Why are there so many bloody roguelikes or roguelites, and what really makes a game roguish?

An actually quite constructive chat with devs and publishers

Image credit:Edmund McMillen

Some days, I think I’d rather gouge my eyes out than read another email about a new roguelike or roguelite. This confuses me, because many of favourite games are roguelikes or roguelites, including Dead Cells , Balatro , FTL: Faster Than Light , and the recent Morsels , a reeking procedural dumpsite that speaks to the overproduction of Rogue/rogue derivatives at large.

Roguish games are everywhere right now. According to SteamDB , 1602 games tagged “roguelike” were published in 2024 out of 18567 total, versus 312 out of 9655 in 2020. Stir in roguelites and the countless games that advertise themselves as having “roguelike mechanics”, and I sincerely worry that you’re describing the majority of PC releases from the past couple of years.

Then again, how many of these games are ‘genuinely’ Roguish? Roguelike and roguelite have become such broad concepts as to be functionally useless, describing everything from carpentry to casino machines . This was the case back in 2011, when Adam Smith (RPS in peace) marvelled over a peculiar new “Roguelike arcade game” called The Binding of Isaac ; it was the case in 2016, when Alice O (RPS in peace) observed that the term roguelike is “so very bendy and too confusing to throw around without explanation”.

Image credit:Annapurna Interactive / Rock Paper Shotgun

Personally, I define these games as follows: a “roguelike” adheres more closely to the original Rogue from 1980, featuring permadeath, equipment or character progression, procedurally generated environments, and semi-randomised challenges. A “roguelite” is a less harrowing variant that may not have an explicitly defined rogue character or dungeon - in particular, it may feature an over-arching system of unlocks that persist between runs, taking the sting out of restarts. Still, perhaps a more useful way of thinking about roguelikes and roguelites isn’t to tick off correspondences or take them back to their roots, but to look at the shapes they form within the greasy currents of platform economics and player habits.

Among the companies who’ve gone large on roguelikes and roguelites are tinyBuild, publishers of The King Is Watching and Streets Of Rogue. The company’s higher-ups feel the genre suits “modern” working lives and recreational habits, as marketing and publishing director Arnaud Richard told me over email. “Roguelikes allow for short, self-contained play sessions that always feel fresh thanks to procedural generation and randomized elements,” he explained. “This format aligns with how players now consume games: shorter bursts of playtime, often constrained by busy schedules or reduced free time as they get older.”

Image credit:tinyBuild

In an expected but interesting bit of symmetry, Richard added that roguelikes and roguelites appeal to game developers for similar reasons of efficiency. The charm of procedurally generated worlds, after all, is that you can get more variety out of the ‘same’ assets - useful to recall, as we try to distinguish between acceptable and reprehensible usages of various generative AI tools, which dangle the same promise of doing more with less.

“Instead of having to design and polish dozens of handcrafted levels, cutscenes, and voice-overs, studios can focus on a smaller set of environments enriched by systemic gameplay, modifiers, and enemy variations that refresh each ‘run’,” Richard went on. “This design philosophy keeps production costs significantly lower while still enabling deep replayability and a long-tail player experience. Given the current production climate, where budgets are tight and risks high, the roguelike structure offers a financially sustainable model that doesn’t sacrifice engagement.”

“Engagement” and “retention” are important when you’re making games for a subscription service, such as Game Pass, where upfront purchases aren’t a factor, and the publisher’s goal is to drive up the profitability of the service as a whole. But the more-ishly looping Rogue template also makes for a good hook when selling games direct over Steam, whose recommendation systems reward developers that attract a steady audience.

Image credit:Sad Socket

“As discoverability and algorithmic visibility become increasingly tied to player retention, these games naturally fit the platform logic,” Richard explained. “They generate consistent playtime data, favour community sharing through ‘run stories,’ and sustain relevance far beyond launch.”

In short, roguelikes are valuable because they easily become habits available to live servicing. The roguelike loop is a way of disciplining the audience, making it more quantifiable and predictable, easier to pace and slot into enterprises such as Game Pass. Richard argues that “roguelikes sit at the intersection of design efficiency, player accessibility, and platform performance, a rare alignment that explains why so many developers and publishers continue to explore the genre today.”

