The Tempest is the assault rifle everyone in r/ArcRaiders is chasing — and its blueprint is widely called one of, if not the, rarest drop in the game. If you've spent runs cracking lockers and still haven't seen it, you're not unlucky; you're farming the wrong map at the wrong time. This guide front-loads the exact answer — where it drops, how to raise your odds, and what it costs to craft — then breaks down whether the Tempest is even worth the grind.
TL;DR — Tempest blueprint quick answer
- Best farm: Night Raid on the Buried City map. It can roll on other maps during a Night Raid, but Buried City has the highest chance (gamerant).
- Where: Residential containers — drawers, file cabinets, lockers, and Security Breach lockers — across the West Village cluster (Grandioso Apartments, Plaza Rosa Pharmacy, Red Tower) and the Space Travel building.
- Drop rate: Brutal. Treat every run as a lottery ticket, not a guarantee — "Tempest is one of, if not the rarest, blueprints in ARC Raiders with extremely low drop rates" (gamerant).
- Craft: Learn-and-consume blueprint → build Tempest I at a Gunsmith 3 bench for 1× Magnetic Accelerator, 3× Medium Gun Parts, 2× Exodus Modules (arcraiders.wiki).
- What it is: Epic Medium-Ammo assault rifle, 10 damage, 25-round mag, Moderate ARC armor penetration — a mid-range workhorse that scales hard with upgrades.
- Shortcut: Don't want to gamble dozens of Night Raids? You can grab the Tempest blueprint directly and skip straight to crafting.
What is the Tempest in ARC Raiders?
The Tempest is an Epic-rarity Assault Rifle chambered for Medium Ammo. Its in-game card describes it plainly — "Has moderate fire rate and accuracy" — which undersells how it actually performs once you upgrade it. It sits in the same conversation as the Bobcat as a go-to mid-tier weapon; raiders on r/ArcRaiders constantly bring up the "Bobcat, Tempest, Bobcat, Tempest" loadout pairing because the two cover different ranges.
Here are the verified base stats straight from the weapon page (arcraiders.wiki):
| Stat | Tempest (base) |
|---|---|
| Type | Assault Rifle |
| Ammo | Medium Ammo |
| Rarity | Epic |
| Damage | 10 |
| Fire Rate | 36.7 |
| Magazine | 25 |
| Headshot Multiplier | 1.5× |
| Range | 55.9 |
| ARC Armor Penetration | Moderate |
| Stability | 78.9 |
| Agility | 46 |
| Stealth | 14 |
| Weight | 11.0 |
The headline numbers are the 55.9 range, 78.9 stability, and Moderate ARC penetration — that combination makes it a controllable medium-range rifle that can actually chew through ARC armor, where lighter SMGs fall off. The trade-off is the chunky 11.0 weight and a fire rate that's deliberate rather than spray-happy.
Where does the Tempest blueprint drop?
The single most important fact: the Tempest blueprint is a Night Raid drop, and Buried City gives you the best odds. As the gamerant guide puts it, the blueprint "can also spawn in other maps during the Night Raid, [but] Buried City offers a high chance for players to get it." If you're loading into a daytime raid hoping for it, you're wasting runs.
It rolls from residential-style loot containers — drawers, file cabinets, lockers, and Security Breach lockers — concentrated in a handful of West Village buildings. The proven hotspots (gamerant):
| Location | What to hit |
|---|---|
| Grandioso Apartments | Multiple floors — drawers and cabinets |
| Building near Abandoned Highway Camp | Breachable doors hiding drawers and file cabinets |
| Plaza Rosa Pharmacy | Three floors; loot the white lockers, skip shelf clutter |
| Red Tower | Second-floor room with multiple lockers + a possible Security Breach locker |
| Santa Maria Houses | Two skylight roof hatches with drawers inside |
| Space Travel building | Ground-floor lockers and sixth-floor drawers |
| Town Hall | Confirmed drop location |
What's the fastest farm route?
Treat the West Village as your circuit. Drop in near Grandioso Apartments, clear every floor's drawers and cabinets, push to Plaza Rosa Pharmacy for the white lockers, then swing to Red Tower for the locker room and any Security Breach locker. If you've got time before extract, the Space Travel building's ground-floor lockers and sixth-floor drawers are worth a detour. Prioritize Security Breach lockers wherever you see them — they roll higher-value loot tables.
The annotated map above pins these West Village hotspots so you can plan a route before you even land. Because this is a Night-Raid-gated, low-rate drop, efficiency per run matters more than any single jackpot container — hit the most containers you can before the lobby heats up, then extract.
How do you craft the Tempest?
The blueprint is learn-and-consume: read it once and it's added to your craftable list. From there you build the weapon at a Gunsmith 3 workbench. The base recipe for Tempest I (arcraiders.wiki):
| Material | Quantity | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Magnetic Accelerator | 1× | Rocket Assembly (Spaceport), Exodus POIs, Medical Research (Stella Montis) |
| Medium Gun Parts | 3× | Drops from large ARC enemies; marked outposts/facilities; or buy from Celeste |
| Exodus Modules | 2× | Sold by Celeste; also found on Spaceport and Stella Montis |
If you're short on components, our materials farming guide covers the fastest loops for gun parts and modules, and the blueprints overview explains the learn-and-consume system in full.
