Elder Scrolls Online’s new Gold Road expansion might just make me an MMO convert

After a brief muck about in its mad jungles and autumnal estates, I’m ready to go whole hog

Image credit:Zenimax Online Studios

Yesterday, if you can believe it, marked the tenth anniversary of The Elder Scrolls Online . That’s a whole decade of tromping across Tamriel with your mates, and a whole decade in which I’ve watched tentatively from the sidelines, thinking about dipping my toes into the MMO pool, but never quite building up the courage (or lining the walls of my bank account) to fully take the plunge. I’ve heard all the horror stories about starting a new MMO from other members of the RPS Treehouse - particularly when it comes to the lore-laden shackles of World Of Warcraft and the bloated MMO-service-hybrid Destiny - and quite honestly, it’s enough to put me off them all entirely. But The Elder Scrolls Online might just be the exception to the rule.

I spent a portion of the game’s tenth birthday yesterday playing Gold Road, its upcoming eighth Chapter expansion. In it, you’re whisked over to the West Weald, an autumnal, sun-dappled region whose main city hub, Skingrad, will no doubt feel familiar to seasoned Oblivion ites. Seemingly overnight, a strange jungle has sprung up on the city’s outskirts, uprooting the nearby villages of the neighbouring high elves and causing havoc as strange beasts pour out of its curling root beds. There are more mysteries to unravel here, too, including the emergence of the new Daedric Prince, Ithelia (revealed at the end of last year’s Necrom Chapter ), and much more besides - too much to realistically take in during a 90-minute preview session, or for this MMO newbie to fully comprehend the significance of. But there’s something about Gold Road and its gnarled-up jungles, strange cults and fantastical beasts that’s definitely made me want to make a return journey here when it launches on PC on June 3rd.

I started my quest by getting parped out of a portal on Skingrad’s outskirts. While my pre-built character had all the bells and whistles unlocked as part of the preview build I was playing, first time players will be able to jump into Gold Road with just as much haste as their decade-old counterparts. The Elder Scrolls Online has been completely non-linear since the introduction of its Chapter expansions back in 2017, allowing players to tackle almost all of its quests in any order, and at any level. It’s a neat trick - and one that World Of Warcraft could arguably stand to learn a thing or two from - as it means you won’t have to grind up through the previous seven Chapters to get right into it (though given that this particular Chapter follows on from Necrom’s big cliffhanger, the developers do recommend you play that one first if you want the full story experience).

Still, the Necrom preamble aside, Gold Road makes a very amenable first impression. Developers Zenimax Online Studios definitely haven’t mucked about with the titular colour palette here, as on the ascent up from the portal, you’re greeted with an almost perpetual sunset falling over fields of rich vineyards (with nary a single low-poly grape in sight - don’t worry, I checked), colourful autumnal trees and large, stately manor houses. It’s a place that screams, ‘Yes, nothing bad could possibly happen here, no sirree.’ That is, until a woman gets spat out of another portal in front of you that’s lined with black, oozing tentacles and oval-goat-like green eyes bubbling around its edges. Her name is Valaria Calidius, and she’s here to tell you about the Lucent Citadel, the game’s latest 12-player trial activity. She makes it sound all very urgent and important, but given the limited time I have, I bid her and her no-thank-you-eyeball-portal good day and about face. I want to get as far away from those tentacles as possible, and as I quickly scan my navigation bar in search of an emergency waypoint, it turns out I missed another important quest giver back down the hill.

Image credit:Zenimax Online Studios

In case you weren’t sure of the exact chapter title, the colour palette says it all. |Image credit:Zenimax Online Studios

There are other scraps of parchment lying conspicuously in the middle of the road, as well as other NPCs milling about in camps and crossroads who are also just itching to add more things to my to-do list, but I resist the urge to start collecting questlines I know I’ll never even start or finish. There’s 30+ hours of stuff here to dig into, and I only have 90-odd minutes to make a dent on this, so I make a beeline for the wise lady who’ll set me down the critical path and most importantly, give me a reason to visit the West Weald’s mad jungle forests. There are two other areas I need investigate as part of that main story quest, she tells me, but I can see the coiling branches of Ostumir rising up on the horizon, and they’re simply too enticing to ignore. With a new objective in hand, I set off, and almost immediately find myself in a scorched and barren beige wasteland, dead villagers slumped by rotten doorframes, with bandits and vultures picking through the ruins. It’s quite the contrast from the safe and comfortable confines of Skingrad, setting the scene for what’s to come. Something bad definitely did happen here, and all fingers seem to point to the overnight jungle that’s sprung up on the horizon.

First, though, some fingers are being pointed at me, which means it’s fight time. ESO’s combat still has that Skyrim weightlessness that makes each sword strike feel like the waft of a feather when you’re right up in the thick of it, and most of my encounters descended into a maddened frenzy of simple mouse-mashing. Class specific skills earned through levelling can be mapped to 1-5 on your keyboard to spice things up a notch, as well as an Ultimate set to R - though thanks to my preview character’s exceedingly generous stat base, this too felt like I could simply rinse-and-repeat them all in order without really eating into my magic or stamina bars. Still, while I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of skill involved in any given combat encounter, I do like how active they are, as I was always circling my opponent to stay out of harm’s way, dodging area-of-effect attacks laid out in red zones on the floor, dashing out of the way of charges, blocking big swings, and occasionally hammering both mouse buttons together to interrupt their next attack. Yes, it’s all a bit mindless, but certainly a touch more engaging than what I remember about the fisticuffs I had in Skyrim .

