Overview
This is a beginner’s guide to the game, there isn’t much to discuss yet, but I thought the other guide was a little lacking in some regards.
The Cars
-Mid Engine (Skoda)
The mid engine car is characterized by the fact that the engine is in the back instead of the front. It requires water in the coolant tank/radiator (yes, they are interchangeable) in order to keep the engine cool, and oil to keep the engine running smoothly. The engine can be swapped with a larger front-engine if so desired, but replacing it with a two stroke engine is not advised as it will make the car run slowly.
The mid engine can be refueled by opening the gas cap which can be found on the right hand side of the car towards the front.
-Two Stroke (Trabant)
The two stroke engine is one of those weird cars that europeans drive. Both fuel and oil go into the fuel tank, which is found at the front. I would suggest 3% oil, but you should generally avoid these cars because they aren’t as reliable, and there is no viable way to swap the engine with a better one without the engine dying because there is no way to add a radiator/coolant tank.
The two stroke engine can be refueled by opening the fuel tank, which is found inside of the engine compartment.
-Front engine (Lada)
The engine is in the front, it features the fastest and engine, otherwise it’s pretty much the same deal as the mid-engine car, except for the fact that the coolant tank is replaced with a full-on radiator.
The front engine can be refueled by opening the gas cap which can be found on the right hand side towards the back of the car.
-Dacia
The Dacia is another front-engine car, it looks a little bit like a Delorean if you squint really hard. It takes the same radiator as the Lada, but uses a slightly different engine.
The dacia’s gas cap is on the back of the vehicle.
-Moped (Babetta)
It’s cannon lore that 100% of the previous owners of these mopeds lost their licences due to driving under the influence… multiple times. Luckily, since the world turned into a big desert, people don’t care so much about minor traffic infractions such as vehicular manslaughter or driving under the influence of an entire buffet’s worth of narcotics, so nowadays it’s more of a personal choice to drive one of these. Go ahead, no one is going to judge you, I promise 😉
The moped uses a two stroke engine, which is interchangeable with the two-stroke engine of the Trabant (or any engine for that matter). Keep in mind that there is no mounting spot for a radiator, so it is advised to stick to the moped’s native engine. I’d suggest using the same oil/fuel ratio as you would with the Trabant as well (3%). While the moped isn’t a particularly fast vehicle, it’s the only real vehicle that doesn’t require fuel, as you can pedal it like you would with an ordinary bike. I wouldn’t suggest turning too hard as it has a tendency to spin around.
This is the only vehicle which doesn’t have a radio mount, if you still want to listen to the radio while riding one of these things, make sure to store a radio in your inventory.
-Bus (Ikarus 280)
If you can believe it, before the apocalypse, this behemoth was almost exclusively used by poor people and 80-year-old tourists. Nowadays it’s fit for a true king of the road. The engine is located in the front cabin and can be accessed via a side-hatch, along with the radiator. I wouldn’t suggest using the bus unless you can fill it up with enough water and oil to keep it running for a while, since the engine can overheat very quickly otherwise. There will be a subsection devoted to the bus later in this guide for those interested in learning more about this majestic creature.
An extremely important thing to keep in mind is that you will need lots and lots of diesel to keep this badboy running, and diesel is difficult to come by unless you know where to look. If you do have the diesel though, the bus can be refueled via a small hatch on the side of the front cabin.
When refueling any of these cars, it’s important to remember to close the gas cap, even a minor slip-up can cause you to lose fuel if you don’t.
Swapping parts isn’t crucial, but I’d advise playing with each car/engine to find the best setup for you. Keep in mind that although you can mount any of the doors, fenders, and hoods onto any of the cars, it’ll look weird, and you’ll feel weird because of it. As you go further and further down the road, keep your eyes peeled for nicer rides, you’ll never know what you might come across. Here’s my setup (Front engine with front engine radiator, inserted into a mid engine car):
Preparing Yourself for a Bus
The bus is a different animal compared to the other vehicles in this game; it takes a different kind of fuel, it requires much more resources to run, and it’s hard to get inside of when you’ve found a new one. Finding a bus is hard enough, but being prepared to drive the bus is a whole ‘nother kettle o’ fish.
-Finding Water and Oil
This is kind of a no-brainer.
You’ll need 10 liters of each, so make sure to fill one gas canister with water, and another with oil while you’re at home.
