Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic

When god breaches a door, he also blasts you through a window

Zan looks up to see the coveted RPS Bestest Best sticker in Tactical Breach Wizards. - 1

Image credit:Suspicious Developments

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  • Developer: Suspicious Developments Inc
  • Publisher: Suspicious Developments
  • Release: August 22nd 2024
  • On: Windows
  • From: Steam
  • Price: £TBC /€TBC/$20
  • Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-8600K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070, Windows 10

Tactical Breach Wizards is a tactics game for people that don’t like tactics games. Magically, it’s also a tactics game for people who love them like nothing else. It’s permissive and demanding; playful and tense. Its globe-spanning plot covers conspiracies, PMCs, and brutal theocratic dictatorships. It also features a traffic-summoning warlock named Steve wearing a hi-vis robe. It’s finding that one absolutely, perfectly ridiculous XCOM turn , every turn…and at the same time knowing it’s absolutely, perfectly fine if you don’t. In short: it’s one of the most enjoyable tactics games I’ve ever played, and the only tactics game with a pyromancer so rubbish he relies on making his enemies pass out from heatstroke.

As all critical operations must, Tactical Breach Wizard’s story begins with a door getting blasted open. Some bad dudes have a hostage, and Navy Seer are here to extract. The Druid Mafia’s shrublord is wearing a ghillie suit. That’s despite him - as chrono-crumpling Liv Kennedy points out to single-second soothsayer Zan Vesker - already being a tree. He’s also tough, so Zan’s rifle isn’t enough to take him down a single turn. Liv’s left wide open, so Zan’ll have to scry the outcome to learn whether she can dodge the shot. In the same way, you’ll be able to foresee the consequences of every action before committing to it. And if you decide later it was a terrible mistake, you can rewind - one move at a time - to the start of the turn.

Zan and Jen fighting their way out of police station in Tactical Breach Wizards. - 3

Image credit:Suspicious Developments

Zan saves the hostage, but things get complicated for Liv, and we’re whisked away from the scene to meet storm witch and private investigator Jen Kellen, getting chewed out for butting in on police business. It doesn’t take long before the office suddenly catches fire - a fact Jen brings up to the cop the same way you might tell someone their pasta’s boiling over. A scrap with the inept pyromancer leads to a Jen and Zan reunion, a police shootout, and eventually a conspiratorial rabbit hole that takes them to the other side of the planet.

I lack those rewind powers I mentioned, so I’ll first have to own up to a mistake I made calling TeeBeeDubs missions “eminently solvable, room-by-room discrete puzzles” when I wrote about the demo . You should still read it, because I used up all my best window gags there, but that isn’t really how things work. There are still optional challenges and side stories that hew closer to set puzzles with an ideal - if not sole - solution. But, once you’ve expanded your team and unlocked a few abilities, things become much more improvisational. Have Zan grab some intel for a mana boost, chuck a few extra-action grenades at Jen, and you can work out how she’s going to spend them once she’s already ridden her broom to the far window to seal a reinforcement door. A finished mission means the feeling of having hit upon just one perfect outcome among many. And, even then, having clambered up to that point via your own personal chain of joyous, spur-of-the-moment spell-slinging nonsense.

Zan and Jen at a bar in Tactical Breach Wizards. - 4

Image credit:Suspicious Developments

Crucially, this permissive playfulness is still anchored by satisfying, tricky goals and the need to juggle multiple priority threats each turn. You’re an untangler, really. Jen absolutely needs to blast that heavy through a window before he takes out Zan, because Zan can’t stay in cover when that other baddie has a magic-nullifying beam bead on Rion, who needs to transform into a dog so he can bite that second heavy, making him rabid so he attacks the shotgunner, whose a big threat to… and so on. Never have so many proverbial micro-USB cords been so gratifying to pick loose from their medusa-hair prison.

This is all supported by optional objectives. Finish in three turns. Defenestrate (verb: yeet from window) four enemies. Deal eight knockback. The explicit reward is a resource named confidence you can use to buy new outfits for your team. The flashier your wizards act during missions, the swankier outfits they can pull off. They’re presented as voluntary challenges, described as “intended for players finding basic completion too easy”. But I’d say this is the game selling itself short. What they really are is creative writing prompts, in the John Wickensian sense of pencil usage; little inspirational flourishes I’d use to clue myself into what was possible. Once you know a single-turn victory is theoretically doable, your brain starts reverse engineering scenes for crimes so cool they don’t even have names for them yet.

