How to get Miner Shards in The Forge

Need help farming Miner Shards? Here’s the enemies you need to be hunting.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

Wondering how to get Miner Shards in The Forge? After acquiring a Pickaxe with augment slots in Roblox’s blacksmithing RPG, your next thought will probably be cramming as many Miner Shards into it as possible. These Runes drop from enemies, and by taking them to the Runemaker in town, you can add useful “Traits” to your Pick that boost your mining power, your yield or your luck.

But it’s not immediately clear where you actually get these chunks of magical stone. No vendor is selling them, and they don’t drop from rocks. That’s because they’re unique enemy drops that you can only get from specific foes. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few ways to quickly cram your inventory with them. We’ve spent some time down the mines analysing which monsters to farm to stock up on these useful trinkets, so if you want to boost your luck as high as possible, here’s how to farm Miner Shards in The Forge.

In this guide:

• How to get Miner Shards
• The Delver Zombie Route (Stonewake’s Cross)
• The Bomber Skeleton route (Forgotten Kingdom)
• How to equip Miner Shards
• A quick tip for Luck Miner Shard hunters

How to get Miner Shards

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

From all my testing, I’ve found there are two useful farming methods for Miner Shards, and they both have their own unique perks. There’s the Delver Zombie route or the Bomber route.

The Delver Zombie route is the best way to simply get Miner Shards and nothing else. The Bomber Skeleton route is better for farming cash and other runes while finding fewer Miner Shards. Let’s run through them each individually.

The Delver Zombie Route (Stonewake’s Cross)

You’re looking for this hard-working gentleman. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

For the first farming route, you’ll want to teleport over to Stonewake’s Cross. The tutorial area secretly contains the best method of quickly getting Miner Shards. All you have to do is head to the Stonewake’s Cross cave, equip your weapon and charge through, looking for Delver Zombie enemies.

They’re relatively easy to spot due to the mining helmets they have on. Every time you kill one of these undead foes, you have a 1 in 35 chance of earning a Miner Shard. It’s as simple as that. You’ll want to stick largely to the Inner Cave and Deep Cave areas, as you’ll find fewer regular zombies and more Delvers.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

This strat is incredibly useful if you’ve already reached the Forgotten Kingdom and have a buffed-up weapon that makes cutting through Delver Zombies feel like cutting through green, grunting butter with a warm katana. Spend about 15 minutes doing it, and you should come away with a hefty sack of Miner Shards.

The Bomber Skeleton route (Forgotten Kingdom)

Route two means hanging out with this little explosive guy. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

The second farming route is better if you’re also in the market for cash and runes. You’ll sacrifice the speed at which you’re getting Miner Shards but it’s a good way to generally stock up. Step one is to head to the Forgotten Kingdom cave. You’ll be looking for the small Bomber enemy, which is easiest to find in the Ashen Passage area. You’ll usually come across several in the Basalt Vein farming section, past the cave where you can find Amber and the Magma Pickaxe.

You won’t struggle too much to find the Bomber, because this guy’s actually very friendly. It’s hard to feel particularly chuffed with your new little buddy though, because he’s carrying a Looney-Tunes-lookin’ bomb that explodes after a few seconds. If you can kill him before he explodes, he’s a valuable source of loot. There’s a 1 in 15 chance he drops a Miner Shard, but there’s also a 1 in 10 chance that you get a Blast Chip instead. From my testing, I’ve never got two runes in one drop, and tend to get Blast Chips much more frequently than Miner Shards, so it will take a little longer.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

On the plus side, the Bomber is a great farm for cash, essences and, well, Blast Chips too. Farming him and the other skeletal enemies he surrounds himself with in the Ashen Passage is a phenomenal way to stock up on coins and other loot, so this path can ultimately be slower but more lucrative.

How to equip Miner Shards

You can see your Miner Shard’s Trait right here. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

Once you’ve hauled out a huge sack of Miner Shards, it’s time to take a look at what you’ve scavenged. If you click on a Miner Shard in your Stash, you’ll see it has a Trait attached. Every Miner Shard in the game so far has one of three Traits:

• Mine Power : Boosts the damage you deal to rocks.
• Yield : Increases the chance of dropping 1 extra ore while mining a rock.
• Luck : Increases the chance of rarer loot dropping.
• Swift Mining : Increases the speed of mining rocks.

How effective the Trait will be is dictated by a randomised percentage. If you hover your cursor on the Trait while looking at the Miner Shard in the Stash, you’ll be able to see how effective it is. For example, if you got the Luck Trait, it might boost your luck stat by 13% or you could be unlucky and get 11%.

Find this store when you’re ready to slot your carefully chosen Miner Shards into your pickaxe. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

Make sure you’re happy with this percentage before equipping it to your Pickaxe, because attaching Miner Shards costs a lot of money. To give you a rough estimate, a single augment to the Arcane Pickaxe costs a whopping $37,000. Not chump change, that’s for sure. But what’s even worse, it costs $31,000 to detach an augment. Treat attaching Shards like getting a tattoo of the Goblin King on your neck. Make sure you really want it before you commit to the act of slotting it in.

When you have a Miner Shard you want to attach, head to the Runemaker’s shop in either the Forgotten Kingdom or Stonewake’s Cross. Talk to the Runemaker and select your chosen Pickaxe when given the opportunity. Slot in your chosen Rune, pay the eye-watering fee, and just like that, your spruced up Pickaxe is ready to go.

A quick tip for Luck Miner Shard hunters

It’s gonna cost you, but this is your key to driving your luck through the roof. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

I initially devised my routes for farming Miner Shards for the same reason I assume many of you are here. I wanted to devise the luckiest of lucky Pickaxes. If you’re farming for lucky Miner Shards, I wanted to give you a quick rundown of what you should be hunting for.

Essentially, you’ll want two things. First, the Arcane Pickaxe. It has the highest luck stat of any pickaxe in the game, as well as being able to mine every rock in the current build of The Forge, including Volcanic Rock . You can find it by completing Bard’s Lost Guitar quest in Stonewake’s Cross, where he’ll give you a key to unlock the hidden door in the area’s mine.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / The Forge Community

Inside, you’ll find the Arcane Pickaxe. Save up $125,000, purchase it and then hunt for 3 Luck Miner Shards . For the best results, you want all of these shards to give you a 13% luck boost or potentially higher. Once you farm three of those, save up to attach them to your Pickaxe, and right there, you’ve set yourself up with the highest luck stat possible.

Now, your Pickaxe has a natural 50% Luck boost , plus somewhere around 39% extra Luck depending on the boosts provided by your enhancements. Package that with a Luck Potion, and you’re twice as likely to get a rare drop every time you mine a rock. Considering there’s a rare Ore in the game that has a 1 in 100,000 drop chance, that’s worth more gold than you could possibly amass.

Now, go forth and use your Miner Shards to drum up some truly great Ore. If you need some help knowing exactly where to find it, why not check out our list of all Ores and where to find them ? If Ore isn’t your issue though, we have a ton of The Forge guides , including walkthroughs on completing the Goblin King quest and finding Tomo’s missing cat , as well as a full cash farming guide , instructions on how to reroll your race , and a collection of all The Forge codes .

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The Forge

Android , iOS , PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , 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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