The sanitisation of Skate reminds me how far counterculture has fallen and how hard it can be to stay inspired
Do a kickflip!
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
I remember having a chat with my old barber last year about the Skate trailer. We weren’t concerned with the popular gripes. We were just stoked to record new edits and re-enter the classic Skate flowstate on a new engine that would hopefully have more grounded physics. My barber happened to be the frontman of Syracuse straight-edge hardcore band All 4 All . This was a punk rock barbershop, and fittingly, we both shared a fixation on landing tricks in Skate 3 as sketchy as possible.
To land sketchy is to land imperfectly , to look as if not in control . The leather jacket-wearing, kitchen-tattooing pro skaters in Baker, Zero, and Emerica videos were famous for making sketchy look really cool in the early 00s . I no longer live in Syracuse, but I imagine my old barber (shout out Sam, hope you’re well) is just as disappointed as I that the new Skate doesn’t even allow players to land sketchy.
Sure, if I don’t rotate all the way or catch my flip for a good half-second before landing, the game’s UI will tell me my trick was “SKETCHY” and dock my points, but the animations have become virtually indistinguishable from landing “CLEAN” - smooth, near-perfect, fully in-control. An automatic revert will make up for all the missing degrees in my attempted 180’s and 360’s. My feet always land perfectly on the bolts of my board. My knees always brace gently at just the right angle upon impact. My pendulum wrists always move in concert. There’s nothing wrong with a clean, perfect contest-like approach to skating but it can feel robotic to some.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
Previous Skate games would animate sketchy landings with heel and toe drags, drop knees, twisting torsos and flailing arms. For players who appreciated a clean execution, landing sketchy might be something to avoid but those animations added a nice contrast. A way for players to turn their mistakes into happy accidents, dripping with lifelike style.
(To be fair, there is one example of a sketchy landing in Skate so far. If you make it down a high enough drop without bailing, your character might shift their weight to the back and drag their hand behind them for extra support. The latter part is sometimes known colloquially as a “Baker maker” - named after the previously mentioned board company - and seems to happen at random.)
Skateboarding is a pastime where style is at the forefront. Style isn’t just what a skater wears, nor is it a cheap measure for aesthetic appeal, but rather the unique way their body moves and reacts to being on the board. In a multiplayer game, it is jarring that all the skaters in this city have this same automated smoothness. It’s like if an MMORPG forced everyone to play the same class. Sure, we can differentiate ourselves with trick selection and the very limited clothing options, but after a few hours, it starts to feel like we’re all just making our puppets do the same dance to the same song.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
Automated parallel style is just one symptom of Skate’s issue with sameness. Everything has a real optimised-for-profit feel. Even including the cash-locked items, all the clothes feel like they were found in the clearance bin of a department store’s youth section. The four districts of San Vansterdam feel largely indistinguishable in terrain and aesthetic, as opposed to the previous fictional cities of San Vanelona and Port Carvington, which had distinct sections that each invited a particular type of skateboarding.
This sameness is all disturbingly highlighted by the game’s lore and narrative touches, which feel quite loaded despite the game not having a dedicated story mode. Injuries do not exist in this world because of a tech start-up called ImpervaTEK that have graciously shared their forbidden science with the locals. This isn’t explained any further, but the implications are terrifying and probably include microchips. The advanced tutorial is guided by three city councilors who also happen to be skaters (and are voiced by real-life pro skaters), all singing the praises of ImpervaTEK, augmented reality, and your smartphone AI assistant, Vee. It all feels like a sterile, dystopian nightmare, or what would happen if Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk got to develop their own sandbox city.
Obviously, this isn’t the vibe anyone expected from a skateboarding game, but at the risk of overintellectualising the story of the Skate series, it feels inevitable that we landed here. The world of Skate was already heading in a sterile, sanitised, corporate direction - guided by the trends in real-life skateboarding.
Image credit:EA
The single-player campaign of Skate (2007) kicked off with you filming a line with legendary NYC skate photographer and filmmaker, Giovanni Reda, whom you serendipitously just met trying to get clips at some schoolyard in the fictional city of San Vanelona. As you gracefully roll off a curb, right after front-boarding a handrail, you get hit by a bus.