An optional challenge mission in Tactical Breach Wizards. - 5

There are plenty of optional challenge maps for when you’re done with the 15 hour campaign, or just want to brush up on your spellcasting. |Image credit:Suspicious Developments.

And yes, this does all mean that TeeBeeDubs isn’t a difficult strategy game to progress through, but the even the ability to skip levels entirely is besides the point. Such a bulging bag of rule-shattering wiz-tricks mean you’ll likely never even be tempted. It’s wizard 101: you’re already dangerously powerful enough to whisk up tempests, the game is to harness it with enough finesse to make soufflé.

That’s not to say the classic joy of stretching each action point as far as possible is absent, just that there’s always room to get weird for the sake of showing off. Just like those outfits, it’s about self expression. It employs the rule of cool to make you want to come up with the cleanest, most elaborately efficient plays possible. This way, it incentivises you to use your entire toolset without relying on punishing difficulty. Normally, for a game to make me want to dig this deep into my bag of tricks would require enormous pressure. A sacrificial Into The Breach play. Being swarmed by a seemingly insurmountable force in XCOM 2 . Here, nine out of ten corners I felt backed into were corners I gladly teleported to myself. Mostly, I just felt let loose in a toy shop.

The perk selection screen in Tactical Breach Wizards. It's got potions in it! - 6

Image credit:Suspicious Developments

For context, I’m not always tempted by intrinsic bits, especially if I’m on the review embargo clock. Here, I found myself replaying turns just because I figured my rizzed-up wizzes would prefer not to get hit even once, if they could help it. You can end a mission with your team bruised and battered with no consequence for a majority of the maps, and you’ll still start the next healed up. Still, even when contorting itself to offer absurd flexibility, the game never puts its backbone out, nor breaks its spine altogether. The challenge escalates through new wrinkles like alarms, locked doors, enemies that are rarely just ’this guy again but killier’, and those that can sometimes break the rules as powerfully as you. An evil priest that retaliates each time you attack his allies, but won’t defend himself. A medic that can revive the dead. A riot-shielded heavy with a gasmask that immunises them against your special knockback juice. If the core rules of the game are its language, the abilities of you and your foes are poetics and pun-stuffed punchlines both.

When we talk about games feeling ‘human’, it’s usually an attempt to capture something resonant or fearless or otherwise authentic about the stories they tell. Tactical Breach Wizards nails this, by the way. The writing quickly evolves from “this is funny” to “no, but this is actually really funny”. Then it evolves again from “I’m genuinely getting a kick out of spending time with these weirdos” to “is somebody throwing onions out of windows in here?”. Each teammate even has an optional anxiety dream missions where, say, Jen teams up with her own subconscious to hash out her insecurities. But actually I found TeeBeeDubs’s hidden profundity in, of all things, a menu screen.

Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 7

Each of the five wizzes you’ll eventually rope in to your party of wildly competent failures has an incredibly distinct skillset, and as they gain experience through missions, you’ll unlock perks that augment their standard abilities. A few perks are more mundane, although even an extra point of damage for Zan’s shot ends up being transformative. By and large though, reader: this shit is wild . I’d gaze at the perk screen, joyfully paralysed, trying to envision all the ridiculous scenarios that, say, Zan’s spectral clone now being able to interact with panels and doors could result in. You can refund perk points whenever you feel like it, but this conundrum is my experience with the game distilled. A pre-emptive fear of missed opportunities, made sweet by a grinning, glazed-over sense of exciting possibilities. Like being alive. With better hats.

It’s not free of issues. Necro-surgeon Dessa Banks has an ability that’s so universally useful I ended up anchoring my plays with it for a good stretch, and it wasn’t even the one where she can resurrect people by shooting them. The ending missions prioritise story setpieces over the final exam gauntlet I was hoping for, and I found myself drifting toward autopilot even a few missions before those. There’s probably one too many fat smears of frosting in the conspiratorial layercake plot to comfortably keep track of your first time through. But the fact I’m even excited about a second playthrough of a 15 hour game I played for work should hopefully convey something. This very moment, I keep diving back in to check details and grab screens, and end up replaying entire missions. There’s more! Survival maps. Optional puzzles. The same level editor the developer has, with the option to share your maps with others online. Hard mode. Is this all window dressing? Maybe. But man, what an absolute treat of a window. Do say “hi” on your way down.

