If the car is severely damaged when you return from a drive, make sure to open the friendly dumpster before repairing it yourself if you already have the resources to do so— the dumpster will provide more items than if you repaired the car first.


The wreck outside the garage respawns with new parts every time you get back from a drive, including the computer & radio on the shelf right beside it. Free scrap!


In the early game when still using crude/steel parts, it is much more economical to scrap them and make new ones, rather than waste Repair Putty on them— since to make putty, you need Chemicals, which is much rarer than the Scrap Metal used to craft crude/steel parts.


It is not shown on the HUD, but you can press (default: Y) to sort containers.


You can use fuel pumps on spare gas cans if you drop the can on the ground— it's not just limited to siphoning out of dead cars or fuel barrels.


Dumpster pearls are loot chests. Throw them into the Matter Deconstructor to open them.


If you're confused as to why the transfer chest from using Vargas Shop-Vac is empty, your items are in the Shop-Vac chute itself.


Make two saves before heading out to a drive, since going out into the world overwrites your most recent garage save! Loading the first save will send you back to the garage— useful for when you forget to bring a tool, or when you have the wrong car parts.





Try to progress into the Mid-Zone as soon as you can manage, and avoid being too much of a "completionist" while in the early game— as the tools, resources, and gameplay experiences available to you in the Outer-Zone pale in comparison to what the two inner zones can offer!


Make the most out of the Perpetual Stability condition that is active on most of the story-related drives— as this condition is rare, if not unattainable, in non-story related excursions into the Mid-Zone and beyond.


Some materials can only be found in certain environments (i.e Swamp Corals in the Mires, Tree Candy in the Scorch, etc). Refer to the Logbook to see which rare material spawns where, and double-check your route to see if you're going to the right place!

Leaving the car running drains some amount of fuel, but I've found that most of the time, going through the motions of turning the ignition and then getting into drive does NOT make up for the negligible savings if you decide to turn off the car every time you get out of it.


The dome light can be used to visually identify the car during low visibility scenarios when you want to conserve battery power as much as possible— as it does not seem use battery charge.


Like the dome light, the radio does not seem to drain the battery at all. Leave it on to hold back the unyielding eeriness of the Zone with some funky tunes.


You can directly fill up the small spare gas can in your trunk— no need to take it out and place it on the ground.


Tools that are about to break can be set aside and later thrown into the Matter Deconstructor to recover some of the materials that go into making them. This sentiment might not apply to the basic Scrapper or Prybar, but you might want to do this with the more advanced tools that you unlock later.


The Liberator will also pop off adjacent car parts, if there are any.


An Anchor Radar is invaluable if you find yourself stuck in a junction with the Anchor Obfuscation condition. Without one, you will have to rely on blind luck to find an anchor.


Be prepared to deal with anomalies whenever you take an anchor from its pedestal. This happens less severely in the early game, but basically a sh#tstorm will happen every time in the later stages. Try to park the car some distance away from the pedestal, beforehand.


The amount of energy you get from an anchor is shown by how big it appears on the map. If you already have enough anchor energy to go home, small anchors are very much not worth your time, especially if they are hard to reach.


Try to get as close as possible to a gateway before activating it. This way, you'll be way "ahead" of the Fortnite death circle that comes afterwards— do remember though that you cannot open a gateway if you're too close to it.


Anchors cannot be found on highways. (needs confirmation!)


Two satellites filled with all sorts of goodies have a chance to crash land at map-marked spots during the exit storm (not the one initiated by opening a gateway!)— the first one will land when about half of the map is covered by normal radiation (yellow hazard), and the second one will land when half of the map is covered by extreme radiation (red hazard).


Satellite landings will happen more often in junctions with the Swift Storm modifier.


The blue pie chart on the control panel of Transmuters indicates how many times it can be used.

Note: This section will only be dedicated to info that might not be super obvious about the anomalies, and not a complete write-up of their behaviors.


Tourists will try to get as close to you as possible, which is what might cause you to run into them, but they will never make contact with you (and blow up) by themselves.


Making tourists explode through "non-car" means (i.e. throwing stuff at them, kicking them, etc.) will sometimes make them drop Plastic, or rarely, ThermoSap Crystals. Avoid trying to farm crystals this way, since there is a much more convenient source of them in the Mid-Zone.


Rarely, Tourists can appear out of nowhere and generously drop a bunch of items or parts for you.


Shocked Tourists can move, but their entire group needs to be "out-of-sight" to do so— meaning if you can see at least one member of the group, none of them will move.


