Rally Point: Crop to Selection

Why not write on every front?

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Rhombus Studios

Sometimes, readers, it’s tempting to do the popularity thing, and ask what you’re playing, or thinking of buying. There are countless popular games I never mention, surely I should be doing those? What if I am terrible actually and should write about the things that are making a big splash instead?

But that way lies Views Brain. You can already get that everywhere. Moreover, I suffer a curse where if you chose a game I hated or found dull, it would ruin my life. Especially given the time investment that even lightweight strategy games so readily demand (I don’t get paid for the 6-hours-in “Oh, this is really limited/bugged/regurgitated” games, you know).

My compromise was a shortlist you could pick from, and I’d do a piece on the winner. Naturally I’d have to play them a bit first to be sure, and you already know what happened, don’t you. We’re doing a roundup, and it won’t be the last. There are no rules in the Rally Point.

Pioneers of Pagonia

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Envision Entertainment

Finally I can play this, since learning that, with many clicks, you can in fact minimise the inventory bar at the top of the screen, which had previously driven me too insane to play for long. And yes, I know you can “minimise” it. That was still very distracting. But hey, that’s the worst thing I can say so far.

Though influenced by The Settlers , Pioneers of Pagonia eschews the ancient hexevial way, making buildings and roads freeform instead. It is, however, still all about the roads determining how resources are carried - through your design, not instruction. It’s a very solid drip of the increasingly familiar “wuselfaktor”: lots of little people bustling about in a way that’s enjoyable even just to watch.

Production is quite complex, but somewhat intuitive and aided by a strong UI’s tendency to tell you where you need to look if a building isn’t doing what you need. Managing population is both a huge part of the game and an undemanding one, as generalist individuals (carriers, pioneers) convert into specialists (miner, guard, smith etc.) at the proper buildings when required. Each wee person visibly is one thing or another, rather than a generic framework for skills, to be shoved back and forth from job to job. Partly this is because it’s skipped Banished , and “survival” entirely, since food is a supply for specific jobs rather than a meter to tediously supervise. It makes everyone easier to manage at a glance, since population grows fast and doesn’t collapse the instant you have 23 grain instead of 26. If you need more miners, just order some, and your people will take care of it. Better soldiers need particular equipment, which needs different resources, but this is largely about layout and logistics, not numbers.

Manufacture and training buildings automatically co-operate, too. A rodless fisherman won’t just watch the idle, codless toolmaker starve because you didn’t intervene. They’ll produce what’s needed, as and when, and only stockpile if you ask for it, so you won’t have to face shortages or glower at 20 redundant pickaxes. It’s a different approach and ultimately game to Widelands, the other game that gets it , but there’s very much a shared ethos of setting your people up to handle things themselves.

This is necessary too, since the exact order in which you’ll need specific tools, buildings, or ores is relatively complex. Pagonia is such a joy to play, though, that it feels like an inviting complexity that you’re subtly guided through, rather than Banished’s punishing survivalism or the overwhelming pedantry of a W&R . Also, when there’s combat, it’s all little duellists running at each other going “YAAAARGGH”. And sometimes a bandit will steal a bucket of water. You can HAVE water, oh my god.

Lord of Rigel

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Rhombus Studios

Lord of Rigel is a clear love letter to Master of Orion with a hint of Master of Orion 3 (which is not the insult it may sound like). I had to look up whether there was a fourth or I was confusing it with Star Control , which perhaps unfairly summarises the impact it made. This one may have cursed itself with such a high bar. A very slow start builds to an enjoyable and slightly offbeat space 4X with far less micromanagement than its idol, but the cracks began to show as neighbours with perfect relations kept accusing me of threatening them by having two cruisers at my own capital, and its main plot kicked off without warning, causing everyone to declare war on me without explanation.

