Would you play a Warhammer 40K factory game? Because Zachtronics almost made one
How the creators of SpaceChem and Eliza flirted with the grim darkness of the far future
Image credit:Games Workshop / Fantasy Flight Games / Rock Paper Shotgun
If you’re a nerd of a certain age, I apologise - that headline has probably caused you to rupture something in the wizened meat of your lower back, or the swampy catacombs of your cerebellum. If you aren’t, let me explain: Zachtronics are or were a US-based video game developer founded in 2000 by Zach Barth, who put the studio on ice in 2022 and now works at Coincidence Games, a “flexible business framework” involving many former Zachtronics devs. Zachtronics have thrown together all kinds of things - Infiniminer, a block-builder from 2009, is probably the single greatest individual influence on Minecraft, while Eliza is a tremendous visual novel about AI chatbots and labour politics. But if there’s a type of game they’re known for, it’s engineering puzzles and factory games.
These factories aren’t exercises in empire-building, however, like Factorio and Satisfactory . They’re compact and level-based, artisanal conundrums of great intricacy and difficulty, which typically position you as a worker on the production line, rather than a crusading tycoon. In 2011’s SpaceChem - which a youthful Quintin Smith (RPS in peace) branded “straight-up genius” - you’re a reactor engineer assembling atoms into molecules on behalf of an alien warboss. In 2016’s Shenzen I/O - which a similarly waifish Brendy called “polished and compelling” with “a subtle sense of numberdread” - you’re stringing together circuits for door buzzers and missile systems in China’s Silicon Valley. As those two examples illustrate, Zachtronics factory games aren’t abstract puzzlers. They often have veins of social commentary, but these are far from didactic: any worrying undertones or traces of cautionary tale must be fished out of the clockwork as you go.
Warhammer 40,000 has more than a few factories. Some are as big as planets - seething furnace worlds that go down miles, where ancient clans of labourers heave away devoutly for generations, without ever glimpsing the sky. The Imperium Of Man as a whole is a monstrous exercise in mass production, with countless outputs - bolter shells to the frontlines, stray psykers to the God-Emperor’s table. The idea of Zachtronics making a game about such things feels like a match forged upon heaven’s conveyor belt. So it’s a shame that it didn’t quite happen - partly due to more routine questions of money and creative control, but also, due to Barth’s complicated, half-admiring and half-repulsed attitude towards the setting.
Barth first ‘got into’ Warhammer 40,000 thanks to video games, many moons ago - he played a “shitload” of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War with college friends in the early noughties. In the process, he developed a cautious enthusiasm for Warhammer 40,000’s rancid supporting fiction. The table-top game itself? Not so much. “I once, many years later, tried playing the actual miniatures game,” he tells me over videocall. “I have a friend who’s obsessed with it - like, obsessed obsessed with it, went too too deep into buying plastic and not being able to paint it all, that kind of obsessed. And so, finally, years later, I got to play it and it fucking sucks.
“I really don’t have a lot of patience for many games, especially board games, especially tabletop miniatures games,” Barth continues. “And it’s funny because it’s the kind of thing I want to love, but I just can’t fathom how you can play something like that and be like, ‘yeah, I want to do this again’. Like, the games last hours! It’s like four turns in an hour, just so much dice rolling!
“It’s so random, it’s so expensive, it’s much work to paint it, and it’s going to look bad because who’s good at painting? It seems like the worst hobby, but I’ve always been really interested in the idea of it, as an outsider, because it looks so cool, but it’s totally inaccessible. I certainly couldn’t afford it as a kid growing up. It was like, it’s a hobby for rich kids, you know - that’s not my background. And so, the only real connection I ever had to it was through video games, right?”
Barth doesn’t think the original Dawn Of War has aged very well. I’m going to throw him to the comment-wolves and say: do you agree? |Image credit:Sega
If Warhammer 40K video games precipitated Barth’s interest in Warhammer, the notion of making one himself came principally from parodies of Warhammer 40,000 and comparable works of sci-fi. Specifically, he points to Something Awful’s Blue Stripe series of interviews with holodeck janitors, Weyland-Yutani cryotechs and Space Marine chapter gofers.
Barth’s interest in Warhammer 40,000 also grew after he read Hiroki Azuma’s Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals , a book about the spread of otaku culture and “database storytelling”, where there is no strict chronology and fan fiat reigns supreme. Warhammer 40,000 is, Barth suggests, “the ultimate western otaku database IP property”, more so even than Star Wars, simply because it began life as a tabletop rulebook rather than a story.
