Unbeatable review

Chord bless

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Playstack

A raucous, scrappy rhythm game with a surprisingly heartfelt story to tell.

• Developer: D-Cell Games
• Publisher: Playstack
• Release: December 9th 2025
• On: Windows
• From: Steam
• Price: $28/£25/€25
• Reviewed on: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, Windows 10

A game where music is illegal and you do crimes. It’s the perfect tone-setting tagline for Unbeatable, a rhythm game about a bunch of young adults (and one child) rebelling against an oppressive regime by playing raucous garage rock.

There are two sides to Unbeatable (which the game insists should be written in all caps or no caps, but in the spirit of rebellion I will be defying this request). The A-side is the story of the aforementioned rebels as they form a four-piece band (also called Unbeatable) and take on anti-music cops, blending visual novel storytelling and assorted action sequences. The B-side is Arcade mode, where the only goal is to get better at playing through a collection of original songs.

Both modes are built around a basic rhythm mechanic. Your character stands in between two tracks, one above and one below, and notes fly in for you to hit in time with the beat. This is mixed up with notes that must be dodged instead of hit, notes that fly onto the other track when hit and must be hit a second time, notes that must be held, or notes that require you to mash the buttons like you’re hammering out a drum solo (the best kind). Since there are only two buttons to concern yourself with, it’s incredibly easy to pick up, but as the difficulty increases and the song charts get more complex, it can get hectic.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Playstack

Because of the simplicity of all this, there are multiple options available to adjust which buttons correspond to up and down. If you’re using a controller, like I was, I strongly recommend switching to the shoulders/triggers for up and D-pad/face buttons for down. The default was left and right shoulders for down and up, which broke my brain when notes started switching between left and right sides of the screen. Controller and keyboard inputs can be changed independently of each other too.

Story mode plays with this in a number of interesting ways. Sometimes it’s a fight sequence, where the appearance of the notes changes, and each successful hit on the beat leads you to punching an opponent. Other sequences merely ask you to press a button on the beat like a QTE, with the most notable being a batting cage minigame that slowly drove me insane with its weird variable timings.

Story mode is where the heart of Unbeatable can be found. You play as Beat, a down-and-out slacker who wakes up in a field, and is roped into helping out a twelve-year-old girl named Quaver who wants to investigate what happened to her musician mother. This leads to a run-in with H.A.R.M., short for Harmonics and Resonance Management, an organisation whose job is to take down illegal musicians. The two then team up with the twins Treble and Clef, starting a band with the goal of taking the fight to H.A.R.M. through the Almighty Power of Rock. Incredibly cheesy, of course, but it’s the kind of cheese I’ll happily devour every single time.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Playstack

That said, Unbeatable’s story doesn’t always put its best drum-pedalling foot forward. After a linear introductory episode, we’re immediately sent to prison for a series of repetitive, menial tasks. It’s strange sequence to frontload the game with, as it kills the pacing right out of the gate. Thankfully it doesn’t last, as the episode ends in a prison break sequence that reveals just how much the team at D-Cell (correctly) love Jet Set Radio before things properly kick into gear in the remaining episodes.

If you’ve enjoyed any kind of Scott Pilgrim media, you’ll know what the vibe is here. Musicians are powerful fighters and the villains are anime caricatures (complimentary). In these middle chapters, there’s a greater sense of freedom, allowing you to rock out with new songs, play The Floor is Lava in a traffic jam, defiantly throw up posters over H.A.R.M. propaganda and, yes, hit the batting cages. But you can also explore and find moments of quiet reflection, emphasising the joy of simply taking inspiration from the world around you and turning it into music.

