The Tempest is one of Arc Raiders’ standout medium-caliber rifles, but you do not get permanent access to it until you secure the Tempest Blueprint. That blueprint is part of the global scavenging loot pool, which means it can appear in many different places and containers rather than at a single fixed spawn.
What the Tempest Blueprint does and how crafting works
The Tempest Blueprint is a weapon blueprint tied to the Gunsmith 3 workshop tier. Learning it unlocks the ability to craft a Tempest I and to produce more copies as long as you have the materials.
| Item | Workshop tier | What it unlocks | Sell value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tempest Blueprint | Gunsmith 3 | Lets you craft a Tempest I | 5,000 Coins (all blueprints) |
Once you successfully extract with the blueprint in your inventory, it appears in the inventory menu as a consumable item. To turn it into a permanent recipe, you need to:
- Highlight the Tempest Blueprint in your stash or inventory.
- Select the option
Learn and Consume.
After that, the Tempest shows up as a craftable weapon at the Gunsmith 3 station. The weapon itself uses fairly typical late-game components.
| Tempest crafting requirement | Amount |
|---|---|
| Workshop tier | Gunsmith 3 |
| Magnetic Accelerator | 1x |
| Medium Gun Parts | 3x |
| Exodus Modules | 2x |
Where the Tempest Blueprint can drop
The Tempest Blueprint is part of the standard scavenging loot pool. That means:
- It can appear as random loot in containers on the “topside” of the raid maps (standard open-world areas).
- It is not tied to a specific quest.
- It is not locked to Harvester events; only Jupiter and Equalizer are event-exclusive legendaries.
- It can also appear as a Trials reward, because all scavenging-pool blueprints are eligible there.
In practice, the drop rate is low, so players tend to focus on activities and locations that pack many blueprint-capable containers into a small area or apply global loot-quality modifiers.
Best map conditions for Tempest Blueprint farming
The game does not advertise exact percentages, but several systems clearly push blueprint drop chances up or down.
| Condition or source | Impact on blueprint drops | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard day raids | Baseline | All blueprint-eligible containers can roll a Tempest, but odds are modest. |
| Night raids | Higher than day | Global loot quality is increased, leading to noticeably more blueprints overall. |
| Electromagnetic Storm | Very high | Major map condition with blueprint rates at least comparable to night raids, and likely higher. |
| Breachable or key-locked rooms | Higher for each container inside | Any “extra effort” room has upgraded loot tables that stack with night or storm modifiers. |
| Puzzle rooms | Higher | Behave similarly to key rooms; containers inside are more rewarding on average. |
| Surveyor enemies | Higher | These fleeing armored drones have a strong chance to drop a blueprint when killed. |
| Trials rewards | Consistent source | Weekly Trials can award any blueprint in the scavenging pool, including Tempest. |
The takeaway: if you only run normal daytime raids and casually open a few containers, you may play for many hours without ever seeing the Tempest Blueprint. Focusing on storms, nights, and dense interior spaces changes that experience dramatically.
Buried City night raids and Grandioso Apartments
One of the earlier “hot spots” people gravitated to was Buried City during night raids, especially the Grandioso (sometimes called “Grandiosa”) Apartments. These apartments have a strong reputation for two reasons:
- They are packed with containers that can roll blueprints: drawers, cabinets, trash bins, suitcases, red lockers, breach lockers, fridges, coolers, and more.
- Night raids already boost overall loot quality, so stacked with container density, runs often end with six-figure scrap value and multiple high-tier drops.
A typical Grandioso route looks like this:
- Queue into a Buried City night raid.
- Head straight to the Grandioso Apartments complex.
- Clear each floor systematically: every room, every kitchen cabinet, every drawer, every locker.
- Repeat the same sweep in the second apartment block across the courtyard.
Players report pulling Tempest Blueprints from seemingly mundane containers here — random drawers, fridges, white “cooler” boxes — which underlines how broad the loot pool is. The blueprint is not bound to a special chest; it is another high-tier roll inside a general-use container.
However, Grandioso is not the only place the blueprint can appear, and it is not guaranteed even with a perfect route. Across multiple Buried City night raids, you can walk out with several blueprints that are not Tempest. The area is strong because of density and night modifiers, not because it is hard-coded for one weapon.