The lure of Games Workshop’s grimdark universe aside, Barth and his colleagues felt a more diffuse urge to work on a licensed game for the career bonafides. “I have friends and stuff who worked on licensed games,” Barth says. “I have a friend who worked at an Activision studio and worked on almost nothing but movie tie-in games. I, we, never worked on any licensed games. And this was earlier in our game design career - like now, I’m totally jaded and don’t give shit about anything. But back then, it was like, oh, it’d be interesting to work on a licensed game, just to say we’ve done a licensed game.”
Barth started thinking in earnest about a Warhammer 40K pitch in early 2017. “We would have been deep in production on Opus Magnum,” he recalls. “We were at the point where we knew what the game was. I had done all my work, making the puzzles - we’re just waiting on the artist to make the just terrible amount of art that we always have to put in our games. And so I’m just like, well I got nothing to do, I guess I’ll start thinking about our next game. And so, in February, I emailed Games Workshop to say hey, let’s talk about licensing, you know?”
A scene from a manufactorum in the original Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, complete with motivational PA system. Remember, “increased productivity gains high favour from the Machine Gods.“Watch on YouTube
Barth’s basic pitch was, as you’d expect, for another engineering game set in the Warhammer 40,000 world. “Because so much of it is about the machinery and the factories that build cool things like giant robots and power armour. There’s not a lot of game settings, where it’s like fantasy and it’s cool and factories play a large role in it, right? A lot of fantasy stuff is kind of like, you know, people are making things by hand, and there’s no idea of like manufacturing, but 40K is a fantasy that has Manufactorums, right? Like cool factories. So I think we thought there would be some synergy there to make a cool factory game.”
More precisely, he envisaged a game that cast you as a junior member of the Adeptus Mechanicus - the machine-worshipping priesthood who operate as an empire unto themselves within the Imperium. “I think the idea would be that it would take place on a Forge World, and you would be one of those guys with all the arms coming out of your back, and your boss is like a guy with even more arms coming out of his back,” Barth pithily summarises. “And you’re just doing your job.” Like Shenzhen I/O, the game might have been a “workplace comedy, except that it’s set in a Warhammer 40K factory, where you’re pumping out power armour and stuff”.
It sounds, to me, like a natural fit. And Barth’s initial discussions with Games Workshop were encouraging. “The 40K game was the first time we ever approached an IP holder and, and they’re actually really easy to contact,” he adds. “There’s an NDA, so I have to be vague about some parts of it, but we contacted them, they got right back to us, and we talked to them, we signed an NDA, they were super forthright with their terms, and how it works.”
Barth has had many conversations with license holders since, and feels that Games Workshop are more receptive than many to video game pitches of all shapes, sizes and, well, degrees of quality. “In my very limited experience of not licensing IP, they’re totally open to whatever, and I think this explains why you see so many Warhammer 40K games, including ones that are actually quite low budget, and, and I think also, why so many of them suck!” he enthuses.
“And they’re the ones with all the power, so why would they put themselves at any risk, you know? Games Workshop, to their credit, have arrangements that are more indie-friendly, which nobody else that I’ve talked to seemed to make. I think this explains why you see 40K ‘indie’ games, basically.”
Image credit:Focus Entertainment
Games Workshop did want a chunk of dosh upfront, however. They also, as you’d expect, wanted some creative control, and Barth was unconvinced that the pitch was worth these sacrifices. “Not only do we not want to make a game that’s straightforward… like we don’t want to make a 40K game that’s about killing things, are any 40K enthusiasts really gonna want to play it, is it gonna help us a lot? Is it going to help us, for the amount that they’re going to take, right? Also, it means that we’re going to have IP lawyers telling us like what our characters can and can’t do, and what we can’t do mechanically.”
If this sounds like a familiar thought process for a developer considering a licensed game, the fun wrinkle is that the point about creative control also applies within the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Innovation in the Imperium of Man is… discouraged. This is a society that exists to uphold the dreaming corpse of a tyrant by means of relentless, ritual sacrifice; it is a galaxy-wide monument to the same. Novelty and imagination are the province of demons and subversives. The only sanctioned technologies are centuries-old manifestations of the unalterable Machine God.
“We make games about building factories, but people don’t really build factories in the universe of 40K,” says Barth. “In fact, it’s heresy to build new things in the world of 40K, right? That’s kind of inconvenient for our purposes. And if we were building this story [independently], we would be able to say ‘well, let’s back off on the heresy jokes, because we actually need characters that are able to do new things’, right? Not when you’re licensing somebody else’s IP - you’ve got to work around those limitations.” Zachtronics has always set a high price on originality, he notes. “The part of the game that we like doing the most is inventing stuff. Like, we’ve never made a sequel to any of our own games.”