This is all complemented by a unique DIY aesthetic, one which draws heavily from anime and zine culture in equal measure. The flat sprites on 3D backdrops give a paper-cutout look, while the animated sequences feel like they fell out of a cult anime from the 90s, right down to a shift into a 4:3 aspect ratio. It does go a bit wonky sometimes, as scene transitions and fight sequences often cause sprites to land in weird places. It’s not clear if this is something that will be fixed in the final release, but while it is a little jarring, it does little to harm the experience and even manages to work with the game’s scrappy, handmade charm.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Playstack

While I expected Unbeatable’s brash punk tone, I didn’t expect how much the story also veers off into dreamlike surrealism. H.A.R.M. exist because something mysterious and terrible happened prior to the game’s events and Beat herself is also surrounded in mystery. No one seems to know anything about where she came from, and she keeps drifting off into strange dreams set in a void bathed in sunset.

Sadly, these two elements never truly felt like they paid off for me. The incident that sparked everything is never truly elaborated on, while the penultimate chapter provides revelations about Beat that end up contradicting what we learn in the final one. There are clearly some cool concepts at work here, but at best it feels like something important was left on the cutting room floor, and at worst it can feel like the worldbuilding was made up as the team went along.

However, there is a line in the final chapter - “music is feeling” - that sums up where the writing excels. It fumbles on the external worldbuilding but on the internal elements (characters, feelings, relationships), it sings at the top of its lungs. The core band are a bunch of weirdos who are constantly bantering with each other, and much of the game’s humour comes from Clef being an aggressive loudmouth, Beat being constantly sarcastic, Treble being awkward, and Quaver being “like five” (she is twelve). This is a group I want to hang out with more, as messy and contradictory they all are.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Playstack

Messy and contradictory is the key takeaway here. At its core, Unbeatable is a story of a young woman trying to find her place in a world that rejects her. Beat is a mess of insecurities, which the game never shies away from exploring. This is especially true in the game’s final chapter, a deeply emotive and admirably earnest delve into the value of relationships and the power of human creativity. It all builds up to a triumphant final song that hammers the message home and brushes away all of the story’s weaker elements. This climax hits hard in ways I did not expect from the silly punk rock rhythm game. I challenge you not to shed a tear. I certainly failed.

However, after taking about ten hours to get through the story, the real meat of Unbeatable can be found in Arcade mode, which presents a huge list of songs, split into four categories: songs by Unbeatable (the band), additional non-diegetic music from Story mode, remixes of the previous two categories, and a secret fourth category that is best discovered for yourself. Anyone who’s played a Guitar Hero or similar rhythm game can guess how this is structured: select your song and your difficulty and then play through them with the goal of racking up the best scores possible.

It’s not just score-chasing though, as Arcade mode is built heavily around the Challenge Board, a wide selection of cryptic achievements that unlock online titles, new characters, and new songs. Some of these are obvious or will just naturally unlock as you play the story, while others are completely baffling. But that’s the draw here. These challenges are designed to keep you coming back, figuring out the clues and experimenting until something clicks. And since I keep loading the game up because I think I’ve figured out a clue later and want to try out my theory, it’s clearly working.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Playstack

It also helps that the song selection is consistently excellent. It’s surprisingly varied, including grungy garage rock, ambient electronica, high intensity jungle, and Hideki Naganuma-inspired breakbeat, all of it catchy and addictive. The only critique I have of the tune selection is that the soundtrack officially releases at the end of December rather than right now. This is another reason I keep loading the game back up, because I have to hear more of these songs.

I also would have liked to see Arcade mode offer selectable, or at least a wider assortment of, backdrops. While the story features a range of settings, with action taking place in concert halls, warehouse hideouts, dreamscapes and more, every stage of Arcade mode sticks you in the same rural Japanese train station. This is especially jarring for the song Waiting, which in the story features a train chase and Quaver wailing out a guitar solo behind the action, while in Arcade mode it’s… just the train station. For a game so confident in its art direction and themes of self-expression, the lack of different background options feels like an oversight. It’s a relatively small thing, but it did bother me enough to wonder why it wasn’t there.

Much like the titular band, Unbeatable is a game that doesn’t always hit the right notes but exudes so much heart and enthusiasm that it’s hard not to fall in love. It’s a sincere celebration of the creative spirit that overcomes its own rough edges by getting everything right where it counts. This is a song you’ll want to stick on repeat.

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Unbeatable

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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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