What follows is a classic skate video staple, the silly montage skit. All the pros in the game act as medical staff as your character gets rushed into surgery, and your head surgeon is Mark Gonzalez, the real-world pioneer of street and handrail skating, sick! Afterwards, you create your character, and Reda decides to take you under his wing and introduce you to all the hot pros. Along your journey, you get hooked up with all your favorite brands and become a pro yourself in the process. Congratulations!
Skate 2’s (2009) montage starts with your character being released from prison, because you were arrested for some skateboarding-related crime or something. Fuckin’ cops, man. Reda picks you up from prison, and after a sweet embrace, you get into his car and begin your hero’s return. He clothes you, feeds you, and finds you refuge at a skate shop and skate park owned by local old head Slappy (who also returns as one of San Vansterdam’s city councilors in the current release).
Image credit:EA
San Vanelona has become a totalitarian hellscape in your absence. The city council has teamed up with a corporate security firm to skate-stop most of the architecture and physically assault anyone skating downtown. You cement yourself as the hero by kickstarting various community events, contests, and other shenanigans with pros and locals. Turning San Vanelona into a place where skating can thrive, where the city council has no choice but to terminate their relationship with a private security firm brutalising its free-spirited citizens, because that is the will of the people. And of course, none of this could be possible without the most prominent pro in the story, skater-turned-media-magnate Rob Dyrdek. With your street influence and his finances, you create a fully skateable downtown plaza for San Vanelona’s citizens.
So, where did we go from there, after accomplishing our dreams in the first game and creatively liberating a city in the second? We, uh, went on vacation and became entrepreneurs.
Skate 3 (2010) moved the action to Port Carvington, a paradise where fun obstacles fall from the sky and even the security guards skate. Honestly, I could have had fun with this idea of our hero getting a well-deserved rest if it weren’t for the goal of the single-player campaign: to sell one million skateboards to the masses.
Image credit:EA
There was some element of a comeback story alluded to in the opening scene: you were about to make history with the trick of your life, a street megaramp air over a giant statue of a shark, camera crews everywhere, a stunt on the same level as Tony Hawk landing the first 900 . You bailed horrendously to the disappointment of everyone. Reda, your guardian angel, once again got you back on your feet and told you to stop putting your body on the line for your sponsors and to just start a company with him.
You stack clips and enter contests while he handles all the marketing, so the two of you can sell a million boards. Reda also delegated his filming duties to your friend Shingo from the first game, who is now a film student at a local college (and who also comes back as one of the previously mentioned city councilors of San Vansterdam in the new Skate). But you never got to see anything of consequence from your actions other than product sales going up, which felt rather empty and capitalist for capitalism’s sake.
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Image credit:Atiba Jefferson / Transworld Skateboarding / The Arena Group
Now, I’m not criticizing Skate 2 or 3 for highlighting skateboarders in positions of wealth or ownership. Skater-owned companies like Baker Boys Distribution have been largely responsible for skateboarding’s thriving cultural moments. We are lucky that storied legends, like Andrew Reynolds, Jim Greco - the coolest person who has ever lived, let alone ridden a skateboard - and Erik Ellington, have not only continued to skate on camera the past 30 years but have curated young talent, produced videos that document this pastime, and continue to define aesthetics with apparel and board graphics.
Yet, the framing of Skate 3’s entrepreneurial campaign wasn’t concerned with nourishing the next generation or preserving culture. It was just about selling boards and making your brand bigger. Quite literally, the game told you that your character had already become a “skate legend”. It was time to become an “industry mogul”.
Skate 3 was a fitting end to the OG trilogy, signaling the arrival of skateboarding as pop culture and its departure from counterculture. Sure, pros like Tony Hawk, Ryan Sheckler, and Bam Margera were already established media icons, but that might have had more to do with video games and reality TV than actual skateboarding. At that point, Bam was more known for Jackass and Viva La Bam, Sheckler was a teen heartthrob, and while the Birdman was a household name, I reckon more people knew him for the video games and internet presence than his footage.
Image credit:Michael Burnett / Thrasher
Rob Dyrdek, another pro skater reaching a broader audience as a media personality, had rolled out a whole new type of skateboarding contest during Skate 3’s launch cycle. Street League was a redefined street skating tournament founded in an attempt to blur the gap between real street skating and contests. It was even added to Skate 3 as DLC (I need to stop here to mention that there’s an unseen crew in the new game that is constantly referred to as the DLC, which feels metatextually ominous). Street League brought skateboarding to an even wider audience and added predictive statistics and scoring. This would carve a path in competitive skateboarding that rewarded consistency over risk-taking and creativity. A path that would be seen as the default to thousands of impressionable youths.