Dam Battlegrounds apartments during Electromagnetic Storm
Electromagnetic Storm is the most important global modifier for blueprint hunters. During this condition, blueprint drops spike across the entire map, and that includes Tempest.
Dam Battlegrounds has two residential clusters in the northwest: Pale Apartments and Ruby Residences. During Electromagnetic Storm, repeated full clears of these buildings tend to produce a blueprint from almost every raid when uncontested.
- Queue into Dam Battlegrounds while Electromagnetic Storm is active.
- Rush Pale Apartments and Ruby Residences.
- Loot every blueprint-capable container in each building: trash cans, drawers, cabinets, suitcases, lockers, and any breachable boxes.
With storm-level loot quality and that much container density, players see results similar to or better than night raids, with one blueprint per full run being a reasonable expectation across a string of raids. The actual item can be anything in the blueprint pool, but Tempest is fully eligible here.
Storm benefits are not limited to Dam Battlegrounds. Other dense areas, such as the hydroponic dome complex or sites like Pilgrim’s Peak in The Blue Gate, also become strong blueprint farms under the same condition. The pattern stays the same: storm active, high container density, full clear.
Other reported locations for Tempest Blueprints
Because the Tempest Blueprint is not locked to a single map, drops show up across different locations when enough containers are opened. Players have reported Tempest Blueprints in places such as:
- Random drawers in Buried City during night raids, including around the red tower area.
- Refrigerators and white “cooler” style containers in both Buried City and The Blue Gate outskirts.
- High-value interiors like hospitals or big commercial buildings during Buried City night runs, including on free loadout spawns.
These anecdotes support the broader rule: any standard container that can roll loot from the high-tier pool can roll a blueprint, and any blueprint from that pool can be Tempest.
Containers that can and cannot hold blueprints
Not every object you can loot in Arc Raiders can spit out a blueprint. The game quietly splits containers into blueprint-capable and blueprint-ineligible types.
| Container type | Blueprint eligibility | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon cases | Yes | Classed as raider containers; high blueprint weight. |
| Grenade cases | Yes | Also part of raider container group. |
| Medical duffel bags | Yes | Surprisingly good for blueprints. |
| Buried caches | Yes | Always worth digging up when nearby. |
| Trash bins | Yes | Lowly-looking but very common blueprint sources. |
| Drawers and bedside tables | Yes | Key part of apartment sweeps. |
| Kitchen cabinets and fridges | Yes | Repeatedly associated with weapon blueprint drops. |
| Suitcases | Yes | Often tucked away in corners, worth checking. |
| Red lockers | Yes | Common in industrial interiors. |
| Breach boxes / breachable lockers | Yes | Elevated loot quality; excellent blueprint candidates. |
| Fruit baskets | No | Never drop blueprints; safe to skip if you are rushing. |
When trying to maximize Tempest attempts per hour, time spent looting non-eligible containers is essentially wasted. Learning which props can never roll blueprints helps tighten your route.
How to structure efficient Tempest farming runs
The Tempest Blueprint is a single random roll hidden inside a very large loot table. That setup punishes unfocused play but rewards structured routes. A simple framework helps:
- Prioritize Electromagnetic Storm over everything else. When the storm rolls, pick a high-density area (Dam apartments, hydroponic domes, compact urban zones) and dedicate the entire timer to clearing every blueprint-eligible container there.
- Use night raids when storms are unavailable. Buried City night raids focused on Grandioso Apartments and other big interior clusters are still very efficient.
- Chain runs. The low single-run odds for one specific blueprint are offset by repetition. Players reporting Tempest drops in apartments often got them within a handful of focused runs, not a one-off visit.
- Include Surveyors in your route. If a Surveyor spawns near your path, detouring to destroy it is worthwhile for the elevated blueprint chance.
- Bank your Trials. Completing weekly Trials for blueprint rewards is a parallel track to passive Tempest hunting, and it pays off over time.
Tip: treat each raid as a blueprint opportunity rather than a Tempest-specific hunt. By routing intelligently for container density and strong map conditions, you gather a broad collection of blueprints, and the Tempest Blueprint tends to arrive along the way rather than as a solitary goal.
Once the Tempest Blueprint is secured and learned, the weapon becomes a reusable part of your loadouts instead of an occasional lucky find in free kits. Until then, progress comes from understanding how Arc Raiders decides where high-tier loot appears and building your runs around those systems, not around a single rumored spawn.