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

An establishing shot of the Blue Gate map in Arc Raiders, with a blueprint grid and a Vulcano shotgun superimposed over the centre of the screenshot. - 11

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

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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
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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:

BlueprintTypeRecipeCrafted At
BettinaWeapon3x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Heavy Gun Parts 3x CanisterGunsmith 3
Blue Light StickQuick Use3x ChemicalsUtility Station 1
AphelionWeapon3x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Complex Gun Parts 1x Matriarch ReactorGunsmith 3
Combat Mk. 3 (Flanking)Augment2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x ProcessorGear Bench 3
Combat Mk. 3 (Aggressive)Augment2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x ProcessorGear Bench 3
Complex Gun PartsMaterial2x Light Gun Parts 2x Medium Gun Parts 2x Heavy Gun PartsRefiner 3
Fireworks BoxQuick Use1x Explosive Compound 3x Pop TriggerExplosives Station 2
Gas MineMine4x Chemicals 2x Rubber PartsExplosives Station 1
Green Light StickQuick Use3x ChemicalsUtility Station 1
Pulse MineMine1x Crude Explosives 1x WiresExplosives Station 1
Seeker GrenadeGrenade1x Crude Explosives 2x ARC AlloyExplosives Station 1
Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor)Augment2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x ProcessorGear Bench 3
Angled Grip IIMod2x Mechanical Components 3x Duct TapeGunsmith 2
Angled Grip IIIMod2x Mod Components 5x Duct TapeGunsmith 3
HullcrackerWeapon1x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Heavy Gun Parts 1x Exodus ModulesGunsmith 3
Launcher AmmoAmmo5x Metal Parts 1x Crude ExplosivesWorkbench 1
AnvilWeapon5x Mechanical Components 5x Simple Gun PartsGunsmith 2
Anvil SplitterMod2x Mod Components 3x ProcessorGunsmith 3
????????????
Barricade KitQuick Use1x Mechanical ComponentsUtility Station 2
Blaze GrenadeGrenade1x Explosive Compound 2x OilExplosives Station 3
BobcatWeapon3x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Light Gun PartsGunsmith 3
OspreyWeapon2x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 7x WiresGunsmith 3
BurlettaWeapon3x Mechanical Components 3x Simple Gun PartsGunsmith 1
Compensator IIMod2x Mechanical Components 4x WiresGunsmith 2
Compensator IIIMod2x Mod Components 8x WiresGunsmith 3
DefibrillatorQuick Use9x Plastic Parts 1x MossMedical Lab 2
????????????
EqualizerWeapon3x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Complex Gun Parts 1x Queen ReactorGunsmith 3
Extended BarrelMod2x Mod Components 8x WiresGunsmith 3
Extended Light Mag IIMod2x Mechanical Components 3x Steel SpringGunsmith 2
Extended Light Mag IIIMod2x Mod Components 5x Steel SpringGunsmith 3
Extended Medium Mag IIMod2x Mechanical Components 3x Steel SpringGunsmith 2
Extended Medium Mag IIIMod2x Mod Components 5x Steel SpringGunsmith 3
Extended Shotgun Mag IIMod2x Mechanical Components 3x Steel SpringGunsmith 2
Extended Shotgun Mag IIIMod2x Mod Components 5x Steel SpringGunsmith 3
Remote Raider FlareQuick Use2x Chemicals 4x Rubber PartsUtility Station 1
Heavy Gun PartsMaterial4x Simple Gun PartsRefiner 2
VenatorWeapon2x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 5x MagnetGunsmith 3
Il ToroWeapon5x Mechanical Components 6x Simple Gun PartsGunsmith 1
Jolt MineMine1x Electrical Components 1x BatteryExplosives Station 2
Explosive MineMine1x Explosive Compound 1x SensorsExplosives Station 3
JupiterWeapon3x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Complex Gun Parts 1x Queen ReactorGunsmith 3
Light Gun PartsMaterial4x Simple Gun PartsRefiner 2
Lightweight StockMod2x Mod Components 5x Duct TapeGunsmith 3
Lure GrenadeGrenade1x Speaker Component 1x Electrical ComponentsUtility Station 2
Medium Gun PartsMaterial4x Simple Gun PartsRefiner 2
TorrenteWeapon2x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 6x Steel SpringGunsmith 3
Muzzle Brake IIMod2x Mechanical Components 4x WiresGunsmith 2
Muzzle Brake IIIMod2x Mod Components 8x WiresGunsmith 3
Padded StockMod2x Mod Components 5x Duct TapeGunsmith 3
Shotgun Choke IIMod2x Mechanical Components 4x WiresGunsmith 2
Shotgun Choke IIIMod2x Mod Components 8x WiresGunsmith 3
Shotgun SilencerMod2x Mod Components 8x WiresGunsmith 3
ShowstopperGrenade1x Advanced Electrical Components 1x Voltage ConverterExplosives Station 3
Silencer IMod2x Mechanical Components 4x WiresGunsmith 2
Silencer IIMod2x Mod Components 8x WiresGunsmith 3
Snap HookQuick Use2x Power Rod 3x Rope 1x Exodus ModulesUtility Station 3
Stable Stock IIMod2x Mechanical Components 3x Duct TapeGunsmith 2
Stable Stock IIIMod2x Mod Components 5x Duct TapeGunsmith 3
Tagging GrenadeGrenade1x Electrical Components 1x SensorsUtility Station 3
TempestWeapon3x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 3x CanisterGunsmith 3
Trigger NadeGrenade2x Crude Explosives 1x ProcessorExplosives Station 2
Vertical Grip IIMod2x Mechanical Components 3x Duct TapeGunsmith 2
Vertical Grip IIIMod2x Mod Components 5x Duct TapeGunsmith 3
Vita ShotQuick Use2x Antiseptic 1x SyringeMedical Lab 3
Vita SprayQuick Use3x Antiseptic 1x CanisterMedical Lab 3
VulcanoWeapon1x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Heavy Gun Parts 1x Exodus ModulesGunsmith 3
WolfpackGrenade2x Explosive Compound 2x SensorsExplosives Station 3
Red Light StickQuick Use3x ChemicalsUtility Station 1
Smoke GrenadeGrenade14x Chemicals 1x CanisterUtility Station 2
DeadlineMine3x Explosive Compound 2x ARC CircuitryExplosives Station 3
TrailblazerGrenade1x Explosive Compound 1x Synthesized FuelExplosives Station 3
Tactical Mk. 3 (Defensive)Augment2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x ProcessorGear Bench 3
Tactical Mk. 3 (Healing)Augment2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x ProcessorGear Bench 3
Yellow Light StickQuick Use3x ChemicalsUtility Station 1

