock Paper Shotgun

• Developer: Obsidian
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• Release: February 18th, 2025
• On: Windows
• From: Steam / Game Pass
• Price: £60/€70/$70
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-12600K, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti, Windows 10

Avowed is almost good, but there’s something so resigned and workmanlike to its quest design and storytelling that it often feels like dog-eared chorelist of Obsidian must-haves, ticked off so aimlessly that the result is a bit like having an RPG described to you by someone late for a bus.

And that should be that, really. I’d run through all the ways Obsidian’s latest didn’t quite do it for me, most of you would go play it anyway because it’s on Games Pass, and we’d all go back to patiently waiting for the sun to explode.

But, god, what a devastatingly gorgeous open-zoned world this is. What a triumphantly weird, sprawling playground of fantasy naturalia . What a treat it is to just climb all over, its design ethos captured in the first magical ring I found offering a 15% buff to parkour speed.

Ignore two thirds of the weapons and just roll a wizard to witness the stodgy melee combat of other classes give way to crackling, cackling spell-slinging. There is such a gulf of quality here it’s like playing two different games. I spent 27 hours having a meh ol’ time until a reinstallation of Nvidia’s loathsome app deleted 200 some screenshots and I had to restart. Why not play a wizard? I thought. Why not indeed. Suddenly, I’m frying whole families of lizards at once with chain lightning and grinning like Palpatine in a pet shop.

Of all the things I expected to have to say about Obsidian’s latest, “it’s a pretty fun magical treasure-hunting parkour FPS” was not one, but here we are.

Extra conversation options come from the background you’ll pick in the character selection, combat stats that double as character traits, and the occasional abnormality. |Image credit:Obsidian/Rock Paper Shotgun

Avowed’s introduction follows a multicoloured lemur-like snifflebeast curiously pawing up ivy-licked branches until it disturbs a dripping vegetal cyst, which puffs out noxious gasses and knocks the lemur to its death on the forest floor. Night falls and other lemurs come to investigate, only to be greeted by a snarling fungal zombie in the form of their former branchmate. These are the effects of the Dreamscourge, a mycelial plague with the potential to affect all life on the wild and dangerous Living Lands. As an envoy to the emperor of Aedyr, you’re here to investigate.

It’s a tense situation for a few reasons besides the Big Shiitake. Your first port of call is Paradis, a sanctuary for salty rogues that - like most in the Living Lands - don’t take well to the new Aedyran occupation, nor the presence of an inquisitorial band of supercops named The Steel Garotte. Local customs? Give ’em the musket. Adherents of ancient magical traditions? Free trip to the pyre. The game lets you pick your own flavour of supercop as you try to quell various unrests and placate locals or root out resistance as you see fit, providing you see fit to choose between a couple of obvious responses plus a token selfish bastard option whenever someone remembered to write one in. “How much is it worth to you?”. “This much coin”. “Thank you for your coin”. “No, thank you for taking my coin from me”. I made those last two bits up but that’s the vibe. Everyone feels so easy to shake down, either for actual cash or just their resolve in general.

Initially engaging sidequests fizzle out with little pathos or intrigue; larger beats can offer difficult dilemmas but feel siloed and stiffly scripted. All beats are haunted by a deity that speaks to your character from afar and interrupts the fun constantly with achingly dull riddle-me-this mushroom bullshit. I rarely felt allowed to express myself in ways I wanted, more that I was having choice and consequence™ dangled in front of me as an obligatory feature of This Sort Of Thing.

If there’s any treasure in that temple, or anyone’s home, I’ll be able to take it without a peep from anyone. You can steal NPC’s money from right next to them without anyone saying a word, save a few scripted comments. |Image credit:Obsidian/Rock Paper Shotgun

But! There is a sort of organic, evolving sense of political and social tension in the cities and towns that makes itself known in some fun ways. “I’ve got no quarrel with you,” I tell the bandit leader that’s just stopped me in the street out of nowhere. “Well, you better find some quarrel quick!” he retorts. There is no dialogue option to tell him I don’t know what that means and it sounds like a sofa mimicking human speech patterns so we just fight. Avowed is full of bits like this, unmarked encounters and conversations that add texture to the busy settlements. I help a guard by the gate search a trader’s goods for contraband, find two grenades, pocket them, then tell the guard I ain’t seen nuffin. In a back alley I find a grandiloquent moustache bastard named ‘Cutty Pete" who sells illicit goods. One of them is a magic pistol named ‘The Disappointer’ with a lovely lore blurb that tells me how shit it is.

