Mandatory ray tracing makes Indiana Jones and the Great Circle pretty yet brutal, like Indy himself

It’s not the years, honey, it’s the RT cores

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bethesda

If you’d told me last year that face of all-out, GPU venerating, fully ray-traced PC game visual excess would be that of a de-aged Harrison Ford, I’d have asked which exact colour of paint you’d been eating. And yet here we are, with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle loving its ray tracing so much that the effects can’t ever be fully switched off.

We’re in uncharted (heh) territory here, folks. Games like Black Myth: Wukong and Star Wars Outlaws also include RT effects in their lowest possible settings, but that’s software-based ray tracing, and can thus run (albeit not all that well) on PCs/graphics cards from the pre-RTX era. The Great Circle is, as far as I know, the first to make hardware -based ray tracing mandatory, hence the prevalence of GeForce RTX and newer AMD cards in its system requirements .

It’s a bold move that shows a lot of faith in both the willingness and ableness of PC players to upgrade, and in the supposed goodwill that a really, really well-lit Indy adventure can generate. But is it the right move? After testing it on a bunch of GPUs, across all its various graphics settings, I’m still not sure – especially when AMD owners don’t get FSR upscaling support to help out. That’s in direct contrast to Nvidia systems, which can take advantage of both standard DLSS upscaling and DLSS 3 frame generation (with DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction coming in a later patch).

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bethesda

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle system requirements and PC performance

Before we look at how exactly this all performs, here’s a quick reminder of those required specs. Again, notice how the minimum GPUs are nearly the oldest/cheapest ones with hardware-based RT support that you can get – and how to run at the very highest settings and resolution, the game wants nothing short of today’s latest top-spec kit.

Image credit:Microsoft

There are other matters of note here, like the enormous SSD storage requirement and the generally high RAM demands, but the need for a solidly RT-capable graphics card is easily the most significant of these potential roadblocks. There’s no sneaking around it, it seems, as when I tried to launch with the powerful (for their time) GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 Ti, the game would only return a VK_KHR_ray_query error. In English, that roughly translates into “No ray tracing hardware? Get lost.”

So what happens when you do slot in a basic-but-RT-ready GPU, alongside a merely decent CPU and min-spec RAM? With my test PC’s Core i5-11600K and 16GB of DDR4, the humble Intel Arc A750 did average 67fps in a heavygoing, NPC-rich area. But that was only at 1080p, on the Low preset. The newer RTX 4060 fared better, averaging 63fps on Ultra at native 1080p, but that fell sharply to 39fps on Very Ultra, and I couldn’t even launch with the highest Supreme preset on without crashing.

Supreme also gave me problems on the RTX 3070. This could manage 40fps with Very Ultra on 1440p, provided DLSS was also running in its Quality mode, but switching just one level up to Supreme turned everything black, as if there were no lighting effects at all. I’m guessing this preset just has such hardcore ray tracing going on that it overwhelms the modest 8GB VRAM supplies of these two GPUs, though that’s still a worry considering how widely-used they both are.

Upping tools to an RTX 4070 Ti did improve stability. This ran Supreme mode at a smooth 70fps at 1440p, with Quality DLSS, and that only dropped to 69fps when I tried the same settings at 4K. In fairness to The Great Circle, there’s likely some CPU bottlenecking going on at my end here, as the RTX 4090 also produced 69fps at 4K, using the same combination of Supreme settings and DLSS Quality.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bethesda

This is also, just to be clear, a very handsome game, not just in the richness of its lighting effects but the denseness of the detailing in its environments. Stick your nose up against the monitor and you can find imperfections, like certain shadows and textures popping in as you move closer to them, but you’re more likely to be gazing appreciably at some bit of vibrant, leafy forest or exquisitely arranged interior.

