Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build and best skills

Learn how to make the best Penetrating Shot Rogue build in Diablo 4

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Want the best Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build? Diablo 4 has many ranged builds, but the Penetrating Shot Rogue is especially powerful thanks to its ability to churn out Critical Strikes at a high rate. With the launch of Season 1 , this build has become even stronger thanks to the addition of Malignant Hearts, a new item type that grant strong powers, many of which synergise with Penetrating Shot.

In this guide, we break down how to make the best Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build, covering the Skills, Specialization, Aspects, Stats, Gems, and Malignant Hearts that you’ll need. This build is fully updated to reflect Patch 1.1.0, but we’ll continue to update it as more patches arrive in the future.

If you’re after some different Rogue builds , check out our Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue build !

What is the best class in Diablo 4? Watch this video to find out.Watch on YouTube

Best Penetrating Shot Rogue build in Diablo 4

Our Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build uses Poison and Shadow Imbuement with Penetrating Shot, which allows you to spread Vulnerable and Poison effects through packs of enemies with ease. Shadow Imbuement is particularly good for packs, as it’ll cause enemies to detonate on death, dealing damage to anything nearby, while Poison Imbuement gets massive damage boosts on Critical Strikes that make it excellent against Bosses and Elites.

Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build skills

Below, you’ll find a full list of the skills that you should acquire for our Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build, in order:

Forceful Arrow

Forceful Arrow is your Basic skill, and you’re going to use it more than you might use Basics in other builds. That’s because Forceful Arrow has a lot of utility - it gives you Combo Points, it knocks enemies back and, with the Concussive passive, boosts your Critical Strike Chance, and it inflicts the Vulnerable status effect.

Penetrating Shot

Penetrating Shot is your main skill, as it can use either Imbuement skill to get massive damage boosts. It fires an arrow that pierces through enemies, helping spread your Imbuements further and dealing huge damage that increases drastically with Combo Points. The Enhanced upgrade pushes that damage even higher with each pierced enemy.

Advanced Penetrating Shot is the most important upgrade, though, Slowing all enemies it hits by 50% for 3 seconds and knocking down Elites for 1.5 seconds when cast with full Energy.

Shadow Step

Shadow Step is similar to a teleport ability, allowing you to target an enemy and immediately zip to their location. It’s necessary for this build because it grants Unstoppable, which is a buff that ends any status effects on your character (such as Stunned or Immobilized).

Poison Trap

Poison Trap is the sole trap in this build, leaving a small net on the field that, when triggered by an enemy, will unleash a pool of poisonous acid that deals damage over time.

Poison Trap is important because we use two Imbuements in this build, and the Countering Poison Trap upgrade has a 30% chance to reset your Imbuement skill cooldowns when activated.

Shadow Imbuement

Shadow Imbuement is our first main Imbuement, applying Shadow damage to your Penetrating Shot attacks. It will also infect enemies, which will then explode on death to damage those around them.

Shadow Imbuement is particularly strong because of its Blended upgrade, which makes explosions from infected enemies spread the Vulnerable status effect quickly through mobs.

Poison Imbuement

Poison Imbuement is better for single-target damage, especially if you use the passives in the table above, many of which boost Critical Strike Chance.

Base Poison Imbuement applies 100% of your Penetrating Shot damage as additional Poison damage over 5 seconds, but the Blended upgrade will increase that by 75% when you land a Critical Strike.

If you’re not sure how to use these skills effectively, follow the attack pattern below:

1. Use Forceful Arrow to build Combo Points and Critical Strike Chance.
2. Use Poison Imbuement on single targers (Elites and Bosses) or Shadow Imbuement on packs of enemies.
3. Fire Penetrating Shot with the active Imbuement.
4. Use Poison Trap near the pack of enemies, hopefully resetting your Imbuement cooldowns.
5. Repeat.

Image credit:Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build: Best Specialization

The Rogue class has a unique Specialization class mechanic, which allows you to pick from three passive upgrade. For this build, we’ve opted for Combo Points, which grants additional effects to your Core skill (Penetrating Shot). To generate Combo Points, you must use your Basic (Forceful Arrow), and you can only hold three Combo Points at a time. They are spent when you use your Penetrating Shot.

