Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield on designing Vanguard Exiles so you could play with dice if your computer died

“It’s definitely an art as much as a science”

Image credit:The Tea Division

What can we learn about games by comparing the thrill of a nailgun kill in Quake to the elation of triple word score in online Scrabble? For Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering and KeyForge, it’s actually quite a bit.

Taking place over progressive rounds in which you’ll pick and assign your force to capture victory points over an expanding tileset, Vanguard Exiles exists because Garfield is “smitten” with autobattlers, a love he traces back to an “epiphany” he had in the 90s thinking about the different roles a computer could play in both natively digital games and what he calls “paper games”.

“Yet they were both games,” Garfield tells me over call, “I was playing them both digitally. The computer is vital. It serves a really good purpose, and yet, when you play [an autobattler], it feels like you’re playing a paper game. You can sit back, think about your moves and understand really everything about the game before you execute, which is not the standard in a lot of digital games.”

But he wanted autobattlers to be more ambitious. He wanted to see one where deploying your army was as exciting as building it. “Deploying was always interesting,” in games like Auto Chess and Hearthstone Battlegrounds, “but took second place to building your army. A distant second. It was an order of magnitude less interesting”.

Vanguard Exiles’s proposed solution are its dungeon layouts - mazes with victory points and different room effects. A favourite I’ve found so far features a neutral, angry bear that attacks anyone who enters, but joins the team that holds the room when the round finishes. These rooms encourage players to think about unit distribution. “Do you want to put them all in the most valuable room? Well, if I know that, then I’ll counter by taking everything else”. He says this leads to a style of play he hasn’t seen other autobattlers explore.

“This pattern of play, you can make your move in the same sort of time frame as a paper game, then sit back and watch how it resolves. So there’s no real downtime. The resolution is a time where you can chat with one another: talk strategy , trash talk, boo, cheer”. With games like MOBAs, says Garfield, there’s no real decision making stage in the same sense as with most paper games. “That’s good for community building and for gameplay”.

“With most auto battlers to date, you’re either you’re drawing from a common deck or a duplicate deck. That’s the same for everybody. Now, people have been playing with that formula a bit recently, but Vanguard Exiles does really dive into that hardware.”

Speaking of hardware, I’m interested to know how heavily Garfield’s long career in tabletop plays into digital games like Vanguard Exiles. He’s a fan of physicality, for one. “The analog of that in the digital world is just a, you know, really good interface where you get good feedback to what you’re doing”. But he’s mainly interested in transparency - “being able to understand the system and have interesting and manageable decisions that you make because of it.”

Image credit:The Tea Division

“So, this is one of the dangers. The computer is an amazing tool for game making, and there’s all sorts of things you can do with it that are difficult to do in the physical world. But one of the things - which is a mixed blessing - is that it can do a lot of calculation and management in a black box. And the consequence of that is that in many games, players aren’t really playing in the same way that they are with a paper game. In a paper game, you have to understand everything, because you’re playing the part of a cardboard computer. So you have to understand the program you’re running.”

He gives the example of Civilization. “An excellent game, but the first times you play it, there are a lot of systems which are kind of black box. You don’t know how it’s making decisions. You don’t know what’s guiding the probability. If you’re very old school, like me, you’ll very early on try to read the manuals or whatever information is there, to get you into that frame where you really understand what’s going on and can play it in the same way you do a paper game. But a lot of people play it as a black box. That’s an experience which has its own qualities, but I think there’s a lot to be said for bringing in the paper sensibility of a player really understanding all the mechanics - that if the computer stopped working, they could get some dice and figure out how to work it themselves.”

Vanguard Exiles is set to receive a story campaign at some point, and I’m curious about this world Garfield describes as World War I fantasy. “I really like the process of re-imagining these fantasy tropes into this world”. The dwarves have a Russian slant, the elves have fur coats and employ radiation masters. “It feels distinctive enough to really amuse me, and I think drive a lot of interest in how the world develops. Similarly, you’ll see the other faction develop this way where it’s fantasy, but it’s on the brink of real technology”.

Is flavour something that Garfield usually brings in early? He says he loves thinking about it, and exploring it once it’s been nailed down. But at the same time, he’s very flexible. “So this experience has not been atypical for me. The early prototypes were pure fantasy, and I use that as a placeholder, because people could understand mechanics. If you put goblins, or elves or whatever, without much work they can give a little bit of flavour and carry a lot of information about the mechanics.”

You see a dwarf unit and instinctively know he’s sturdy and reliable, I suggest.

“Exactly,” says Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield, which makes me feel very clever. “One of the games that best illustrates this was King Of Tokyo ,” a Yahtzee-inspired board game that started out fantasy-themed. After finishing the design, “we came up with fighting Kaiju, so giant monsters tearing down Tokyo, and that flavour worked really well. We had this placeholder, we moved on to what the real thing was. [With Vanguard Exiles] I really wanted to do something that inspired the artists, because you’re going to get a lot more creative work.”

Still, he’s always wary of working in flavour too early that might limit the available mechanics, “or that when you start exploring certain mechanics, it’s going to feel like it’s stretching the intellectual property too far. Fantasy, in general, doesn’t do that. World War I fantasy wasn’t going to do that. It was going to be super flexible.”

Garfield designed his first game at 13 years old, and Magic: The Gathering debuted 32 years ago. With almost half a decade spent thinking about this stuff, does he still find players interacting with his games in ways that surprise him? Is he still learning?

“Oh, absolutely. I’m learning about games, and I’m learning about players all the time. It’s moving targets. I mean, I get better at it, but games change all the time. The more you know a particular game, the more it changes. Communities change what they’re looking for, what works for them and what doesn’t. So, yeah, I try to keep my attitude always as: there’s information out there that’s interesting for me to work with.”

It’s a rarity - “a real treat” says Garfield - to get the player feedback equivalent in the paper game space as he can from something like Steam early access. “I won’t say that any particular feedback has surprised me on the game so far, but it has illuminated me”.

Image credit:The Tea Division

An example is players coming up with more powerful combinations that the team expected. “That’s sort of typical development stuff, and something which is always fun, the players enjoy doing it. One of those combinations was, there’s a spawning device: one of the cards you can get is a construct you can lay down in a room and it will spawn creatures. A use of it that we hadn’t anticipated was the players taking over one of these high value rooms you can’t deploy in, and then putting that spawner in there. And now, it’s very difficult for the opponent to ever take that because they can’t deploy anything there, and by the time they get there, you will have taken control of it, and you’ll have a bunch of creatures there in addition.”

“Now, what you do with that is really an interesting question, because it has been my experience that a lot of games get over-developed in the sense that you see something like that, and you squash it, and then you see something else, and you squash it, and eventually get something where there’s no more abuses happening. But then players don’t have as much fun.”

“I don’t like to fix everything down to the point that is good for the expert. What I like to do is make it so it isn’t too broken for the people who are starting and it isn’t too broken for the people who are good at the game, and also leave some fun in the game. It involves making sure you always have fresh eyes on the game and you don’t belittle what [new players] see in the game because they’ve got fresh eyes. It’s definitely an art as much as a science.”

Vanguard Exiles

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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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