I appreciate its look, especially the brief cutscenes when a colony is founded or space amoeba rolls up. Most novel is research, which offers dozens of fields (some hidden until a prerequisite field is done) with three techs each, two of which are blocked off once you pick. You can, however, pick up the others through trade, espionage, or occasionally hiring a character who offers it (an absurdly good deal). Techs are very varied even within each field, making the decision feel like more than just a build order, and making faction specialties feel more impactful. But… I don’t know. It’s fun, and impressive for a tiny dev, but they’ve bitten off more than they can chew without big name money. Fair play to them for the regular updates, though.

Citystate 2

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Andy Sztark

I regret making this a mere aside. Despite its limitations, a few years ago I fell into a pattern of occasionally playing Citystate 2 for a day or two and stopping, satisfied, whereas its peers would and continue to bore me, devour my time, and expel regret. It’s a strikingly pretty game, and I appreciate now that yes, its political options largely come down to nudging statistics up or down, but that’s more than most SimCity descendants attempt. And it allows for goals like “Ban private banks, private schools, the stock market, religion, and fucking smartphones”, even if there’s no fanfare and the only reward is cooing at the thing you built.

A few parts are half baked. Awkwardly, you can’t place anything without placing a connecting road first, and there aren’t enough summaries or overlays for things like public transport. But Citystate’s main idea is that instead of one ultra-city, the world map is a single nation, and each square a separate city. So you can build a new one for a few nights, then consider it done and try something else, still within the same game. The other cities enter stasis, and the links don’t really work. But I’ve grown fond of it, and it’s very telling that despite it predating Skylines 2 by several years, it’s no contest which I keep going back to.

Also, there is no truth to the rumours that the great skyscraper fire was caused by my getting distracted and crashing my helicopter into it. Shut up and take your mandatory pills, citizen.

Let Them Trade

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/ByteRockers’ Games

Do not be fooled by its bright and approachable appearance. Let Them Trade is a complex economic simulation in a way I can’t recall seeing before, with more moving parts and significant details than you’d ever guess.

But it’s not a survival game either. I don’t think there’s any hard fail state, as messing up badly enough merely slows things down. Even the optional bandits are no existential threat: they live to rob merchants, not murder everyone for no reason.

I got out of one mess, where everything had come to a halt through a lumber shortage, by… demolishing the entire lumber town and building a new one elsewhere with access to more forests. You can do badly and face consequences, but it’s not interested in punishing you.

You place towns, then building hexes. These do not add wood or tools or whatever to your pile. They add them to that town’s stores. Build second, third, seventh villages, and the first one will export what it’s produced to them, for money. Your money comes from tax on those transactions. Each town has its own treasury, and manages business independently. The more self-sufficient a town is, the less it profits you, and building space is limited. There’s a dynamic market system too, so scarce items become absurdly costly, and a single-resource town could suddenly decline when you build another source.

You’ll need to do that though, since purchasing towns must send a cart to the seller with the money (hence, bandits) and back, which takes time and a cart. Plus, a town heaping up money is less than ideal; it’s a trade imbalance, money not being spent on building or supplying someone.

Over time, research (burning goods automatically bought at market price, or manually if you planned ahead) provides new buildings, resources, and worker types, and everything becomes more complex. Upgrades enable redevelopment by condensing housing, or improved efficiency if a new resource is imported, often with multiple options.

Let Them Trade’s great strength is that the reward for planning well isn’t mere survival. It’s the satisfaction of a smooth operation in motion. The Settlers naturally comes to mind, but this is a much friendlier game. I love the touches of personality, like the knights’ jointed wooden horses, and each town’s different colour and mayor, whose dialogue changes depending on their town’s circumstances. Or the secret cat.

It’s a very impressive balancing act, more substantial than its lightweight aesthetic suggests, but not chewy enough to be exhausting. You won’t play forever, but who has forever?

Citystate II

PC

Let Them Trade

PC

Lord of Rigel

Video Game

Pioneers of Pagonia

PC

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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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