Below, we’ll list the buffs applied to Penetrating Shot with each level of Combo Points:

• 1 Combo Point: +30% damage and +10% Lucky Hit Chance
• 2 Combo Points: +60% damage and +20% Lucky Hit Chance
• 3 Combo Points: +90% damage and +30% Lucky Hit Chance

Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build: Best Aspects

As you complete Side Dungeons and find Legendary items in Diablo 4, you’ll get Legendary Aspects . These are the items that give Legendaries their unique effects, and targeting those that synergise with your build will massively boost your power level.

Below, we’ll list the best Aspects for the Penetrating Shot Rogue build, alongside the Dungeons you must complete to get them:

• Aspect of Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan): You gain 0.25-0.5% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to 25-50%.
• Aspect of Might (Dark Ravine - Dry Steppes): Basic skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for 2-6 seconds.
• Grasp of Shadows (Unique Gloves - random drop): Lucky Hit: Damaging a Vulnerable enemy with a Marksman or Cutthroat skill has up to a 2-30% chance to summon a Shadow Clone that mimics your attack.
• Aspect of the Protector (Lost Archives - Fractured Peaks): Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing a small amount of damage for 10 seconds. This effect can only happen once every 30 seconds.
• Wind Striker Aspect (Shivta Ruins - Kehjistan): Critical Strikes grant +8-16% Movement Speed for 1 second, up to 6 seconds.
• Accelerating Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Critical Strikes with Core skills increase your Attack Speed by +15-25% for 5 seconds.
• Toxic Alchemist’s Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Lucky Hit: Damaging a Poisoned enemy with a Shadow Imbued skill has up to a 75% chance to create a toxic explosion that applies Poisoning damage over 5 seconds to the target and surrounding enemies.
• Mother’s Embrace (Unique Ring - campaign completion reward): If a Core skill hits 5 or more enemies, 20-40% of the Resource cost is refunded.
• Trickshot Aspect (Bastion of Faith - Hawezar): Whenever Penetrating Shot damages an enemy, 2 additional arrows split off to either side. These side arrows deal 10-25% of Penetrating Shot’s base damage and do not split.
• Aspect of the Expectant (Underroot - Scosglen): Attacking enemies with a Basic skill increases the damage of your next Core skill cast by 5-10%, up to 30%.
• Edgemaster’s Aspects (Oldstones - Scosglen): Skills deal up to 10-20% increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.

If you get an Aspect you need on an item that you don’t want to use, head to the Occultist to extract it and then imprint it on a new item!

Image credit:Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build: Best Stats

Gear also gets randomly rolled stats, known as Affixes. Hunting for the best Stats becomes far more relevant when you reach endgame, and prioritising those that synergise with your build will ensure that you can clear Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides across the Diablo 4 map with ease:

• Critical Strike Chance
• Critical Strike Damage
• Vulnerable Damage
• Damage Over Time
• Dexterity (increases skill damage)
• Strength (increases Energy Regeneration)
• Intelligence (increases Critical Strike Chance)

Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build: Best Gems

Gear will also often have Gem Sockets, into which you can place Gems to gain more Stat bonuses. Depending on the type of item into which they are placed, Gems will grant different bonuses.

For your Weapons, we’d recommend using Amethysts to boost your damage over time. This build uses lots of Poison damage effects, and Amethysts will provide a significant buff to that damage.

For your Armor, use Rubies to boost your Maximum Life. Rogues are one of the more fragile classes in Diablo 4, so more Maximum Life is a must if you’re particularly struggling.

Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build: Best Malignant Hearts

The new Malignant Hearts introduced in Diablo 4 Season 1 offer powers that significantly enhance our Penetrating Shot Rogue build. We’ve scoured through them all and found those that you absolutely need to use while playing on the Seasonal Realm in the months to come.

Below, we’ll list the best Malignant Hearts for the Penetrating Shot Rogue:

• The Vile Apothecary : Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency.
• Tempting Fate : You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.
• Revenge : 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge, or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to nearby enemies.

That wraps up our Diablo 4 Penetrating Shot Rogue build guide. If you’re eager to try out other classes, take a look at our Diablo 4 Barbarian builds , Necromancer builds , Sorcerer builds , and Druid builds .

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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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