Blue Prince is already the very best shapeshifting videogame house

Cellar door

Image credit:Raw Fury

I’m currently trying to find a new flat in London. This is not much fun, though it’s a great opportunity to meet and bond with other would-be tenants over a shared, grinding resentment of landlords who will literally stuff a bed in a toilet and call it a “studio apartment”. It’s also left me powerfully invested in the premise of Blue Prince , a first-person puzzler which looks like a graphic novel and starts with your character inheriting a huge, weird, isolated mansion, Mt. Holly, from an eccentric great-uncle.

Lucky you! There’s a catch, though: according to your great-uncle’s will, you only get to keep the place if you can find its 46th room. The catch hanging off that catch is that going by its flatplan, the mansion only has 45 rooms. And the catch hanging off that catch is that the mansion changes shape between visits. Every time you open one of its many doors, you must choose from three cards to decide which room is on the other side. To find the elusive 46th room, you must “draft” rooms in certain combinations to unfold the mystery of the place and wiggle your way to its heart.

Tonda Ros, co-founder of California-based Dogubomb, has been making Blue Prince for almost a decade, working by himself for a couple of years before gathering a small team to flesh out his prototypes and overhaul the initial, stock-asset art direction. “I come from a filmmaking background, so I wanted to make a really atmospheric, narrative-heavy first person adventure game initially, when I started in around 2016,” he tells me. Inspired by celebrity indies such as Braid and Limbo , Ros experimented with coding his own house environment, while also tinkering around with some ideas for table-top games - his inspirations there include Agricola and Labyrinth.

“I had a design of drafting rooms where you passed room cards from player to player, and you’re each selecting one room to draft,” he goes on. “So I was like, ‘Okay, I wonder how that would combine with the first person adventure thing?’. And so I built a prototype in the first three months. And it was really fun. And I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll commit to another six months and finish it’. That was eight years ago. So my timeline was a little off. And the ambitions grew and grew. And I think the more I went on, the more I became obsessed with the idea of everyone’s day [in the house] being different.”

Blue Prince’s unearthly house is laid out like a chessboard on your drafting menu, with nine ranks pointing northwards from the lobby towards the other exit. Moving between these rooms costs steps, of which you have a limited quantity per in-game day. There are three other main resources: keys for unlocking doors and other objects within rooms, coins, which can be spent in various ways, and gems, which are needed to draft rarer varieties of room.

Image credit:Raw Fury

These four, reassuringly tangible commodities sit atop and feed into a Byzantine boardgame economy of room states and effects. Some rooms work like terrain hazards, stealing a coin when you walk through them, while still potentially being necessary to make progress. Others, such as bedrooms, refresh your character’s wits and restore a few steps, every time you enter. Better, then, to draft a bedroom in the middle of the house layout, so that you pass through it frequently. Or, if you’re focussed on exploring and learning during the run in question, draft several bedrooms to keep your stamina topped up, instead of rooms that might be more relevant to the overarching puzzle.

Some rooms have effects that multiply when you draft several of that type at once. Others evolve individually when you play them again and again. Draft an observatory repeatedly, and you can look through its telescope to discover a new constellation each time, with varying consequences elsewhere in the house. There’s a grand dining room where a hearty meal is served by unseen agents at a certain point every day, as signalled by a bell that never failed to make my skin crawl, during my 45 minutes with the game. Blue Prince isn’t horror in the sense of jumpscares and gore graffiti – indeed, many of the rooms are very cosy (certainly by comparison to the average “delightful”, “fully furnished” “maisonette” on London Zoopla). But the house gradually envelops you in a way that is all the worse for you being its architect. It’s… troubling to look back after drafting a few rooms in a straight line and join them all up with your gaze. It feels like feeding your whole arm into a big, silent machine, fumbling around for a single cog that isn’t marked anywhere on the blueprints.

You’ll find tools, as well, like a magnifying glass that lets you read tiny clues in any books or pictures you discover. There are keycards for electric doors. Some rooms contain circuit boxes that rout power between those electric doors and other gadgets. There’s a darkroom with pegged-up photographs, which can’t be seen until you turn on the lights. And then there are the rooms and artefacts that crack open windows upon your great-uncle’s past, and hint at an explanation for the mansion’s bizarre behaviour.

Image credit:Raw Fury

“The whole game is kind of designed in a very modular, nonlinear way,” Ros says. “So if you haven’t figured something out, that’s OK - I’ve designed every challenge to be attacked from multiple angles. And for you to be able to solve things by thinking outside of the box, so there are often-times multiple solutions to puzzles.”

He’s found it exhilarating, watching different players discover different combinations of rooms and apply different strategies to the deck. “We’ve done three years of internal playtesting, and the cool thing is that I’ve seen so many styles of play. And we’ve designed the game to embrace everyone’s style. There’s people spend two hours on each [in-game] day. And there’s some people for whom every day is 10 minutes. I’d say the average day is about 30 minutes, for the average player, but it depends on how good at strategy you are. As you solve puzzles in the game, you unlock permanent upgrades, that may grant you more resources each day, so that it becomes easier, the more puzzles you solve. But for players that don’t really like puzzles, they can just play it as a more difficult strategy game.”

I had absolutely no idea what Blue Prince was before setting foot within it, and now, I can’t stop thinking about the game. There’s no urgency to it - time stands still providing you do, and I’ve seen nothing so far in the way of elements that require quick reactions or dexterity, let alone any explicit threats. Still, it’s an immensely creepy creation, for all its calm. Whatever the order in which you lay out the rooms, you are always building a labyrinth with some kind of minotaur at its core. Coins, stars, gems and steps aside, the most important resource at your disposal is, of course, information - information, and a generous pinch of luck. “I think it’s possible, technically, to beat the game in a single day,” Ros says. “But everything has to go right, and you have to be incredibly bright.”

Blue Prince doesn’t have a release date yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam .

Blue Prince

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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