The Maw - 7th-10th May 2024

This week’s most scintillating game releases, plus our weekly newsblog

Image credit:Old Book Illustrations/Carlo Chiostri

It’s a short week ‘cos we all had a Bank Holiday yesterday, and Edwin isn’t here today, which means I have donned some thick leather gloves and am standing well back to throw some sticky gobbets at The Maw . The gobbets in question? Some tasty game releases this week! Plus whatever else we think might be interesting enough in PC gaming news to appease it - and you.

This week in game release news pertinent to me, specifically, is Nancy Drew: Mystery Of The Seven Keys (7th May), although you won’t see me playing it for a while . In more universally interesting news is the 1.0 launch of vamp-’em-up survival crafting game V Rising (and in more Universalisly interesting news, Europa Universalis IV is getting an expansion pack called Winds Of Change ) (both 8th May). Crow Country and Cryptmaster bring different but somehow similar spooky puzzle midweek, along with the next Vampire Survivors update Operation Guns, followed by the presumably much more cute than all of those Little Kitty Big City (all 9th May). Busy few days, eh? I’m sure there was something else that came out over the last few days, what was it now? Oh! Hades 2 !

We needs must feed The Maw, an unknowable beast that must have stowed away in Edwin’s bindle, and hopefully the releases above will be enough. But usually it isn’t, which is why you can follow along as we desperately chuck more newskibble into this liveblog. If you want to help you can comment with nutritious news yourself!

Our live coverage of this event has finished.

• 08:01 am 05/10/2024 THE DUDES HAVE ONCE AGAIN CONSULTED THE ORACLE AND DECIDED THAT IT IS FRIDAY
• 07:56 am 05/09/2024 IT IS THURSDAY, MY RELIABLE DUDES HAVE INFORMED ME
• 08:02 am 05/08/2024 WEDNESDAY IT IS, MY DUDES
• 08:46 am 05/07/2024 MY DUDES, IT IS TUESDAY

MY DUDES, IT IS TUESDAY

After all the kerfuffle over the weekend , Arrowhead’s head arrow Johan Pilestedt has joked about making a new in-game cloak based on the reviewbombing Helldivers 2 got. Except maybe it’s not a joke …?

The Bathrooms , a sort-of-pisstake of The Backrooms horror copypasta concept, in which you are trapped in a giant and endless school toilet, does actually look cool. I’m into the endless tiles, unironically. Public toilets have big liminal space energy. On the other hand, The Bathrooms is internet-poisoned and mentions “copium” and you have to save a Shiba Inu. This is, of course, anti -cool.

Microsoft are shutting down multiple studios including Redfall developers Arkane Austin and the creators of Hi-Fi Rush, Tango Gameworks, as reported by IGN . Other studios hit are Mighty Dog Studios (makers of cutesy mobile game Mighty Doom) and Roundhouse Games, which will have its workforce transferred to Zenimax Online Studios, the Elder Scrolls Online developers. “A small number of roles across select Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated,” said Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios.

The Witcher 3’s REDkit modding tools will launch on May 21st . They’ve been available in beta for a little while, and they’re a successor to the modkit launched back in 2015 - one that will allow for far more ambitious mods to the nearly ten-year-old RPG.

Remedy and Tencent have called it a day on their project codenamed Kestrel , which was due to be a premium co-operative multiplayer game. The project began life as a free-to-play co-op game under the codename Vanguard, before being re-tooled after a proof-of-concept late last year. Now Remedy say they’re ditching the project entirely and re-deploying the developers to work on existing franchises - presumably the previously announced Control 2 and co-op Control spin-off.

Heading Out is out . Out-out? I’m not sure, but it’s a narrative driving game in which your choices of route, your police chases, the characters you meet along the way, all define the road trip story you’re playing.

