Rally Point: The ants are willing to die for me in Empires Of The Undergrowth

Colonic imitation

Image credit:RPS / Slug Disco

My first memory is of ants. Just ants. It’s one of those very early ones that are nothing but a momentary snapshot now, long since worn with use and subconsciously filled in with probably inaccurate details and context. They were moving around on a white doorframe, and I don’t remember the surroundings, or what I was doing, what I did with this observation, or whether anyone even told me what ants are or whether I already knew. But I remember a fascination that never left me. I will, as ever , die for them. To be fair, I’d die for basically anyone who is a cool animal and/or passably feigns friendship, but whatever. The point is: ants.

You’d think I would have played Empires Of The Undergrowth sooner.

I meant to! For years! Being Ants is one of those dream game concepts, and an incredibly difficult one to translate to a workable, satisfying design that isn’t hyper simplified or a glorified reskin. And Slug Disco have kind of gone ahead and done it.

EOTU’s first quirk is that it doesn’t quite fit an obvious model. It’s some sort of cousin to Dungeon Keeper , placing you underground and tagging tiles for workers to dig out instead of building, then spending food to turn the exposed hexes into a nursery or food storage. Workers will then bring stored food to the tile, creating a larva that will either pop open into a fresh ant, or sit there indefinitely, waiting for an existing adult to die so it can replace them, much like human children.

Image credit:RPS / Slug Disco

You don’t build or train your ants directly. Nor is there the traditional square-dragging and ctrl+ business; five set control groups are available (plus one for ants you want to stay home, digging and replacing larvae), direct control of which is limited to a single “go here” command and a couple of toggles - ignore combat and ignore food, without which the group will opportunistically attack or grab any food they find and head home. There’s also “do not climb up big threats and bite them on the arse”, but why would you ever. But even before these control groups, ants are automatically bound to others from the same nursery, and can’t be split up. So, build a nursery for soldier ants with 11 hexes, and those 11 soldiers are gal pals for life.

Nurseries aren’t discrete rooms, though. They’re determined entirely by placing hexes adjacent to hexes of the same caste (so technically you can split groups by removing hexes, but silence, nerd), which also lets you upgrade them more fully - spending a hex’s food cost again raises it a level, producing more effective ants, but the third level requires level 2 neighbours. That upfront cost means that quantity is often better than quality, especially early on when two foragers are more useful than a more efficient one. But in an interesting twist, the ants themselves cost the same to hatch regardless of level, so while a level 3 nursery hex might cost 240 food (actually much more, but I already warned you once), when enough ants start dying, the “quantity” colony burns through food faster for less return, and more pressure on the stay-at-home workers replacing the larvae. Which is preferable? It depends.

Image credit:RPS / Slug Disco

You need not choose A or B, either, since that granularity allows for a mix. Some castes get a special ability (sometimes a choice between two on level start) at third level, tempting a mass upgrade, but it can be viable to have an elite guard instead, or give each nursery a pyramid ratio. You have no control over the special ability either, nor are you generally meant to micromanage the “go here” commands either, but to set up general patterns and direct things by moving nurseries in and out of control groups. You also need to think about time workers spend getting around, by spending food on speed-bumping highway hexes, shortening routes, or both.

Leafcutter ants are first to make this clear in the campaign by shifting the caste dynamics. Their soldiers (technically mediae, but-) can also harvest far more leaves (which become fungal food over time, and require teeny minim ants to carry away waste in dedicated chambers), and are the obvious choice to produce in bulk to fight off and outharvest rivals. But while leafcutter workers carry less, and move slowly while doing it, they’re a quarter of the cost. And into this come the majors: super expensive chunky lasses whose natural place is dotted about the mass of slow and vulnerable minors, moving in to take the brunt of any attack while a gang of fighty mediae accumulate, letting the littluns get back to work. It’s a really interesting approximation of real life ant behaviour, and not dissimilar to an immune system response.

Image credit:RPS / Slug Disco

Undergrowth is a game about managing capacity. It’s attrition not just as greater numbers but a reflection of that capacity - constant automatic replenishment of losses will wipe out a colony that bred too fast or committed too much, and can’t bring home enough food during the fight. A cool ant lady on fedi recently posted about a real-world manifestation of that kind of capacity-based colony decision-making. The ants are waves, tides, and raindrops all at once. You could play with your set numbers and ratios, but you don’t construct defences or buildings, or discrete units as such. There are no formations, and little micromanagement or fine maneouvres. It’s more about the impression than the equation. It’s a really interesting rhythm, not quite like other strategy games, conveyed both by the design and the excellent presentation: a nature documentary style narrator introduces threats and concepts with a dramatic flair that grabbed me in a way Age of Empires 4 ’s similar concept didn’t. They made the small, crucial choice to say “the ants must” or “the ants have”, not “you must” , or “your ants have” when alerting you to problems.

You feel like ants: clever underdogs, easy prey, and menacing terror bastards. Disappointingly static queen aside, no one ant matters, and yet the excellent animations give them so much character. They scurry about, sure, but also do those frequent, dead stop pauses for no apparent reason. Spiders too are impossibly fast, skittery things that feel like a vile offence in the nest, but weirdly tolerable when they merely lurk near the line, not worth interrupting the flow of food, where a weaker game would have you zerging everything in sight. The group order vs individual behaviour design leads too to the familiar line of leafcutter minors struggling home with a big wobbly leaf chunk, single ants getting picked off by predators along the way to rejoin the front, and other recognisably anty feelings. All that character veils the artificial elements, and feels more motivating than the usual jingoistic war story, even if it is effectively the same thing.

Image credit:RPS / Slug Disco

The lack of in-level saves is less bothersome than I’d thought, since they’re typically a neat <45 minutes, and failure means you probably needed to redesign your nest anyway, rather than a failure to click the right thing at the right time. Some of the omissions sound sacrilegious on paper (although the exploding ants DLC is exactly the childhood favourite I’d have wanted). Ants don’t really patrol without prompting, and there aren’t solo scouts, or a moveable queen, or relocating eggs and the general minutiae of a nest. You don’t harvest enemy ants, or remove bodies, or worry about backup queens or mating in general. But those feel like acceptable, intentional decisions for a game emphasising fun level concepts instead, to contextualise a nest’s fight for survival, and present a strategic challenge rather than a simulation that would effectively run itself without any input from you, if all those behaviours were thrown in. Those levels are great too, even if some of the threats are a bit overtuned. No-go areas suddenly feel like a birthright once you get the vague feeling you’re strong enough, and sending foragers to collect a bounty a worthy net gain where earlier it might have felt a devastating loss when a few of them didn’t come back. Best of all, it’s never quite a raw numerical calculation. I cut my losses, or decide to risk a surface venture at night, or start a new batch of workers based on a vibe informed partly by experience, and partly just intuition. That feels right. You’re a terrifying, remorseless, arguably mathematical force, but still vulnerable little creatures whose survival can turn on a dime, and react mostly to immediate stimuli and some arcane sense of “it is now time”.

I still dream of that impossible mega-detailed ant/bee/spider/etc game, but Empires Of The Undergrowth expertly threads the needle of nerdly ant enthusiasm and pacey strategy challenge.

Empires of the Undergrowth

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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