Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered’s modern controls are an absolute travesty

They simply aren’t fit for purpose

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Aspyr

Readers, consider this is a public service announcement for (deep breath) Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Trilogy Starring Lara Croft . Do not, for the love of all that’s ancient and holy, play this game with its newly-added modern control scheme. The original tank controls are by far and away the best (and only real) option for going back and experiencing Lara’s OG adventures from the late 90s, and I’m not just saying that out of nostalgia. The modern controls are bad, plain and simple, and are as much an enemy to Tomb Raider’s incredibly precise mode of 3D platforming as the tigers and wolves that stalk its trap-filled catacombs. They are utterly maddening, and the antithesis of everything Tomb Raider stands for. I implore you, do not go anywhere near them, for your own sake as well as Lara’s.

In truth, I’d probably say that anyone who’s curious about this old Tomb Raider collection, but never played them originally, shouldn’t go anywhere near it at all. Go and play Crystal Dynamics’ more recent trilogy from 2013 instead, or better yet, 2008’s excellent and underrated Tomb Raider Underworld . You’ll have a much better time, I promise. 90s Tomb Raider, is a whole different kettle of fish, and one that even I had a hard time digesting in the cold light of 2024.

I think I’ll just live in the lake from now on, to be honest. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Aspyr

It’s not that its platforming is now so old and fusty that it feels like one of Lara’s museum pieces from another era - though there is an element of that. Rather, it’s the inevitable friction of trying to haul Lara around in just the four main cardinal directions, because walking around in curves isn’t really how things work here. Once I’d weaned myself off reaching for the analogue stick on my controller, I found that controlling Lara via the d-pad was infinitely better. Not only was she easier to move about, but it drastically reduced the margin for error.

That’s partly because the 90s Tomb Raiders are really games about invisible grids. Their levels were all built around this interlocking web of squares and right angles, and the chasm-like jumps and run-ups that you have to perform were all measured out with pixel perfect precision. It was a grid that was ultimately tailor made for its tank controls, and the modern control scheme shatters that framework so completely that I’m honestly surprised anyone allowed it past QA.

Each game’s tutorial, a dedicated space in the game’s menu screen called Lara’s Home, makes this abundantly clear. Well, as clear as it can when it’s breezily telling you to ‘press the jump button’ or ‘use the action button’ without ever telling you what those buttons are, until you look it up in the control menu. In Tomb Raider 1, the first room you come to is Lara’s music room, though given the ratio of instruments to the all-encompassing gymnasium crash mat taking up 90% of the floor space, I’d say it’s more workout space than music room. Anyway, as you approach the crash mat, Lara’s voiceover tells you it’s time to do some tumbling, and that you should try pressing jump followed by a direction button to try out all the different ways she can flip through the air.

Ah, yes, that classic ‘jump’ button, which is different depending on whether you opt for tank or modern controls.THATone…Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Aspyr

With tank controls, this process all feels very familiar. Press jump and forward and Lara will spring forth, back straight, arms swinging and knees lightly bent. Press right or left and Lara will somersault stylishly from side to side, wheeling her legs up and over to land with perfect form. Press back and she’ll backflip and somersault behind. All of these motions are fixed movements, carefully calibrated to let Lara travel a set distance, no more, no less, and certainly with no wiggling about trying to second-guess where she’s going to land.

Attempt these moves with the modern controls, however, and… they just… don’t work. You can jump forward, but try doing a somersault or backflip and Lara will merely lurch round and perform the same jump forward motion again. I thought I was going mad. Had something broken? Was I not pressing the right combination of buttons? The ‘Change Control’ menu seemed to imply that you’d be able to use the d-pad to perform these actions, but even trying that didn’t make a jot of difference.

That wasn’t even the half of it. When you arrive in Lara’s big ballroom-cum-school gymnasium, where oversized vaulting boxes apparently go to die, she’ll carefully explain how to walk around tighter pathways, and how to do a little backstep to get the perfect run-up for one of her large flying jumps. Again, the latter is a precise, defined movement, and this simple down tab on the d-pad is integral to pulling off some of the very tight platforming sequences in the game proper. It’s designed to perfectly line you up against the back of a wall, giving you just the right amount of room to hurl yourself forward and grab that far-off ledge. But once again, tapping back with the modern control scheme merely turns Lara around. No hop. Nothing. Just a wheeling tank lady who to any unknowing bystander would look as though she’s lost all sense of motor control.