WEDNESDAY IT IS, MY DUDES

Sin Vega says: wildermyth dlc announced and it’s a rather interesting one, even though I think one of its two prongs (prongggg) is about by far the least interesting part of the game. But it looks also like it could be a way to experiment and practice with designs a bit for perhaps a sequel or other game one day? who know

From the Steam page : “For the fighters, we have a roguelike tactical challenge mode with progression across runs. And for the lovers, we have A Walk in the Unlight, a new story campaign that uses the Omenroad format to take your heroes past the edge of the Yondering Lands and into worlds beyond.” No release date yet.

Bungie and Sony are giving players free access to three Destiny 2 expansions ahead of The Final Shape’s release in June.

Via surreal_pistachio (whose hidden comment I can’t approve for some reason), sokoban-meets-Zelda game Isles of Sea and Sky is out May 22nd.

A mighty update for Dome Keeper , designed “to increase replayability and run variety way beyond what you’ve seen so far.”

Launch timings for Homeworld 3 , which is out in a matter of days. Days!

Redfall had a platter of updates and DLC in the works including the long-awaited offline mode, IGN reports , before Microsoft shut down Arkane Austin.

Dishonored co-director Harvey Smith has continued his thread about Arkane Austin’s closure with some lengthy reflections about his time at the studio over the years.

Some notes on Arkane. What a place. It was 16 years for me. Some games I will always treasure. Very proud of the team and culture. No place is perfect, but we cared a lot and put in effort. — Harvey Smith (@Harvey1966) May 8, 2024

CampFire Studio and Qooland’s survival game Soulmask - in which you can possess your tribespeople to make use of their skills - will release on June 18th.

Amusingly, the Sharpshooters added to Shadows of Doubt by the latest Sharpshooter Assassin update aren’t as sharp as they could be. They keep missing and leaving massive piles of shell casings everywhere . The devs are working on a fix, but I for one cherish the idea of a city’s worth of inept snipers.

Image credit:Fireshine Games

I’m fascinated by this open-world delivery game that sounds like Death Stranding on a horse in 13th-century Mongolia , boasting “unparalleled equine realism”. Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori gallops onto early access in September!

In perhaps the most Fortnite story yet, the battle royale game has temporarily banned its new Yoda backpack for opening game-crashing wormholes while doing Futurama’s Zoidberg Scuttle .

As Edwin shared earlier, the next Battlefield game will have “connected” multiplayer and single-player offerings , made by the series’ biggest team yet, according to EA’s human-shaped corpobot Andrew Wilson.

Darkest Dungeon 2 should start rolling out its long-awaited mod support soon , with custom items by the end of June and whole new characters later on.

IT IS THURSDAY, MY RELIABLE DUDES HAVE INFORMED ME

Arrowhead’s CEO has suggested that the developers have “gone too far” with certain Helldivers 2 balancing patches and need a new approach. They’ve been “removing the fun”, the dogs!

Hey, yeah i think we’ve gone too far in some areas. Will talk to the team about the approach to balance. It feels like every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed. — Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 8, 2024

Nightingale has a new updates roadmap . An offline mode is “incoming” alongside new quests and NPCs and “tree-felling improvements”. I was killed by a tree falling on me in Nightingale once. I hope that’s still possible - it was rather fun.

A fair few james gournalists are claiming that Microsoft’s Perfect Dark reboot is a bit of a disaster - the project is said to have floundered since last year, when it was reported to have made “little meaningful progress” since the 2020 announcement. Eurogamer has rounded up some of the gossip for consideration.

As reported by Eurogamer , there’s trouble a-brewing down Elite Dangerous way with regard to a currently paywalled new ship that’s a bit too handy in combat.

According to Xbox honcho Matt Booty via The Verge , Microsoft “need smaller games that give us prestige and awards”. This certainly describes Hi-Fi Rush, created by Tango Gameworks, which Microsoft shuttered this week.

I’m still getting around to Total War: Pharaoh, because there is too much Warhammer to warhammer through, and here’s Creative Assembly talking about almost doubling the size of the game’s world map in the next update .

