The Bobcat blueprint in ARC Raiders sits in an odd spot: it clearly exists in the game’s systems, but it is rare enough that many players doubt it is in the loot pool at all. At the same time, anyone who has unlocked it can craft an epic close-range SMG that fills a specific niche in early and mid-game loadouts.
What the Bobcat blueprint actually unlocks
The Bobcat is an epic submachine gun that uses light ammo and leans hard into fire rate over precision. Its base profile:
| Property | Bobcat I value |
|---|---|
| Weapon class | SMG (epic) |
| Ammo type | Light Ammo |
| Firing mode | Fully-automatic |
| Magazine size | 20 |
| ARC armor penetration | Very Weak |
| Damage | 6 |
| Fire rate | 66.7 |
| Range | 44 |
| Stability | 45.9 |
| Agility | 73.1 |
| Stealth | 21 |
| Weight | 7.0 |
| Sell price tiers | 13,000 / 17,000 / 22,000 / 27,000 (I–IV) |
On paper, that translates to a weapon that is fast and agile but inaccurate and weak against armored ARCs. It shreds unarmored targets at close range and struggles in long sightlines or against heavy units unless you commit to upgrades and supporting gear.
How to use the Bobcat blueprint once you have it
Blueprints in ARC Raiders are single-use items that permanently unlock a recipe for your account. The flow for Bobcat is the same as for any other craftable weapon:
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1. Extract with the blueprint | Survive the raid and bring the Bobcat blueprint back to base in your safe pocket or inventory. |
| 2. Learn the blueprint | In your inventory, select the Bobcat blueprint and choose the “Learn and Consume” option to unlock the recipe. |
| 3. Meet workshop requirements | Upgrade your Gunsmith to level 3, which is required to craft Bobcat I. |
| 4. Collect crafting materials | Gather the items listed in the recipe (see below) through scavenging or refining. |
| 5. Craft Bobcat I | Use the Gunsmith 3 station to craft Bobcat I whenever you have the components. |
Duplicate blueprints, if you ever see a second Bobcat after learning it, can be sold for 5,000 Coins or handed to other players who still need the unlock.
Bobcat crafting, upgrading, and repair costs
Unlocking the blueprint gives you access to Bobcat I at Gunsmith level 3. Crafting and upgrading pull heavily from light weapon components and advanced mechanics.
| Action | Workshop level | Recipe | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craft Bobcat I | Gunsmith 3 |
1× Magnetic Accelerator 3× Light Gun Parts 2× Exodus Modules |
Bobcat I (blueprint-gated) |
| Upgrade I → II | Gunsmith 1 |
Bobcat I 2× Advanced Mechanical Components 1× Light Gun Parts |
Bobcat II with: • 15% reduced max shot dispersion • 15% reduced horizontal recoil • 13% reduced reload time • +10 durability |
| Upgrade II → III | Gunsmith 1 |
Bobcat II 2× Advanced Mechanical Components 3× Light Gun Parts |
Bobcat III with: • 30% reduced dispersion • 30% reduced horizontal recoil • 26% reduced reload time • +20 durability |
| Upgrade III → IV | Gunsmith 1 |
Bobcat III 2× Advanced Mechanical Components 3× Light Gun Parts |
Bobcat IV with: • 50% reduced dispersion • 45% reduced horizontal recoil • 40% reduced reload time • +30 durability |
Repair costs grow with each tier and again focus on Advanced Mechanical Components and Light Gun Parts. Recycling or salvaging a Bobcat returns a portion of those materials, making it reasonably efficient to convert unwanted copies back into components.
Where the Bobcat blueprint fits in the loot system
On paper, Bobcat is a standard scavenging blueprint. It appears in the global blueprint table as:
| Blueprint | Workshop | Lootable? | Harvester event | Quest reward | Trials reward |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bobcat | Gunsmith 3 | Yes | No | No | No specific listing |
That places it alongside most other weapon blueprints that drop from scavenging containers rather than being tied to a specific quest or event. In practice, though, players report fewer sightings of Bobcat compared with other epic weapons like Vulcano or Tempest.
Two ideas compete here:
- For many players, Bobcat simply never appears after dozens or even hundreds of hours, giving it a reputation as one of the rarest blueprints.
- Other players report finding it as loot during specific events or locked-room encounters, suggesting it is present in the loot pool but with a low drop chance.
The end result: Bobcat behaves like a random-drop scavenging blueprint, but the effective rarity is extreme.