If Bunnies miss your car with their leap, they will turn docile and roll around aimlessly. They can be removed from the car in various ways, but the simplest method found is to just kick the car to make them fall off. They can also be shredded with the Scrapper for a meager amount of materials.

Broken Bunnies will interfere with your car's systems and steering, similar to a Left-Right.

Happy Hares will mostly repair the part that it is stuck on, and very slightly repair adjacent parts.

Hopped Up Hares are a source of free electric charge— even without a Lightning Rod.


Abductors can diverted from their path by thrown flares/objects, and they also fixate on Bunnies and Hares, if any are in the area. The car (if it has sufficient traction) can resist an Abductor's strong pull by putting it in park.


Bubblegum Buddies are interested in the car and player, and unlike Abductors, will go out of their way to grab you, if you are nearby.


Pickpockets that have taken car parts will travel alongside the car *indefinitely (needs confirmation!) until you take back parts from them. If one of them has taken an on-hand item from you, they will eventually drop it. They will not take anchors, but will still make you drop them.


Shaggy Scramblers are interested in the car and player, and will explode and deal great damage if it gets too close.


Aside from charging your car's battery if you come near them, Pacemakers can transmute certain, mostly "electrically-aligned", items that are put into it— for example, giving it 1 Plasma will return 1 Tree Candy. The recipes for the Pacemaker are intentionally kept hidden in-game, but they are unchanging.


Crackling Crawlers are interested in the car and player, and will go out of their way to electrocute you if you are nearby.


Airstrips have a deceptively large hitbox that extends past their visible model. Try to give them an extra large berth when passing by one.


It seems that the only difference between a Spike Puddle and a Spike Log is that the puddles only appear on roads, and the logs can't appear on roads.


Sometimes, dropped items can suddenly appear around the player. One explanation for this is the existence of *Bigfoot within the game. (needs confirmation!)


The Resource Scanner can also be used to look for a certain, very easily missed type of anomaly called a Honeypot.


Remember to scan the wreck of the car at least once, if you happen to die and then go back for your stuff. *Also remember to scan at least one unscanned anomaly during the exit/gateway storm! *(missable achievement)

In a new game, out of all the upgrades to choose from, I strongly feel that off-road tires should be prioritized first.


Having tires that mismatch on the left and right sides is worse for the car's handling than having tires that mismatch front to back, especially if they have different grip ratings.


Peculiar car parts (ones with a star icon on it), which can only be found as loot, have much more HP and are more resistant to contracting negative statuses compared to regular car parts. Do note that they cannot be repaired, and shoving them into the Matter Deconstructor will yield absolutely nothing.


Parts will share their resistance with adjacent parts. Analyze installed parts (default: C) to see this distribution exactly. For example, the hood panel will give to, and receive from, the resistance values from the bumper, but not the headlights. Thoughtful mixing and matching will make the car much, much tougher than just slapping a bunch of steel or armored panels and doors on!


Un-fixable statuses (i.e. Fragile, Worn, etc.) will make the part slightly less efficient; panels will lose durability faster, utilities won't work 100% of the time, etc— but more importantly, the afflicted part will be more prone to gaining additional statuses. For example, a Rusty backseat gas tank will gain the Leaky condition much more easily than a normal one.


The Lightning Rod, aside from charging your battery from electric damage sources, will also completely nullify the damage from said sources, except for some area-of-effect electric damage (i.e. Sizzling Mists). Do note that the rod does not protect non-Insulated parts from contracting the Charged status.


Since in-game whenever there's rain, there's also wind— the Mini Turbine will be active in more situations than the Hydro Generator.


The LIMPulse Emitter uses a lot of battery charge (2 kW per activation!). Try to activate it only when you're sure something is already attached to the car, and not pre-emptively (you can tell if something you can't see is attached to the car, when the car's status screen is flashing).


The Auto Parker is very convenient to have, but I have found that its functionality is not really worth the cost of losing a seat rack. Try to get used to using the shifter manually!


The Ion Shield will protect the car from any and all forms of radiation— most notably the extreme "red" radiation from exit storms. Very useful if you plan to loot satellites during the storm!

From the comments section and discussion forum— in no particular order:

Kenzi, Silverk1ll, shub, †ST_Nocht, Dubmaster, Snoopicus, Caleb367, Radioactive Lobster, DC_Josh, Riku, Sethaa, Tantalus, BigNick, Mika, Zeropoint, Bluebottle, Piippiz, acosnil, Derpstar42, Melalo, Hugh Erick Sean, Crotating The Hive, clericalapathy, MANDRAC, fatherWind, Hope of Morning, Strozzapreti, and p51guy16