Let us indulge in some kneejerk reactions to Apex Legends Season 27’s biggest updates

Don’t do it Respawn, don’t you take away my Friendship Car

Image credit:EA

Apex Legends is rolling out its Season 27 update next Tuesday, November 4th, and RPS has been furnished with an overview of its meatiest rejigging work. I haven’t playtested this megapatch so unlike with Season 25 , I can’t say from experience how any of these changes will get you killed. Still, since it tweaks my favourite map, my favourite playable Legend, and my favourite hovercar, I feel uniquely qualified to declare without evidence whether they’re good or not.

No new characters or guns in this one, though it arguably plays to Apex Legends’ strengths by making two of its most mobile Legends more mobile – and egging on one of its more sedentary defenders to muck in. Whether or not this is to see off the challenge posed by the boots-on-the-ground Battlefield REDSEC (perhaps notably, an EA stablemate), past seasonal updates based around movement and aggression have typically been some of ApeLegs’ better ones. Could Season 27 do the trick again? Let’s consider, line by line.

Olympus map updates

Somers University – Built by Horizon to explore the mysteries of the universe and honor her son Newton, Somers University replaces Orbital Cannon and brings bold architecture and high-flying lifts to Olympus. Relics from the crash site giving insight on the mysteries of this Olympus can be seen here.

Soul-blackening implications of designing a university around gunfights aside, I can dig this. Orbital Cannon’s flatness makes it a dull battleground, and I like the trio of sloped buildings forming a pointy fortress in the new layout’s centre.

Gravity Engine – The new beating heart of Olympus, Gravity Engine replaces Energy Depot and harnesses the power of Branthium to keep the city afloat. Lifts, zip rails and verticality collide making this POI the next hot spot on Olympus.

Ah, nevermind, they blew up one of Olympus’ best bits. Energy Depot wasn’t flashy but it easily delivered a fun mix of point-blank chaos and sniper-friendly sightlines, with a hidden catwalk section that regularly played host to tense cat-and-mouse chases as weakened survivors escaped from the bloodshed above. Gravity Engine looks like it still serves as a risky nexus for travelling teams to cross paths, though that’s an awful lot of environmental mobility gimmicks to squeeze into what already sounds like another meatgrinding spot.

Stabilizer – This platform in the sky replaces Docks and is responsible for keeping Olympus properly aligned. Floating rocks from the planet below provide a path to its outer ballast structure.

A big ring replaces a different big ring. Docks always gave and took, being loot-rich but also a bit too heavy on enclosed buildings to encourage more dynamic late-game fights. Stabilizer looks both more open and easier to traverse, so hopefully should coax defenders out of their shells.

Dockyard – This camp near Hydroponics gets a massive upgrade, combining nostalgic elements from the original Olympus with a new emphasis on vertical gameplay.

I, uh, don’t have pictures of this one. I was also ready to dismiss its nostalgia credentials on the grounds that it effectively replaces Elysium, the dinky floating mini-Olympus that previously served as one of the map’s defining idiosyncrasies. Happily, Season 27 doesn’t lop Elysium off the main sprawl like a frozen verruca – it’s just drifted over to where Somers University (née Orbital Cannon) now sits.

Image credit:EA

Legend updates

Valkyrie is ready to dominate aerial combat: her VTOL Jets get a speed boost and recharge three times faster, plus a shorter takeoff time for her Skyward Dive Ultimate. Her Missile Swarm Tactical gains utility: zero self-damage, no height restrictions, and it now scans enemies on hit and puts movement Passives on cooldown.Her upgrades can expand missile patterns, reduce fuel consumption while improving horizontal speed, and significantly boost her Ultimate takeoff time.

Like Siegfried in Der Ring des Nibelungen, I’ve never been scared of Valkyries. As such I’ve little issue with her jetpack becoming more impressively jetpack-ish, and zipping right up to an enemy to safely dump an entire Missile Swarm payload down their gullet sounds like a delightful all-or-nothing gambit. That said: Respawn, I am once again begging you to stop adding scans to everything. I’d have thought that investing in anti-cheat tech and excluding Steam Deck players would be in the name of removing wallhacks, not giving yourselves the monopoly on them.

