ARC Raiders Tactical Mk3 Smoke Blueprint: Best Map Locations to Find It

MiaJones621

The Riven Tides update injected a fresh wave of end-game gear into Speranza, and the Epic-tier Tactical Mk. 3 (Smoke) augment has rapidly caught the attention of players looking for a reliable safety net during intense extractions. Unlike its predecessor, the Mk. 2, which weighs only 2 kg but restricts your haul with 17 inventory slots and a single safe pocket, the Mk. 3 scales up the utility significantly. It carries a maximum loadout weight capacity of 50.0 kg, grants 19 inventory slots, and gives you 2 crucial safe pockets. Its main draw is its passive perk: the exact split-second your shield breaks, it automatically triggers a smoke screen lasting 10 seconds, giving you just enough breathing room to break line-of-sight and heal up.  

Because it shares a global loot pool with other Mark III blueprints, finding it comes down to targeted farming and managing RNG. If you are struggling with the grind, trading communities like U4N provide an alternative marketplace to acquire verified arc raiders blueprints from other players, saving you hours of empty looting. However, if you want to find it topside on your own, you must target the correct maps and specific human loot containers.  

Best Map Loot Locations & Probabilities

Data compiled from community farming runs reveals that while the blueprint can drop across several maps, specific zones yield significantly higher success rates due to their high concentration of security and medical furniture.

1. Riven Tides (Highly Recommended)

This is currently the absolute best map to farm for the blueprint because it does not require a specific time-of-day map condition.

• Port Authority Building & Tennis Court: Focus your route entirely around these two points of interest. Check every room methodically.
• Stacking Yard & Beachside Containers: Don't skip the outdoor transit areas. The cluster of blue furniture and black crates scattered around the beach and yard provides multiple rolling chances per run.
  
  

2. Bluegate

Bluegate holds the highest single-zone reported drops in community data, sitting at roughly a 43% discovery distribution among tracked players who found the blueprint outside of Riven Tides.

• Reinforced Reception: Head straight to the lower locker rooms.  
• Breachable Key Rooms: If you have the utility to breach, these isolated security rooms contain high-tier vertical box lockers that bypass standard trash loot pools.  
  
  

3. Dam Battlegrounds

Accounting for roughly 14% of documented blueprint drops, the Dam requires an eye for small, hidden details.  

• The Testing Annex: Walk behind the rows of white office desks. The blueprint frequently spawns inside the small blue medical drawers built into the back of the desks.  
• The Domes: Clear the peripheral industrial structures; the standing metal cabinets here frequently cycle through the Epic augment pool.
  
  

4. Night Raid Maps (Stella Montis & Buried City)

Both Stella Montis and the Buried City can drop the blueprint (each holding about a 14% drop share in historical tracking), but they come with a strict catch: they must be run during a Night Raid condition.  

• Stella Montis: Target the first-floor cabinets of the Security Wing Lobby and the main Medical Bay. Tip: Do not push into the Medical Research wing without a Safe Pocket augment equipped, as extraction campers heavily target this bottleneck.  
• Buried City: Drop in at night and completely clear out the Research Building and the Space Travel Building. Every single desk drawer and trash can needs to be flipped.  
  
  

Key Container Types to Look For

You cannot find this blueprint out in the open; it is hard-coded to drop from specific human-made containers. Focus your attention exclusively on:  

• Security Containers: Black rectangular weapons crates, vertical metal box lockers, and standing utility cabinets.  
• Human Loot/Furniture: Blue office drawers, desk document slots, and standard office trash cans.
• ARC Surveyors: If you run into an ARC Surveyor topside, take it down. While looting a downed Surveyor Core has a historically lower drop rate for this specific utility due to a massive weapon-heavy blueprint pool, players have verified successful daytime drops from them.  
  
  

Once you successfully extract with the item, remember that it is a single-use template. Head back to your Gear Bench in Speranza, open your inventory, and select "Learn and Consume." This permanently adds the Tactical Mk. 3 (Smoke) to your craftable bench options, requiring 1 Advanced Electrical Component and 1 Processor to assemble.  

To see exact pathing routes through the Port Authority and Bluegate's lower locker rooms, take a look at this comprehensive ARC Raiders NEW Blueprint Locations guide. This quick breakdown highlights the visual layout of the high-probability human containers you need to map out for your farming runs.