Besiege: The Splintered Sea review: a small vessel for expansive seafaring

Just one more tweak to get these timbers shivering just right

Image credit:Spiderling Studios/Rock Paper Shotgun

• Developer: Spiderling Studios
• Publisher: Spiderling Studios
• Release: May 24th 2024
• On: Windows, Mac, Linux
• From: Steam / Humble
• Price: £8/€9/$9
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-8600K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070, Windows 10

I cannot compare my experience of writing a review for The Splintered Sea, the first paid expansion for dastardly clever physics puzzle builder Besiege , to that of a journaling sailor facing lethal storms on the horizon. Still, if we take for granted the idea that a review is only really valuable as an insight into the experience of the player: I haven’t been feeling especially great this week. That in mind: Splintered Sea is more Besiege, thoughtfully applied to its already expansive toolkit. More importantly, it’s currently bringing me deep and deeply needed moments of untainted, childlike, vaguely-Orkish joy.

Besiege is, broadly, a game about building siege engines, but this expands to things like flying machines, nimble vehicles, and whatever else your imagination fancies. There’s no power limit or cash value for parts, so your only real limits are whether your contraption can fit in the confines of the starting cube, and whether it actually works. Strapping ten cannons to the sails might seem like a great idea, but they’ll soon buckle and give way if they’re not properly braced. You’ll also want to make sure weight is balanced out evenly among your contraption, at least if you want to be able to move anywhere.

To give some structure to its sandbox modes, the meat of Besiege consists of challenge maps. Early on, these might be something like ‘destroy 80% of everything on screen’ - everything on screen being a mixture of knights and structures. Later, maybe the knights shoot flaming arrows, or maybe the structures are fortified to the point where you’ll need heavy weaponry to deal with them. Splintered Sea adds 10 new challenge maps and 8 new aquatic building blocks. Of these, things like barrels with adjustable buoyancy and aquatic screws that spin are the most significant, since these dictate things like submerging and steering.

Alongside this, it also features a lot of water, which can also be employed in its sandbox level editor. Adding water might not sound like much, but it brings with it all the physics simulation necessary to make constructing vessels to navigate that water - both surface and depth - feel complex and worthwhile. I felt like an utter genius the first time I tuned two spinny things to let me steer horizontally, only to realise I’d also have to effectively build a working submersible for the later levels. I can’t really speak to this too much because I stopped paying attention in science class quite young, but I will say that this water has moxy!

My high level takeaway from playing a chunk of the base game and most of its expansion levels is this: I can’t believe I waited this long to play Besiege, although I place some of that blame on the marketing. In short: no-one told me this game was basically an Ork simulator. Behold, the cursed contraption I came to know simply as ‘spikeyboy1’, since that’s what I saved it as:

Image credit:Spiderling Studios/Rock Paper Shotgun

The key difference between the contraptions in Besiege and those built by Warhammer’s Orks is that the ones here do not run simply on sheer belief - you will have to make sure everything is in working order. I would later make myriad improvements to his spikyship, notably a series of braces to stop him falling apart during an especially vigorous rampage. Sometimes, the game will give you a quest that asks not for wanton destruction but considered movement, in which case I’d be compelled to replace some of the murd-adornments with more practical appliances, like grabbers or vacuum guns. Sometimes, you have to destroy something quite high up, in which case my preferred tack was to make a column of stretchy extendo-pistons with a cannon on top. You usually get at least one good shot before you completely topple over.

Image credit:Spiderling Studios/Rock Paper Shotgun

In terms of the visuals here, I was tempted to write something along the lines of “they didn’t need to make it look this good!”. This is probably not true, since I get how important it is to be eye-catching when someone’s scrolling Steam. Still, Besiege is a real looker on top of its wonderful juxtapositions of complexity and silliness, practicality and knight-grinding. Ambient music and pouring rain tell of a conflict bringing despair to the land. I see a mission called The Duke’s Plea, bringing to mind a desperate parley to end this senseless bloodshed. I load in, and it’s just me and my ridiculous death machine and a bunch of knights, one of them holding up parchment in my tracks. Was this your plan, Lord Duke? A piece of paper! Well it won’t stop me, because I only learned to read blueprints for war crime accessories

Splintered Sea itself is even prettier, the base game’s gray boxes replaced with full ocean scenes that stretch in every direction. The ocean has fish in it, and you can murder them individually. I didn’t do this, of course. They just got caught my spinny bits accidentally. Here is me using a harpoon to steal some treasure. The fish simply got in the way:

Image credit:Spiderling Studios/Rock Paper Shotgun

I will say that any given set of levels in Besiege, and especially the 10 levels in Splintered Sea, can usually be knocked out quite quickly once you’ve got the basics down. So, if you’re considering picking them up, it’s worth asking where you fall on the in/extrinsic scale. Basically, will you enjoy building and experimentation for their own sake, or might you lose interest once you’ve beaten all the challenges? If it’s the second, you could be done in a couple brisk evenings, so something to keep in mind.

You’ve probably grasped by now that there’s no real storytelling in Besiege, which is fine, since that isn’t what the game is trying to do. Still, aside from the little snippets of scene setting achieved by the challenge layouts, I found Besiege did tell me a story: It was a story about how some things are just so ingrained that it’s very hard for the world to beat them out of us. One of these things is playing with toys, and another is taking those toys apart to see how they work, then building them back up again.

I’m not sure I have a grand theory about how games writing should be done, but I do think we should strive less to convince the doubtful that ‘games are more than just toys’ and more time celebrating the fact that toys can be awesome and incredibly complex and worthwhile things. Besiege is a fantastic toy - which is to say it’s an awesome and incredibly complex and worthwhile thing - and Splintered Sea is more of that, but with boats and sharks. Also a giant squid at one point. It’s great and I love it. Seven out of six point five thoroughly shivered timbers.

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

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

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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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