God Of War Ragnarok review: calm down now, I’ve known this wolf for ninety seconds

Dadventure time

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation Publishing LLC

• Developer: Santa Monica Studio, Jetpack Interactive
• Publisher: PlayStation Publishing LLC
• Release: Out now
• On: Windows
• From: Steam / Epic Games Store
• Price: £50/€60/$60
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-12600K, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070, Windows 10

Spoilers throughout. TLDR: fun, generous, beautiful animation and cinematography. Worked mostly fine on my PC. I would not have given it the best narrative award if it were up against Gran Turismo 7 .

Writing of the frigid framing of Clockwork Orange’s atrocities, the film critic Pauline Kael asked: “is there anything sadder - and ultimately more repellent - than a clean-minded pornographer?” The lavishly directed and animated universe of God Of War Ragnarok is far from repellent, but it also feels spiritually squeegeed; a world of pulpy violence so chirpy and chaste as to strain belief that the scars that haunt its reformed anti-hero could have ever been inflicted there.

Part Disney film that says “fuck” a lot, part loin-clothed gorefest that cuts away before the grizzly bits, and part spandex-souled comic book subversion of the Prose Edda, Ragnarok is the follow up to God Of War (2018). That game, despite its success in escaping from the series’ rut, still found its most stirring moments in direct confrontation with a difficult past that Ragnarok feels emotionally evasive of. 2018’s focus is here replaced with a meandering plot plagued by fits and starts, but its scope is wider, combat deeper, setpieces more elaborate, and sights more arresting. It all makes for a generous, gorgeous action adventure that’s often hard to take seriously, but is very easy to get sucked in by.

Briefly: Fimbulwinter is here, heralding catastrophe. Son Atreus gets really into metal detecting/chasing his destiny. Dad Kratos is worried Atreus will cut himself on a rusty bit of tin, but ends up indulging him, and they go do some prophecy shit. Many chests and monster faces get smashed along the way, tantalising blood debts left hanging at 2018’s ending are hand-waved so the band can get together, and various prophetic IOUs are written, only to crumble under the late season Game Of Thrones trap: teased vagaries that feel weighty only because of the promise they lead to some spectacular denouement that scarcely materialises.

Image credit:Sony Santa Monica/Rock Paper Shotgun

Hey, remember when Kratos murdered his wife and child and drowned half of Greece? Because I often get the feeling Sony want you to forget. Catch the ghost of Sparta in the right light (at my PC’s sweet spot of a fairly happy 40 fps on high settings), and you’ll catch the weight of centuries tugging on haunted eyelids, an almost ghoulish pallour to his ancient skin. It’s a rare sight, unfortunately: his default mode in Ragnarok is mildly exasperated dadliness. “I have been returning to my old ways” he laments at one point, bare-chested in his eternal hair shirt, after getting a bit loud about the proverbial thermostat. Ragnarok is a big fan of having characters holding up “the stakes are high!” placards with one hand instead of raising those stakes convincingly - while using the other to the trace the most convoluted routes between two points you’ve seen outside of Mini Motorways .

In an early flashback, his second wife calls him “grumbles”. I hope you like jokes about Kratos’s dourness, because they’re Ragnarok’s absolute favourite. Its second favourite type of joke are shit-grinned Whedonisms. Hey, it’s a comedy squirrel! At one point, a character you’ve known for five minutes sacrifices himself during a quickly resolved action scene and Bear McCreary’s haunting, soulful music tries to tell you this the most tragic thing you’ve seen in your entire life. Later, you find the same character alive in a sidequest and when asked how he survived he says “I rolled!”.

Kratos murdered his wife and child. He spent four mainline games and few spinoffs as the most mentally ill man on PlayStation and one game dealing with that, and so Ragnarok’s cast of quippy funsters sitting around eating sausages in the comic relief dwarf’s house and working out how to save the world is a little hard to square away, sometimes, as even belonging to the same series. It’s not terrible! It’s just not the direction I expected or would have chosen. He’s in Astrobot now, isn’t he? I love that for him. I love the idea of doing cute puzzles in Astrobot and seeing Kratos and being like, hey, I know that guy! He murdered his wife! And his child!