Reported ways players have found the Bobcat blueprint
Blueprints in ARC Raiders are not tied to fixed spawn points in the same way a quest item might be. Any container capable of dropping blueprints can, in theory, roll Bobcat. Still, players converge on a few patterns when they talk about how it finally dropped:
| Context | What players report | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Gate “locked gate” encounters | Reports of Bobcat dropping from high-value containers inside locked or puzzle-gated rooms in The Blue Gate area. | These rooms bundle weapon crates and raider containers, which already have elevated blueprint chances. |
| Night raids on high-value POIs | Groups farming purple-key doors, underground labs, and puzzle rooms during night raids mention Bobcat among rare drops. | High-value containers (especially weapon crates and raider stashes) are more likely to roll blueprints in general. |
| “No fixed location” experiences | Plenty of players emphasize that where one person gets the blueprint, others do not see it in the same room or event later. | Reinforces that Bobcat is not bound to a single guaranteed chest; it is part of the shared RNG loot pool. |
Stepping back, the most consistent thread is not a single location but the type of container: long gun crates, raider caches, high-value room loot, and similar. These are also the containers players farm for other late-game blueprints, so Bobcat tends to appear as a byproduct of that grind rather than a targetable reward.
How blueprint drops work around Bobcat
Blueprints are tagged as loot in the scavenging pool and can also show up as rewards from the Trials system. The general rules apply to Bobcat as well:
| Mechanic | Impact on Bobcat blueprint |
|---|---|
| Any-container drops | Any container that can drop blueprints has a small chance to roll Bobcat once you are in raids where epic loot can appear. |
| High-value locations | Medium and high value loot areas (the red/orange auras on the map) bundle tougher ARCs and stronger containers, improving overall blueprint frequency. |
| Weapon crates and duffel bags | Weapon crates are large green boxes that always contain a weapon and can also roll a blueprint. Duffel bags and raider caches behave similarly with lower baseline quality. |
| ARC Surveyors | Surveyors, the rolling drones that emit a blue beam, can drop blueprints when destroyed, offering another high-variance chance at rare BPs. |
| Trials rewards | All scavenging blueprints are eligible as Trials rewards, though Bobcat is not individually guaranteed in any specific Trial rotation. |
That means you cannot force a Bobcat drop by visiting a single bunker or repeating one encounter. You can only push the odds in your favor by focusing on runs that maximize blueprint density overall.
Practical strategies if you are chasing Bobcat
The game does not expose exact drop rates, but the structure of the loot system points to a few concrete approaches that align with how players report unlocking Bobcat and other rare weapons:
| Strategy | What to focus on | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Prioritize high-value loot areas | On each raid, head for points of interest marked with medium or high value auras and clear all weapon crates, duffel bags, and raider caches. | These locations are tuned for better loot quality, which directly translates into more blueprint rolls over time. |
| Hit locked or breach-only rooms | Use keys and door breaches to get into locked apartments, labs, and puzzle rooms (for example, Blue Gate locked gates, apartment locked rooms on Buried City). | Locked rooms often combine multiple raider containers and weapon crates in a single small space, which is efficient for blueprint farming. |
| Farm weapon cases on known routes | Plan map routes that chain together weapon-case spawns, especially in dense areas such as Buried City’s apartments, rooftops, and pharmacies. | Weapon cases have a noticeably higher chance of dropping blueprints than generic containers. |
| Use your safe pocket smartly | When you find any epic blueprint you care about, immediately move it into your pouch and start looking for an extract instead of extending the run. | Blueprints are most valuable as unlocks; protecting them with the pouch avoids losing a rare drop to a late-fight wipe. |
| Run Trials every week | Play Trials once they unlock at higher account levels and aim for high scores in the ones that list blueprint rewards. | Trials generate weapons and blueprints without competing for in-raid crate spawns, adding extra rolls at the Bobcat pool. |
There is still no way to guarantee a Bobcat blueprint on a specific run, but these patterns give you the highest number of “epic blueprint” dice rolls per hour played.
Bobcat sits at the intersection of two systems: a transparent crafting tree and a deliberately opaque loot table. Its stats, crafting requirements, and upgrade path are fixed and predictable once you have the blueprint. The unpredictable part is getting that first drop. Treat it like a long-term project: run blueprint-dense routes, lean on high-value POIs and locked rooms, and let Bobcat arrive naturally while you flesh out the rest of your blueprint catalog.
