Conscript review: sturdily crafted and gruelling WW1 survival horror

Do green herbs work for trench foot?

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Team17

• Developer: Jordan Mochi, Catchweight Studio
• Publisher: Team17
• Release: July 23rd 2024
• On: Windows
• From: Steam / GOG / Epic Games Store
• Price: £20/€20/$20
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-8600K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070, Windows 10

Take me back to the soft blue light, Conscript . It’s safe there, in the save room. No body-armoured heavies with trench raiding clubs. No tunnels choked with sickly, mushy-pea green gas. No rats feasting on my ankles, occasionally inflicting a disease that halves my health bar. “Christ, they’re sending runners now?” the rifleman asks as I hoof south from Fort Souville after a gruelling trench defence whittles down my resources to a busted fightin’ spade and a handful of pistol bullets.

“Are we fucked?”

What a keen misery is it to realise it’s me rushing for aid - not the rotting horse corpses or the shell-shocked shaking in silent corners - that tips him off to encroaching disaster. I suppose spending so long in hell means gradual adjustments in temperature don’t really register.

I could really use that blue light. Set in 1916 during the battle of Verdun, comforts are few and far between. Still, here’s a comfort if you had your eye on this one: While Conscript dresses survival horror ’s cadaver in personal and occasionally playful ways to suit its own purposes, this is a craftspersonly sturdy implementation of the genre’s bones. It leaves a few mainstays on the table, sure. Puzzles run simple, and persistent despair replaces overt scares, but all the better for pacing and atmosphere. Its Spencer Mansion-esque interlocking environments run denser and larger than most, too. Again, for the better. The genre’s best placed safe rooms act as rhymes that support the metre, and here each excursion cycle feels like being flung out into a rot and rat-shit speckled labyrinth, threadless.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Team17

Not quite threadless, granted. You’ll find maps - good ones at that - marking not just locked doors but specifics. Notes tell you which keys for which doors, or where certain puzzles you’ll want to return to are. But disorientation and danger still arise from dense, claustrophic interiors and how regularly areas repopulate with enemies after progression points. Here’s a minor heresy for purists: you can’t really avoid the vast majority of combat encounters here. You can sometimes, slipping into designated spots to wait out a passing patrol. Most of the time, though, you’re going to be glad you kept a designated inventory slot for spare bullets.

I fought off said patrols with a controller. Left trigger to aim, right to fire, with crosshairs that focus the longer you steady your shot. Pistols are relatively weak but offer the advantage of not having to chamber every shot like the more effective rifle, and these minor points of interruption feel both authentic and pant-pissingly tense in the middle of a fight. We’re not made of bullets though, soldier, so you’d better get acquainted with the ancient and noble art of swinging a spade at a man’s skull.

Melee works similarly to guns, aim and swing, with a few odd quirks. Stagger feels very inconsistent in Conscript, although I found I could mostly reliably cancel an opponent’s melee attack if I swung at the very top of their swing’s pullback. Also, have fun cracking barrels. Your melee weapons don’t degrade hitting inanimate objects, which is nice, but also you have to wait until the crosshair focuses to reliably hit a barrel you’re standing right next to. I know, I know. Small potatoes. There’s a war on, etc. Those stagger inconsistencies were a bit of a sticking point for me, though. I suppose there has to be a semi-random element since you can’t aim at certain parts with the isometric viewpoint, but when resource usage and combat spacing are so vital, it feels worse to be cheated out of breathing room than it feels triumphant to be gifted it. Still, the dodge roll is an incredibly useful tool for making space, if you’ve got the stamina for it.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Team17

What does feel triumphant, gratifying even, is the sort of toned-down Resident Evil 4 loop of treasure hoarding to spend on resources and weapon upgrades. I say treasure - it’s mostly cigarettes, but occasionally you find a massive ruby or other precious gem. The description tells me these were probably unearthed by artillery. I can’t speak to whether this is a stretch or not, but it does feel like Conscript would become unbearably bleak - and discourage optional exploration besides - without some sort of traditional reward loop. I’m not saying this necessarily undermines the atmosphere, it’s just interesting to pinpoint the compromises - although nothing cuts through melancholy like an achievement named “What’re ya buying?” popping up.

Elsewhere, though, Conscript makes this stuff work for it. You’ll be called to the frontline at intervals. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a turret section feel less like a power fantasy. The crosshair shakes and shudders violently. German soldiers pile in groups of two, three, until every tool at your disposal is spent - then they pile in some more. A twist on Resident Evil 1 Remake’s crimson heads soon sees rats infest crucial routes until you put a stop to the source. The setting offers up enough hazards so that unlocking new areas with gas masks and dynamite feel like the actions of a resourceful, desperate soldier, as does crafting makeshift molotovs and medical supplies.

Again, though, it’s that underpinning machinery of map design, lock-and-key progression, and exploration flow that dams up an unbelievably bleak tale from ever draining into dreariness. Conscript is frequently stop-and-stare arresting in its implementation of jaundiced light and grim colour, its many creative uses of a palette largely limited to blood, rot, shit, and shell casings. But while Resi has camp, Signalis romance, and Silent Hill baroque profundity, Conscript has little to fall back on, save the grim promise of either the meat grinder or the deserter’s bullet. That is not an easy setup to make appealing and to inspire pushing on, but the game manages it. In much horror, hell is a place we descend to through decreasingly mundane thresholds. Here, it’s where we start.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Team17

There are salves. Terse, gallows-humour fortified conversations and opportunities to help your comrades by giving away precious items. The search for your wounded brother, made poignant through flashbacks that don’t need to lay on the sentiment, since just being away from the trenches for a little while is enough to evoke relief and comfort. One chapter opens up to a combat-less journey through devastated countryside - a well-placed show of confidence in an atmosphere of threat and trepidation to sustain itself when the bullets stop flying.

It can be tricky to assess the balance in a genre that relies on making you feel hopeless, threatened and, yes, a little bit tilted occasionally. Resources feel plentiful, initially, and so I feasted until famine struck and I had to abandon my first run, which honestly just made me respect Conscript more for committing to it. If this isn’t your bag, there’s four difficulty settings, plus options to enable checkpoints and unlimited saves - in saferooms still, but without needing to use an ink consumable. Also included are mainstays like playthrough ranks and unlockable costumes. And - ohoho! - an honest-to-god digital manual, complete with a blank notes page. Love it. The way I just structured that paragraph now necessitates I make it clear I’m not just saying this because of the manual, but: Conscript is good survival horror. Fill your boots. Check for rats first though, innit.

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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