Jetpacking space pirates taught me a painful lesson in punishing strategy game Menace

Why couldn’t they be the kind that drink grog and sing songs?

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

There’s an accidental element of roleplaying to the Early Access launch of Menace , the latest turn-based tactics game from Battle Brothers developers Overhype Studios. Like the newly-minted commander of the TCRN Impetus, thrust into leadership after a warp travel accident left everyone on the bridge of the colonial navy ship violently decompressed, I too have very little idea what I’m doing.

What is it? A turn-based tactical game from the makers of Battle Brothers

Release date: February 5th, 2026

Where can I get it? Steam and Epic

While Menace’s tutorial walks you through the basics of directing soldiers on the battlefield, there’s currently little guidance to the finer details of this strategy game. I’m not going to let that get in the way, however. After all, I’m here to serve as a protecting force in the Wayback system, delivering justice to enemies of the state across its planets.

Take the pirates causing problems on the planet Backbone. Overhype call it a series of procedurally generated missions, I call it on-the-job training. Commence Operation The Pirates Of Menzance.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

The first mission in my counterinsurgency operation is securing a foothold on the forest planet of Backbone. After touching down, my objective is simple: I’m to sweep the area, wiping out at least 70% of the pirates’ forces. Though, if I really want to impress the colonists that called me - and earn a tidy bonus to boot - I should also recover the cargo seized by the pirates and eliminate the elite boarding party unit behind this mischief. There are even more bonuses if I complete the mission quickly, so I’m going to try a little shock and awe. After all, I’m a commander in the Terran Congressional Republic Navy. This amateur outfit won’t stand in my way.

I encounter my first learning moment when I try to send all four of my squads down to the battlefield. When you start your campaign in Menace you are told to pick four squad leaders. What I didn’t realise is that not all squad leaders are created equal: some command infantry, others pilot vehicles. By chance, I had picked two of each, which is a problem when you only own one armoured personnel carrier. Sorry Lance Corporal Renu Rewa, you will be sitting this mission out back in the bunks on the TCRN Impetus.

Still, two full squads of marines and one heavily-armed APC should be more than enough firepower to take on these presumably sea shanty-singing, grog-swilling space pirates.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

My troops touchdown on an old airstrip in the centre of the map. Penned in by a chainlink fence, the concrete is empty except for a few old shipping containers that provide a smattering of cover. The supplies I need to recapture are off up a hill to the north and the boarding party squad is to the south. There is bonus experience up for grabs if I can complete the mission in ten rounds, so I split up my forces, sending squad leader Charles Lim (accompanied by Gerry Boganwright) in the APC north, and recon leader Jane Darby south.

My thinking is that Lim and Boganwright can race to grab the resources, drop them off at the landing strip, and travel south to catch up with Darby if she needs any help with the boarding party.

In Menace, you spend a unit’s action points on both movement and attacks, so covering ground can leave your troops unable to fire back if they run into trouble. I learn this after marching Lim as far north as I can on his turn, barely reaching the outskirts of a thick copse of trees. I then send Gerry in his APC a touch further north and, in the process, uncover a squad of pirates hidden from view on the high ground. It turns out these are less swashbuckling ne’er-do-wells than assult-rifle toting killers. The bastards open up on Lim, who isn’t as well-protected by the shrubbery as I expected. Lim’s squad duck for cover, becoming suppressed immediately.

Menace’s suppression system means when it’s Lim’s next turn, his squad have 30 fewer action points, their fire is significantly less accurate, and they have to put up with me shouting for them to get their yellow bellies out of the mud and do some fighting. Unfortunately for Lim, before it gets to his next turn, another pirate squad to the east of the copse starts firing on his position, pushing him from suppressed to pinned.

Perhaps Darby will have more luck to the south.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

Darby is at least in cover when the pirates start firing at her. She and her squaddies are stood in the shadow of a rusting cargo container when a gaggle of pirates emerge from the woods. With the benefit of cover, their bullets barely make an impression on Darby’s suppression meter. Which means when she fires, she does so without penalty. Much as the copse had provided no cover to Lim, the spruces do nothing to stop Darby’s bullets. The first salvo kills half the pirate squad, leaving the survivors suppressed. The second burst finishes them off.

After seeing Lim jumped by a second group of pirates, I tell Darby to use her last 20 AP to kneel down and see if anyone else is drawn to the noise.

Back to the north, Lim’s pinned squad lie on the mossy forest floor as the pirates fire potshots at them. There’s a real heft to the weapons in Menace, so even with the distance of the commander’s view, the thwack of bullets into the ground near Lim’s troops induces a flinch. I’m not sure whether the sporadic shots enemy units fire between their turns can harm your units or they’re just an effect to keep the battlefield looking active while you decide where to move your troops, but either way it’s an effective way to ratchet up the tension.

When suppressed as completely as Lim is, your squads don’t have the option to fire back, they can only skip their turn or crawl two spaces. I use this meagre effort to push Lim’s squad around the edge of the forest and break line of sight on the second group of pirates that has him flanked. The move actually puts him closer to the first ambushers, but also closer to Gerry. And, more importantly, closer to Gerry’s machine gun.

