Smite 2 early access review: prettier, snappier, but not spicy enough

“It’s not Deadlock” out of 10

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Titan Forge Games

• Developer: Titan Forge Games
• Publisher: Hi-Rez Studios
• Release: Out now
• On: Windows
• From: Steam
• Price: £25/€30/$30
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i7-10875H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2080 Super, Windows 11

Bear with me on this, but I adore how swordfighting works in Dune. Ubiquitous wearable sci-fi shields repel any attack that comes in too fast, so everyone has to learn this unique, overtly dance-like form of close-quarters combat where every thrust and parry is necessarily slow and considered. Picture it: careful judgments of your movements, weighing up the right time to strike, every measured jab part of a wider strategy that culminates in the kill.

MOBAs are like that. Both in the fights themselves, sort of, where probing lunges lead up to bursts of lethality, but more broadly in each match as a whole. They’re map-wide knife fights, where a thrust is a well-judged lane push and a parry a savvy item buy. At first, playing Smite 2 felt akin to watching on helplessly as my opponents repeatedly shoved their crysknives through my ribs. After 30 hours, it often still feels like that - but I am enjoying myself. Mostly. Despite Valve’s third-person elephant in the lane.

MOBAs are notoriously punishing, so it’s best to approach learning them as an edifice to chip away at over months rather than a cliff to yeet yourself up within a week for review purposes. Yet I am, somehow, a professional, so in an attempt to accelerate my scramble up Smite 2’s skill curve I started by finding a veteran Smite streamer to crib from - who cheerily remarked that the current situation is even worse than I thought, because the matchmaking is a mess. Playing in the same pool, he said, “you’ve got people who’ve played Smite for 3,000 hours, and those who’ve only played it for like, 200. Or even less”.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Titan Forge Games

I have played 5 hours of Smite, largely in the distant past, so if you’re a Smite vet who wants the skinny on all the subtle differences here I am not your man. Broadly: it’s prettier, firing off auto-attacks feels slightly more satisfying, and the active items (press to use, rather than providing merely passive effects you’ll find in Smite 1) are a welcome addition despite not feeling nearly as impactful as they do in Dota 2 . That’s my main reference point, with (ugh) 4,500 hours under my belt, but that’s mostly just made me a big fresh Dota fish in a pool of, um, salt water fish. Different environment. Killer.

Knowing my MOBA fundamentals has definitely helped, though. Two sides, three lanes with neutral monsters dotted in between, and each team with a big important entity wot they must protect tucked away on their side of the map. Five players on each team control characters that start weak and get stronger, gulping up XP and gold over the course of the match, while waves of li’l soldiers charge at each other, knocking down the towers that guard each lane until they’re all up in one team’s base. In Smite specifically, everyone plays a God plucked from a pick n’ mix of ancient mythology, with Zeus squaring off against Arthurian bastard Mordred while Loki slips behind him for a stabbing. Now you know your MOBA fundamentals, too!

Except you don’t, of course. A broad overview doesn’t tell you about the different phases of the game, where you should be and when, which heroes are suited to which roles, what roles there even are, which items to buy, what order to acquire and level up your skills and which order to use them in during a fight and - you get the idea.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Titan Forge Games

Your opponents? They know these things, and they will kill you over and over again until you do too. It’s worth mentioning that I’m mostly talking about Conquest mode, and you do have the option of learning the God’s abilities via the faster-paced (though to my mind more throwaway) Arena mode - but not if you’re playing on the Oceania servers, like I was. Even in the post-launch buzz I couldn’t find an Arena game.

With so much to learn, it’s a shame that developers Hi-Rez don’t seem more interested in teaching. There are basic tooltips that appear when you’re near certain structures or neutral monsters, but no tutorials and heaps that’s left unexplained. They’ve also decided to remove the labels that would traditionally indicate each God’s role and where you should play them, alongside tweaking the Gods so that they’re more flexible and in theory can fill any role. Problem is, they do still have roles they’re suited for, so figuring out how to play them now just means looking for help outside of the game. Even sans role tag, a simple text summary of each God’s toolkit would go a long way.

There are, at least, pre-made item builds, where you select from a few options at the start (tanky, crits, lower cooldowns, etc) and let the game buy your items for you as you go along. They’re invaluable when you’re starting out, but those items sorely need attached explanations for why they’re being bought, like you find with player-made item guides in Dota and elsewhere.

