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There are many upgrades available for your car in Pacific Drive, allowing to handle the harsh conditions of the Exclusion Zone. Some of the best upgrades may take a while to unlock and craft but are essential to your survival.
Offroad Tires Are the Best Car Upgrades for Traction and Grip
Some of your earliest drives in Pacific Drive may result in disaster simply because you’ve been forced to swerve off the road into the wilderness. Most of your races to the Gateway will require you to divert across fields or up hills. This can cause your car to lose control rapidly, making life harder for you. As such, Offroad Tires are essential upgrades you need to get as soon as you can.
Offroad Tires significantly improve your traction when you’re forced off the asphalt. This can be either driving through the woods or simply taking some back roads. They’re also useful for areas where the road has accrued a small layer of debris. They also provide better grip when trying to climb hills.
The recipe for the Offroad Tires appears on the Fabrication Station after unlocking the Crude Tire and Summer Tire recipes. You’ll need 1.5 kLIM of Stable Energy and a Fabric. You also must research the Gear beforehand. Offroad Tires then require 4 Scrap Metal, 12 Rubber and 1 Gear to craft.
Eventually these tires can also be upgraded to the All-Terrain Tires, which offer the same benefits with greater traction and grip.
Additional Fuel Tanks are the Best Car Upgrades for Long Journeys
As you move deeper into the Exclusion Zone throughout Pacific Drive, journeys become longer and subsequently use up more fuel. While you could load up on Fuel Cans or hope you stumble on some gas stations or fuel trucks, there’s a better option to solving this fuel drain.
Once you can unlock a Side Rack, you can strap an extra Fuel Tank onto it. This effectively doubles your fuel capacity, as the side tank will feed its reserves into the internal tank as you drive, keeping it topped up until it runs out. Additional fuel tanks can be hooked up to the roof and back seat, giving you even more fuel to work with.
For the Side Fuel Tank blueprint, you can find it after unlocking the Large Fuel Can, Steel Sheet and a Side Rack. It requires 0.8 kLIM of Stable Energy and a Fabric to create the blueprint. You will then need 5 Rubber and 1 Steel Sheet to craft it.
The Backseat Tank blueprint appears after unlocking the Side Fuel Tank, and require 1 kLIM of Stable Energy and a Fabric, plus a Seat Rack unlocked. It requires 2 Scrap Metal, 7 Rubber and 2 Steel Sheets to craft.
Generators are the Best Car Upgrades to Prevent Battery Drain
As you build up your car, the amount of stuff you weigh it down with can become a drain on your battery. However, you may not want to keep getting out the car and using a Battery Jumper, especially in the more dangerous areas. Fortunately, there are better options.
There are multiple types of generators that can be used to improve your battery life. Strapped to the Side Racks like the Fuel Tanks, these generators use energy from the environment to generate electricity.
While the Lightning Rod and Solar Panel can be useful in certain circumstances, the amount of rain and wind you’re likely to encounter makes the Hydro Generator and Mini Turbine your best all-purpose options.
Blueprints for both the Hydro Generator and Mini Turbine appear after unlocking the Battery Jumper than the Lightning Rod. Both unlock with 0.7 kLIM of Stable Energy and Fabric, plus a Side Rack unlocked. The Mini Turbine also needs the Circuit Board researched. The Hydro Generator needs 2 Scrap Metal, 6 Plastic, 2 Copper Wire and 6 Electronics while the Mini Turbine needs 4 Scrap Metal, 2 Copper Wire and 1 Circuit Board.
Side Storage is the Best Early Car Upgrade for Extra Space
As you explore more of the Exclusion Zone as you progress through Pacific Drive, you’re likely to find yourself gathering more materials than the small stack of boxes in your trunk can handle. This is where some Side Storage can be useful.
The Side Storage is strapped to a Side Rack where it provides an extra place to drop items. Ideally, this is a great place to store items such as tools or repair kits, so they can be easily retrieved without opening the trunk.
To unlock this, you first need a Side Rack and the Scanning Antenna. You then need to unlock the blueprint with 0.5 kLIM of Stable Energy and a Fabric. You need 2 Scrap Metal, 4 Duct Tape and 12 Fabric to craft the storage.
The LIMpulse Emitter is the Best Car Upgrade to Combat Bunnies
One of the more annoying anomalies out in the Exclusion Zone is the various types of Bunny. These bouncing balls of wire will stick to your car and cause damage or scramble your electronics, requiring you to get out of the car and scrape them off. If you’re tired of doing this, scan one of them before you get rid of it, as this helps unlock the best way to deal with them.
The LIMPulse Emitter is a bumper replacement that emits a pulse at the push of a button. This pulse repels all Bunny anomalies instantly, so make sure you have it assigned to a button on the abilities panel to the left of the steering wheel.
Unlocking the blueprint requires 1 kLIM of Stable Energy and 2 Fabric. You’ll need 4 Scrap Metal, 4 Copper Wires, 4 Electronics and 2 Plasma to craft an Emitter.
Pacific Drive is out now on PS5 and PC.
