Best skills to get first in Enshrouded

There are some real game-changers in the Enshrouded skill tree

Image credit:Keen Games

What are the best skills in the Enshrouded skill tree? Enshrouded , like many open-world survival crafting games, implements a number of RPG progression systems. Chief among them is a skill tree, in which you start at the centre and branch off towards many powerful important skill nodes.

If you’re wondering which areas of the skill tree to prioritise, then you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll walk you through 12 (well, technically 13) of the very best skills in Enshrouded , where they reside in the skill tree, and what makes them so powerful.

Take a look at the release date announcement trailer for Enshrouded here.Watch on YouTube

Best skills in Enshrouded

In general, the larger nodes in the Enshrouded skill tree will always be more powerful and important than the smaller nodes. But you shouldn’t neglect the smaller nodes either, as some of them bestow very important benefits and stat increases which can increase your health, stamina, damage, and so on. Below we’ve put together our list of the very best skills in Enshrouded in no particular order, to help you figure out which skills and paths to prioritise.

The best skills in Enshrouded are:

1. Merciless Attack
2. Sneak Attack
3. Well Rested
4. Double Jump
5. Blink
6. Breach
7. Updraft
8. Bounty Bonanza
9. Skill Shot
10. Dessert Stomach
11. Inner Fires/Relentless Flame
12. Swift Blades

Find out where they reside in the Enshrouded skill tree by using the cheat sheet below. And for more information on what each of these skills do and why we’ve picked them as our favourites, keep reading!

Use our cheat sheet to locate the best skills in the Enshrouded skill tree. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun

1. Merciless Attack

Perform a Merciless Attack by pressing E or Y to deal massive damage to an enemy you’ve overpowered.

Merciless Attack is always the first skill I pick up for a new Enshrouded character, because it forms such an essential part of melee combat. Deal enough damage to an enemy’s guard and you’ll fill their stun meter, opening them up to a Merciless Attack that deals significantly more damage. It’s extremely useful for levelling the playing field against powerful enemies.

2. Sneak Attack

The Sneak Attack deals massive 10x damage to unaware enemies. To trigger it, sneak up on an enemy and press E or Y .

Sneaking is slightly temperamental in Enshrouded, but you just can’t ignore the opportunity to sneak attack someone seeing as it deals a whopping 10x your usual damage to the target. It’s almost always a one-shot-kill, unless you’ve delved into areas far beyond your level. Sneak Attacks can turn a fight from a risky attack into an easy cleanup after the main enemy goes down with one hit.

3. Well Rested

The base duration for the Rested buff is increased by 5 minutes.

If you’ve read my Enshrouded tips and tricks guide, you’ll know that the Rested buff is one of your greatest strengths. This buff is easy to obtain, and massively increases your maximum Stamina for the duration. The only downside is that it doesn’t last forever. But with the Well Rested skill, you can increase the duration by another 5 minutes, which can make a lot of difference particularly in the early game.

4. Double Jump

Allows jumping a second time while airborne.

One of the most game-changing skills in Enshrouded is the Double Jump. There’s not much to say here, it’s fairly self-explanatory. The terrain in Enshrouded - particularly inside areas corrupted by the Shroud - can get quite difficult to navigate. Double Jump makes you much more mobile in nearly every situation, and once you have it, it’s hard to imagine playing without it.

5. Blink

Replaces the Dodge Roll ability with a short range teleport.

Once you unlock Blink, it replaces your regular Dodge Roll with a teleport which allows you to dodge attacks more reliably, and cover ground more quickly during fights. It’s very useful on its own, but even more so when you unlock the next two skill nodes: Blink Attack, which triggers an explosion when you blink into an enemy; and Emergency Blink, which allows you to break out of the stunned status effect by blinking.

6. Breach

When you break a block with melee attacks, the target will suffer 100% more melee damage for 2 seconds.

Breaking an enemy’s block is a common and important part of Enshrouded’s combat. 2 seconds may not be a long time, but double damage is a big deal. Even a regular combo of attacks will deal huge damage, particularly when backstabbing. Just like the Merciless Attack, it makes fighting challenging enemies much easier.

7. Updraft

Pressing the jump button while gliding will give you a small height boost. This skill can be used once per flight. Cost: 120 mana.

The Glider is one of the most important tools you can get in Enshrouded. Other than fast travel, it’s the quickest way to get from one part of the map to another. But you can only lose altitude for so long before you reach the ground. Updraft gives you a once-per-flight boost upwards, giving you extra altitude to reach further distances than before.

8. Bounty Bonanza

After defeating a Fell enemy with a headshot your group gains an additional 5 Experience Points.

Any skill or ability in any game that offers you extra XP is pretty much always a good idea to get as early as possible. Bounty Bonanza is that skill for Enshrouded. Each time you kill a Fell enemy with a headshot, you gain 5 additional XP. It may not sound like much, but it adds up - particularly if you like headshotting enemies from afar. It’s very satisfying in this game.

9. Skill Shot

All damage dealt to an enemy’s head is increased by 20%.

Skill Shot dovetails perfectly with the previous skill by increasing your headshot damage to enemies by 20%. It makes scoring a kill with a headshot a fair bit easier, and even if you’re not using Bounty Bonanza, it’s a fantastic skill that any bow-wielder ought to get sooner than later.

10. Dessert Stomach

You gain one additional food slot.

Food is essential to Enshrouded. Every expedition, particularly into the Shroud, ought to be prefaced by two or three different foodstuffs which confer great benefits like extra Health and Stamina. With Dessert Stomach, you max food slots at a time increases to four. It may not sound like much, but the ability to have four different food effects active at once instantly makes you much more powerful.

11. Inner Fires/Relentless Flame

Maximum Shroud Time increased by 2/5 minutes, allowing you to explore for longer.

These two skills are essentially the same effect, but one is later in the skill tree and more powerful than the other. Both Inner Fires and Relentless Flame increase your default Shroud timer, allowing you to spend longer in the Shroud. It’s quite likely that as you continue to play Enshrouded, your most common cause of death (whether directly or indirectly) will be spending too long in the Shroud. These skills will help you to survive in Enshrouded’s most dangerous environments.

12. Swift Blades

Allows you to attack faster with one-handed swords and axes.

Finally, Swift Blades unlocks right near the end of the Warrior path in the skill tree, and increases your melee DPS by increasing your attack rate with one-handed swords and axes. You have more than enough hotbar slots with your two hotbars to have access to various kinds of weapons at once, so while you may prefer two-handed weapons, bows, or magical weapons, there’s always room for a one-handed weapon and shield combo. And Swift Blades gives you a significant DPS buff with this combo.

That brings our Enshrouded skills guide to an end. If you’re less of an explorer and more of an architect, we’ve also got you covered with our guide on how to build in Enshrouded .

Enshrouded

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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

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