Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon Of Serpentcoil Island Review: a traditional roguelite heavy on charm but light on agency

Slightly less mystery would be grand, actually

Image credit:Spike Chunsoft/Rock Paper Shotgun

• Developer: Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
• Publisher: Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
• Release: December 11th, 2024
• On: Windows
• From: Steam
• Price: £30/€40/$40
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-12600K, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070, Windows 10

I’m quite smitten by the Nintendo DS stylings and traditional roguelike charms of Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon Of Serpentcoil Island , but I’m having real trouble summoning up the motivation to repeatedly grind through its opening levels to get to the interesting stuff. Early stages soon lose any real sense of surprise, and later ones can feel low on real agency. I want a new roguelike run to feel vital and verdant; heady with grand plans and plan-shattering twists. But by having randomness influence each run so significantly, Mystery Dungeon feels fickle instead of emergent - less than the sum of some incredibly novel and creative parts.

One of these parts is a talking ferret named Koppa, bless him. He’ll be doing the chatting for your character, Shiren, who opts to stay silent in a way that might be practised stoicism but feels mostly like constant bewilderment. At the game’s start, the adventuring duo find themselves deep in the titular dungeon, get thwomped, wake up in a nearby village, and vow to return to the mountain to seek some valuable treasure in the belly of a giant monster.

It’s a straightforward hook, but Mystery Dungeon has such lovely, warm JRPG vibes - all friendly colours and lush, stirring instrumentals - that it’s an easy world to get sucked in by. The story progresses in vignettes after failing a few runs or discovering new locations on your journey up the mountain, and you’ll meet new characters and factions, or sometimes unlock new paths. A normal town might turn out to have a surprising, stabby secret, and a usually sleepy beach in your starting village might host an uninvited guest one morning. Story scenes aren’t so common that you’ll see them every run, and so they’re a welcome break when they do pop up.

Image credit:Spike Chunsoft/Rock Paper Shotgun

Mostly, though, you’ll be braving that mountain, one tile at a time. Each step or action you take counts as one turn, during which any monsters about will also take theirs. The goal on each stage is to locate the exit to the next level, though you’ll want to explore thoroughly to mop up loot and experience. Shiren heals one HP for each tile, but also drains a hunger meter. If this depletes, you’ll lose health, so you’ll want to stay stocked up with onigiri (rice balls). Shiren’s HP increases when they level up, but you can also eat healing herbs on full HP for a few more points. Your hunger meter doesn’t expand like this, but you can grow it by eating onigiri when you’re already full.

That’s one interesting consideration, straight off: do you save this stuff for when you’re desperate, or try to buff up Shiren early? Onigiri can rot if you try to hoard it, too, and Mystery Dungeon is also a game of novel emergent reactions. If you’re hit by a fireball, any onigiri you’re holding will grill, boosting its effects. How can you plan for this? Well, you can’t. Like basically everything interesting here, it just happens sometimes. If you’re thinking “that might be a problem, actually”, well…

At its most basic, combat involves trading blows with enemies turn by turn by inputting attack commands. But really, everything interesting or notable about combat encounters here stems from your inventory. Through exploring and killing monsters, you’ll amass a bag of scrolls, staffs, pots, and other consumables. A shot from a paralysing staff might leave a rotund cat unable to act for several turns. Or better yet, use it on the speedily hopping frog that steals your gold if it gets too close. Some dragonbreath grass will have Shiren breathe fire - though you might want to save those for physical-resistant spirits later. A bladewind scroll will clear a room in seconds, but is better tucked away for treasure rooms stuffed with enemies. There are more esoteric effects, too. Position switching. Confusion. An empathy spell that returns damage to sender. Learning how to counter an extensive bestiary remains a highlight, even if there’s little you can do to actually prepare.

Image credit:Spike Chunsoft/Rock Paper Shotgun

Again: these are all random pick-ups. You can save and plan, and you’ve usually got at least a few things that can get you out of a bind, but there just isn’t much tactical satisfaction to getting lucky with drops, using them in obvious situations, then popping along on your merry way until you get stuck in a bind where you’re too depleted of good stuff to handle it. Emergent gameplay is great. It’s better than great. It’s one of gaming’s greatest joys. But it needs to be framed by agency, planning and decision making. There’s certainly some of that here, but I think the best way I can put it is that all this novelty can’t keep pace with the rate of progress. When you’re making discoveries, it’s incredibly absorbing. When you’re putting those discoveries into effect for the fifteenth time, it feels like a rote grind. It all means I’m not excited for another run, I’m just crossing my fingers until the game decides to cough up some pity treasure.

Aside from monsters, dungeon floors also hide traps and secrets. Place a wrong foot during combat, and you might hit a tile that strips your equipment, forcing you to spend two precious turns to grab your sword and shield again. Or, you might just get bonked halfway across the floor by a giant spring. Shopkeepers and blacksmiths are rare commodities in the occasional village between floors, but you’ll sometimes find a shop in a dungeon. I am 99% sure the shopkeeper will attack you if you don’t pay, but I’ve never been brave enough to try. There are also hidden walls, water you can dispel with a certain scroll for extra loot, and companions - one of which will let you send back a single item to a warehouse for your next run. How this usually works is I’ll send back my second best sword and find a much better one on the second floor.

Image credit:Spike Chunsoft/Rock Paper Shotgun

It doesn’t help that I’m playing an early copy, of course, so I’m not getting the full experience of one of the more interesting things Mystery Dungeon does: rescues. You can request three rescues per run. This can be online - see above. Or, you can rescue yourself by progressing to the spot when you died. Why would you do this when it’s as time-consuming as a new run, and the version of you that died obviously wasn’t having a fruitful run or they’d still be alive? Honest question. I’m actually hoping I missed some revelatory feature that’ll let me enjoy my time with the ferret more.

More so than other games, my experience with Mystery Dungeon does feel like a case of the reviewer’s curse; the dreaded roguelike embargo. Played one run at a time as a cosy evening ritual, and the luster is going to stay on a lot longer. Still, that sense of fickleness - of having little agency how your runs turn out in the face of random drops - does feel like it’s baked in. Perhaps that’s the sticking point for me, having to deal with untameable chaos lurking underneath such inviting presentation. Perhaps I should let go and allow the winds of fate to carry me. It’s just not easy when they keep knocking me right back to the bottom of a mountain, and making me trust them again if I want to get back up.

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Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

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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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