Rampart locks down the map with an improved Amped Cover Tactical that evolves with gameplay. Her walls gain health as Evo level increases, grant speed boosts, and include a roof! Improved upgrades take it further—adding fast reloads and infinite ammo when shooting from behind Amped Cover, and regenerating wall health out of combat.

Nice try, but I’m still not playing Rampart.

Fly higher with Horizon buffs: her Gravity Lift Tactical now has a shorter cooldown and lift speed improvements, plus more health for Black Hole Ultimate. And her improved upgrades create more opportunities for aerial movement: fast-fall by crouching mid-air or glide out of gravity lifts for extended aerial control, and gain bonus Gravity Lift charges on knockdowns.

Yesss, once more shall Science Mum reign supreme. I’ve always loved the versatility of Gravity Lift, which at first appears to be just a big upwards jumping aid, and yet even under its heaviest nerfs could do anything from doorway area denial to air-ambulancing downed teammates out of trouble. And more Black Hole Generator health could mean that after hundreds of hours, I might finally get to deploy one for its full duration. A lass can dream.

Image credit:EA

Weapon and movement changes

The “Double Tap” Hop Up arrives with new and more devastating close-range firepower to the Alternator! Fire both barrels at once and watch enemies drop before they know what hit them. The perfect weapon for quick and deadly fights—so close the gap and double tap.

Assuming this genuinely grants the Alternator double damage per shot, this could be another Season 2 Disruptor Rounds : not so much a lucky find as a must-have powerup that elevates the Alternator from dogshit machine pistol to godkilling force of primordial terror. There’s an awful lot of “close range” chat in this description, mind, so maybe (hopefully) it knackers the accuracy in exchange?

The new Mantle Boost gives players a forward movement boost when climbing up from ledges or walls, helping Legends dive into the next fight. The Trident gets improved collision and dedicated vehicle health (including visual effects), making them more fun to drive and more satisfying to fight.

Mantle boosting (or mantle jumping), if you’re unaware – and I’ll freely admit I was – is one of those excessively complicated movement tricks whereby mashing a very specific combination of keys with very specific timing in very specific conditions lets you get sick air when bouncing off a ledge. I don’t believe I’ve ever died to an opponent mantle jumping over my bewildered head, Free Willy-style, but Respawn evidently think it’s a cool enough move to simplify and democratise the process. The update even adds a “Mantle Boost indicator” that will tell you when you’re in a prime boinging position. I mean, sure? I’ll give it a go, at least.

But those Trident changes, no, nuh-uh. Apex’s sole vehicle is fun because it’s barely driveable: it’s a roided-up American cow of a car, constantly bumping into things and possessing a turning circle only slighter tighter in diameter than Olympus itself. And that’s exactly why I love it. If I wanted precision, I’d use my feet.

Making the car itself destructible, as opposed to just feeding damage into its occupants, also spoils how I most enjoy deploying the Trident. Specifically, in solo mode, conspicuously blasting past full three-man teams to goad them into giving their positions away – and, if I make the top two, honking the horn as a gesture of peace, conceding the match to the squad that played it properly in the hope that we can part as friends. Healing off any personal damage in the meantime is easy enough, but if non-friends can just blow up my ride directly, I won’t even have a horn to honk.

I’m still encouraged by the Horizon buffs and general emphasis on zipping around, while the changes to Olympus – which for my money has always been the most structurally interesting, enjoyably traversable, and visually pretty map of Apex’s bunch – seem, at the very least, unlikely to spoil it. That’s tinged with the soreness of my beloved Trident becoming temporarily unscrapped scrap metal, but then hey, I didn’t even know what mantle jumping was until a couple of days ago. Some Apex Legend, huh.

Apex Legends

PS4 , Xbox One , PC , Nintendo Switch

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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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