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.
A raider in Arc Raiders kneels down in the grass and opens a grey raider cache container. - 14

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.

The Weekly Trials screen in Arc Raiders, with the five trials of the week shown as having been completed to three-star quality. - 15

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.

An image showing two Raiders from Arc Raiders aiming their weapons and looting. - 16

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.

An establishing shot of the Blue Gate map in Arc Raiders, with grassy hills in the foreground and a large mountain range in the distance. - 17

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.

Ollie Toms avatar - 18 Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 19

ARC Raiders

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Our 9 favourite demos from the summer Steam Next Fest

Try them

Nor points a pistol at an otherworldly sphinx-like god in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. - 21

Image credit:Akupara Games

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This week, we’re highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest , which starts June 10th. We’re calling this Wishlisted , in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247.

Excuse me, sorry, pardon me, can I just, thank you, ah, sorry, thanks… Phew, made it. Steam Next Fest is pretty crowded, eh? As if the unholy swarm of trailers and game announcements from Summer Game Fest was not enough, this week the fearful megalords at Valve decided to drop their regular cavalcade of coming-soons onto their megastore. The beautiful (and terrifying) thing about Next Fest, of course, is the overwhelming number of demos that come out during the event. A small herd of video games are standing on my toes as we speak. But that’s okay, we are expert curators. Here’s a handy list of our nine favourite demos of the lot.

Tactical Breach Wizards

Cover image for YouTube video - 23

A magical SWAT team bust down doors and blast bad folk in this confined tactics game from Suspicious Developments. At the end of a fight in this funny tacticianesque turn-taker, you are awarded with a score for speed, efficiency, and number of “defenestrations”, which should tell you everything you need to know. The healer on your team is a necromancer, so to heal her squad mates properly, she may first have to kill them. “It’d take a serious hex to stop me diving into the full game when it releases,” said Nic when he tried the demo for the window-breaking Into The Breach-like . He won’t have to wait too long - it’s out August 22nd .

Download the defenestrating demo on Steam .

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

Cover image for YouTube video - 24

A soulslike that challenges all the other soulslikes to pistols at dawn (I stole this joke from one of our commenters, who may demand satisfaction). Flintlock sees you explore a world where twisted gods have been unleashed and must be taken down. You can triple-jump from the opening chapters and curse lads with a magical fennec fox sidekick. The demo is quite buggy (not reassuring for a game due out next month) but when it works it is stylish, curious, bright, and inventive. The creature design is a particular treat .

Powder your musket via the Steam page .