Tempest upgrade tiers — are they worth it?
Yes — the upgrades are almost pure quality-of-life and turn the Tempest from "fine" into a genuine laser. Each tier mainly buys recoil control, faster reloads, and more durability (arcraiders.wiki):
| Tier | Bonuses |
|---|---|
| Tempest II | 16.6% less horizontal recoil · 13% faster reload · +10 durability |
| Tempest III | 33.3% less horizontal recoil · 26% faster reload · +20 durability |
| Tempest IV | 50% less horizontal recoil · 40% faster reload · +30 durability |
By Tempest IV, you've cut horizontal recoil in half and reload time by 40% — that's the version flooding endgame lobbies. If you main this gun, upgrading to IV is the difference between hosing a wall and landing a 1-second time-to-kill at medium range.
What's the best Tempest loadout and attachments?
The Tempest's identity is controllable medium-range fire, so build into that rather than fighting it. With a base 78.9 stability and the upgrade tiers stacking horizontal-recoil reduction, your attachment priority is vertical recoil control and ADS handling — a compensator or muzzle that tames the vertical climb, plus a sight that suits the 55.9-range envelope (a red dot or low-power scope rather than a long-range optic the gun can't support).
One attachment trap worth knowing: in ARC Raiders, damage falloff is tied to your ammo type, not the gun or a barrel attachment. Experienced raiders point out that an Extended Barrel won't magically extend the Tempest's killing range the way newer players expect — the falloff curve is baked into Medium Ammo. As one r/ArcRaiders player put it, the extended barrel is "useless because damage falloff is based off ammo type only." Spend that slot on recoil or handling instead, and lean on a silencer if you want to stay off the audio radar in Night Raids — exactly when you're farming this blueprint.
For a two-gun kit, the popular pairing is a Tempest for range + a Bobcat SMG for close quarters — the same "Bobcat, Tempest, Bobcat, Tempest" loadout that floods the subreddit. The Tempest does the work at distance and against armored ARC; the SMG covers the corners. If you want to set up that pairing, the Bobcat is another craftable blueprint on the same Gunsmith bench.
How rare is the Tempest blueprint, really?
Set expectations before you grind: this is a lottery drop, not a guaranteed quest reward. Because it's gated to Night Raids and rolls from a shared residential loot pool, you can run the full West Village circuit several times and see nothing. The realistic play is to fold Tempest farming into runs you'd do anyway — Night Raids on Buried City are loot-rich regardless, so you bank materials, gear and Raider Tokens while you fish for the blueprint. Hit the Security Breach lockers first (better loot tables), clear the residential drawers and file cabinets on your route, and extract with what you've got rather than dying to a third-party squad while greed-looting the last cabinet. Treat each blueprint as a bonus, not the objective, and the grind stops feeling like a tax.
Is the Tempest worth the grind?
Honestly? For a lot of players, no — not the blueprint grind. The weapon is excellent, but the drop is so rare that you can burn a dozen-plus Night Raids and still come up empty. Raiders debating it on r/ArcRaiders keep landing on the same point: the Tempest's edge over an SMG like the Bobcat is range and armor penetration, not raw DPS — one player noted a "1 sec TTK is absurd" once it's upgraded, but at close quarters a high-fire-rate SMG still competes.
So the math is simple: if you enjoy Night Raids and have the time, farm it. If you just want the rifle in your kit without rolling the RNG dice, buying the Tempest blueprint is the time-efficient play — you skip straight to the Gunsmith 3 craft and start upgrading toward Tempest IV.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the Tempest blueprint drop in ARC Raiders? It drops during a Night Raid, with the Buried City map giving the highest chance. Loot residential containers — drawers, file cabinets, lockers and Security Breach lockers — across the West Village (Grandioso Apartments, Plaza Rosa Pharmacy, Red Tower) and the Space Travel building.
Why can't I find the Tempest blueprint? Because it's one of the rarest blueprints in the game with an extremely low drop rate, and it's gated behind Night Raids. If you've been farming daytime raids or other maps, switch to Buried City Night Raids and hit as many containers per run as possible — it's a numbers game.
What do I need to craft the Tempest? A Gunsmith 3 workbench plus 1× Magnetic Accelerator, 3× Medium Gun Parts, and 2× Exodus Modules for the base Tempest I. The blueprint is learn-and-consume, so reading it adds the recipe permanently.
Is the Tempest a good weapon? Yes — it's an Epic Medium-Ammo assault rifle with Moderate ARC armor penetration, solid 55.9 range and high 78.9 stability. Upgraded to Tempest IV (–50% horizontal recoil, –40% reload time) it becomes a controllable medium-range laser that many raiders pair with a Bobcat SMG for close range.
Tempest vs Bobcat — which is better? Different jobs. The Tempest wins at range and against armored ARC; the Bobcat (a Light-Ammo SMG) wins up close with its higher fire rate. Most experienced raiders carry one of each rather than choosing. Note that damage falloff in ARC Raiders is tied to ammo type, so an Extended Barrel attachment won't extend a weapon's effective range the way players expect.
Can I buy the Tempest blueprint instead of farming it? Yes — if you'd rather not gamble on Night Raid RNG, you can get the Tempest blueprint here and jump straight to crafting and upgrading.
