Baldur’s Gate 3’s Nocturne is a landmark in trans representation, but for her voice actor it’s just the beginning

Abigail Thorn, aka Philosophy Tube, says “the goal is liberation, not celebrity”.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Larian Studios

I bought Baldur’s Gate 3 shortly after its release as a need than a want, when I was a year-and-half into my gender transition and hormone replacement therapy. Gender transition is not just an arduous journey of self-discovery, but also a profound and constant engagement with one’s own reality. I was desperate for some escapism, and Larian Studios’ much-anticipated new entry into the Baldur’s Gate fantasy RPG franchise offered the perfect rabbit hole to fall down.

As a child, my gaming habits were relatively stereotypical for a closeted girl: select female characters wherever possible, especially in RPGs. But the immersion almost always wears off. The trans inclusion in games like Dungeon Siege , Sacred 2: Fallen Angel , The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and others is effectively non-existent, and the result for transgender and transsexual players is a feeling that, even in fantasy worlds, we are invisible at best. Nocturne , a trans supporting character in Baldur’s Gate III played by Abigail Thorn, has changed that experience for me. In an interview, Thorn shared some of her thoughts and experiences regarding Nocturne and trans representation in games.

Thorn is likely best known for her YouTube channel PhilosophyTube , where she produces provocative and timely video essays on topics ranging from climate change to, more recently, the ethical considerations of artificial intelligence. She is also no stranger to performance, being a trained actor who has starred in several TV shows as well as a stage play, The Prince , which she also wrote. That her career has made a stop in Baldur’s Gate, one of the most popular fantasy RPG franchises and the biggest game of 2023, is a milestone – not least for the industry and for trans gamers. Thorn, explaining her excitement for the role, described voiceover work as a “fun balance of technical challenge and creative art,” adding that playing Nocturne gave her the chance to perform physically too, it being her first chance to work with motion capture technology.

Despite being ignorant of Thorn’s presence in Baldur’s Gate III, signs of the game’s trans-inclusivity were evident in initial promo materials showing off its character creator. The ability to select the genitals of your character separately from their gender is not something we see often, and goes a long way to make trans gamers feel recognised. And unlike Cyberpunk 2077’s controversial implementation of the same idea, Larian Studios seemed to be approaching the topic of gender, sex, and bodies in their fantasy game with a degree of respect.

I ask Thorn whether she holds any trans characters from video games or other fictional media close to her heart, and she says she’s tempted to say Abby in The Last Of Us Part 2 or Link in The Legend Of Zelda, to be cheeky. “But truthfully,” she says, “I have two portraits on the wall of my study and they aren’t characters, they’re real women: Kim Petras and Audre Lorde.”

Shar, the evil deity Nocturne and Shadowheart worship |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Larian Studios

“Kim’s music called me home to a femininity like a message from outer space; I didn’t know how to get there but I knew I needed to go,” she explains. “Audre Lorde and other black cis feminists helped me build the rocket; I learned from them how to think about and through myself, both as a trans person and also just as a woman.”

In a way, Thorn’s preference to give her real life inspirations in a discussion about the impact of a fictional character hits right upon why Nocturne is such a meaningful character to a trans female gamer; behind Nocturne, lending her life, is a real woman. Just as Kim Petras called to Thorn from outer space, Nocturne can call to trans women from her distant fantasy realm of Faerûn. By the time I met Nocturne - a member of the same group of Shar worshippers as companion character Shadowheart - and learned of her backstory by talking to her and others who knew her prior to her transition, I was already on my own transition journey. I was primed not to be called to a new destination, but to be reminded of where I have come from, and how far that place now lies in my past.

Both Nocturne and her friend and ex-lover Shadowheart’s stories are about discovery and fighting to be their most authentic selves. The two were members of the punitive Cult Of Shar together, and both changed their names and identities during their time in it. Shadowheart’s identity shift, despite her being cisgender, is what initially emboldened Nocturne to do the same. Nocturne says that she never found others’ mocking of Shadowheart’s name change amusing, particularly because it helped her realise she herself was unhappy with who she was.

“Shadowheart is cis?!” exclaims Thorn. “I assume every character is trans unless explicitly stated otherwise, do you not? …I’m kidding of course. When trans people transition everyone around us has to go through a kind of transition too: changing the way they think, sometimes letting go of old ideas. Our families especially sometimes go on a perilous quest for knowledge. It might be easier for them if they could see characters in fiction making similar journeys.”

Baldur’s Gate III does a magnificent job of teasing out the details of Nocturne’s life through Thorn’s performance, but also through environmental storytelling. When you meet Nocturne, you can also find her private diary nearby, and, forgetting real-world conventions of respect and healthy boundaries, read it. There’s an entry which presumably came not long after she changed her name and began her transition: “I am Nocturne. I think as her. I see her when I look in the mirror. I can’t remember the last time someone called me by the wrong name – Shadowheart has been swift to gently correct slips of the tongue, and even swifter in challenging those who’d use my forsworn name in malice. I’m lucky to have her as a friend.”

Shadowheart, getting drunk with the player character |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Larian Studios

Nocturne’s diary entries are deeply relatable to, perhaps, most trans people, as we slowly develop congruence between our inner selves, the person we see in the mirror, and the person that others see. Nocturne’s story is both physical and psychological; her experience of gender ephemeral, personal, and social all at once. It is a remarkable achievement for a minor character, with all credit due to the game’s writers, character designers, and of course, Thorn. I ask how the process of bringing this trans character to life was different compared to her role as Nora, a 2D character from Harmony: The Fall Of Reverie, or Hotspur from her play The Prince, and she says she approached it in the same way as other professional acting roles: research the character, find fun characteristics and mannerisms, and try to get inside their head.

