The RPS Advent Calendar 2024, December 15th

The past and future of video games

Image credit:RPS

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list.

Today’s advent calendar window is a window upon Xmas past. It returns us to the days of LAN parties and dial-up, of demo discs and Fileplanet – a more innocent era, before multiplayer shooters fell under the spell of progression. Not that innocent, maybe. There were plenty of arseholes back then. Some of them now run very large software companies. But at least there was no grinding to ruin your bunnyhopping.

But of course, it’s… Straftat !

Edwin : Here’s a holiday project for you: install the base free edition of Straftat, find a sympathetic and comparably dextrous like mind, and try to play all 70 randomised maps in one go. It’s a game I can only describe by way of combinations: both arty-farty and a twitchy fragfest that hinges on mind-reading and listening out for footsteps. Both a wonderful duelling game based around on-map pick-ups, and an absorbing montage of gloomy aesthetics torn from elder Source Engine shooters, Soviet carparks and entertainment mythology at large.

The layouts are somehow both exquisite and disposable: you can burn through them all like popcorn, leaning into their borderline-gimmicky sightlines, or chew one of them over slowly, enjoying the ambience as you would the scenery in the developers’ previous single player exploration game Babbdi . The guns are irresistible, lending themselves to obvious playstyles. One map gives you a bunch of single-shot rifles and teleportation doors perched on exposed gantries. Another is a small maze of dour Backroom wallpaper abundant in laser mines, with a broadsword tucked away in a crawlspace. The 1v1 format creates a degree of intimacy that feels exotic today, more fighting game than FPS. People are going to cuss you out in the chatbox, but it’s sort of fun. Cosy, even!

Astonishingly, it’s all free, but you can show your appreciation by buying the Weapons, Maps and Hats DLC, which adds another 70 maps to the game. Plus some weapons and hats. I can’t wait to see what brothers Sirius and Léonard Lemaitre get up to for their third project. Maybe a town builder next? Or a single city block detective game.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Lemaitre Bros

Brendy: Cussed out in the chatbox? Not me! I played Straftat for 20 minutes one evening and faced off against a polite killer who uzi’d me to pieces many many times between frequent pauses to chit-chat about the game. I felt like I had been flung back in time to playing multiplayer Soldier Of Fortune on semi-abandoned servers via a questionable modem connection. But yes, Edwin is right. There is something pure and beautiful about these tiny maps. It was enough to make me go back and finally play Babbdi. Which itself took 40 minutes. That’s two amazing games scarfed down in a single hour. AND THEY’RE BOTH FREE. It is absolutely bonkers. What the hell are these fraternal fraggers drinking?

Graham: My favourite part of Quake , its sequels and its offshoots, Half-Life included, was not the games themselves but the culture that developed around them. As a teenager, I hunkered down on dedicated servers, IRC rooms, and messageboards, chatting with strangers and eagerly downloading the folk art these communities produced. That mostly meant user-made levels, and mostly crude, gimmicky, throwaway levels at that.

In fairness, the games themselves usually contained more than a few such levels, anyway. Crossfire, in Half-Life deathmatch, which featured a button that when pressed would nuke everyone on the map who failed to run inside a bunker before the door closed, for example, or Facing Worlds and 2Fort, which inevitably devolved into stalemate sniping battles, or the mirrored islands of Quake 3’s The Very End Of You. All of these maps were hopelessly imbalanced or borderline unfair, producing repetitive and occasionally frustrating experiences. They were also thrilling, dramatic, and often especially wonderful in one-on-one fights.

The trend of shipping a multiplayer game with a big jumble of levels and leaving the community to pick their favourites is long over. Today, developers favour providing either a single level as balanced as a football pitch, or they prefer to choose the level-of-the-moment themselves, turning modes and maps off and on to railroad the playerbase this way or that. Should anything imbalanced slip through the developers’ own testing, it’s quickly sanded down or sent to the attic to appease the sharpest edge of the playerbase.

Then there’s Straftat, which takes the pick ’n’ mix to maximalist extremes by shipping with 70 maps and then letting you buy 70 more. These maps are all designed for one-on-one fights lasting just a few minutes at most, and so gimmicks, exploitable sightlines, and imbalanced killzones never have a chance to frustrate. They simply push the experience, one round at a time, into greater heights of panic and laughter.

As with all folk art, there’s something more honest about Straftat for its rough edges, in a way you don’t find in the heavily tested, metric-based design of modern live service shooters. It’s an ugly Trillian skin in a world of Apple white design. It’s a Napster download of blur_-_woohoo.mp3 in a world of monthly subscription streaming services. It’s a Glasgow teen producing happy hardcore tracks in a world of celebrity DJs. It’s a beige Compaq family PC in the corner of a carpeted upstairs landing, a Gamespy server browser, a dial-up modem connection, a download link sent to you by a Swedish man over QuakeNet. It’s pure nostalgia and completely forward-thinking. It’s Straftat.

Head back to the advent calendar to open another door!

Straftat

PC

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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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