This general lack of onboarding led to even more gnashing of teeth than the base level of teeth gnashing I expected with learning a new MOBA. You’ll note the pallid tone of so many of these screenshots, indicating that I’m spectating during one of my many untimely deaths, which were especially frustrating when they came off the back of ostensibly appropriate plays. I might spring out of shadows (they hide you from players, like bushes in League Of Legends ) and get zapped in an instant, then ask myself whether there was a spell I needed to bait out, or a difference in XP. Or did I just do buttons wrong?

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Titan Forge Games

Plot twist: this is all part of the fun. The agony of repeated failure is inseparable from the satisfaction you get from gradually overcoming those hurdles, and despite the lack of onboarding I suspect MOBA newcomers will vault them more rapidly than in Dota, League of Legends or even Smite 1. That’s largely thanks to Smite 2’s current piddly pool of 23 gods, compared to the 130 strong pool of bastards you need to get a handle on in Smite 1. Simply having less to learn largely makes up for Smite 2 fumbling the teach.

I’ve now played at least one game as every Smite 2 god, and yep, that Mayan murder noodle did have a super-damaging ultimate attack I needed to avoid. And I could have! I have since pulled off some, forgive the self-horn-toot, pretty sick dodges with Loki’s own ultimate. Pulling off tricksy plays is undeniably more satisfying from third-person, rather than the ironically more traditional top down God’s eye view of yester year’s MOBAs. One particularly tense getaway using those cloaking bushes made me whoop.

That immersive immediacy is one of the main advantages Smite has over Dota, which is meaner and less approachable - though ultimately richer for it. Looking at last hitting is a good way of getting at their differences: in Smite 2 landing the last hit on an enemy team’s li’l soldiers gives you a bit of extra gold, while in Dota you need to land that last hit to get any gold at all, and your opponents can attack their own minions to deny you the chance.

Compared to Dota there’s significantly less to think about at any one time, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t myriad nuances you can juice for an edge. The second and third hit of Mordred’s basic attack chain scales with intelligence, for instance, so if you’ve bought a bunch of intelligence-granting items you get the biggest bang for your buck by ensuring those hits land. Gradually folding nuances like that into your muscle memory are part of what makes MOBAs so enticing, and Smite 2 doesn’t lack for them.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Titan Forge Games

I particularly like how every God has an innate ability, most of them interesting, that leans into their theme and playstyle. There are only two new Gods so far who haven’t been brought over from Smite 1, but they’re strong initial showings. Mordred gets mad as he hits stuff, unlocking and then transforming his ultimate ability, while Greek goddess of witchcraft Hecate can empower structures or heroes who’ve recently killed an enemy player. My favourite, though, is the returning god Bacchus, who chugs from his wine bottle and gets different buffs for being tipsy or smashed. Managing my wine intake to imbue my belch with a stun before taking a massive swig to increase the damage of my belly flop might be Smite 2 at its peak.

Second, foreshadowed plot twist: I haven’t spent a single second wishing I wasn’t playing Deadlock instead. Valve’s third-person MOBA shooter has emerged with wildly unfortunate timing for Hi-Rez, rendering me incapable of not dwelling on how it innovates where Smite stagnates. Smite sells itself as the MOBA where every shot’s a skillshot, but Deadlock is the MOBA where every shot is an actual shot, comboed with a sprinting dodge-jump into a powerslide.

Smite 2’s early laning stage is far from mindless, but hovering around the edge of ability ranges feels dry as dust compared to frantically leaping around, playing with firing angles and harassing your opponent while wrestling over the competitive shooting gallery Deadlock makes of last hitting. Deadlock still has that Dune-like MOBA dance, but layered atop movement and combat that makes your existence so much more exciting.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Titan Forge Games

There’s an argument, even a place, for Smite 2’s slower and more traditional pace. Less overall mobility imbues the few mobility options you do have with more significance, and if you’ve no interest in shooting then a greater focus on traditional MOBA fare might be welcome. But playing Deadlock makes my brain thrum, and that’s partly because it embraces wilder possibilities than Smite 2 seems interested in at the moment. An expensive Smite item briefly pops down a healing ward, while one in Deadlock brings you back to life. Or lets you permanently steal HP, or become briefly invulnerable, or teleport, or…

I have to wrap this up before this becomes a Deadlock review (and also so I can go play more Deadlock). Will Smite fans be pleased with the current state of Smite 2? I think so, though you should probably ask one of them. Should non-Smiters check out this sequel? Maybe, if you reckon you’ll play enough to get past the phase where you’re nearly always dunked on. With the currently small hero pool, it’s probably best to get on board soon - though the current lack of tutorials means you’ll have to do your own homework.

Should you all be playing Deadlock instead? Yes. Right now Smite 2 is fine, but it doesn’t feel like the future.

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

Smite 2

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.

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.