Warhammer 40,000’s ironclad ritualised cosmos of zealots and witchfinders is, of course, satirical: it’s a knowingly grotesque portrayal of mass paranoia and bigotry. But the satire often disappears into the greebling: the setting is played very straight and, as such, is easy to co-opt and turn into actual far-right propaganda . Barth struggled with this aspect of his Warhammer 40,000 pitch both out of queasiness toward the values depicted, and for more practical reasons. For one thing, he wasn’t sure how to calibrate their potential game’s humour - or even if it was allowed to be humorous at all.
“We really didn’t do a ton of work on these ideas, but when talking to the person from from Games Workshop, we were like, for the tone of the game, we imagined it would be a comedy,” he recalls. “It’s a funny thing, you know? And so that was one of my questions to him: are you guys okay with us making funny stuff in the world of 40K? And he’s like: what do you mean? They’re all funny, it’s a funny setting. I’m just like: is it? And he’s like, yeah it’s, you know, funny. I’m just like, I don’t know if Americans see it that way!”
Image credit:PLAION
Zach feels that US-based players who don’t get British jokes might be more inclined to take Warhammer 40,000’s dystopia at face value - an argument supported by the existence of God Emperor Trump memes. But he doesn’t think those misreadings are entirely about cultural disconnect. “I think it plays into something that people talk about a lot, when I see people on Reddit talking about 40K, because they’re like: is it serious or not, are you a Nazi if you like 40K and take it seriously?” he muses. “I see people accusing people of ‘oh, media literacy is dead, and you think that Space Marines are just cool’.
“And, you know, Helldivers has the same discourse . Like people are always accusing other people of not understanding that it’s a joke, but at the same time it’s clearly not just a joke, you know? And it’s weird. I got in a big argument with all of my friends - they’re like: Helldivers is a satire. I’m like: but is it? Just to say it’s a satire - what’s it skewering? They’re like, oh I don’t know. You mean that it’s a parody, maybe? I’ve literally gotten into a fight with everybody I know about this.”
If all of these factors weighed down the prospect of making a Warhammer game, it was the upfront licensing fee that eventually turned Zachtronics away, for all Games Workshop’s relatively generous terms. “It was just so hard to justify giving somebody so much money for that,” Barth says. “If it was free, I think we like 100% would have done it. I think it really is just a money thing, because you’re right, the creative challenges, they seemed interesting, right? We’re not often presented with those kinds of limitations and I think limitations, when applied correctly, can be a huge boon to creativity, right? But not when that price tag comes on it, you know - that’ll sink a project.
“Zachtronics was never a hugely successful studio,” he adds. “We were always just kind of on the edge of making enough money to not have to go get real jobs, you know. And to give somebody else so much money put us at a huge personal risk, even with their generous terms that were friendly for indies. I don’t know - the gamble you’re taking is that the game is going to make substantially more money because of the IP, and I’m not a gambling man. I play it safe with all of our business decisions, and it just seemed too risky.”
In case you haven’t gotten the message by now, I would absolutely love to play a Zachtronics Warhammer 40,000 game, not least for the potential effect on the wider culture of the table-top game, which is back in the spotlight thanks to Space Marine 2 . If Warhammer 40,000 video games sometimes veer into unfiltered uber-fascist power fantasy, that’s partly because video games tend to favour the setting’s legendary soldiers and generals . A game in the style of Shenzen I/O, which half-whismically explores life from the vantage of the broom-pushers on Space Marine 2’s Battle Barge, could be transformative. It could also form an indirect portrayal of the more “wholesome” side of the hobby - the cosy delights of gluing and painting miniatures and assembling them into taskforces, subject to a points limit. Imagine a Forge World dedicated to such things.
A scene from SpaceChem. No, that isn’t a Necron pyramid on the right. |Image credit:Zachtronics Industries
Barth might not be a Warhammer 40K table-top player, but for all his bally-hooing of the dice-rolling, he does have a certain fondness for painting miniatures. “This is just a funny sidenote, but the game we wanted to make after SpaceChem, instead of Ironclad Tactics - this is years ago, at the beginning of Zachtonics - it was called Miniatures,” he recalls. “That was our working title for it, and there’s stuff in my book about it [the book in question is Zach-like , a history of the studio]. But it was a game about collecting and painting and playing a miniatures game as a kid, in a hobby shop. And it was very much inspired by 40K and very much like our own miniatures setting with these different factions, that were all very much inspired by 40K. So that, many years ago, was really us trying to kind of create our own thing, that was cool in the way that 40K was.”
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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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