The Pathologic devs are making Darkwood 2 with Acid Wizard’s blessing in a frankly outrageous piece of horror synergy

Also, Hooded Horse are publishing it

Image credit:Hooded Horse

" ICE quoting Halo is surely as close as I’ll get to hell this week", I said to myself earlier. “Hold my beer,” interjected Manor Lords publishers Hooded Horse, before diving into a flyblown burlap sack and fishing out the press release for Darkwood 2 . Did you ever play Darkwood ? It’s the survival horror game about being a horrible hermit in a horrible, horrible, top-down forest. It’s the game that persuaded Adam Smith to mercy-kill his dog . The new one is set in “the scorched deserts of a dying sea” that is slowly being engulfed by evil trees.

This dramatic change of setting isn’t even the most startling thing about the game. Nor is the fact that Hooded Horse, hitherto known for banger strategy games , are publishing it. No, the most surprising thing about Darkwood 2 is that it’s being developed by Ice-Pick Lodge, developers of Pathologic , with original Polish creators Acid Wizard monitoring the production from afar like lurking creatures in the underbrush.

Pathologic and Darkwood are, I think, neck and neck for the title of Video Game Most Likely To Actually Give You The Plague. Asking the makers of one to make a sequel to the other is like, I don’t know, putting Jack the Ripper in charge of the Manhattan Project. To top it all off, the key art reminds me of the main menu art for Soul Reaver . Truly, this is a videogame tailored to my tastes, though I do have some concerns about Ice-Pick Lodge’s ability to craft a top-down horror game. I’d also like to know more about how they’re faring given recent, very disturbing allegations about their now-departed co-founder.

Darkwood 2 is set amid the saline wreck of a real-life body of water, the Aral Sea. Lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it used to be the third largest lake in the world at 68,000 square kilometres, but began shrinking in the 1960s after rivers were diverted to Soviet irrigation projects.

Today, it’s largely toxic dust, though there have been attempts to replenish the waters. Darkwood 2 takes place in the 1990s. Assuming the game sticks to real-life history, that would be following the abandonment of Soviet Russian efforts to restore the lake by way of a massive canal system, and during a phase of irrigation system building over in newly post-Soviet Uzbekistan. All that’s according to Wikipedia , anyway - if you happen to be a proper historian of the Aral Sea, I’d appreciate your input on the screenshots and trailer.

As for how it plays, Darkwood 2 looks to be treading squarely in its predecessor’s stinking, gore-filled bootprints. It’s a foetid real-time exploration and scavenging sim in which visibility is swallowed and splintered by encroaching trunks. It’s still about scraping together resources and fortifying a lair with barricades and traps, before the sun goes down and the real monsters come out. But there are new monsters to discover - hark at that giga-catfish in the footage - and there are “new reasons to pray for the morning light”. Set a few years later, the game seems to build on the events of Darkwood, but Hooded Horse assure us that it can be treated as a standalone story.

Image credit:Hooded Horse

There are marshes to squelch through, meandering paths amid dunes, and deep waters to row over (I would probably row quite fast). There shall be no quest markers or waypoints, none of your modern cartographical frippery, only the madness and desperation of local humans fighting to keep the invading trunks at bay.

All this appetising misery notwithstanding, returning players may have misgivings about the departure of original developers Acid Wizard. The first game’s creators suspended operations indefinitely in 2022 , after failing “to create a work environment that would not be destructive to our personal lives”. They had struggled to find an audience for their follow-up project, the jarringly upbeat football game Soccer Kids .

“We’re genuinely excited to pass on the torch to Ice-Pick Lodge - creators whose work on Pathologic has inspired us for years,” Stachaszewski goes on. “The team at IPL really gets what makes Darkwood a unique experience. We believe they will not only honor its spirit but will create something truly exceptional. As for us, we’ll be in the background, making sure it stays true to the original vision.”

In the same release, Ice-Pick Lodge’s executive producer Alexander Souslov has some additional thoughts for people who might question the blend of developer and publisher here - again, Hooded Horse are better known for city- builders and 4X than spooks and squalor. “I believe the most interesting things are created when people with very different backgrounds work together on creative projects,” he observes. “Ice-Pick is known for its focus on narrative and on the design of semiotic systems. Hooded Horse, on the other hand, is renowned for its expertise in strategy. What kind of game could come from that?”

Image credit:Hooded Horse

Ice-Pick Lodge have been on a complicated journey of their own, these past few years. The developers announced Pathologic 3 in October 2024 . Due for release in January 2026, it includes story materials and other elements that were once supposed to be part of Pathologic 2 . There was a certain amount of frission over this and the dropping of the original game’s open world elements, with our own Brendy (RPS in peace) commenting of one demo that it felt simultaneously designed for and designed to annoy returning Pathologic players.

Then, in March this year, founder Nikolay Dybowski suddenly left the studio after Pathologic players discovered that he had been accused of kidnapping and abuse, with allegations dating back to 2021. Former Ice-Pick developer Aleksey Luchin responded to these reports, branding Dybowski a “manipulative sociopath that is very good with words.” I’ve asked Hooded Horse and Ice-Pick if they’d like to offer any further comment on Dybowski’s departure. More positively, Ice-Pick Lodge were among the first Russian developers to speak out against their country’s invasion of Ukraine, telling social media followers that “a crime is being committed in our name. This is not only a crime against our friends. It is a crime against our dignity.”

Update: Ice-Pick Lodge have declined to offer any further comment about the allegations directed at Dybowski. A PR representative pointed me towards the studio’s existing Xitter statement from March 2025, in which they announce that Dybowski has left “to focus on personal projects and his private life”.

Darkwood

PS4 , Xbox One , PC , Mac , Nintendo Switch

Darkwood II

PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.