Typing dungeon crawler Cryptmaster announces release date during IGF award acceptance speech

A rare thing: a game with jokes I actually laughed at aloud

Image credit:Akupara Games

In a powerful move, one of the two devs behind Cryptmaster announced the delightful typing-based dungeon crawler’s release date last night during his acceptance speech after it won the Independent Games Festival award for Excellence In Design . Powerful. May 9th is the day, so you have time to practise your touchtyping with Mavis Beacon. I really enjoyed playing Cryptmaster’s Steam Next Fest demo , so I’m excited for the full game.

If I were to attempt to clumsily describe Cryptmaster, I’d say “Legend Of Grimrock meets Typing Of The Dead but with loads of different fun puzzles about typing and oh it’s funny, like actually funny, like I actually laughed aloud at its jokes, how rare is that, too rare considering how many games cram in joke-shaped dialogue, right?” It’s a first-person dungeon crawler starring a party of long-dead heroes resurrected by a necromancer to carry out his definitely-not-evil plan. While you do attack by typing names of abilities and spells, it’s so much more than Typing Of The Dead. Screenshots and videos hint at oodles of different puzzles and combat conditions that require clever and careful typing, and I already enjoyed the few I experienced in the demo.

One fun early puzzle type is unlocking your abilities by guessing their names. Some come from opening chests and trying to identify the item within by typing commands for the Cryptmaster to interact with it in the hope of jogging his memory. I very much enjoyed making him lick what turned out to be a rat. Then the game introduced killing enemies to loot letters to help guess more abilities, and fighting enemies with shields that block attacks containing specific letters, and lying to a giant eyeball, and… I’m excited to see where it goes, especially with marketing mentioning multiple solutions to situations. And I want to see how the Cryptmaster reacts to them.

I adore the Cryptmaster. A bit like in Hand Of Fate or Inscryption , he’s an adversarial presence you develop a relationship with, come to enjoy, come to like, come to want to provoke to see what he’ll do. It’s an excellent performance from Lee Williams, who’s also the game’s writer and co-designer (Paul Hart is the other half of the dynamic development duo). Death has not been kind to his mental faculties but he retains delusions of grandeur, unwittingly silly as he bids you do his evil doing. When I called the Cryptmaster “a bit of a dingus,” I meant it with great affection, though I don’t think his nibs took it way:

For the attention of Alice O’Connor: pic.twitter.com/0LyOl0tr16 — Cryptmaster (@thecryptmaster) February 13, 2024

Cryptmaster is coming to Steam on the 9th of May. You can still download the demo there to take an early peek.

Cryptmaster

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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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Typing dungeon crawler Cryptmaster’s demo is a delight

With jokes I actually laughed at

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Akupara Games

One of the best things in games is the freeform ability to type commands for another character, then having them respond with voiced dialogue recognising your weird directions. That’s one of the joys of Cryptmaster , an upcoming typing-driven dungeon crawler where one of the first things you can do in the demo is get your disembodied necromancer pal to lick a mysterious metal object to help identify it (it’s a helmet). He’s like if Hand Of Fate’s dastardly dealer was a bit of a dingus and also your only hope of escaping the underworld. I love this guy.

There we are in the underworld, awoken by a necromancer who oh so kindly wants to help us escape. Oh and if we could take his soulstone with us… it’ll be fine, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Cryptmaster is a real-time dungeon crawler, explored with arrow keys in a fairly traditional way. Only, the way to interact with everything and everyone is by typing.

To use attacks and abilities from your four characters (warrior, thief, bard, sea witch), you type BOOT and JAB and SOOTHE and such. To open a chest or box, you type CHEST or BOX. To squish a bug and claim its juices, you type the bug’s name. To smash a shrine, you SMASH. And so on. But to even learn which attacks and abilities you have, you initially need to play a little guessing game.

By each character’s icon in your status bar sits a series of blank boxes. Each box represents a letter in the name of an ability the character has. To start filling out these boxes and rediscovering abilities, you initially need to loot items, and the boxes will fill up with any letters the item and ability names share. A bit like Wheel Of Fortune, yeah? Unfortunately, you need the necromancer’s help to identify items, and he’s been dead a while so his memory is weak. You can type in commands like LOOK and he’ll give a brief description of its appearance, or TASTE and he’ll give it a go, or REMEMBER to recall when he encountered this sort of object in life, and he’ll fill in one letter from its name. Correctly identify the item before running out of guesses and you’ll win the name’s letters. Then you just need to fill in the blanks. Finding more items helps, and you can loot individual letters from defeated enemies. And you can straight-up guess.

I spent far too long staring puzzled at my witch’s C_ABS before realising that no matter how odd it seemed, CRABS was the only real option. Sure enough, I type CRABS and summon two pinchy pals to help out. Right, right, because she’s not just a witch, she’s a sea witch. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Akupara Games

Fights in the demo are fairly straightforward, as you’d expect from the tutorial, but I did enjoy glimpses of future cleverness like one enemy having a shield which blocked words containing the letter B. No BOOTing or JABbing that lad for me. Judging by trailers and screenshots, it looks Cryptmaster will have a wide and weird variety of other typing puzzles and challenges when the full game launches sometime later this year.

All this might be a little frustrating if the necromancer weren’t such a character. With a voice like the grave and a penchant for dropping into cartoonishly spooky pronounciations, he feels smug, superior, scheming, petty, dramatic, and a bit dimmed by death (and probably a bit dim in life too). He has voiced responses to loads of wrong and inappropriate words you can type too, becoming puzzled or frustrated, like school computer classic Podd with an evil face. He’s just a delight. I am delighted with this adversarial ally who surely will not backstab me. Other characters are fun and funny too. I laughed at this game’s jokes, which is more rare than it should be. Lovely stuff.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Akupara Games

Cryptmaster’s demo arrived as part of the Steam Next Fest (having previously briefly appeared last year) but while that event is now over, you can still nab the demo from Steam . The full game will also be on GOG and the Epic Games Store . It’s made by Paul Hart and Lee Williams with publishers Akupara Games.

If you want more of the necromancer after playing the demo, Akapura played a Dungeons & Dragons session with him as DM . Hell, I would happily listen to him reading the phonebook.

Cryptmaster

PC

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