The Maw - 22nd-27th April 2024

This week’s least outwardly offputting game releases, plus our weekly newsblog

Image credit:Cornelis Meijer

Ugh, I do not have the energy to feed the Maw this week. Sometimes the creature manifests as a proper monstrosity, with B-movie prosthetics and sound effects, and sometimes, it’s more of an… unfathomable annoyance, like a nose that won’t stop running, or a single player game that requires an internet connection. In either case, the Maw must be sated, and fortunately, there are quite a few appetising video-or-computer games out in the next seven days, with at least one behemoth landing on Friday.

Here they are: fantasy medieval survival town-builder Bellwright (23rd April); shamanic metroidvania Tales of Kenzera: Zau (23rd April); gangland horror FPS Jawbreaker (23rd April); cosmic horny simulator Sucker for Love: Date to Die For (23rd April); Pikminish factory RTS Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure (24th April); anime mech brawler Megaton Mushashi W: Wired (25th April); Dragon Ball X Mad Max tank ’em up Sand Land (25th April); not-a-Total-War-killer Manor Lords (26th April).

Our live coverage of this event has finished.

• 07:58 am 04/26/2024 FRIDAY EMBRUED
• 07:14 am 04/25/2024 THURSDAY ONCE MORE
• 08:17 am 04/24/2024 IT’S WEDNESDAY
• 07:10 am 04/23/2024 TUESDAY REGNANT
• 08:57 am 04/22/2024 IT’S MONDAY AGAIN

IT’S MONDAY AGAIN

Why do they keep doing this to us. FEED THE MAW.

Like a Minecraft slime but not as cuddly, Embracer Group are splitting into three separate companies – Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.

Uncapped Games boss and former StarCraft 2 multiplayer lead David Kim is teasing a new RTS, which will be revealed during Summer Game Fest in June. Catch word of it in the below documentary.

An English Haunting has a release date, and it’s soon! May 15th. I’m stoked for this one - I wrote about the demo as a supporter post and whacked it on our most anticipated list . It’s a spooky point and click adventure set in Edwardian England, where you play a professor who has to prove the existence of ghosts. I dunno what else I can say to sell it to you, but here’s a new trailer the devs put on Xitter.

Save the date!🗓️ An English Haunting will be available on May 15th! Here’s the new trailer and don’t forget to hit the wishlist button! ⬇️👻 https://t.co/Q91vpfkYn0 pic.twitter.com/R6Afa9vfaH — Postmodern Adventures (@postmodernadv) April 22, 2024

Via VGC , an EA Japan exec has complained about the country’s ratings board banning Dead Space despite recently approving Stellar Blade, which has a similar level of violence. I don’t think this is much of a story, but I keep wanting to write it up because it has me picturing Isaac Clarke with the Stellar Blade lady’s bottom, which is making me feel a bit hysterical.

Uncover the Smoking Gun has you solve a murder by interrogating ChatGPT-speaking suspects , with AI’s habit of just making stuff up apparently just adding to the mystery.

The co-creators of WipEout and Skate are teasing a sci-fi sports game and roguelike strategy sim from their new studio Starlight Games.

The Fallout TV show’s popularity has blown up popular mod site Nexus Mods as everyone rushes to play Fallout 4 again (and then remembers they need mods to make it worth playing).

As Edwin shared earlier, StarCraft 2’s former lead multiplayer designer David Kim is teasing a new RTS he feels is a “paradigm shift” for the genre. We’ll hear more this summer.

TUESDAY REGNANT

To the barricades, nooze gatherers! We have nothing to lose but our ears, index fingers, select portions of our kidneys and staff discounts with official merch partners! FEED THE MAW.

Tarnation! The Xbox people are doing another indie showcase next week. They’ve partnered with Ian of the Games Network, and we can expect new stuff about Vampire Survivors, Dungeons of Hinterberg, 33 Immortals and Lost Records Bloom & Rage, amongst others.

Epic have added a setting that lets you hide “confrontational” emotes from other players in Fortnite - instead, you’ll see a standing still emote with no sound effect, which surely makes Standing Still the most aggressive emote of all. The setting affects four emotes at the time of writing: Laugh It Up, Take the L, Whipcrack, Make It Plantain. Why is plantain-making considered hostile? I like plantain!

Cereballers is a brief, free football parody that had me cackling like a witch when I played it in bed last night.

The Book Of Clarence’s LaKeith Stanfield is in talks to star in and produce a film based on El Paso, Elsewhere, according to Deadline . WritNelson’s conquest of pop culture continues apace.

F1 2024 is out 31st May, and here’s a video about its new car physics system.

The No Rest For The Wicked devs have been steadily hotfixing the game since release. The latest, biggest patch appears to target performance in particular while adding a few new settings.

