Ever since Shrouded Sky rolled in, I've stopped treating purple blueprints like a lottery ticket. If you're tired of burning raids for nothing, it's worth planning a run around hurricanes and even budgeting your loadout like you're ordering arc raiders coins for a specific build. The real cheat code right now is the Hurricane Secret Cache, the one people also call a First Wave Raider Cache. It's not magic, but it's the closest thing ARC Raiders has to consistent top-end loot.

What You're Actually Hunting

These caches don't spawn in brand-new places. They replace a few of the normal cache spawns when the hurricane is active, which is why players miss them all the time. You'll open one and instantly feel the difference: Level 4 weapons, premium meds like defibs, and those purple blueprints people won't shut up about—Tempest, Volcano, Bobcat. One clean route can stack a silly amount of value fast, and you'll walk out richer even if you only hit a couple of upgraded boxes.

Timing, Sound, and The Storm Problem

First rule: no hurricane, no hunt. Don't waste your match checking every box spawn on a calm map. Wait for the hourly rotation on outdoor maps, then commit. When you're in the weather, use your ears more than your eyes. The wind drowns out footsteps, sure, but these upgraded caches give off a faint electrical hum or a tiny mechanical chirp. You'll hear it through the chaos if you slow down for a second and let the audio do the work.

Routes People Keep Winning With

Blue Gate is still the most popular for a reason. If you chain Village into Ridgeline and then swing Farmlands, you're covering a ton of cache spawns without zig-zagging like a headless chicken. Bobcat hunters love that loop. Want less PvP? Spaceport tends to feel calmer, especially if you keep it simple and hit Fuel Processing into East Plains. The point isn't to "clear" the whole map. It's to run a repeatable path, grab the upgrades when they appear, and leave before the lobby catches on.

Staying Alive Long Enough To Bank It

The hurricane eats stamina like it's personal, so bring Adrenaline Shots and don't pretend you'll be fine without them. Hatch Keys are the other big one—having a safe, planned exit changes everything when you're carrying a blueprint. Keep your kit light, skip ego fights, and slot Raider Scraps if you've got it so each cache pays out harder. If you like smoothing out the grind between good runs, some players use marketplaces like eznpc for game currency and items so they can stay focused on route practice and extraction discipline instead of scraping together rebuild money.