The forest jungles of Ostumir really draw the eye in all directions. |Image credit:Zenimax Online Studios

Razg is an NPC painter you might meet on the road to Ostumir - he’s a good lad, musing that he really wants to lean at the same angle as the house to capture its proper essence, but that might also make painting rather difficult. |Image credit:Zenimax Online Studios

Besides, with Gold Road’s new Scribing system in tow as well, this promises to let you customise your character’s skills even further, giving them additional abilities, buffs and debuff effects, and even altering their appearance for that extra personal touch. Again, as a new player, I’ll admit that the precise ins and outs that scribing can have on the game’s combat was somewhat lost on me. But I do like the idea of being able to tweak your build even further toward your own particular playstyle, and I look forward to tinkering about with them more in the future. I just hope the consumable Ink resources you’ll need to scribe them in the first place - along with the grimoires and scripts to make them and add specific effects - won’t be too burdensome to find, earn or collect.

Still, as I mince up the feathered and scorpion-like bodies of chimeric Wildburn Tharrikers and the rune-etched faces of various bears and lynxes lurking about, I eventually come across Ostumir proper - or at least what’s left of it. The locals who once lived on these rolling hills of farmland tell me they were rather taken by surprise when this jungle suddenly appeared beneath their feet overnight, sending their houses and manors skyward up into the lush green canopies of its twisted woodwork. It’s an eerie sight, seeing so many trees wearing cottages like cardigans, especially when they’re all dangling several storeys above your own head. Sure, ESO isn’t the prettiest game out there - to put it politely, you can probably still feel every bit of those ten years in how it looks and feels to play - but the crucial thing is that the world still feels evocative, drawing your eye forward with its wild scenery as you venture out to your next objective marker.

In this case, it leads me to a chap called Beragon, who’s looking for survivors still trapped in the rubble down on terra firma. He accompanies me as I go about doing my good deeds, and while I don’t get the impression he’s one of the game’s full-blown companion NPCs (which were introduced with the 2021’s fifth Chapter, Blackwood), I have to say he’s still a pretty dab hand at helping to fight off the local wildlife that’s moved in since. He, too, is looking for someone specific - a lady by the name of Greenspeaker Sorilen, who in turn is trying to seek out some ancient ruins that might hold the answer to why this jungle’s appeared in the first place. You can see the breadcrumb trail forming, and when another player suddenly turned up midway through my quest to join in biffing the cultists who have set up shop in said ruins, I can easily imagine myself getting sucked down the rabbit hole hook line and sinker. How’s your week? clang Yeah, not bad, thanks. klunk You been watching Succession/3 Body Problem/current streaming show of the moment delete as appropriate? everything screeches in an ear-curdling death rattle You know how it goes.

To partake in scribing, you’ll need to find special scribing altars to work your magic. |Image credit:Zenimax Online Studios

But even if I was playing alone, I can also see ESO being a good podcast game, or something to unwind with. Combat isn’t so difficult as to require a huge amount of concentration, for example, and the dripfeed rhythm of its ‘one more thing’ story beats were enough to keep me firmly in its grip as I ploughed forward - so much so that when my demo handler told me it was time to stop, I felt genuinely bereft that I wasn’t going to be able to see the quest through to its conclusion. That, and also mildly relieved that my impromptu co-op partner hadn’t just stopped following me out of boredom or disdain over my fire-staff-wielding abilities a moment ago, but that they, too, had probably been booted from their demo PC.

My time with Gold Road was brief, but it’s a place I’m eager to return to, especially when I now know I won’t have to grind through umpteen other expansions first ( looking at you, Final Fantasy 14 ) before I can even get my toes wet. It’s quite a tall order, starting a new MMO in the year of our Horace, 2024, let alone one that’s been going for ten years already. But The Elder Scrolls Online feels like the one that’s arguably the most beginner-friendly, both in how it lets you pick and choose from its bevy of Chapter expansions in whatever order you like, and the fact that you don’t need to pay a subscription, have hit a certain level cap, or have a ready-made band of friends with you to tackle its main story quests. Instead, each Chapter is a one-off, upfront cost, and you can tackle as few or as many as you like to get your fill.

The high-level end-game stuff is still there if you want it as well - along with its eye-encrusted tentacle portals - but they’re not essential to having just a regular fun time as a lonesome solo player. I can quite comfortably imagine the level 10 wood elf I made earlier this month (who’s still hanging out on the shores of Elsweyr in ESO’s Aldmeri starting area) having a grand old time in Gold Road when it comes to PC on June 3rd, and really, for me, that’s half the battle won already - unlike trying to parse the tomes of prerequisites for getting into something like World Of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14, not to mention the ongoing costs of their respective subscriptions. Besides, if your main hankering in The Elder Scrolls series is really just ‘I’d like to play Oblivion again with some fresh set dressing again, please,’ then Gold Road is arguably the really the last big piece of the Tamriel puzzle left to go here. Ultimately, I came away quite buoyed by my experience with it, thinking you know what? It might finally be time to take the plunge on this old MMO lark. Who needs The Elder Scrolls 6 when this is right here?

The Elder Scrolls Online

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC , Mac

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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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