The bullet-spitting turret fitted to the side of the APC is meant to be a suppression weapon. Its lead has terrible armour penetration, its accuracy drops off drastically over distance, and, yet, no one seems to have told Gerry that. True, the turret does suppress the pirates hunkered down on the hilltop. It also kills every last one of them.

The path to the crates of resources on the hill is clear. That is, until a rocket comes out of the treeline and straight into Gerry’s flank.

I have potentially underestimated the threat posed by these pirates.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

I was right to hold Darby in position. More pirates rush through the trees, passing their comrades’ bodies without a glance. Her first shots shred their courage, her second send them fleeing back into the treeline. If I want to wipe out the pirates to complete the mission, I need to give chase. I try to move Darby but forget that she is ‘deployed’ and I have to use the last of her action points to stand up. I sympathise. It takes a lot of action points for me to stand up these days, too.

On her next turn, I move Darby into the woods, trailing the fleeing pirates. When I moved my squads earlier in the mission, I sent them to the full extent of their range and didn’t leave any AP to deal with the threats when they discovered them. Wise to that lesson, I send Darby half her potential move distance. The pirate squad is in sight. I tell her to kneel again and… ah fucksticks, kneeling left her with too little AP to fire.

The pirates run on and I end Darby’s turn by telling her troops to stand up again. I can almost hear the protesting knees through the screen.

Back to the north, Gerry doesn’t seem to be too harmed by the rocket attack. I order him to fire back, putting two bursts of machine rounds into the forest. Now that his squad have composed themselves, I send Lim north to grab the crates.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

Over the next two turns, Darby mops up the fleeing pirates and doubles back to advance on the pirate boarding party. I stick her on the other side of a cluster of trees from the enemy, telling her to wait out of sight until she has support. Lim and Gerry move across the top of the map, preparing to race south and flank the pirates after Darby’s engaged. On the way, however, more pirates appear, engaging the pair in a firefight.

While the pirate boarding party is marked as a special threat, so far I’ve made short work of enemies kept at a distance. Rather than wait for Gerry and Lim, I move Darby out of hiding and try to get a bead on the pirates.

When the fog of war clears, Darby sees the boarding party. Clearly the ships they’ve been looting were stocked with protein shakes because these boys are twice the size of the other pirates I’ve faced. Darby only has enough AP for one round of fire and the bullets ping harmlessly off their body armour. I think I’m going to need Gerry and his machine gun.

Except, on Gerry’s next turn, when I give the fire order to dispatch the squads delaying him and Lim, I find the gun’s empty. Apparently muggins here forgot to pack additional ammo. (In defense of muggins, I didn’t know at the time that you need an accessory to increase your units’ ammo capacity.) So long as Darby can keep her distance she should be fine.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

Just to check if the first shots were a mistake, I tell Darby to fire off two more bursts. The second and third salvos all ping uselessly off the chonk pirates’ armour. On their turn, the bastards fire up a set of jump packs and land right beside Darby. So much for keeping her distance.

I try to end the fight to the north as quickly as I can. Lim fires on the remaining pirates, but he only manages to suppress them. Even unarmed, having an APC in the mix can’t hurt, I tell myself, ordering Gerry south to Darby’s side. Before he can reach her, the pirates take their turn. With two bursts from their assault rifles, they cut Darby’s squad to shreds. All of her squaddies are killed and she is left bleeding out.

While I am well beyond completing the mission in ten turns, or even twelve, leaving both those bonus objectives in the dust, I now have four turns to get someone to Darby to rescue her. If I fail, I’ll be down one of my only squad leaders who can bring infantry into battle. Without her, it will be Lim and Gerry taking on the next two missions of the operation on their own, while Lance Corporal Renu Rewa twiddles her thumbs back on the ship.

On Lim’s turn he dispatches the last of the pirates to the north and begins moving south on foot. Gerry, meanwhile, arrives on the scene with an empty gun. Not sure if pirates can finish off downed targets, I drive him between them and Darby, using the APC as a wall.

Which is when I learn vehicles have a special move.

If turns out, if you plant a vehicle next to an enemy unit, you can run them down if you have enough AP. (If I had read James’s preview before playing I would have known this but, well, I am once again proven a fool.) On Gerry’s next turn I watch with vengeful satisfaction as the APC runs over the muscly boarding party. Somehow they aren’t all splattered by the 20 tonnes of metal going over their heads. Happily, Gerry has enough AP to reverse back over the survivors.

Lim reaches Darby before she dies of her wounds and technically the mission is a success. Though the extra experience I earn from killing the pirate boarding party is cancelled out by losing the bonus I would have gotten for getting through the mission with all my squads and vehicles. Still, can you put a price on these life lessons?

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Hooded Horse / Overhype Studios

My mistakes do have consequences. As well as becoming injured for the next two missions, reducing her AP and accuracy, Darby becomes hesitant for the next five. The debuff increases the cost of moving, so she will be even slower on the battlefield.

With one mission down and two to go, I might need to start playing a little smarter if my squads are to survive, let alone succeed in Operation The Pirates Of Menzance.

Menace

PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

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

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.