Recent Hot Games News How have things been going for you in ARC Raiders since Cold Snap update? Have you found things more difficult due to the new Snowfall map conditions? After all, it hinders both combat and survival on the map.
On the other hand, the update initially increased the drop rate of blueprints, an important in-game item. This meant that even facing blizzards and the risk of frostbite, you could find more blueprints in a single expedition.
However, just two days later, ARC Raiders lowered the blueprint drop rate again with Patch 1.7.2. This back-and-forth behavior makes one wonder what the developers are trying to achieve. Let's analyze the situation.
Blueprint Drop Rate Changes
Originally, after Cold Snap launched on December 16th, the blueprint drop rate in the game increased significantly. Many players reported finding blueprints more easily than before, resulting in a more relaxed and comfortable gaming experience.
However, this dissatisfied some old-school players who enjoy a challenge, as they believed that ARC Raiders Blueprints, as a type of rare item, should maintain a low drop rate to maintain game balance.
Regardless of which viewpoint you support, Patch 1.7.2 was released as a hotfix on December 18th. After this, you would find that Blueprint drop rate in ARC Raiders had decreased, but it was still higher than before Cold Snap update.
Ongoing Blueprint Drop Rate Controversy
The reason the development team is "flip-flopping" on BluePrint drop rate issue is ultimately because the player base is divided into two camps: hardcore and casual players.
For hardcore players always prefer more difficult combat and challenges, striving to prove themselves by achieving accomplishments and obtaining loot that is difficult for others to acquire.
Therefore, regardless of the developers' intentions in lowering the game's difficulty or making rare items like blueprints "no longer rare," hardcore players will consider it a destruction of the game experience and meaning.
If you are a casual player, you either don't have enough time to play (busy with work and studies) or simply prefer a relaxed atmosphere and don't want to stress yourself out too much.
Based on this, obtaining enough low drop rate blueprints to craft the necessary items becomes a hard task, and without this crafting channel, it's hard to acquire enough gear to compete with other players.
These two completely different attitudes and demands towards the game have led to almost constant controversy regarding the drop rate of blueprints and other rare items since ARC Raiders launched.
Views On This New Change
Hardcore players believe this is a timely fix, preventing ARC Raiders from becoming completely unbalanced and turning into a "dumb" shooter due to blueprints being too easy to obtain.
The enthusiastic casual players, however, have to return to their previous state, struggling to farm blueprints in their limited game time. Although the drop rate is higher than at the beginning, they are still not satisfied.
Interestingly, some casual players pointed out that since the blueprint-related content could be changed again within two days, why does it take so long to fix some obvious bugs, and why are some still unresolved? It's strange and a complete mess.
To be honest, while other aspects may not be done well, at least ARC Raiders has made an effort regarding Blueprint issue. It's almost impossible to come up with a solution that satisfies two completely different groups of players.
What Should The Developers Do?
As long as there is internal controversy among players, ARC Raiders cannot set a blueprint drop rate that satisfies everyone. The key is how to ensure that different players can have a good gaming experience.
Taking gear as an example, for a long time in ARC Raiders, high-rarity gear has not possessed the strength it should, and the difficulty of combat doesn't change whether you're a hardcore or casual player.
Therefore, when facing the same challenge, hardcore players can spend a lot of time farming specific blueprints to craft weapons to overcome it, but the same blueprints may still be very difficult for casual players to obtain.
In other words, the blueprint drop rate is just the flashpoint of the player controversy; the underlying logic is that ARC Raiders' mode differentiation is still unclear - everyone is crammed onto a "battlefield" with only one set of standards.
Perhaps this is also related to the controversy that arose shortly after ARC Raiders launched regarding whether to set up a separate PvE gameplay mode. Compared to PvP or PvPvE modes, PvE is indeed easier and more suitable for casual players.
Therefore, even without introducing a separate PvE mode, developers should find ways to introduce other casual gameplay options or increase the differences between gear of different rarities, giving hardcore players a way to invest more effort.
Other Patch 1.7.2 Content
Whether BluePrint drop rate will be modified again or other changes will occur, the final decision rests with the developers. Therefore, you should focus on the immediate gameplay experience, such as the other content added in Patch 1.7.2:
- Re-enabled the limited-time event Hidden Bunker.
- Fixed an issue where repeatedly clicking the interaction button with a poor network connection would prevent interaction actions from being performed.
- Fixed an issue where cold damage was still applied in some indoor areas during Cold Snap.
- Updated AMD GPUs driver warning.
- Fixed an issue in Unexpected Initiative quest where the quest item would not spawn, preventing the quest from being completed.
Of particular note is Hidden Bunker event. This event is only available on Spaceport map, and the specific refresh time is not fixed. It usually opens in the early morning or afternoon in North American time zone, but the duration can vary.
If you see Spaceport status as yellow during gameplay, it means the event is active; if it's gray, it means the event is about to start. The timer below the event button will show the remaining time until it starts.
The value of this event is that you can obtain a large amount of high-level loot and XP, but the number and danger of enemies will also increase, so it's best to team up with good gear.
That's all the information for this update. Will ARC Raiders continue to modify Blueprint drop rates? Nobody knows, all you can do is focus on the present!