We missed this last week - I may have been flathunting? - but it’s still worth a poke: Arkane Lyon’s co-creative director Dinga Bakaba has thoughts on whether multiplayer immersive sims are the genre’s next “evolutionary step”.

It isn’t my nindo, but after experimenting with MP in “DEATHLOOP” I feel there is indeed some potential there. I wouldn’t call it an evolutionary step, more like a viable hybridation. The key being making MP systems diegetic enough to create a believable shared narrative/world. https://t.co/vLmtmHd2m1 — Dinga Bakaba (@DBakaba) April 17, 2024

Building Relationships lets you play as a house exploring an island and shacking up (hah!) with other houses. Seems very jolly, “secret hellhound” aside.

Image credit:Tan Ant Games

A devlog trailer for zombo-penguin tactics game South Pole Bebop, explaining how it takes inspiration from Into The Breach.

How has it taken me this long to notice Sweet Transit? The game hit 1.0 yesterday and is as busy with moving parts as Factorio, its developer’s previous joint, but much, much less desolate.

Rain-slick townbuilder Against The Storm’s 1.3 update is out now , adding a little new content and a lot of quality-of-life updates. Most excitingly, it lets you zoom the camera out further.

Handsome strategy-RPG Songs Of Conquest will leave Early Access on May 20th with the addition of a fourth and final campaign. There will be post-release updates, however.

Zenless Zone Zero, the next game from Genshin Impact developers HoyoVerse, is now available for pre-registration . The urban fantasy action-RPG is expected to release sometime in the first half of 2024.

Retro first-person shooter Phantom Fury is out now on Steam . It’s a sorta sequel to 3D Realms boomer shooter Ion Fury, with a new engine, a new developer and seemingly mixed results.

Ubisoft have released a bunch of older Anno citybuilders on Steam with a “History Edition” label. Anno 1503, Anno 1602, and Anno 1701 are all included, each packaged with their respective DLC and optimised to support modern PCs and 4K resolution. All three are also currently 50% off .

Safe but cosy Suikoden spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicles launched yesterday. It’s currently sitting at a ‘mostly positive’ on Steam, and our Edders enjoyed it plenty . Speaking to XBOX Wire , leads at Rabbit & Bear have given more insight into the late Murayama’s design philosophies:

“Murayama always talked about the makunouchi bento when explaining RPGs. He would say that “RPGs had a variety of side dishes, and every one of them is delicious”.

IT’S WEDNESDAY

As Nic shared earlier, the head of Moon Studios - developers behind Dark Souls-like early access game No Rest For The Wicked - has made the fairly bold claim that Dark Souls would’ve been a better game in early access . Hmm.

GTA5 nearly had story DLC that made Trevor a 007-style spy - and even got as far as recording - until it was cancelled and turned into a GTA Online heist , according to new details from the chaotic criminal’s actor.

Former Fable devs over at Fowling Fowl Studios have revealed a new co-op RPG … only to announce at the same time that its development is on hold amid layoffs and a struggle to find funding.

PUBG, the game that Fortnite copied, is copying Fortnite by bringing back the battle royale shooter’s original map for two weeks next month - complete with “vintage” UI and gunplay from, uh, 2017.

THURSDAY ONCE MORE

The Maw’s current height is 1000 lightyears. Its current width is that of an espresso served on a Friday in Paris in the year 1965. FEED IT.

In a Reddit AMA , Assassin’s Creed Mirage creative director Stephane Boudon has said that there are no major updates planned for the game but they do have ideas for “how we could extend the story of Basim”.

Here’s the “phase 1” demo for dev_hell , a roguelike deckbuilder about working in software development.

Manky submarine sim Barotrauma has a big update too, which adds “two new monsters, a medical system mini-overhaul, extra difficulty settings for campaign mode, and new wrecks and beacons for you to explore”.

Via VGC , Blizzard are staffing up for an unannounced game - they’re looking for a creative director and narrative director, amongst other roles.

The unsettling NPC-killing disease known as Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2 has now been nerfed in an update across all platforms, according to an update post from Capcom . This was something they announced as planned just last week .

At last, some decent food: Dr. Robotnik’s Ring Racers is out, and free to download . It’s a fangame from the Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart team, built using Doom Legacy, and it looks terrific.

Blizzard have announced that their fan event BlizzCon won’t happen in 2024 . The previously yearly event only returned physically last year, but Blizzard say they’re going to focus on smaller standalone events instead.

People Can Fly, the Polish studio behind shooters such as Painkiller, Bulletstorm and Outriders, have cancelled devleopment on a co-op action RPG . The game was being self-published, after initial publishing partner Take-Two dropped out in 2022. People Can Fly have two other projects for Microsoft and Square Enix still in-development.