-Finding Diesel
Like all great adventures, this one begins in the basement… there’s a barrel full of diesel down there, pick it up and put it in your car.
Next, you’ll need to keep an eye out for one of these. They’ll usually have one or two barrels of pure liquid D inside. Once you’ve found one, siphon as much diesel as you can into one barrel. Barrels become impossible to lift when they’re holding more than 75 liters of liquid, if you’ve overfilled your barrel, just knock it over and carefully let some diesel drain out.
You can also find loads of gas and oil in here, so be sure to top up while you’re at it.
These boats become exceedingly rare as you progress throughout the game, so it might be wise to double-back and pick up some more diesel when you get your bus.
-Finding a Bus
Finding a bus is hard enough, but finding a bus with all of its parts is even harder. I would suggest leaving any busses that don’t have all of their parts behind, as they pretty much either spawn with everything or without anything at all. Don’t try to go out of your way to find one, stick to the road and you’ll come across one eventually.
-Prepping and Boarding
The easiest way to prep and board the bus, I’ve found, is simply to remove the radiator and the engine. This allows for easy servicing of both parts, and also easy access into the bus. Start by emptying out the radiator and engine if there’s anything in there which shouldn’t be there, then fill them up with the appropriate fluids 😉
Don’t forget to fuel up!
When you’re done with that, crawl into the compartment where the engine belongs and look up, you’ll see what look like welcome mats; these are floor covers and they can be removed in order to access the bus. It can be a little tricky at first, but just spam spacebar until you get in.
-Driving your Bus
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for! The red buttons open and close the doors, from now on, this is how you will get on the bus. I suggest leaving at least one door open just in case. The white buttons control the lights.
There is no shifting like on other vehicles, this bus is fully automatic, which is pretty nice. I wouldn’t suggest driving it over 90 km/h.
Maintaining your Ride
As you play the game, it’s likely you’ll come across some real rust buckets. If you like the mad-max look, go ahead and keep riding around like you’re a fiend for guzzle-line, but if you want to ride around in a sexy steel steed, then this guide has just the thing for you!
Swapping parts:
Lets say you find a better mirror or a new set of rims, or maybe you want to experiment with different engine/radiator setups. As long as there’s a mounting point for it, you can put any part, from any car, onto any other car. This includes bus engines on mopeds, or Skoda bonnets on Trabants, the world is your oyster.
Dealing with rust:
Almost any car you come across will have rusty panels, wheels, mirrors, etc. Some things, like the mirrors and wheels, will need to be completely replaced if you want your car looking its best, while other things can be cleaned up with a brush. To use the brush, simply equip it, walk up to your car, and hold down left mouse while you wave your arm around. Do this for each panel and the body until the color comes through. The brush does wear down eventually, so make sure you’re using it where it counts.
Dull and dirty panels:
Even after using the brush, you’ll find that the panels will look a bit dull, or maybe you just got in a bit of an accident and now there’s blood all over the front of your car; that’s okay, just jizz-o-nit. No seriously, that’s what the stuff is called. There’s a spray bottle of it in the starting home, which can be used to polish panels and make your car shine.
Paint:
Now that your car is looking truly beautiful, why not give it a fresh lick of paint? Spray paint can be found around the desert in various colors, and can be combined with other colors to make some truly atrocious beautiful color schemes. Each bottle is only enough to paint a few panels at a time.
More about fluid mixtures:
Gas isn’t the only thing you can put into your tank, oil isn’t the only thing you can put into your engine, and water isn’t the only thing you can put into your radiator/fuel tank.
Adding a bit of oil or alcohol to your fuel tank will give you a bit of a boost to your mileage if you’re in need of some gas but can’t find any, just keep an eye on your engine’s oil if you make a habit out of it. Adding water or urine is a stupid thing to do, it’ll make your car go slower and it takes forever to burn it off.
Packing the Essentials
Okay, I know I just told you to throw everything away, but there are a handful of items that may come in handy eventually.
-Fuel siphon: It’s for stealing borrowing fuel from other cars on the road, it’s best to transfer the fuel into a container before putting it into your car, make sure the fuel isn’t tainted with blood. This one is kind of easy to miss, but you do get this at the beginning of the game; it’s hanging from the rafters of the house you start in.
-Fuel container: For containing fuel or oil when you’ve got a surplus, or you need to transfer it from another vehicle, very useful.
