Infinity Nikki review: it’s like Genshin, if Genshin shopped at ASOS and renounced violence

Looks like menus are back on the menu boys

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Infold Games

• Developer: Infold Games
• Publisher: Infold Games
• Release: December 5th, 2024
• On: Windows
• From: Epic Games Store
• Price: Free
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i7-12700F, Nvidia RTX 3080, 16GB RAM, Windows 11

I’ll come out and say it: I had no idea, really, what Infinity Nikki was about before I dove in. I knew from some trailers that it was a free-to-play game about collecting pretty dresses and exploring a relentlessly positive open world. In those respects, I was correct.

I’d just missed the really big part - the fact it’s a pacifistic Genshin Impact wearing a pretty dress. And as that realisation sunk in for the first time, my heart also sank with it. I really tried, I mean really tried to get into Nikki’s gacha offerings; to delight in its menagerie of menus and cash in countless currencies for fun socks or glitzy tiaras. Sadly, I won’t be logging back in ever again.

Infinity Nikki has you play as a pink-haired girl called Nikki, accompanied by a small cat creature called Momo. Momo is like if Meowth had the coin ripped off his forehead and was plugged into an AI beauty filter. They are both glassy-eyed individuals who would die if you sat them down and forced them to watch The Raid. Anyway yes, they get embroiled in this cosmic mystery that doesn’t make a great deal of sense: 1) They get sucked into a portal, 2) They meet a goddess who’s like, “Miracle Dresses, very stylish, save the universe, get them innit”, 3) You accept, knowing full well the experience will cost you 27,000 mega crystals down the line or whatever.

The world is really rather lovely, and at times, stunning. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Infold Games

So off you pop, traversing a land that’s very teehee and whoopsie daisy, with the first town called Florawish. This sees you talk to lots of NPCs who talk through a series of words presented in a normal black font, interspersed with lots of coloured words like “Twinmoon Kingdom” and “Wish Envoy” that they kind of expect you to be curious about, but actually just overwhelm you to a point of numbness. For what it’s worth, you get roped into some mystery around wishes and comas and my my what a pickle it all is. To me it was all a bunch of nonsense, merely facilitating the stuff you do in the game.

And at the most basic level, you’re to bounce between quests (main or side) that’ll have you unlock new abilities. These abilities are tied to dresses, which you have to unlock the blueprints for, and then craft using materials you’ve gathered. For instance, there’s a dress for double-jumping, catching bugs, for fishing, and one for… being an electrician and doing these puzzles where you have to rotate wiring to repair circuits. And as you progress, the focus shifts more towards unlocking new zones that contain rarer materials, with a view to getting the Miracle Dress and filling out your wardrobe.

Those bugs and fish? All to be funnelled into those frilly skirts and opal earrings. But to truly become the number one stylist, you need to make good use of double-jumping and ‘purifying’, which is Nikki’s gentle way of murdering demonic cloth creatures with orbs that go pewpew. Either through little open world challenges or through quests, Nikki’s main thrills and spills lie in hopping on platforms and not falling to your death. These platforming sections sometimes take place in beautiful locales, like bright sewers home to frogs and lip-filler fish or expansive factories that spill torrents of paper cranes from the skies.

You don’t have to manually swap dresses to carry out certain abilities, as you’ll auto swap every time you, say, want to catch some bugs. It’s just a case of hopping into a radial wheel and making a selection. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Papergames

These hop-gauntlets are about as challenging as avoiding the crack between the tube and the platform, with the ‘purifying’ also an overly simple click of the mouse for a quick vaporise. Regardless, I enjoyed the rhythm of them and how they felt almost like a retreat from the game’s gacha elements.

I understand that for some, the gacha elements represent a sort of messy bliss, one where you’re collecting bazillions of currencies from bazillions of menus, then working out the economic risk of trading 100 berries for 10,000 Nikkibucks. You might, after all, need those 100 berries later when upgrading any number of outfits or skill points. This is just a snapshot of the complexity of Nikki’s innocent hunter gathering.