Whether the hardware-based RT requirement was necessary for this, I’m not entirely convinced. There is a sense that The Great Circle has broken some sort of taboo, where no matter how techy and pretty game developers want to make their works, they’d still endeavour to make them playable on as many different PCs as possible. Even Cyberpunk 2077 trundles along on a GTX 1060.

Also, if this is a glimpse of our purely ray-traced future, you’d hope it has a wider range of tools to help counterbalance the framerate tax. DLSS is good but it only works on Nvidia GPUs; anyone with an Intel or AMD card is stuffed, their only options being native TAA or a not particularly impressive dynamic resolution mode. This is very, very abrupt with how it raises or lowers the rez, so it just looks like Indy is squinting every few seconds.

DLSS, too, could use a patch. On numerous occasions, across the RTX 4060, RTX 4070 Ti, and RTX 3070, I found its Quality and Balanced modes to be temporarily broken, actually cutting framerates instead of reducing them – this was only fixed when I swapped to Ultra Performance mode, let it settle for a few seconds, then switched back to the higher-quality modes, which could now work.

I’ve also had mixed results with frame generation. Sometimes, it works fabulously: on the RTX 4090, for instance, it boosted that 69fps average on Supreme settings right up to 133fps. Down the lower end, the RTX 4060 can also benefit, climbing from 39fps on Very Ultra at native 1080p to 73fps with Quality DLSS and frame gen both enabled. However, on rare occasions it would also cut framerates instead of raising them, to as low as 6-7fps on the RTX 4070 Ti. I’m sure this is easily fixable, but I’ve also never seen DLSS 3 break like this, and I’ve been testing it in games since before it officially launched.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t even The Great Circle’s final form – it’s set to add “full ray tracing”, AKA path tracing, in an update on December 9th. Ray Reconstruction is also “coming soon”, so hopefully that can help take the edge off path tracing’s likely even higher performance hit. RR has a pretty solid track record of simultaneously improving how ray-traced effects look and slightly lessening its impact on framerates.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bethesda

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle best settings guide

Obviously, the inability to fully switch off ray tracing means that mid-range and lower-end rigs will need to look elsewhere for lowerable settings that can compensate for performance. There’s no shortage of options in the menu, from motion blur and chromatic aberration toggles to water and hair quality effects, but even if you can only be bothered to whack on a preset, I’ll say this: don’t bother with Supreme mode. It’s lovely when it works, but stability does seem to be more of an issue than it is with Very Ultra, and that’s not exactly ugly in comparison.

None of the presets are, really. Just look at them:

Still, it is possible to make just a few key reductions in such a way that will keep most of the settings on their Very Ultra level while overall performance visibly improves. Cutting straight to the chase, here are the settings I’d suggest for most PCs:

• Motion Blur: Off
• Texture pool size: Medium
• Shadow quality: Medium
• Decal rendering distance: Medium
• Global illumination quality: Low
• Upscaling/DLSS Super Resolution: DLSS on Quality
• Everything else: Very Ultra equivalent

Of all of these, it’s actually texture pool size – not global illumination quality, with all its ray tracedness – that yields the juiciest performance boost, at least on the RTX 4060 I used for testing. Still, it is arguably worth dropping global illumination as well, especially if you’re short on VRAM. DLSS, despite its glitches, is still a no brainer as well.

All together, these settings got my RTX 4060 averaging 71fps at 1080p, a major improvement from the 39fps that Very Ultra produced as-is, and exactly what I got from the same GPU running the Low preset with Native TAA. Add in frame generation and that becomes 112fps, though that’s not strictly necessary if you can sense the dash of extra input latency that it adds. All the other settings not in the list above – water, reflections, hair, volumetrics, all that jazz – either don’t affect performance at all when lowered, or only do so to such a tiny extent that it’s not worth the cut.

Those with non-RTX graphics cards, though… commiserations. Native TAA neither looks nor performs terribly, but it is a massive oversight to omit all the major non-DLSS upscalers when a feature as demanding as ray tracing is deemed central to how a game looks.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC , Nintendo Switch 2

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.