Read Only Memories: Neurodiver review - a bright cyberpunk noir overdosing on easter eggs

Squid pro quo

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Chorus Worldwide Games

• Developer: Midboss
• Publisher: Chorus Worldwide Games
• Release: May 16th 2024
• On: Windows, Mac
• From: Steam
• Price: TBA
• Reviewed on: Intel Core-i7-11700F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10

The characters in Read Only Memories: Neurodiver are deeply into anime. They love manga and figurines and trashy movies and horror novels. The interests of the game’s creators have not so much leaked into this fictional world as they have been generously pumped in with an industrial hose. Even the visual novel’s loading screens take the form of those two-second intermission panels that flash up to signal an anime’s commercial break, complete with random characters announcing the game’s name (“Neurodiver!”). In moments like that, the passion is endearing. But in other places, it is overwhelming. Neurodiver is obsessed with media in a way that often distracted me from the bright-eyed cyberpunk story it wants to tell.

That story is one of psychic detective Luna, aka ES88. She’s an “esper” capable of diving into people’s memories with the help of a squid-like creature called the Neurodiver. Luna lugs this clairvoyant cuttlefish between jobs in its tank, like a kind of wet metal briefcase. She’s accompanied by Gate, a burly minder (and principal love interest). I label it a visual novel because the click-by-click progression of dialogue boxes makes up the majority of the experience. Every now and then there’s a puzzle that involves clearing a glitchy screen artefact by dragging some items from your inventory into boxes, or examining the scenery for key items. But anyone hoping for a deeper dip into adventure game territory will walk away having experienced very few novelties.

The stylish pixel art does a lot to get you on board. It’s not afraid of splashing the world with vibrant colours, and the broad range of facial expressions for characters complements their moments of shock, embarrassment, sleepiness and anger. The environments are adorned with smoothly dithering gradients, lush with pixel ginkgo trees and cyberpunk lamp posts. I got a giggle from the low-res hand-waving of a figure in the distance, communicated with just a handful of pixels, an exercise in creative limitations that helps sell the old school adventure games feel of everything.

The presentation does everything it can, through the colour schemes and costume designs, to suggest Konami’s Snatcher through the lens of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. And in the freer moments, when you’re moving from location to location, it successfully elicits the classic adventure game feeling of creating an internal map of rooms from clicking on doors and stairwells, elevators and reception desks. It’s unafraid to make a daily routine of navigating your workplace, letting you learn the world’s lo-fi geography.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Chorus Worldwide Games

Thematically we’re stomping on some similar ground to this game’s predecessor, 2064: Read Only Memories . Body modification, corporate overreach, privacy, personal freedom, gender norms - all of these topics come up, sometimes subtly, often not-so-subtly. But most of that is background static to the main thrust of the tale, which is about memory and personal identity. You spend much of your time polishing the memories of suspects and victims brave enough to volunteer having a weird squid attached to their arm. Among their scrambled thoughts lie childhood nostalgia, familial treasures and incidences of neo-criminality. This deeper character-focused stuff often isn’t lingered on, however, and much of the memory-manipulating is there to serve a fast-moving noir plot.

Recurring characters will give fans of the first Read Only Memories some satisfaction in seeing how the robots, detectives and bunny-eared lawyers are faring in a post-2064 world. John (RPS in peace) was pleased by the writing of the first ROM , but it’s worth noting that the design and writing team has almost entirely changed since then, and with it the tone and delivery. Neurodiver’s tone is kooky, whimsical, almost childlike. At times it tickles me. There’s a running gag that Luna doesn’t have a decent catchphrase to say when she commences a “Neurodive”, and you are prompted with three new choices every time you blorp your way into someone’s brain. But I more often felt exhausted by how over-the-top zany and quippy everybody is. The characters, for all their loudness, can also feel thin.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Chorus Worldwide Games

Luna is a manic pixie squid girl who sets the quirky bar for all other characters to follow, the happy-go-lucky sensitive type who will always “do my best!” Her jacked biobot-bodyguard fulfils the archetype of steady-headed stoic fond of ellipses. Your boss, Fortuna, is a context-twisting manager, an obvious harbour of secrets. There is some sense of depth from Tomcat, a classic white hat hacker type, when you see flashbacks of the whizkid’s late sister encouraging a monumental hack. But even this falls into expected grooves.

Voice acting is mostly well-delivered (questionable “British” accents aside), but many characters are so EXTRA they become hard to stomach. Harold, a co-worker in the psionics labs you frequent, is particularly obnoxious and grating. That’s intentional, I think. But it also makes me reluctant to endure a scene with him. Some more basic problems of voice direction crop up, like when Luna exclaims “the Golden Gate bridge!” with all the wide-eyed wonder of a childish tourist, as if seeing it for the first time. In truth, she makes this comment from her apartment balcony. She has seen this bridge every day for years.

Like I say, its presentation is stylish and meticulous, full of appreciative details. The glitchy animated text when characters are scared or angry is as neat here as in any other dialogue driven game it appears in, as is the rolling wave text that shows when characters are crooning in delight. It’s fun and effective, the video game equivalent of speech bubble variation in comics. But being honest, I didn’t have the mental fortitude to hang out with these people long enough to read their words to the end, slickly animated or not. Because I am basically having an allergic reaction to the game’s obsession with being “meta”. Let me explain.

Neurodiver is a piece of fiction into which various passions have been upended like a fizzy cola into an ice cream float - manga, anime, fashion, sci-fi, dating sims, horror movies, arcade machines. This makes it appealing to a very specific person with all the same tastes and passions, a player who is likewise hyperfocused on these loves. It is a mega-referential piece of work. At one point the founding figures of the adventure game genre sit at a table together and shout “XYZZY!” The Japanese developer SWERY shows up at your workplace lobby. Suda51 hangs out in the background of the arcade. Lady Love Dies from Paradise Killer sits in a café. Being creatively referential in fiction is a difficult path to tread, I feel, and here the crowded cramming of cameos felt to me like a distraction, taking attention away from Luna’s story to serve what sometimes feels like a meta-fictional edition of Where’s Waldo.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Chorus Worldwide Games

For some players this kind of easter egging can summon a spike of comfort and joy as they dutifully perform the Leo diCaprio finger-point . For me, the relentless referencing quickly broke the story’s fragile container. In adventure games, a lot relies on keeping the player trapped in your world. And how can you feasibly stay in one world if the game keeps reminding you that other worlds exist? This is also why I winced when Neurodiver’s characters would say things like “she sounds like a comic book character!” or “that sounds like a setup for a horror novel” or “but this isn’t an anime, this is real life!”. To some, these are meta raspberries to blow, fun winks to wink, all easily forgotten. For me, it feels like Neurodiver only wants to flirt with my disbelief, rather than commit to suspending it.

This review is based on a review build of the game provided by the developer.

Find out how we conduct our reviews by reading our review policy .

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver

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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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