Korean MMO ArcheAge is closing down its servers in Europe and North America after ten years. ArcheAge 2 is currently in development.

Cosy survival hamletbuilder Diluvian Winds has released from Early Access . It’s about building a home for anthropomorphic animals around the foot of a lighthouse and attempting to survive periodic tsunamis. Cute.

Wonderful third-person climb ’em up Jusant is now available via GOG .

TopSpin 2k25, the first in the tennis series in over ten years, is currently out via Steam for those who purchase its £90 Deluxe Edition. It’ll be out for those who buy its meagre £50 edition at midnight PST tonight. It’s the latest in 2K Games’ broader franchise of sports-derived microtransaction-delivery platforms.

FRIDAY EMBRUED

Fallout 4’s much-anticipated big update is out - here are the full patchnotes .

Here’s a new trailer for Karma: The Dark World - “a first-person cinematic psychological thriller” and also, a game of Dystopian Future bingo. It’s set in East Germany in 1984 and casts you as an employee of the Leviathan Corporation’s Thought Police. “What is time?” asks the Steam page . “A measurement of fleeting events we perceive as they pass, where terrible and joyous experiences fade into memory, obscured by a desire to leave our sadness in the past as we struggle to hold on to our fondest moments as they drift toward nostalgia.” I think I’m getting a migraine. The trailer seems swish though.

cpt_freakout says: Light management game Diluvian Winds also came out today, in case anyone’s interested.

This does look nice . It’s got a lighthouse in it and everything.

A new Counter-Strike 2 update which adds the option to put the gun in your character’s left hand, amongst other things.

By apparent popular request, Stray Fawn Studio have added the option to feed villagers to the monster your village is built on in The Wandering Village . The survivors may be terrified into forming a cult. The monster can also get parasites now. I’m pretty sure this started out as a Wholesome Game. It seems to be slowly turning into The Shrouded Isle.

Famed Viewtiful Joe creator Shinji Mikami (think he worked on some zombie games too), apparently wanted to leave Tango Gameworks 8 years before he actually did. If you missed it, Mikami left the Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush studio last year.

“I think a lot of people were under the impression that I was the representative,” said Mikami, via IGN , “but I was very close to a rank-and-file employee. I had ‘producer’ attached to my name, but I wasn’t an executive or anything of the sort.” Mikami started a new studio earlier this year.

A new trailer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

Arrowhead want you to choose the next Stratagem for Helldivers 2, by picking which planet to liberate. Rocket launcher or anti-tank mines? The eternal conundrum.

MAJOR ORDER: Helldivers, it’s time to choose between liberating Choohe or Penta. Depending on your choice, you will receive either the MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines or the RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher. (And you’ll save the citizens. Don’t forget the citizens.) pic.twitter.com/YXSlgTiRuv — HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) April 26, 2024

Celeste’s slick movement meets Zelda’s hookshot in Oyster Wars , an “intense” platformer by an actual oyster farmer about revenge against Big Oyster - and built on some of Celeste’s own player code.

The Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection - bundling five Phoenix Wright games - is about to disappear from Steam, so grab it while you can (and cheap, for the next week).

A month after the Alone in the Dark reboot’s release - following multiplae delays out of 2023 - it looks like developers Pieces Interactive are suffering layoffs .

Escape From Tarkov’s developers have doubled down in their belief that their new game mode is not DLC , but say that paying players will get access to it whenever the game is finished.

A banned WWE 2k24 modder has been reinstated following player backlash . WhatsTheStatus’ mods will seemingly return soon, minus certain creations that impacted the stability and performance of the wrestling game.

Rusty’s Retirement is an idle-farming simulator designed to sit at the bottom of your screen while you do other things . It launched on Steam this week. It’s like the Petz of crop gathering?

Shinji Mikami, the director of Resident Evil 4 and The Evil Within, left Tango Gameworks - a studio he founded - because he wanted to move away from the survival horror genre. Mikami explained the decision in an interview with Famitsu, now translated by Automaton Media . Mikami has founded a new studio called Kamuy.

Bloober Team, currently working on the Silent Hill 2 remake, also have two other projects in-development. Twitter user pl_evil translated the Polish studio’s annual report , which mentions the two games. Project C will be announced this year and is an original IP developed in partnership with Private Division, and Project R is a game due in 2025 based on a Skybound IP. Skybound Entertainment was founded by Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead.

Early access citybuilder Manor Lords has seemingly had a successful launch, sitting at number one in Steam’s top sellers chart. It reached a peak of 170,000 concurrent players today . If you’re tempted, read our Manor Lords review first.

Stardew Valley’s 1.6.6 patch is out now. The full patch notes detail several tweaks and fixes.

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.