You can farm half an inventory of stuff, but without the right blueprints it all just stays a pile of useless loot. That’s where blueprint fragments come in - the thing that turns random running across the map into actual, controlled progression.
In this article we’ll break down why you need them, what types there are, where to find them, which routes are most profitable, and what to do once you’ve got a whole box full of these little pieces of knowledge.
Why blueprint fragments matter at all
Back in the day the path was simple: farm scrap → research the items you need → place a workbench → sit in base and chill. Over time that turned into a recycler simulator: whoever ran the same road/monument loops better usually won.
Blueprint fragments were added as a second layer of progression. Now it works like this:
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Tier 1 workbench - same as before, crafted with resources + scrap.
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Tier 2 workbench - costs less scrap, but also needs 5 Basic Blueprint Fragments.
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Tier 3 workbench - also cheaper in scrap, but you can’t place it without 5 Advanced Blueprint Fragments.
So scrap is now mostly for unlocking items, and blueprint fragments gate access to T2 and T3 benches themselves. If you want to reach end-game loot, it’s no longer enough to AFK at the recycler - you have to go out to monuments, oil rigs, tunnels, etc.
Fragment types: basic and advanced
There are only two types of fragments:
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Basic Blueprint Fragment
Your early/mid-wipe currency. Required for the Tier 2 workbench, and can be converted into advanced fragments. -
Advanced Blueprint Fragment
Much rarer, tied to red card rooms and high-tier monuments. You can’t place a Tier 3 workbench without them.
And there’s one key mechanic:
20 Basic Blueprint Fragments → 1 Advanced Blueprint Fragment
So if you’re not lucky (or not ready) to constantly run top-tier monuments yet, you can just farm the “green + blue” stage and slowly craft the advanced fragments you need.
Where to find Basic Blueprint Fragments
Basic fragments are your ticket into the T2 world. The good news: they drop pretty often as long as you actually play the map instead of sitting in base.
Green keycard rooms
Almost all mid-tier monuments with green puzzles can reliably give you basic fragments:
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Supermarket, Gas Station, Harbor (green side)
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The updated Dome, which now also has a green puzzle and a recycler
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Other “mid” monuments where the green card opens the first loot room
Usually you’ll find one Basic Fragment inside, plus components, scrap and regular loot. If you run a loop like “green → green → recycler”, fragments just start stacking up by themselves.
Blue keycard rooms
Next step - blue keycard rooms:
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Harbor (blue side)
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Satellite Dish
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Airfield
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Power Plant, Water Treatment, Trainyard
Very often, near the place where you pick up the red card, there’ll be one or two more basic fragments. One full run of “green puzzle → blue puzzle” can easily give you up to 3 Basic Fragments plus a nice chunk of scrap.
Mid and high-tier monuments in general
Overall, most mid and high-tier monuments after the blueprint update have a chance to drop basic fragments: military crates, normal crates, underground loot and so on. If you don’t ignore monuments, basic fragments will slowly fill your inventory even without hard focusing on them.
Where to find Advanced Blueprint Fragments
Advanced fragments are late-game currency, tightly tied to top-tier monuments and events.
Red keycard rooms
Pretty much every red keycard room has a high chance (or even a guaranteed drop) of advanced fragments. That includes:
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Launch Site
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Military Tunnels
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Nuclear Missile Silo
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Underwater Labs with a red door
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Red card rooms on Small Oil Rig and Large Oil Rig
If you’re consistently running at least one of these monuments, Advanced Fragments will show up on a regular basis.
Elite crates
Elite crates at top-tier monuments can also drop advanced fragments, though with a lower chance:
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Roof and interior of Launch Site
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Deep sections of Military Tunnels
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Missile Silo
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Oil Rig, Cargo Ship
Elites are always high risk and PvP, but also the best chance at advanced fragments plus end-game guns and boom.
Converting basic fragments
If, for whatever reason, you can’t reliably run red monuments (server too sweaty, low team size, bad time zone), you always have the backup path:
20 Basic Fragments → 1 Advanced Fragment
It’s slow, but it works really well for solo/duo players who dominate the “green + blue” stage but don’t want to die on Launch Site every day.
How to increase your blueprint fragment farm speed
Knowing where blueprint fragments drop is half the job. The other half is not playing randomly, but following clear, efficient routes.
Run top-tier monuments in off-peak hours
For Advanced Fragments it’s way better to go:
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early morning server time;
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late at night;
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or during “dead hours” for your region.
In prime time, Launch Site, Military Tunnels, Missile Silo and Oil Rig are pure meat grinders, not blueprint farms. In off-peak, you can calmly run the puzzle, loot elites and leave alive.
Use transport and mini-bases
To speed things up:
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place mini-bases and bags near key monuments;
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use horses, minicopters, boats to chain your runs faster;
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don’t carry all your fragments on you – stash part of them in hidden loot rooms and stashes.
That way you reduce the downtime between runs and don’t lose all your progress in a single death.
What to do with all the fragments you’ve collected
Let’s say you already have a solid stash of fragments sitting in your boxes.
Priority #1: workbenches
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Your first 5 Basic Fragments should almost always go straight into a Tier 2 workbench.
Without T2 you won’t get proper guns and armor, which means you’ll be weaker on those same monuments. -
Once T2 is down and your scrap economy is rolling, you can either start converting basics into advanced or build up a small stockpile of Basic Fragments first.
Five Advanced Fragments = direct path to a Tier 3 workbench. As soon as you have a stable base, access to top-tier monuments and a decent raid defense, T3 becomes your main progression goal: it unlocks rockets, C4, end-game weapons and armor.
Conversion: when it actually makes sense
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If you rarely run red card monuments but constantly clear green/blue ones, converting 20 Basic → 1 Advanced is a perfectly valid route for you.
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If your team consistently controls Launch Site, Military Tunnels, Oil Rig, Missile Silo, conversion becomes less important - Advanced Fragments will just rain out of elites and hackable crates anyway.
Conclusion
Blueprint fragments in the current meta are not just some cosmetic resource - they’re a core part of progression:
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Basic Blueprint Fragments lead you to Tier 2 and let solo/duo players comfortably progress through green and blue keycard rooms.
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Advanced Blueprint Fragments unlock Tier 3 and are tied to red card rooms, elite crates, hackable crates and top-tier monuments like Launch Site, Military Tunnels, Missile Silo and Oil Rig.
If you want to consistently win late game, it’s not enough to “kind of know” how to farm blueprints - you have to build smart routes: mix green/blue puzzles, contest red monuments, watch for events and use basic → advanced conversion when it makes sense.
Once you master this system, the question “when are we finally getting T3?” basically disappears. Instead of living in permanent progression poverty, you start controlling your wipe path instead of praying for RNG and random drops.
If the road to a Tier 3 workbench feels a bit too long, take a break from farming and drop by CobaltLab - the action there never stops.