-Rubber Wife: It’s a long lonesome road, you need a companion if you’re to retain your sanity
-Airgun/bb’s: For when the Rubber wife is acting up.
-Revolver: For the cowboy in us all 😉 . I’d suggest choosing between this and the airgun as they both serve the same purpose. Currently, the revolver can’t be reloaded, but its ammunition doesn’t take up extra space, and it also does more damage.
SPOILER ALERT
In the starter house, it’s hidden behind a latch behind the oven in the starting house, you need to scroll-crouch in order to get to it.
-Binoculars: These are useful now that the desert is a lot flatter. Use these to get a better look at far-off buildings, or to find your way if you get lost.
The siphon, airgun, and bb’s can be stored in your hotmenu, you can assign items to your hotmenu by pressing number’s 1-4, leave one of them open for your bare hands.
Driving
-Mechanics
Gearing up and down basically works just as it does in real life, it’s fairly easy to understand, but there’s also an automatic shifting option in the main menu for Americans.
-Road Hazards
Basically everything that isn’t the road will kill you, so be vigilant. Running over a cactus at high speeds might seem fun until the cactus runs over you. Trees, rocks, and occasionally sandbanks will bring you to a sudden and deadly halt as well.
Another thing to make special note of is that any unsecured loot which is rattling around in your car can and will glitch through the car randomly and will send you flying, so be careful of how you pack your things and where you put them.
If you do wind up surviving getting hurled 500 meters in a random direction, always remember that the LIGHTS are always on the RIGHTS, otherwise you might get turned around.
-Trailers
I really wouldn’t suggest driving with a trailer, it makes handling a lot worse and is just another thing to worry about. If you’re a madman, you can add multiple trailers in sequence, this is for people who like to die.
Buildings
It will take a while for me to find and catalog every building, so there might be buildings which aren’t included or fully cataloged on this list.
-The Starting House
This is your house, its a mess, just like in real life!
The loot in this house is pretty consistent, everything you’ll need to get started spawns in this house, and everything spawns in the same place. I’ve covered where to find basically everything in this house before, so I’m going to skip doing that here.
Searching Buildings
-Finding fuel:
The most obvious course of action when finding a building is to look for fuel. Fuel, along with basically any other liquid in the game, can be found inside of bottles, yellow canisters, green canisters, barrels, buckets, and cars. Fuel is most commonly found in yellow and green canisters, as well as inside of cars. Sometimes, containers can be hidden in the rafters, on the roof, at the bottom of wells, or even at the very top of light poles and antennas.
-Siphoning fuel:
In most cases, refueling is as simple as picking up the container, bringing it up to your gas cap and filling up, but in the case of finding fuel in a car, you’ll usually need a siphon. Siphoning fuel can be sort of tricky; you’ll first need to make sure that your container is lower to the ground than the container you’re extracting fuel from, otherwise the siphon will not work. From there, you’ll need to uncap both containers, and connect both of them to each other with the siphon.
-Getting into high places, and out of low ones:
You might not initially think so, but you can get onto the roof of every roadside building in the game, which can be very rewarding in some cases. The easiest way to do this is to walk up to a wall and to spam the spacebar (jump), spamming control while you’re doing this can help as well (crouch). Other structures, such as radio antennas, ladders, and certain light posts can simply be climbed by walking into them.
Tips and Tricks:
-Getting some extra room for fuel:
Yes, this works apparently. Just make sure you don’t drive too fast, and watch out for obstacles on the road. You’ll need the Front engine in order for this to be practical.
-Getting back up after you’ve fallen from an incredibly high road:
90% of the time, I would suggest reloading from your last autosave, but if you’re absolutely stuck, just drive along the side of the road until the sand dunes match the height of the road. If you’re REALLY stuck -like if you’re stuck off-road and you’re out of gas- I’d suggest trying to climb back onto the road, and walking until you find a new ride, but hopefully if you’ve read through this guide for long enough, you’ll know how to stay topped-up.
-Off-Road buildings:
The round towers have infinite water inside of them.
-Going Skywards:
You can turn your car into a spaceship by putting a full oil or alcohol barrel into the trunk and shooting at it with your airgun. Only do this if you don’t plan on seeing your car again.
-Reloading a save:
Hit escape while in the loading screen and make sure that things have loaded in fully before upausing.