In Embark Studios' ARC Raiders, blueprints are essential items for all players; they are recipes that permanently unlock certain items. Players need to find blueprints during a match and successfully extract to obtian them.

In the game, you can choose to take part with low-level gear of  random or select for a custom loadout that often includes a safe pocket, which means that even if a player fails to extract or dies, they can still obtain items stored in the safe pocket.

This mechanism forces players to weigh the risks of conservative item collection against collecting large quantities of items. This is part of the game's appeal.

On December 18th, Embark Studios released an emergency patch, Patch 1.7.2, which reduced the blueprint acquisition rate. However, according to player feedback, the overall acquisition rate is still higher than before the 1.7.0 update (released on December 16th, 2025).

In the recent "Cold Snap" Update, players reported that the higher blueprint drop rate often allows them to acquire at least 2 or 3 blueprints per game. However, this also indirectly increases the risk players face, requiring them to be careful not to lose blueprints to other players before retreating.

What are the implications of the reduced drop rate?

The lower probability increases the scarcity of blueprints in the game. The reduced number of blueprints obtained per unit of time means that students or working professionals with less time to invest, they may have to buy ARC Raiders blueprints through other means to save time farming for them. Conversely, for players who dedicate significant time to ARC Raiders daily, the reduced blueprint drop rate increases the value of blueprints, making their time investment more worthwhile.

Overall, there are many ways to acquire blueprints, reflecting the different playstyles of various players.