Skate 3 had come out in this golden twilight for the culture. Generation-defining skate films, such as Stay Gold and Mindfield, had just been released, but there was the looming threat of a commercial implosion. The previously mentioned videos were the respective projects of skater-owned footwear company Emerica and Dyrdek’s own Alien Workshop. Both companies would struggle to survive in the next few years, because skateboarding gear was also becoming more corporate.
Of the 79 brands that existed in Skate 3 to customise a character’s appearance and board, only 49 remain. With so many brands going defunct, getting sold and re-sold to the point of identity death, or getting absorbed by larger companies, style has become less diverse than ever.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
Deathwish used to be a board brand defined by chaotic anti-authoritarian hijinks and playful satanic motifs. Even people who didn’t know anything about skateboarding could figure out they were doing something different. But now, even veteran skaters might have a hard time distinguishing a new Deathwish video from that of a company like Supreme .
Today, most skate videos seem to blur this line, this formulaic median between clean and sketchy. So many tricks on film feel just imperfect enough to feel vaguely stylish. Also, everyone wears baggy pants now. And to bring it back to Syracuse, everyone and their mother has been trying to film like Bill Stroebeck for the past decade. I haven’t even said anything about the Olympics yet, like we have skaters out there in Nike and Adidas-branded federation uniforms for christsake!
(Thankfully, there have still been some independent makers of hard and soft goods that keep skateboarding interesting. Pontus Alv spearheaded both Polar Skateboards and Last Resort AB. Veteran graphic artist, Mark Foster, has kept Heroin Skateboards sell-out free since 1998. Both skaters being forever champions of the weird, off-the-beaten path kids.)
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
Yes, Skate being a live service game with a bloated battle pass and cash shop, is endemic of the worst corporate trends in video games, but skateboarding itself also shoulders some of this blame. Look no further than two of the four board brands we can currently choose from. As I write this, Girl Skateboards is selling real-life decks in giant blind boxes for a Sanrio collab. Santa Cruz had a similar product line for a Pokémon collab years ago. Loot boxes, folks! Loot boxes in real-world skateboarding!
Skateboarding games will always be exaggerations or caricatures of the pastime they’re based on. While early Skate games attempted to be gritty and grounded compared to the Tony Hawk series, they were cartoonish in their rags-to-riches-to-incarceration-to-activist narrative. When skateboarding is largely sterile, their representation in games becomes cartoonishly sterile.
The political and tech vibes of the new game aren’t that far-fetched, either. Former Alien Workshop (also a board company referenced in one of Vee’s passing dialogue lines) and DC shoes pro, Mikey Taylor, has become a private equity real estate investor and was elected as a councilman for the City of Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, where he has been fighting on behalf of checks notes land developers .
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
Former Girl Skateboards and current Nike SB pro, Eric Koston (who was featured in the original Skate trilogy as the biggest name at the time), now rides for the skateboard division of EDGLRD, a tech studio founded by Harmony Korine with an emphasis on generative AI VFX .
When I look at the kookery that its namesake industry has allowed, I can’t be shocked at what the new world of Skate looks like. I know this subculture is getting passed around by out-of-touch suits. I just don’t like being reminded.
Skate was a series about wish fulfillment, playing as a master of a craft uniquely situated between art and athletics. That’s why this series was able to hold its own against the Tony Hawk games. That’s why Skate 3 was never usurped by the hyperrealism of simulators like Skater XL and Session. It wasn’t about busting out the most insane tricks to get the highest score and it wasn’t about fighting against the most realistic physics. It was about freedom of fantasy.
The fantasy of being whatever type of skater you wanted to be, choosing where in this subculture to belong. And again, this isn’t so easily reduced to just the clothes or the real-world brands, or even which IRL pro skaters you get to pretend to be in community with. It was in the flex of the skateboarding itself.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
Maybe you liked to be technical, cleanly flipping in and out of downtown ledges, or maybe you like to barely roll away from huge crusty rails, arms flailing and knees twisting everything. Maybe your arms drifted just a bit getting back into a bowl after a backside air. Maybe you awkwardly bowed after no complying a small set of stairs.