I’d love to waste money on it but I can’t, because the way Avowed gates-off progress by demanding you carry adequately colour-tiered equipment to deal with certain enemies can be so stringent that it sometimes threatens to make the entire concept of freeform exploration pointless. You can either buy new stuff for millions of money or use millions of the upgrade materials you’ll find in chests strewn about the world, and then you’ll probably accidentally find a magic item that does the job after two hours spent gathering the right resources. Exploration is wonderful for reasons I’ll talk about soon, but few things feel worse than getting truly absorbed in your own freeform adventures before realising you’re now forced to do a chain of side quests in a very specific order to gather funds so you can carry on enjoying yourself.

Of course, you could and should just play as a wizard, which doesn’t negate the gating but does let you fry lizards above your weight class easier. Melee just isn’t interesting. You can fall into a comfortable rhythm with it but you’ll otherwise be doing the same thing hour 30 as hour one: watching your character slash, parry, and block as you shout commands at them through a megaphone full of baked beans. Firearms are fun in concept, but decades of collective gun wisdoms on juice and heft have seemingly been ignored, and so headshots are physically identical to opening a browser tab.

You can cook food at camp, as well as upgraded equipment, then munch it all down in the field for health and mana regeneration as well as other buffs. |Image credit:Obsidian/Rock Paper Shotgun

So, magic it is. Spellbook in one hand, wand in the other. One-handed wands can’t help but look inherently twee so it’s always very funny to stun a bear by filling its stagger bar then bring the Bibbidi-bobbidi -boot down. Progressively better books offer upgraded elemental spells which you can then augment and bind to your hotkeys through the class skill tree. There’s another stat tree with percentage bonuses for things like perception and might, and you can sometimes use these to talk your way out of fights. You might want to do that as wizard, because you’re squishy of course, but that’s where your companions come in.

I…don’t really feel like writing about who they are as characters save to say that the only one I liked was Brandon Keener’s Kai and then only a little bit. They do talk to each other at camp though, which is nice. More usefully, they have their own skill trees with hotkey abilities you can mix and match to shore up your own weaknesses. So, if you want to pin down a troublesome guard with an axe, you can have tracker dwarf and charisma void Marius throw down some trapping vines.

Avowed’s open zones are wonderfully vertical, and you might spend as long climbing around a city’s outside walls than exploring the city itself. |Image credit:Obsidian/Rock Paper Shotgun

Avowed bloody loves a good vine, and not for nothing either. “Are those roots tearing the bridge apart, or holding it together?” asks Kai. What a beautiful and perfect line that is. My favourite one in a script of scant wit and scanter interest in brevity. It could be a mission statement for Avowed’s entire approach to environmental design; nature eating nature eating civilisation and throwing it back up again in myriad eye-catching, hand-crafted ways. Its outside environments beg to be trundled through. Its dungeons and caves feel conjured from a fantasy Boomer Shooter, momentously flowing and stuffed with secrets found through hidden pools and smashed walls.

If you have Game Pass, it’s worth the download just to go rambling and vaulting. And hey, you might find some interesting characters where I just found fantasy-themed insurance advert extras reading from lore encyclopedias with the occasional bawdy dad joke scrawled in the margins. There is a honest-to-god “it’s not the size, it’s how you use it” dialogue option in this thing. Someone wrote that. Someone else okayed it. A willy joke! A lovely little willy joke in my RPG! Tops. Anyway, better be off. I’ve got lighthouses to climb and horizons to dive toward. Sometimes it really is the size. This might be the most beautiful, intricately hand-crafted open-ish world in gaming. I wish I was more excited to spend time in it.

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Avowed

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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