ARC Raiders S5 Mod Blueprints: Grip, Stock & Silencer Priority

The short answer

If you're picking mod blueprints to chase right now in Trials Season 5, prioritise Vertical Grip, Stable Stock, and Silencer — with Tier II being the sweet spot for most guns and Tier III reserved for a few specific builds. Season 5's objectives push weapon variety instead of one meta gun, so having a stable of properly modded weapons matters more this cycle than it ever has.

Here's what changed, why these three families are suddenly in demand, and how to farm them without wasting a hundred runs.

What changed with the July update

As of Live Update 1.36.0 (July 7, 2026), two things landed at once. The update launched alongside the Fourth Expedition and Trials Season 5, significantly increased ARC Turbine loot value, added separate Solo/Duo/Trio matchmaking tracking, and launched the ARC Raiders x THE FINALS crossover.

The quieter change is the one driving mod demand. Weapons dropped on the ground now display their installed mods. That means kitted guns are easier to identify — and easier to lose to a scavenger who now knows exactly what's on your rifle before they push you.

The bigger driver is the season itself. Season 5 started July 7, 2026 at 12:00 UTC and ends September 30, 2026 at 07:00 UTC — roughly a 12-week season. And crucially, the new objectives lean into forcing weapon variety rather than letting one loadout dominate the ladder, asking players to damage specific ARC units with particular weapons and to absorb Pop explosions.

Field note: When the ladder rewards variety, one god-tier gun stops being enough. You end up rotating three or four weapons through the week — and every one of them wants a grip, a stock, and (sometimes) a silencer. That's why the mod blueprint shelves are moving.

Why grip, stock and silencer specifically

These three cover the slots that matter most across nearly every weapon class, and two of them carry almost no downside.

• Vertical Grip — reduces vertical recoil so you stay on target with less effort. Vertical Grip mods reduce vertical recoil, and while skilled players can partially compensate, reducing it lets you stay on target with less effort and frees your attention for other combat considerations. It's the default underbarrel pick for SMGs and most automatics.
• Stable Stock — the single most impactful stability mod for burst and semi-auto guns. Stable Stock mods reduce recoil recovery time alongside dispersion recovery time, making them dual-purpose stability attachments. One veteran breakdown flat-out recommends building it first if you can only afford a single mod, since it helps every burst-fire gun more than any other single attachment.
• Silencer — the stealth tax nobody regrets paying. Silencers give up to 60% reduced noise with no accuracy downside, though Tier III burns durability 20% faster. With Season 5's PvE-heavy objectives, staying quiet keeps ARC and rival Raiders off your back while you farm damage.

The reason two of these are "free wins": Magazines and Silencers are the exceptions with no accuracy downside at any rarity.

Tier II or Tier III? The honest call

This is where players waste materials. The rule I keep coming back to after enough runs: lower tiers are pure upside, Tier III always has a string attached.

Tier I and II mods generally give you only the benefit, while Tier III layers on a downside — usually faster durability burn, slower ADS, or extra recoil. Concretely, Tier III adds trade-offs like faster durability burn on Compensator and Silencer, slower ADS on grips, or slower equip time on Stable Stock.

So my priority order for blueprint hunting:

1. Silencer I / Silencer II — no accuracy cost, huge noise reduction. Grab these first.
2. Vertical Grip II / Stable Stock II — the reliable, no-drawback tier for daily driver guns.
3. Vertical Grip III / Stable Stock III — only for guns where you pre-aim and don't need snap ADS.

Pro tip: The Vertical Grip III shines on long-range, pre-aimed weapons where the ADS penalty barely registers — think boss-damage rifles you're already scoped in on. On a snappy PvP SMG, that same penalty gets you killed. Match the tier to the playstyle, not the number.

Also worth knowing before you commit: the tier you can install is gated by your Gunsmith workshop level in Speranza — Tier I needs Gunsmith 1, Tier II needs Gunsmith 2, Tier III needs Gunsmith 3 — so there's no point chasing a Tier III blueprint if your bench can't fit it yet.

How to actually farm these blueprints

Blueprints in ARC Raiders are one-time consumables. You use one by selecting it and choosing "Learn and Consume" in Speranza, and the blueprint is consumed on use. They come from a few sources: scavenging, trials, quests, or projects.

The run plan I'd use this season:

• Farm dense interiors. Attachment blueprints skew toward residential and interior containers. You can loot them Topside — attachment blueprints drop mostly from Residential Containers, with Tier III gated behind major map conditions — craft them at the Gunsmith once learned, or buy them from the trader in Speranza.
• Three-star your weekly Trials. Blueprints can drop as a reward from weekly Trials, so 3-star all your weekly Trials to maximise efficiency. Season 5 sweetens this: reach 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 points on a single trial and you'll automatically bank an Uncommon, Rare, and Epic item or blueprint after extraction, once per tier per week.
• Run the Fourth Expedition objectives. Completing each departure objective grants you one Blueprint.

What to bring: a mid-tier gun you don't mind losing, a Silencer already slotted, medium shields, and enough backpack space to extract two or three blueprints per run. Don't bring your best kit into a blueprint farm — dying with it defeats the point.

The risk to hedge: the whole thing is loss-on-death. If you die before extraction you lose the blueprint; once learned you keep it forever, unless you send your Raider on an expedition, in which case your blueprints are lost. Extract early and often — greed is the number one reason players walk away empty-handed. If you want a deeper route breakdown, our ARC Raiders blueprint and loot farming guide maps the dense zones worth running.

Quick answers

Which mod blueprint should I get first? Silencer, then Stable Stock II, then Vertical Grip II. Silencers and mags are the only mods with zero accuracy downside at any rarity, so they're the safest first pickups. Stable Stock helps burst and semi-auto guns more than any other single mod.

Is Tier III always better? No. Tier III gives stronger stats but can hurt durability harder; on fragile weapons like the Osprey or lower-rarity guns, Tier II is often better value. Only reach for Tier III on guns where the trade-off doesn't hurt your playstyle.

Why are these blueprints in demand right now? Season 5's objectives reward weapon variety over one meta gun, so players are modding several weapons at once — and dropped weapons now reveal their installed mods, raising the stakes on running a kitted loadout.

What to expect next

With the season running through September 30 and Embark leaning into variety objectives, expect mod blueprint demand to stay high all summer as players rebuild loadouts around whatever the weekly challenge asks for. The Nomadic Envoy trader also rotates blueprints weekly, so shelf availability will keep shifting.

Farming a full set of grip, stock and silencer blueprints across the tiers can eat dozens of runs, especially with drop RNG and the loss-on-death risk. If you'd rather spend the season actually climbing the ladder than praying to the loot pool, our ARC Raiders blueprints and servicesfrom $0.80 can put the recipes on your bench so you skip straight to building the loadout.