Sure, these are all tricks you can still do - except no complys, which automatically 180 now, for some reason - and yeah, they do feel better than ever to perform. But every trick feels the same, as do all the places I can do them.
I’ve watched the devlogs . I saw the lead gameplay developer and programmer drop in on a little ramp! One of them was wearing a Converge shirt while doing it, sick! Say what you will, but the team at Full Circle seemed genuinely invested in helping players achieve that fantasy.
The way they talked about introducing more tricks like wallies, slappies, and impossibles. Tricks that had a very trendy moment a bit after Skate 3 - never considered particularly difficult and even thought of as dorky or played out at times, but very tasteful in the right time and place. Full Circle has skaters who understand that it’s not about doing the best or the hardest tricks, just what looks and feels good to the individual. What best fits the player trying to meaningfully interact with the playful concrete obstacle in front of them. It’s just hard to make meaning when my avatar feels more limited than ever.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA
Given that Skate’s publisher and Full Circle’s parent company will soon be owned by a conservative-leaning consortium with a need to cut costs , I would not be surprised if this is as good as it gets, and I never get to see the fully-realized vision of these cool t-shirt-having developers.
But it’s nice, still, to get lost in Skate sometimes. I get to have a very obnoxious anime grip tape on my board, and jumping into impromptu sessions with online randos can be fun and even encouraging. Trying to get clips in Skate is a lot like trying to create anything these days. I get annoyed at AI, complain about the city I’m in, and spend much time worrying that my style is too much like everyone else’s.
Skate
PS3 , Xbox 360
Skate 2
PS3 , Xbox 360
Skate 3
PS3 , Xbox 360
Skate.
PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , 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:
| Blueprint | Type | Recipe | Crafted At |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bettina | Weapon | 3x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Heavy Gun Parts 3x Canister | Gunsmith 3 |
| Blue Light Stick | Quick Use | 3x Chemicals | Utility Station 1 |
| Aphelion | Weapon | 3x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Complex Gun Parts 1x Matriarch Reactor | Gunsmith 3 |
| Combat Mk. 3 (Flanking) | Augment | 2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x Processor | Gear Bench 3 |
| Combat Mk. 3 (Aggressive) | Augment | 2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x Processor | Gear Bench 3 |
| Complex Gun Parts | Material | 2x Light Gun Parts 2x Medium Gun Parts 2x Heavy Gun Parts | Refiner 3 |
| Fireworks Box | Quick Use | 1x Explosive Compound 3x Pop Trigger | Explosives Station 2 |
| Gas Mine | Mine | 4x Chemicals 2x Rubber Parts | Explosives Station 1 |
| Green Light Stick | Quick Use | 3x Chemicals | Utility Station 1 |
| Pulse Mine | Mine | 1x Crude Explosives 1x Wires | Explosives Station 1 |
| Seeker Grenade | Grenade | 1x Crude Explosives 2x ARC Alloy | Explosives Station 1 |
| Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor) | Augment | 2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x Processor | Gear Bench 3 |
| Angled Grip II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 3x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 2 |
| Angled Grip III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 3 |
| Hullcracker | Weapon | 1x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Heavy Gun Parts 1x Exodus Modules | Gunsmith 3 |
| Launcher Ammo | Ammo | 5x Metal Parts 1x Crude Explosives | Workbench 1 |
| Anvil | Weapon | 5x Mechanical Components 5x Simple Gun Parts | Gunsmith 2 |
| Anvil Splitter | Mod | 2x Mod Components 3x Processor | Gunsmith 3 |
| ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| Barricade Kit | Quick Use | 1x Mechanical Components | Utility Station 2 |
| Blaze Grenade | Grenade | 1x Explosive Compound 2x Oil | Explosives Station 3 |
| Bobcat | Weapon | 3x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Light Gun Parts | Gunsmith 3 |
| Osprey | Weapon | 2x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 7x Wires | Gunsmith 3 |
| Burletta | Weapon | 3x Mechanical Components 3x Simple Gun Parts | Gunsmith 1 |
| Compensator II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 4x Wires | Gunsmith 2 |
| Compensator III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 8x Wires | Gunsmith 3 |