“Nocturne was an interesting one because there’s a lot of lore to get to grips with that provides context for her inner life,” Thorn adds. “The only difference is I don’t have to think about the costume! Which is a plus and a minus, I suppose: I often get a strong sense of a character from their shoes – how someone makes contact with the Earth tells you so much about them,” she says. “But of course when you’re just a voice you have to wear imaginary shoes!”

Imaginary shoes. If there is a better descriptor of the immersion of RPGs, I’ve never heard it. Stepping into Faerûn as my character, a human druid, was to don a pair of imaginary leather boots and become a different version of myself in another world. When I met Nocturne, her story resonated; she has walked a journey similar to my own. There is something quite marvelous in finding kinship with an imaginary being. When it comes down to just what is so powerful about stories, fictional or not, is it not always about wanting to see our own of what Thorn calls “perilous quests” reflected in the lives of others? Is the power of representation not always about seeing both living people and characters in fairy tales “making similar journeys”? As a trans woman, the most exciting thing about a canonically transgender character like Nocturne in a fantasy world like Baldur’s Gate III is that it is a reminder that we can and do exist in the real one, too.

While there are and have been other trans characters in video games, very few have managed to so effectively share what their internal worlds look like with the player, or their feelings about the process of their transition. Examples of trans-coded and queer characters like Rivet and Kit in Ratchet and Clank, Madeline in Celeste, Vivian and Birdo in the Nintendo canon, Larissa in Red Strings Club have all contributed to trans and queer storytelling in video games just by existing. Nocturne is also not even the first transgender character in the Baldur’s Gate franchise. The first official trans character in the series, Mizhena, raised controversy when she debuted in the 2016 expansion pack DLC for the first Baldur’s Gate game, Beamdog’s Siege Of Dragonspear.

Image credit:Devolver Digital

Mizhena’s depiction in Siege Of Dragonspear may have laid the basic foundations for Baldur’s Gate III’s Nocturne, but as a character she was still very much incidental in the world, and her trans story was condensed into just four lines of dialogue. But the writers at Larian Studios, along with Thorn’s performance, have gifted Nocturne’s transness an extra touch of humanity and candour that is seldom seen in video games. I ask Thorn whether or not she felt optimistic about the increase of trans representation in media, and her answer is cautious. Though her work has, in the past, resulted in people recognising they were trans themselves, she says that trans representation won’t solve all our problems.

“White supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchy violently inflicts precarity on the vast majority of queer people whilst uplifting one or two ‘special queers’ - myself included - on the condition that we perform queerness in such a way that allows cishet people to delude themselves into believing they aren’t complicit in or benefitting from that violence. When we see trans characters in media and trans kids sleeping rough on the streets those things aren’t necessarily in tension: they’re part of the same societal mechanism of control and consent manufacture,” she explains, noting that, despite condemnation from international medical authorities, the NHS may go ahead with banning puberty blockers in the UK. “If they can do that and get away with it, what good does it really do if Abigail Thorn is on television? Trans representation is nice, but I prefer to think in terms of Trans Power. We need to control our own lives, and that means cis people like NHS managers need to give up some of the power they have over us. If me being in movies and TV shows and games helps with that then great, but the goal is liberation not celebrity.”

In the context of Nocturne’s world, both her and Shadowheart’s oppression by the Cult Of Shar is extreme, but doesn’t compare with the very real and even more extreme systems of oppression we face in the real world. Still, Thorn’s answer made me think about what it is that is so important about the relationship between fiction, representation, and reality. As a woman who almost never made it this far into my own life, the importance of seeing people like Kim Petras, Nocturne, Laverne Cox, or, yes, even Poison from Final Fight, lies not in their popularity, but in the story of possibility they tell by existing. To me, Thorn’s emphasis on practical rights and freedoms for trans people goes hand in hand with what she compared to a “message from outer space”: a signal of hope that we too can continue to exist.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Larian Studios

“It’s nice that trans people can be represented in fantasy, because of course we have fantasies like anyone else! Imagining yourself into a different world is part of the fun of role playing, and I like that trans players can place themselves into Baldur’s Gate III in all their realness,” Thorn says. “The thing about Nocturne is that she comes with the label and she can never take it off – she’s ‘The Trans Character’ and that’s close to the sum of her raison d’être in the minds of many. I don’t think that’s the writers’ fault or anything, it’s just an inevitable consequence of where we are right now, sociopolitically speaking. Whereas real people like you and me, we’re many things: I’m a daughter, a sister, an auntie, an actress, a voter, a businesswoman, a writer – and I happen to also be trans.”

In the end, Nocturne in Baldur’s Gate III is more than just a character – she’s a reminder that trans individuals are multifaceted, with diverse experiences beyond just our gender. Thorn’s candid reflections on her portrayal emphasise that representation in fiction should not be celebrated as-is, but rather treated as a catalyst for understanding, acceptance, activism, and ultimately liberation in society. Despite my intention in playing Baldur’s Gate III having been to escape reality, in navigating a second life in Faerûn and meeting Nocturne I found echoes of my journey, a pair of imaginary shoes that could have been my own, and a reminder that as a trans woman I’m not alone. Seeing a fictional character make a similar journey to my own, portrayed by a living trans woman, made me feel – like turning over the last page of a good book – fuller returning to my life in the real world.

Baldur’s Gate III

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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