Mörk Borg Heresy Supreme’s Morbidware on making failure fun, even when you’re cursed to wander the land as a goblin

Tälk Borg

Image credit:Morbidware

Both part of Italy’s “not very big” developer community, Morbidware’s Diego Sacchetti and Misbug have known each other for a long time, but hadn’t had the chance to collaborate together until 2019’s The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia - a bullet hell where you dodge projectiles and type in exorcisms to banish demons. They worked well together, so started looking for their next project - something full-time that could take the place of the increasing instability of freelancing.

It was a shared passion away from videogames that ended up moulding the shape that project would take. “We love tabletop RPGs,” says designer and programmer Sacchetti. “So when we stumbled into Mörk Borg, and then we started to play, we looked at each other in the eyes and said, ‘Why don’t we make a game out of it?’”

Since releasing in 2020, dark fantasy TTRPG Mörk Borg has gone on to capture adoration, several Ennie awards, and a cyberpunk follow-up, Cy_Borg. Through creators Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr’s - let’s face it, punk as hell - Mörk Borg licence , it’s also inspired a trove of expansions , hacks, and modules , all of which are free to be monetised without the creators taking a cut. However, Morbidware’s game Heresy Supreme (currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter ) is a little different. After sending a prototype demo to the creators, they got not just their approval, but their involvement.

For artist and designer Misbug, the task of working inside the world brought to (un) life by Johan Nohr’s arresting visuals has been challenging, but incredibly fun. “One of the things I like about my work is basically finding solutions. I trained myself to do the best job possible when I was doing freelancing, because most of the time I was working on concepts that were created by others. The new thing for me is that I’m trying to make graphics that also have a graphic design element. So it’s not just illustrations, or animations. It’s also about lettering, how graphics look against certain UIs. Colours and shapes are really important.”

He feels lucky, then, that Mörk Borg’s creators have “basically joined the team” as consultants. “Johan helped me a lot, understanding his style and providing suggestions on how to improve certain graphics, not only on a concept level, but also on editorial design level. When we start work in more depth, his contribution will be the most important thing.”

While something like a CRPG might have seemed liked the obvious choice, Morbidware didn’t just want to have players interact with character sheets. “We basically decided to go for something which was at the intersection of a Metroidvania and a roguelike ,” says Sacchetti. “We don’t want to have the players think too much about the stats of the weapons or the armour. We want players to think about their choices during gameplay, and know that each choice could lead to death. But we try to make death fun.”

A spread from the TTRPG. |Image credit:Mork Borg/Free League

“You don’t get used to having a hero,” he continues. “Sometimes you’ll have to sacrifice the characters you’ll spend the most time on, maybe to try and avoid something very nasty coming at you. If the game is ‘unfair’, I don’t know. It’s unlucky. It’s unfortunate. But it must feel fun.”

Making death feel fun, says Misbug, is “all about the type of reward that you give the player at the end of the experience. What we’re trying to do - which is a really hard task - is to translate unfair into fun. We know that unfair games are not fun to play. They look like chores that don’t reward you for anything. But we’re trying to create a system that basically puts the player into situations that there’s always ways out of - but they’re hard to achieve.”

“We want that moment to have a narrative reward like: okay, now your character is a goblin”

Misbug says it’s about leaving the player with a reward - “be it narrative or a new way of playing the game.” He gives the example of a character dying from the ‘goblin curse’ - a rule from the TTRPG where a character attacked by a goblin will transform into one if that goblin isn’t caught and slain in time.

“That’s really unfair. You get attacked by a goblin, you get the goblin curse. You will turn eventually into a goblin when that happens. We don’t want that moment to just be ‘Okay, I lost a character.’ We want that moment to have a narrative reward like: okay, now your character is a goblin. He’s trapped in this monster. He looks at all the atrocities through those dead eyes of the Goblin, and he can’t do anything. This is the story unfolds, the destiny of that character.”

For Sacchetti, it depends on the stakes. Imbalance, he says, works both ways - critical misses make critical hits that much more satisfying. “You may get your hands on a Fanged Deserter class with a very high strength, but one HP. With just a few blows, you kill everybody, but that only lasts until you get hit once.”

Image credit:Morbidware

“An example of that is also the ‘broken’ state, from the original manual of the game,” says Misbug. “Basically, when you reach zero HP, you have this bullet time effect. If you’re able to slay the enemy that provoked the broken state on your character, you will gain back one HP. We’re helping the player in a way, but at the same time, things are not really easy if you have just one HP. So it’s always a balance of putting the player in a situation of stress and then rewarding them.”