THE DUDES HAVE ONCE AGAIN CONSULTED THE ORACLE AND DECIDED THAT IT IS FRIDAY

Here’s a new Harmony update for A Highland Song. It adds five new musical tracks, “story surprises” and a Landmark feature “which lets you see the peaks and paths you’ve discovered on your runs so far when scanning the landscape - and with a quick button press, lets you jump to the associated map”.

Role-playing musical Stray Gods is getting some DLC featuring the quite-dead bard Orpheus, developers Summerfall Studios have announced. You briefly meet Orpheus in the base game, but this new story will see you embody the bard for “hours of interactive music”.

Possibly incomparable time travel story 1000xResist is out now.

Former Microsoft senior PR Brad Hilderbrand (who was laid off by the company this May) has blogged on LinkedIn about plateauing Game Pass growth and Microsoft closing Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Studios. A little excerpt: “The biggest paradox with Game Pass is that basically every game that launches on the service badly misses its sales goals.”

Venerable zombie survival game DayZ is getting a Frostline expansion with the opportunity to “discover an untouched archipelago where time stands still.” The new Sakhal map is 83km square, and is said to be a lot tougher on the player than the existing areas. Here’s a trailer.

Here’s Xbox president Sarah Bond non-responding to a Bloomberg question about why they canned Tango, given the success of Hi-Fi Rush.

In Emberstorm’s Reka you are a forest witch who lives in a chicken-legged house. Sound bewitching? You might want to try the Steam demo then.

Nomad city-builder Dream Engines has hit the big 1.0 and people seem to like it.

Summerfall founder and former Dragon Age scribe David Gaider takes a dim view of an EA executive’s enthusiasm for generative AI tools.

In case it’s unclear, the “hunger” referred to here is the allure of a spreadsheet where the labour costs suddenly show as a teeny tiny bar compared to the other bars and a bunch of executives around a table nod and repeat “ROI” and “good, yes, good” over and over again. https://t.co/akAMhghTzR — David Gaider (@davidgaider) May 10, 2024

Fallout 4 is getting a new graphics and performance update next week, Bethesda have announced. No details as yet on what exactly it does, but it’s worrying news for any modders still scrambling to update their mods following the last big patch a couple of weeks ago.

On Monday, May 13 we will be updating Fallout 4 on all platforms. This update will include new options for graphics and performance settings as well as further fixes and improvements. Thanks for your continued feedback and support! — Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) May 10, 2024

Stellaris’ director has insisted “ethical use of AI is very important to us” after generating two voices for latest DLC expansion The Machine Age, as well as using AI artwork and text prompts for “inspiration” during its development.

Dead by Daylight appears to be teasing a classic Dungeons & Dragons monster as its next killer , ahead of an eight-year (!) anniversary stream laying out its upcoming chapter on May 14th.

The Rogue Prince of Persia, the series’ colourful roguelite 2D platformer from the current devs behind Dead Cells, has dodged out of the way of Hades 2 by pushing its early access launch - originally due next week - later into the month. Expect news of a revised release date on Monday.

As Edwin mentioned earlier, Fallout 4 is already getting another patch next week after waiting years for the last “next-gen update”. Good luck to those modders out there already reeling with the most recent changes.

Warner Bros. have seemingly about-faced when it comes to delisting all Adult Swim Games from Steam. Instead, they’ve contacted a handful of developers about transferring control of Steam pages to them .

Ghosts Of Tsushima Director’s Cut is no longer available for sale on Steam in nearly 180 countries , due to it requiring players to have a PSN account to access certain online features. PSN accounts are not accessible in these countries. Players who pre-ordered the game on Steam in these regions have reported that they have been auto-refunded. The samurai action-adventure is due to release this coming Thursday, May 16th.

Instruments Of Destruction has hit 1.0 and left Early Access . It’s a physics sandbox demolition sim and developed in part by one of the tech designers on Red Faction Guerilla, a classic of knocking down buildings.

Game Developer report that Steam has been banned in Vietnam .

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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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