Wiping in Arc Raiders is already a point of contention for some players of Embark’s extraction shooter, as finishing an Expedition forces players to start all over again from scratch with some minor permanent buffs. While this isn’t too bad compared to other games in the genre, the most annoying part of the game revolves around rediscovering blueprints you already collected over the course of the last season.
As Embark already looks at ways to further incentivise expeditions for players, design lead Virgil Watkins has been thinking about how the game can improve the act of rediscovering old blueprints, even wondering if players should be able to bring blueprints with them after an expedition.
In a discussion with PCGamer, Watkins explained that giving every player all of their blueprints after a wipe would create an imbalance of power with the studio already trying that idea before launch.
“It’s a tricky situation because the blueprints in particular are such a power elevation,” the design lead said, explaining that players who jump in with high-tier blueprints to bypass the early loot game will be able to rapidly return to the height of power.
“I certainly don’t think it’s off the table. Of course, it’s a very rational thing for players to want to do, like, ‘I work really hard for these and please let me have a few of them.’ So yeah, I wouldn’t say no to any idea along those lines,” Watkins explained.
However, the designer explained that this might require some major balance overhauls. With this in mind, Watkins suggested “additional changes or systemic changes to how blueprints are found, acquired, or learned, rather than needing to feel like they have to come along with the Expedition system.”
Actually, this makes sense. In fact, following the very first wipe for Arc Raiders, Blueprint drop rates were massively increased which allowed players to find some of the early and mid-tier blueprints quickly after starting over from scratch. As someone who did play during this period, it felt great to be able to quickly return to a decent level of loot gain quickly after losing everything.
Watkins suggests giving “better or more autonomy over how you acquire blueprints” in future updates. For example, players might be able to select what blueprints they want to find and be given hints on where and how to acquire them, allowing them to quickly grab some form of their favourite weapons.
Obviously, this is a tricky situation, and one that could unravel the balance of Arc Raiders. However, recollecting every blueprint in the game is a pain point of the game for some players, despite the title’s surprisingly huge player retention since launch.
At the time of writing, Arc Raiders has only been out for a few months, and the game has a huge 2026 ahead of it with multiple new maps, enemies, and more. With the game’s upcoming Shrouded Sky update, players will even have to battle the deadly natural forces of hurricanes which will add even more depth to the game this season.
