Yakuza fans are demanding Sega recast a Kiwami 3 actor, and Dark Ties may make the situation worse

The petition calling for Teruyuki Kagawa’s removal has amassed more than 9,500 signatures so far

Image credit:Sega

If you spend much time reading Yakuza fans’ online discussions, you will see that all is not well ahead of the release of Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties on February 11th. Fans are campaigning for publisher Sega and developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to recast one of the actors in the upcoming remake.

Since Sega announced Japanese actor Teruyuki Kagawa would play villain Goh Hamazaki in Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties last year, a contingent of the series’ fans have demanded his replacement.The backlash stems from a 2022 report by Japanese magazine Shukan Shincho that Kagawa sexually harassed a female employee at a club in Tokyo’s Ginza district in 2019. The publication alleges that the actor removed a hostess’s bra and groped her breasts, claims supported by quotes from the woman and photos of the assault. Following the report, Kagawa apologised to viewers of ‘The Time’, a current affairs program he hosted, saying “I am truly sorry for the inconvenience, worry, and heartache I have caused to you all.” Though, he did not specify what he was apologising for, nor confirm the events reported in Shukan Shincho’s article.

Kagawa’s agency later issued a statement (no longer hosted), in which they are reported to have said :

It is true that his careless behavior caused displeasure to the woman of concern. He has deeply reflected on what has been pointed out,and is currently humbling himself. He has expressed his feelings of reflection and apology to the woman involved, and has asked her for her understanding and forgiveness. This statement has also been sent out with her consent.

No criminal case was filed against Kagawa.

There were repercussions following the article’s publication. Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, producers of The Time, removed Kagawa as a host of the show. Car makers Toyota suspended the series of ads he starred in and chose not to renew his contract.

Teruyuki Kagawa as Goh Hamazaki in Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties. |Image credit:Sega

Then, in 2025 RGG Studio announced that they had cast Kagawa as Hamazaki in the Yakuza 3 remake. A lieutenant in the Tojo clan, Hamazaki is one of the game’s secondary antagonists. As well as re-recording original actor Joji ‘George’ Takahashi’s dialogue and providing new lines, Kagawa lent his likeness to the character. After learning that Kagawa would play the pivotal role in Yakuza Kiwami 3, players petitioned Sega and RGG Studio to replace the actor .

RGG Studio have recast characters before. In 2018, just months before Judgment ’s release, the studio replaced Pierre Taki following his arrest for possessing cocaine. Taki played Kyohei Hamura, a major role in the game, yet they rerecorded his lines and swapped his likeness for actor Miō Tanaka .

We asked Sega to comment on Kagawa’s casting and for their response to the petition calling for his removal. They declined to provide a statement.

The petition to recast Kagawa launched back in September, but the recently released Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties demo raises fresh concerns around the developers’ handling of sexual assault. The demo provides our first opportunity to play the new Dark Ties storyline RGG Studio have added, which significantly expands the role of Tsuyoshi Kanda.

Tsuyoshi Kanda (right) speaks to Dark Ties protagonist Yoshitaka Mine (left). |Image credit:Sega

Kanda is another of the secondary antagonists in Yakuza 3, a patriarch of the Nishikayama family. When he is introduced in the original game, Kanda’s only recently out of prison after serving time for a sexual assault charge. Before he is even on screen, it is made clear to players that he’s a violent sexual predator. His introduction in Yakuza 3 happens off camera as he loudly, in the words of the game itself and RGG studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama, “massages” a woman in a room adjoining an office where his underlings awkwardly listen. According to Automaton , Yokoyama has confirmed that the massage element is a euphemism, referring to it as “a flimsy explanation I came up with”. You can watch the scene here . In Dark Ties, a new campaign outlining events which precede Yakuza 3’s main story, you now help Kanda restore his public image.

Dark Ties tells the tale of Yakuza 3 arch-baddie Yoshitaka Mine’s rise to underworld prominence, but the demo mainly consists of a sequence that immediately follows Kanda’s release from prison. Mine wants to use Kanda’s connections to get in with the yakuza families, whether that means bribing or beating him into doing it. Mine, briefcase of dough in hand, tails a fresh-out-of-jail Kanda as the gangster makes a beeline for the brothels in Kamurocho’s soaplands . Kanda, upon discovering he doesn’t have enough cash to buy time with a sex worker, grabs an unsuspecting woman in the street and drags her off to an alley. Mine finds him gripping the terrified woman by the wrists.

“Don’t be like that. I just wanna make you reel with pleasure,” Kanda says to the woman. “Just relax, and I’ll have ya feelin’ like you’re in heaven in no time.” Mine interrupts before things go any further, and the two fight. Mine wins and hands Kanda an envelope filled with money. The woman is allowed to escape and Kanda rushes to spend his new cash in the brothel. As part of Kanda and Mine’s arrangement, the former tasks you with leading a PR campaign to boost his reputation in the community, via a minigame dubbed " Kanda Damage Control “.

Tsuyoshi Kanda sits and smokes in the menu screen for Dark Ties’ Kanda Damage Control minigame. |Image credit:Sega

Sexual assault and the threat of it features in many of the games in the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series. The first game’s inciting incident is the murder of the head of the Dojima family, revenge for his attempt to rape Yumi Sawamura, childhood friend of the game’s protagonist Kiryu and his best friend turned Yakuza 1 antagonist Akira Nishkiyama. RPS contributor Ashley Schofield has written extensively on how assaults on female characters act as motivating events for male characters in the series. This portrayal of sexual assault takes on new contours in light of the expansion of Kanda’s role and the casting of Kagawa.

To be clear, the actor at the centre of the petition, Teruyuki Kagawa, is not playing Kanda. The villain he is playing, Goh Hamazaki, is a more Machiavellian figure, trying to gain power by pulling strings from the shadows and manipulating rival factions to do the fighting for him. However, in both casting Kagawa and expanding Kanda’s story to include a subplot in which he both assaults a woman and it falls to you to restore his public image in Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, Sega and RGG Studio are putting players into an uncomfortable position. The petition calling for Kagawa’s replacement has nearly reached 10,000 signatures.

Whatever its result, while Dark Ties is ostensibly a tale about Mine and his climb to the top ranks of the Tojo clan, the antihero is at risk of being sidelined in his own story by conversations about Kanda and the casting of Kagawa. At worst, these two things blended together could imply that the misogyny exhibited by characters in-game isn’t just there in service of a true crime storyline, but symptomatic of a disregard and obliviousness towards real life suffering.

Yakuza 3

PS3

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC , Nintendo Switch 2

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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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