The Maw: what’s new in PC games this week?

Slitterhead, Planet Coaster 2, Brighter Shores and more more more

Image credit:Hendrik Hondius I / Rock Paper Shotgun

SCENE. A Video Game Website At Sunrise.

Enter A Reader Of News

A Reader Of News I wonder whither there be’est any new PC games on sale this week, perchance?

Enter A News Editor, With Alarums And Excursions

A News Editor On Monday 4th November, terraform hexagons to save princesses in Zero Orders Tactics . On Tuesday 5th November, take turns to run and gun in Metal Slug Tactics . On Wednesday 6th November, discover a kinder, cosier Runescape with the early access launch of free-to-play MMO Brighter Shores . Alternatively, build an incredibly unsafe waterslide in Planet Coaster 2 . Or answer the call of Stardewty and strike the earth of Mirthwood . On Thursday 7th November, click mischievously upon bawdy Renaissance art in Death Of The Reprobate . And on Friday 8th November, swap/hack bodies in Slitterhead .

A Reader Of News This list seemeth thin, my lord, and citeth not sundry auspicious PC releases that I have encountered on my travels.

EXIT, PURSUED BY A MAW.

Our live coverage of this event has finished.

• 08:59 am 11/08/2024 PERICLES, PRINCE OF FRIDAY
• 09:15 am 11/07/2024 THURSDAY AND CRESSIDA
• 09:04 am 11/06/2024 THE MERRY WEDNESDAYS OF WINDSOR
• 09:03 am 11/05/2024 TITUESDAY ANDRONICUS
• 07:56 am 11/04/2024 A MONDAY NIGHT’S DREAM

A MONDAY NIGHT’S DREAM

From Podcast Unlocked via Gamesradar , Diablo 4 lead and former Gears Of War dev Rod Fergusson has shared old plans for a Gears of War 6 that would have taken the cast to other planets.

The launch trailer for Planet Coaster 2.

TITUESDAY ANDRONICUS

The New York Times staff are on strike, and would like you to stop playing Wordle and Connections in solidarity. Speaking as a journalist myself, I’m cool with this as long as you promise to spend your Wordle time repeatedly refreshing our Wordle guides pages instead.

ULP STRIKE ALERT (Thread, 1 of 4): Our @NYTGuildTech members have walked off the job despite making every effort to negotiate with management. Our members know their worth and they will prove that at the picket line today. Read more here…. pic.twitter.com/FaPtLCwW9J — NewsGuild of New York (@nyguild) November 4, 2024

Crusader Kings 3 has a new update and paid expansion . The paid expansion adds “Wandering” lifestyles, which almost sound like the CK3 equivalent of Adventure mode in Dwarf Fortress, with characters exploring the world as they please. The free bits include breweries, a brewing culture tradition, and several new historical battle points of interest. Also, “a salacious Grand Wedding event chain”.

The major plot point in the Helldivers 2 live-service metagame right now is the construction of a space station super weapon, with labour kindly donated by families displaced by Super Earth’s war efforts. The question is whether said space station will ever have a presence in-game.

MAJOR ORDER: The Helldivers valiantly achieved two of the three objectives set by High Command, capturing the Automaton Database and limiting the bots’ territorial expansion, but falling short of re-securing the Terminid Research Preserve. Security has been doubled at the… pic.twitter.com/aaHTorIJgS — HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) November 4, 2024

Incentivised by the Tom Petty song from the GTA 6 trailer - which includes the line “wait for the moon” - players are still trying to glean release dates for additional trailers and the game itself from depictions of the moon in Rockstar key art.

Rockstar Games has potentially teased GTA 6 Trailer 2’s date in a picture they posted featuring a moon in the Waning Gibbous phase, which occurs on November 22nd. pic.twitter.com/wqJsrBMEHL — GTA 6 Countdown ⏳ (@GTAVI_Countdown) November 1, 2024

The launch trailer for Empire Of The Ants.

The Children Of Clay is a free horror investigation game in which you cautiously study an artefact that probably should have stayed in the earth.

Scarlet Lake is a top-down survival horror with a more than a little classic Resident Evil about it, with a demo on Steam .

Mind Over Magnet , the puzzle platformer from Game Maker’s Toolkit, now has a release date: 13th November.

THE MERRY WEDNESDAYS OF WINDSOR

We have made some updates to our policy language to better clarify what needs a “Politics and Sensitive Social Issues” Content Classification Label (CCL). We want to make clear that you don’t need to label your stream if you’re talking about your lived experience. We’ve made… https://t.co/kPQ6r97dgA — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) November 4, 2024

Rift Riff is an “open field” tower defence game with visuals that put me in mind of Cocoon and Monument Valley.

343 Indust- sorry, Halo Studios have treated Halo Infinite to a Halo-2-themed update, with specially recreated legacy game settings and a Halo 2 map playlist. They’ve also added a third-person mode. There are plans to release a fully playable version of the apparently famous E3 2003 Halo 2 demo as well.

Lucky Tower Ultimate - the throwback 2D cartoon roguelike in which you can use corpses and broccoli as weapons - continues its early access journey with a new cave area. I get the sense that this is good, but I haven’t had a chance to play.

THURSDAY AND CRESSIDA

A pinch more about the future of Manor Lords. Greg is thinking about ale.

As some of you have requested, changes to ale and water distribution are finally coming. They are now in closed testing (plus I attached an extra shot from the new map). pic.twitter.com/lwiFhPb9Yn — MANOR LORDS (@LordsManor) November 2, 2024

Some fighting words from Blizzard veteran David Kim, nowadays developer of putative genre-reinventing RTS Battle Aces at Uncapped. “For me it’s very personal, because [real-time strategy] is my favorite genre of all time, and I just can’t accept the fact that players, or I guess developers even, take the stance of ’the end-all peak of RTS is StarCraft 2 and nothing can ever be better than StarCraft,’” Kim told PCGamer .

Dystopian foot-racer Deathsprint 66 is getting an offline mode on 11th November. Find it on Steam . We never reviewed this one, but I like the clone-jockey premise and the WipEout-ish aesthetics.

The dust has settled after a frenetic opening series for #DEATHSPRINT66 – and the Bachman Media Network has been working tirelessly in the background to up the stakes with multiple rounds of major updates. Check out the roadmap below, and find out more: https://t.co/bXIB8Es1S5 pic.twitter.com/yPXLMkwXUM — DEATHSPRINT 66 - OUT NOW (@DEATHSPRINT66) November 7, 2024

Death Of The Reprobate is out on Steam . It’s another “Rabelaisian” adventure game from The Procession To Calvary developer Joe Richardson, in which you click most awfully upon animated Renaissance art.

I’m curious about Homocipher , a SeekerX recommendation. It’s about chatting up boy monsters, though you’ll need to translate their dialogue first. One for Heaven’s Vault and Slay The Princess fans, maybe?

Kojima Productions have quietly announced that they now have “full ownership” of the intellectual property rights for Death Stranding.

PERICLES, PRINCE OF FRIDAY

I can’t tell if sci-fi horror adventure game Escape the Charon is bad-good or just bad-bad, but it’s giving Limbo Of The Lost, which means I have to play it now. There’s a demo on Steam anyway.

Stream a lot of GeForce Now games? Nvidia think you might be having too much, and will impose a 100-hour monthly limit (with charges for extra hours) from January 2025.

If you’re in the mood to be a knifey little freak in a world of sour pixels and abstract catacombs, Brush Burial is currently around the price of a posher sandwich.

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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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