Arc Raiders' Frozen Trail update is adding customizable bases called outposts on October 8, and with them comes a new crafting station called the research bench. On top of customizing weapons for PvP or PvE with new upgrades, this bench is key to the research system that players can use to unlock new items and weapons without needing to find their blueprints.
At long last, players are freed from the curse of RNG blueprints. At a reveal event attended by GamesRadar+, executive producer Aleksander Grøndal confirms that research targets include "a number of blueprints."
"Instead of necessarily having to just chase RNG to get the blueprint you want, there is a system that is called research, where you can find items in the world that contain a number of research points, and using those, you can actually choose which research that you want to have, and that includes a number of blueprints as well," he says.
"Hopefully, that will allow the players to kind of steer and have an alternate method of getting to the blueprints they want, but also, of course, still maintaining some sort of desire to chase luck out in the Rust Belt as well."
It's currently unclear how many blueprints will be available through research or how difficult they will be to unlock. It also sounds like exclusive blueprints – for example, legendary weapons tied to endgame Arc reactors – won't be available for research.
That being said, anything that cuts RNG out of the grind sounds pretty good. There's nothing worse than resetting your character with an Expedition and, even with the new blueprint vault that lets you carry over some items between wipes, struggling to reobtain a gadget, weapon, or attachment blueprint that you really like.
If we're lucky, blueprints for some of the new weapons and items coming in Frozen Trail will also be available for research. Grøndal says the blueprints for the new weapons, an assault rifle and a hip-fire revolver, can be found "throughout the whole game." New gadgets include a grappling hook and two types of rope grenades that can tether, attach, and move enemies or objects.
Everything we know about Arc Raiders Frozen Trail.