Disco Samurai

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A rhythm-action Sekiro where you stab your way through neon-lit dioramas by tapping in time to the techno beat. It’s hard stuff , says Nic. But it also doesn’t outright punish you for missing a beat, in the way something like Thumper might. Here, you simply won’t attack. It gets more complicated as you 4/4 your way to bloody victory with parries, dodges, stuns, and guns. You can also kick vases around for extra damage, smashing the priceless heirlooms into goon faces. To paraphrase the seminal work of 1990s Italian eurodance group Corona: This is the rhythm of the fight, the fight, oh yeah.

Dance and dice in the demo on Steam .

Spilled!

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Well, oil be damned. Spilled (I’m not writing that exclam, it’s quiet time) is one of them there cosy games about relaxing and having a satisfying clean-up. You drift around in a pleasant boat filtering black puddles of gunk out of the water. You’ll also be herding plastic flotsam back to your recycling HQ and rinsing harmful goo off the rocks above the waterline with a big splooshy hose. Yes, you can upgrade your boat to make the job easier but “the pleasure is very much found in the cleaning itself, rather than the rewards,” says James, who enjoyed his boaty break at sea .

De-gunk the demo on Steam .

Sorry We’re Closed

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Heard you like Silent Hill games. Heard you like Paradise Killer . Heard you like the hottest pinks on the face of the earth. Heard you like changing to a first-person perspective to shoot. Heard you like Persona games. Heard you like not having enough bullets. Heard you like the London tube, but fucked-up. Heard you like running from room to room while being pursued by a mutilated being of unknown origin which let’s face it is probably a psychological manifestation of your grief or guilt or shame or repressed sexual desires and is also groaning and swinging around a piece of sharp rusty metal to kill you perhaps metaphorically but also quite literally. Heard you like all that .

Scream through the dream on Steam .

Tiny Glade

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In Tiny Glade you start with a grassy patch of countryside and end with a cosy castle. Its simple diorama-building lies somewhere between the zen-like rearranging of Quiet As A Stone and the pleasant seaside brickery of Townscaper . A lot of the toughest decisions are made for you as you drag stonework walls and wooden fences around with sigh-inducing ease, the game inserting piles of wood, pitchforks, and even bird’s nests into the nooks and crannies of your bucolic fortress. “Managed to quieten my brain for a few precious hours,” said Kiera when she made the witch’s cottage of her dreams .

Bewitch yourself in the demo on Steam .

Enotria: The Last Song

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Two soulslikes on the list? Don’t be absurd. We don’t need TWO soulslikes. Oh, this one’s Italian? And everyone wears a creepy mask that determines their purpose for their entire life? Well, I suppose, why not. Si, per favore. The combat does look beefy, with lots of slow, charged attacks I bet will have to be extremely well-timed. And there’s no block button, I’m told. That alone will get the souls sickos lining up to salivate through the window. I’ll let Edwin take you through the finer details . He’s part Italian, I think. Always talking about Rococo this and Baroque that. Can’t get the guy to stop.

La demo è su Steam .

Faceminer

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What is the price of a face? $43. That’s our Ed’s estimate based on the time he spent playing Faceminer , the dystopian idle game about ravenously hoarding human portraits. You sit on an old PC with the grey interface of yesteryear and click on as many faces as you can by rummaging through datasets and directories. You get emails about it. Management requires more faces, it seems. Install more RAM and auto-clicking software to increase your facerate. Buy some solar panels to ease your hunger for the visage of every human ever photographed. Where does it end? When will you be satisfied? I don’t know. This is just a demo. These are all just demos, dude.

This one, too, is on Steam .

Lost and Found Co

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You are a duck. Excuse me, you were a duck. Until some dressy goddess turned you into a human because she needs an intern for her “magical startup dedicated to finding lost items”. Let the hidden object hunt commence, as you click and maybe cluck your way through stages of packed teahouses, crowded cabaret clubs, and floral countryside scenes. Graham is the resident Hidden Objectifier at RPS. “I appreciate that there’s a story to pull you through each scene too,” he said when he first spotted it at the Wholesome Direct , his eyes full of a fierce and slightly concerning focus. He must be looking for a lost cat.

Find the demo hiding on Steam .

Disclosure: Suspicious Developments, the makers of Tactical Breach Wizards , is headed by Tom Francis, who has written for RPS in the past and knows all our darkest desires.

Brendan Caldwell avatar - 32 Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 33

Disco Samurai

Video Game

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Enotria: The Last Song

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 35

FACEMINER

Video Game

Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 36

Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn

Video Game

Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 37

Sorry We’re Closed

PC

Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 38

Spilled!

PC

Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 39

Tactical Breach Wizards

PC

Tactical Breach Wizards review: humour, heart, smarts and playfulness conjure up an instant genre classic - 40

Tiny Glade

PC

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