Image credit:Sony Santa Monica/Rock Paper Shotgun

Ah well. At least those murdering hands have never felt so good to puppet. Ragnarok’s combat never quite reaches the depths or spectacle of a Platinum game or a Devil May Cry , but considering the game’s other priorities, it’s impressively deep and chunky. Kratos’ dad knees prevent jumping, but varied arena design offers mobility with swashbuckling grapples and axe-smashing ledge hops. No moment is dead air; you can always be angrily adjusting the heating, frosting up your axe or spinning your blades for elemental effects, even when you’re not parrying or weaving between foes. It also works well enough with mouse and keyboard, although this gets a bit less comfortable as you unlock more moves, and you will of course miss out on those lovely haptics.

Boss fights were a sore point with 2018, and Sony Santa Monica got the memo, in terms of variety at least. They’re not all winners - a fair few boil down to simple parry-attack-parry rhythms at larger and more lavish foes. But for the main story at least, you’re fed a near constant stream of novel encounters: Writhing, spitting crocodiles and rampaging not-satyrs. Horrible little lizard monkeys that cling to ledges and fling toxic bum dumplings, and horrible actual monkeys that heal their allies. I did end up wishing for encounter design a little less reliant on plate-spinning chaos and more on straight duels, but you’ll find plenty of that in the game’s optional bosses.

Exploration and side-quests are dolled out in a sort of metroidvania-lite that has you revisiting past areas with new abilities for extra goodies, and most puzzles hit a sweet spot between taking long enough to provide a breather without slowing things down. New to this PC version is a menu toggle that lets you stuff a cork in the mouths of eager companions, preventing them from reminding you that your mythical frost axe can freeze things, and other such puzzle hints. Also, whoever designed the loot reward loop here is some sort of nefarious heroin wizard. You’ll want to open every chest and explore every side path, and huge optional areas offer all the massive jellyfish you could ever want to free from eternal captivity.

In the opening hour of the game, a wolf you’ve never met dies and - and you may sense a theme here - Bear McCreary’s haunting, soulful music tries to tell you this the most tragic thing you’ve seen in your entire life. This is, more or less, where Atreus’s story starts. It runs in tandem to Kratos, and could be argued to be Ragnarok’s main focus. Naturally, you’ll also play as Atreus for a good chunk of the game. He’s more agile than his pops; a rogue to Kratos’s lumbering barbarian. He’s quite convincing as a mythically skilled archer, but most of his foes feel tuned weaker, meaning a lot of encounters take on the disappointing sensation of expecting a sneeze that never comes.

While the game looked nice in motion, I had trouble capturing screens that didn’t make the textures look awful. |Image credit:Sony Santa Monica/Rock Paper Shotgun

He’s not unpleasant to spend time with, although how Forspoken got the shit it did for its note-to-self dialogue and Atreus didn’t is beyond me. Still, a few of the game’s better scenes are from his sections. The Ironwood, allowed to breathe somewhat separate from the series’ baggage, stands out as a beautifully realised fairytale forest, and the scenes Atreus shares there with peer Angrboda stuck with me as an example of Ragnarok making its otherwise tonally odd Disneyness work for it; all charm and wide-eyed wonder. Great, too, is a running theme of Atreus fulfilling his role as the trickster god Loki almost entirely by accident.

If you get bored of picking fruit in the Ironwood, there’s always Valhalla anyway - a far more successful outing I would have happily paid 15 quid for and called it a day. It’s part pure roguelike - enemy rooms, upgrade chests, a progression currency - part epilogue. It’s also a more focused and emotionally satisfying arc for Kratos than the main story, if a little too neat in its santised retelling of Kratos’ Greek arc. Kratos ends Valhalla more or less redeemed and content, a wife-and-child-murderin’ unproblematic fave, free of any baggage that might tarnish his bright future as the sort of iconic Sony first party protagonist you’d bring home to meet the family.

“Death can have me when it earns me!” boasts Kratos at one point, despite being killed by a drunk Thor an hour into the game, then only brought back to life because Thor fancied another punch-up. But that’s Ragnarok’s story, really; spectacular bluster. Sounds cool. Bit empty. The cracks in its facade are stark because it’s otherwise such an incredibly vivid work, and the life breathed into it by its animators, artists, and actors is potent enough to survive some deeply odd writing and tonal choices. There’s a wonderful story, I’m sure, to be told about Kratos’s journey from destroyer to conciliator - the glimpses at mythological wonders that are allowed to exist in his presence without getting suplexed into paste here are stunning - this one just feels like it skipped a few steps.

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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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