Levelling up in the game won’t involve experience. Instead, says Sacchetti, it’s “more like small achievements.” Kill 10 goblins without taking a hit, for example. Once fulfilled, these milestones can be spent on bonuses at Galgenbeck, the game’s hub. Like in the TTRPG, though, levelling up can actually make your stats worse if you roll poorly.

Character concepts from Morbidware’s game. |Image credit:Morbidware

“About the getting better and worse,” says Misbug. “The idea is always to not be completely unfair. So this means that even if some stats go below the previous value, the player will still be able to complete the game.” There are no restrictions on weapons or armour, so “if you find that super duper knife that kills the enemies in just one hit, you can still use that even if your strength is minus three. You’ll probably be slower. You’ll have less stamina, less hit points. It will be really dangerous for you to get close to certain enemies. But at the end of the day, you can still complete the game.”

A major design rule for Morbidware that keeps coming up in our conversation is the idea that, no matter how abstract or stat-based an element might seem, it has to have a concrete counterpart in the action gameplay - something players can feel, touch, and experience “more than knowing them by heart or reading them somewhere,” says Sacchetti. “There must be some kind of counterpart in the action, so you can feel what happens. If you have very low strength, maybe you’ll be slower dealing blows.”

Something that might feel a little less tangible - a little more baroque, and rightfully so - are Miseries. For each day that passes in game, tracked by departing from the hub for an adventure then returning, there’s a chance to trigger one of these awful events. If this ever happens seven times then… well, I’ll let the book explain:

“The seventh Misery will always be 7:7, and the world finally dies. The seventh seal is broken for the seventh and final time. The game and your lives end here. Burn the book.”

A pre-alpha image of Heresy Supreme. |Image credit:Morbidware

The Miseries themselves are suitably baroque and evocative in the TTRPG, taken from a dice table written to resemble biblical prophecy. “In the heart of Sarkash fog and dusk shall breathe beneath the waking trees. That which was hewed by man shall now hew in its turn,” and “The great shall be made poor and the poor poorer still.”

Sacchetti says that once a Misery is triggered, it’ll affect the entire game from then on, but “you’ll be presented with options to maybe sacrifice a character, or lose something very important to you. Not to avoid the Misery, but just to be more lucky with it.”

If these sound too punishing though, the team are planning on working in tweakable difficulty parameters - similar to The Texorcist - for the miseries and other elements, like how harsh the randomness ends up being. On the other end of the scale, there’s a planned “Mörk Borg mode” - effectively a hardcore options for players who want the full, punishing experience. You’re also not completely alone out there. You’ve got your party, vendors at the hub, and you might meet others out adventuring. Friendly characters, I hope?

“Well,” says Misbug. “Friendly is a big word,” though, you will get the chance to meet other lost souls through a “semi procedural” quest system. Conversations mean stat tests. An NPC might try to rob you, and you’ll have to try and convince them you’re actually skint. Sacchetti also mentions what they’re calling “Friend or Foe” situations.

Image credit:Morbidware

“You encounter one of the playable classes, and they may want something from you. And everyone in your party has their own agenda. If you don’t make them happy, they might turn their back on you. You may need to fight them. And maybe you levelled them up a lot, maybe you gave them better equipment, and that’s a problem. Or maybe they just leave, but then you encounter them later. Again, It’s a friend or foe situation.”

With the bright yellow book obviously acting as a design bible of sorts, I’m curious about the team’s influences outside of Mörk Borg. “I really love some Nintendo games for for the atmosphere they have, like the old Super Metroid,” says Sacchetti. “I may like the way they explain things, the user interface. Another game that I love very much is Devil Daggers , I could say that’s my inspiration for some kind of mood, some kind of emotions. The Binding of Isaac is a good match for this, too. Still, our game is not linear, so it’s not a descent into a single dungeon.”

“It’s bit trivial to say, but probably Darkest Dungeon , Dark Souls and stuff like that. But these are grim, dark fantasy scenarios. The comedy aspect is lacking if you compare it to Mörk Borg. It’s just so over the top, sometime that becomes funny.”

Sacchetti also mentions one of my favourite dark fantasy RPGs, Fear And Hunger. “I love those games. It’s quite cool and very unfortunate. At the same time, we try to have the same thing in a more deliverable way. I think that Fear and Hunger, for example, doesn’t necessarily want you to succeed at the game. We want you to to succeed in the end.”

MÖRK BORG Heresy Supreme

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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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