| Defibrillator | Quick Use | 9x Plastic Parts 1x Moss | Medical Lab 2 |
| ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| Equalizer | Weapon | 3x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Complex Gun Parts 1x Queen Reactor | Gunsmith 3 |
| Extended Barrel | Mod | 2x Mod Components 8x Wires | Gunsmith 3 |
| Extended Light Mag II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 3x Steel Spring | Gunsmith 2 |
| Extended Light Mag III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Steel Spring | Gunsmith 3 |
| Extended Medium Mag II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 3x Steel Spring | Gunsmith 2 |
| Extended Medium Mag III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Steel Spring | Gunsmith 3 |
| Extended Shotgun Mag II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 3x Steel Spring | Gunsmith 2 |
| Extended Shotgun Mag III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Steel Spring | Gunsmith 3 |
| Remote Raider Flare | Quick Use | 2x Chemicals 4x Rubber Parts | Utility Station 1 |
| Heavy Gun Parts | Material | 4x Simple Gun Parts | Refiner 2 |
| Venator | Weapon | 2x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 5x Magnet | Gunsmith 3 |
| Il Toro | Weapon | 5x Mechanical Components 6x Simple Gun Parts | Gunsmith 1 |
| Jolt Mine | Mine | 1x Electrical Components 1x Battery | Explosives Station 2 |
| Explosive Mine | Mine | 1x Explosive Compound 1x Sensors | Explosives Station 3 |
| Jupiter | Weapon | 3x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Complex Gun Parts 1x Queen Reactor | Gunsmith 3 |
| Light Gun Parts | Material | 4x Simple Gun Parts | Refiner 2 |
| Lightweight Stock | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 3 |
| Lure Grenade | Grenade | 1x Speaker Component 1x Electrical Components | Utility Station 2 |
| Medium Gun Parts | Material | 4x Simple Gun Parts | Refiner 2 |
| Torrente | Weapon | 2x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 6x Steel Spring | Gunsmith 3 |
| Muzzle Brake II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 4x Wires | Gunsmith 2 |
| Muzzle Brake III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 8x Wires | Gunsmith 3 |
| Padded Stock | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 3 |
| Shotgun Choke II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 4x Wires | Gunsmith 2 |
| Shotgun Choke III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 8x Wires | Gunsmith 3 |
| Shotgun Silencer | Mod | 2x Mod Components 8x Wires | Gunsmith 3 |
| Showstopper | Grenade | 1x Advanced Electrical Components 1x Voltage Converter | Explosives Station 3 |
| Silencer I | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 4x Wires | Gunsmith 2 |
| Silencer II | Mod | 2x Mod Components 8x Wires | Gunsmith 3 |
| Snap Hook | Quick Use | 2x Power Rod 3x Rope 1x Exodus Modules | Utility Station 3 |
| Stable Stock II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 3x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 2 |
| Stable Stock III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 3 |
| Tagging Grenade | Grenade | 1x Electrical Components 1x Sensors | Utility Station 3 |
| Tempest | Weapon | 3x Advanced Mechanical Components 3x Medium Gun Parts 3x Canister | Gunsmith 3 |
| Trigger Nade | Grenade | 2x Crude Explosives 1x Processor | Explosives Station 2 |
| Vertical Grip II | Mod | 2x Mechanical Components 3x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 2 |
| Vertical Grip III | Mod | 2x Mod Components 5x Duct Tape | Gunsmith 3 |
| Vita Shot | Quick Use | 2x Antiseptic 1x Syringe | Medical Lab 3 |
| Vita Spray | Quick Use | 3x Antiseptic 1x Canister | Medical Lab 3 |
| Vulcano | Weapon | 1x Magnetic Accelerator 3x Heavy Gun Parts 1x Exodus Modules | Gunsmith 3 |
| Wolfpack | Grenade | 2x Explosive Compound 2x Sensors | Explosives Station 3 |
| Red Light Stick | Quick Use | 3x Chemicals | Utility Station 1 |
| Smoke Grenade | Grenade | 14x Chemicals 1x Canister | Utility Station 2 |
| Deadline | Mine | 3x Explosive Compound 2x ARC Circuitry | Explosives Station 3 |
| Trailblazer | Grenade | 1x Explosive Compound 1x Synthesized Fuel | Explosives Station 3 |
| Tactical Mk. 3 (Defensive) | Augment | 2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x Processor | Gear Bench 3 |
| Tactical Mk. 3 (Healing) | Augment | 2x Advanced Electrical Components 3x Processor | Gear Bench 3 |
| Yellow Light Stick | Quick Use | 3x Chemicals | Utility Station 1 |
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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