All of which is quite capital-B Businessy. For more of a developer’s take, I turned to Miko Charbonneau, creative director and lead designer (amongst other roles) at prettysmart games. Charbonneau echoed the point about “modern” gaming habits, adding that roguelike and roguelite formats guarantee a certain longevity. “If you can only afford to buy one game, replayability is appealing,” she told me. “They’re comforting, too, because once you know the rules you can zone out playing while watching a movie or listening to a podcast, and get that little boost of confidence from a great run.”

Image credit:prettysmart games

Charbonneau also agreed with Richard’s point that roguelikes and roguelites are a way of making the most of minimal development resources. “[O]n a small team like ours (only six people) we don’t have the resources to make elaborate fully custom levels at the level of a AAA studio,” she told me. “But by being clever with how we generate floors and author our content, we can build something that players enjoy over a long period of time.”

It’s not just a question of efficiency, however. Charbonneau feels that roguelike and roguelite concepts such as permadeath loops “work nicely with most gameplay styles and they’re fun to design”. She added that the abundance of games working with these ideas has created space for more adventurous combinations of formats and aesthetics. Games like prettysmart’s own The Spirit Lift, a roguelite set in a haunted house from the 1990s, which hits Steam on 27th January . In this grislier take on Scooby Doo, eight high school teens must ride an elevator to the penthouse, fighting a host of munsters while exploring 3D layouts in first-person view.

It’s not the weirdest game I’ve encountered, but it certainly speaks to the breadth of projects rallying to the roguelite banner. “Games like Balatro and Blue Prince have brought in new types of players, which is so great,” Charbonneau observed. “It means there are more people out there willing to give unexpected game mashups a chance.”

Charbonneau does, however, share the worry that Rogue derivatives have lost all coherence. “[W]ith so many games using roguelike mechanics now, there’s a danger of the word having no meaning at all,” she said. “We’re already in a position where the differences between roguelike/roguelite are not well understood. Our game is more of a roguelite, but I don’t always know if the players know the distinction. Or perhaps they have their own definitions for each word that differ from mine!” (At the risk of being snide, it seems worth noting that players have tagged The Spirit Lift as both “roguelike” and “roguelite” on Steam.)

“I truly love this genre,” Charbonneau told me in closing. “It would be a shame for this rich history to be watered down to mean nothing, so it’s important for those of us making roguelikes to know which features we’ve included and why they matter in our game.”

Which takes us back to the process of ticking off the bits and pieces we’d expect from a roguelike or roguelite game. I think those conversations easily spiral into fruitless squabbles about whether, say, a haunted hotel is really the same thing as a dungeon. That said, I do want to conclude by reconsidering the figure of the rogue.

We tend to associate rogue characters with stealth, dual-wielding, backstabs and pick-pocketing, but I would argue that nothing about “rogue” implies those associations. In contemporary English, to go rogue is just to defy expectation, and the origins of the word are appropriately murky. The OED entry offers several possible etymologies. One is that “rogue” is a derivation of “roger”, which - I’m delighted to learn - once meant “an itinerant beggar who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge”. Any Rogers in the audience? You’ve been rumbled.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Kitfox Games

I love this fake scholar framing because - as legendary “broughlike” creator Michael Brough suggests in a recent presentation about the literary influences of D&D for the annual Roguelike Celebration - the arc of the classic D&D rogue is sort of evolving into or passing yourself off as a wizard, by gathering magical artefacts. But I also like this etymology because the OED adds that “roger” comes from the Latin rogō, “I ask” - and what is playing a roguelike, if not asking a terrain generation algorithm: what world have you got in store for me today?

In putting things that way, I’m again making the connection between roguelike procgen and “prompting” a generative AI. But I would argue for the philosophical difference that where today’s generative AIs are often posed as sycophantic and worryingly pliable , even when they’re couched as characters inside hostile gameworlds, the roguelike algorithm doesn’t just aim to please. It also wants to decieve, filling the world with random buffets and moments of treachery that border on ‘bad design’: the bouncy poison frog stuck in a narrow passage metres from the exit. Perhaps the lesson we should cling onto about roguelikes is that the world itself is the rogue.

This dishonesty, this mischievousness is what I love about games that call themselves roguelikes or roguelites, more so than how they reassure with the promise of a certain inherent variety, or fit themselves neatly inside my lunchbreak. I’ll try to keep that in mind, when next I see one in an email.

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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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