This room was death, I tell you. DEATH. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Aspyr

It’s one thing trying to get your head around these controls in the safety of Lara’s own home, but another entirely when you’re faced with a vertical room of tiny square platforms, some of which may or may not crumble underfoot, in the actual game. For science, I tried using the modern control scheme in Tomb Raider’s opening caves level, and when I got that first big platforming challenge, I could not do it. It was quite hard even using the tank controls, if I’m being honest, but the modern controls made it impossible.

It was only when I was fighting a tiger in Tomb Raider 2 that I blundered into the solution. I was persisting with its modern controls, and as I held down left trigger to aim, I tapped the analogue stick backwards for a moment and, lo and behold, Lara did an honest to goodness backstep. I couldn’t believe it! When the tiger was dead, I tried it again, but Lara simply turned round as she’d done every time before that. I unholstered Lara’s guns again and yep, it turned out that, only with my arms out straight, pistols in hand, could I accurately perform a backstep. The same held true for attempting a side somersault and backflip, too. Magnificent work, everyone. A modern control scheme that not only adds new buttons to the mix, but one that doesn’t tell you a thing about how it actually works. A very slow clap to all involved.

I will persist with this remaster trilogy, but man alive, what a bumbled execution. Thing is, even after working out how to implement those more precision moves in Lara’s athletic arsensal, I still don’t think the modern controls are fit for purpose for this style of Tomb Raider game. Developers Aspyr said last month that they mainly took inspiration from Legend, Anniversary and Underworld in coming with them, and I can understand the desire to make it work for people those who have only ever played modern 3D action games in the vein of Uncharted and, you know, modern-day Tomb Raider.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Aspyr

It’s nice that you can toggle between both visual styles with just one button, but I do prefer the weird lighting and rougher textures of the original in retrospect. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Aspyr

But booting up Underworld this week put old and new Tomb Raider into quite stark perspective for me. This is a game that’s still very much in that proto-Uncharted mould - where late 00s platforming isn’t so much about performing precise gymnastics under tight environmental constraints, but having the game smooth things over behind the scenes to make you look cool. Underworld’s Lara isn’t someone who needs a run-up to do big jumps. She can wind her way through tombs in neat circles and turn on a dime, with an accompanying camera that can glide where it needs to assist with any navigational challenges. It’s a game whose control scheme has been built around that high degree of movement, but Tomb Raiders 1-3 can barely hold onto the same ledge by comparison, let alone pull themselves up and backwards handstand into the same neat finishing position. In trying to graft these new controls onto such old bones, it feels like Aspyr have fundamentally misunderstood the brief of what this remaster is about.

If they really wanted to make these games fit for a modern audience, then perhaps they should have added an auto-save function, or at the very least not hid its manual save four menu layers deep. I died around 30 minutes into Tomb Raider 2 and had to start the entire game again because I hadn’t thought to save. The updated graphics are all right, but the more I played, the more I found myself toggling back to the old visual style. The original graphics, with their stodgy frame rate and big chunky polygons, just have much more character and texture - they are distinctly old Tomb Raider, whereas the new, glossier 60fps models feel a little too polished, mobile-like and squeaky clean for me. That’s very much a personal thing, though, and I’m glad there’s the option to switch between them in real-time with just a tap of a button for that childlike wow factor.

But its broken modern controls are very much not a personal preference thing. They are universally terrible, and have utterly failed in their remit to bring these games up to date for a 2024 audience. Arguably, PC players would be much better off just buying the original games for £6 a pop on Steam , because outside of the (also extremely hidden) photo mode (press in both analogue sticks, FYI) and fancier graphics in this new collection, there’s not really that much here to warrant spending the extra cash. Heck, you don’t even get any resolution options with this trilogy, and the extras menu simply consists of a EULA and a credits sequence for each game. I kid you not. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been this disappointed in a remaster collection (and I’ve seen a few barebones ports in my time), but cor, if you do decide to take the plunge, do yourself a favour: tank it up immediately, and never touch its modern controls ever again.

Tomb Raider (1996)

PC

Tomb Raider I•II•III Remastered

Nintendo Switch

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.