For the gacha uninitiated, it’s very easy to get lost in Nikki’s menus, an overlay that seemingly tracks your every move and blinks at you when you’ve done literally anything . Eaten your five a day? Great work, here’s some Tinkly Winklies! 10,000 steps? Orbs Of The Orifice, coming your way! I jest, but I am also dead serious - this is what it’s like. Sometimes I’ll press escape (to bring up a menu that may or may not be separate to the overlay menu permanently present at the top of your screen) and discover several reward tracks I’d forgotten to cash in, so I just press “claim all” and stare as the squares of things pour into my inventory, as my dopamine receptors ding and the light leaves my eyes.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Infold Games

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Infold Games

Out in the open world there are these fast travel points that also let you hop into different realms. Realms of Ascensions, Realms of This And That, all letting you do challenges to earn things that you can further feed into new dresses. There are lots of these Whimstars (think Mario Odyssey’s moons) that you need to collect in mini-platforming challenges, too. Often the game’s main quest gate keeps you from progressing until you’ve unlocked like 88 outfits or collected 25 stars.

What I will say is that unlocking new outfits and customising Nikki is an excellent experience. The outfits are often appealing, with lots of accessory slots and headgear and so on to really glam out your gal. You can view your sartorial choices by rotating Nikki in a preview menu, with a camera mode that’s feature rich. For those of you planning to go all-in on the fashion front and share your swankiest Nikkis online, you’re well served here.

Perhaps what’s most striking, though, is that fashion in Nikki isn’t sexualised in the slightest. There’s literally no sense of the dresses or accessories - which it literally classes as “sexy” - as being tuned for a male gaze. Although different body types would’ve been nice to see, in making Nikki a more inclusive representation of one’s personal style.

Sickos can delve deep into upgrading these outfits with various currencies to unlock new colours and whatnot, alongside better stats. These stats let you take part in tougher Style Offs, where an NPC sets you a task of being particularly “Cool”, say, and you’ve got to put together an outfit to hit a certain points threshold. What this really entails is just sorting and filtering your wardrobe and clicking on all the items with the best stats in that category, whether or not they fit together as well as puke and a pocket square. I understand that a subjective catwalk would be almost impossible to program, I just can’t help but feel the in-game competitive wardrobing is undermined by its own gacha systems.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Papergames

I’ve not even mentioned the in-game microtransactions, which to be fair, aren’t all that aggressive. There’s no pop-ups as you stick on your heels that exclaim “GET 50% OFF BETTER HEELS HERE” with flashing neon arrows pointing to it. And to be honest with you, I don’t really understand the shop or whether it’s integral to being the best Nikki you can be. It’s this dizzying barrage of premium currencies that you can seemingly earn by distilling down your many thousands of normal crystals into only a handful of sparkling Resonance Doodads - or you can get them by spending actual money, which I’d imagine is a lot more efficient. Get these crystals and you can feed them into a lottery that grants you a percentage chance of earning super duper dresses that are better than those you’d earn from regular questing.

From Nikki’s review build at least (real world spending wasn’t active), it didn’t seem like microtransactions were key to just existing and dressing Nikki nicely. For the highrollers, perhaps it will be, but I don’t think it detracts too much from the game being an overall pleasant time for folks who want a gacha that remixes Genshin’s formula into something less fighty and more cheery.

As for me, I find the game’s bubblegums and whimsy becomes a cloying sweetness I forever want to chew down hard on. The platforming and the purifying is fun if overly simplistic, and only feels like an escape from the overwhelming gacha menus because you’re finally able to do something that isn’t clicking on a “claim all” button. I just didn’t care enough about Nikki to nab her that Miracle Dress or even just to dress her up good, as it always came back to a blinking icon telling me to collect 20 more Floof Spangles in several elementary jumping or dodging tasks. You know what - if I could bite down and chew off the gacha part, I would.

This review was based on a review build provided by the publisher.

Find out how we conduct our reviews by reading our review policy .

Infinity Nikki

Android , iOS , PS5 , PC

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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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