With over 100 different upgrades to unlock, Pacific Drive's progression can be overwhelming for new players. As a result, knowing which upgrades to prioritize can be a difficult task, especially because each upgrade uses up precious resources.
Pacific Drive is packed with tense moments and quick getaways, and the player's trusty wagon can only take so much pain. Taking the right upgrades as soon as possible can give players the boost they need early on, helping to minimize those painful failed runs. Furthermore, some upgrades can dramatically improve the player's quality of life, and speed up the grind for resources.
Pacific Drive: How to Save
Discover the mechanics of manual and auto-save in Pacific Drive for a smooth gaming experience, and continue your journey without losing progress.
9 Side-Racks
Carry More Items
These handy racks can be attached to the side of the player's car and allow players to attach extra storage, among other things, to their trusty vehicle. Extra storage is a massive help when heading out into the Exclusion Zone, allowing players to gather more resources.
Pacific Drive: How To Siphon Fuel From The Broken Car
Refuel your car by siphoning fuel from a rusted car and navigate challenges in the beautiful yet treacherous world of Pacific Drive.
Side storage can also be used to bring essentials like spare tires, kits, and other items that players might need in a pinch. This is important, as players may not have the required materials on hand to craft items in an emergency.
8 Steel Parts
Add Durability to the Wagon
Surviving the harsh environments of the Zone is a difficult task. The player's wagon may be able to take a fair beating, even early on, but sooner or later, it will give in. The Zone is simply too harsh, especially in some of the more dangerous environments.
Kitting out the wagon with steel panels, doors, and bumpers can improve the car's survivability. Steel parts are far more durable and therefore help the player to cut down on repairs in the Zone. This is especially helpful when trying to make a quick getaway. The steel helps protect the car and, by extension, the player, when hurtling down cliffs or blazing through the brush.
7 Relightable Flare / Flashlight
See In the Dark
While it's true that players will spend a lot of time in the comfort of their vehicle, they will eventually have to get out to look around and scavenge the area. Although there's plenty to scavenge outside, players will often find themselves looting abandoned buildings.
There's one issue with this: Pacific Drive is dark. While turning up the brightness of the game can help, it's clear that the developers didn't want players to be able to see indoors — at least, not without a flare. Lighting up a flare can be a great source of light, but it's temporary. Although this isn't necessary, upgrading to the relightable flare and, later, the flashlight, is a massive quality of life improvement.
6 Off-Road Tires
Makes the Wagon Easier to Control
Tires are arguably the most important part of the player's vehicle. Not only are they what makes the car move, but they also play a massive part in how well the vehicle handles. A tire in terrible shape can make the wagon unwieldy, which is the last thing players need when racing to escape the Zone.
How Pacific Drive Makes the Player's Car the Main Character
Indie title Pacific Drive puts its ramshackle vehicle front and center narratively and mechanically in a creative way.
When exploring the Zone, fixing and replacing a tire is often a simple task. However, in more hostile areas, this can prove difficult. Furthermore, if a tire goes down when trying to escape, the player can spin out or crash into nearby obstacles, often resulting in a failed run. Upgrading to off-road tires can reduce the player's chances of losing a tire mid-run, and also allows players to drive off-road with more confidence.
5 Large Gas Can
Avoid Running Out of Fuel
Early on, players may not pay much attention to their fuel gauge, and they don't really need to. For the first few hours of the game, fuel is not a concern, as players will be in and out of the Zone fairly quickly. However, as players progress and runs become longer, fuel quickly gets added to the player's growing list of priorities.
When managed well, fuel is the least of the player's concerns. Pacific Drive makes fuel fairly easy to come by, be it siphoning gas from wrecks, or refilling at an abandoned gas station. However, players won't have time to stop and siphon gas when flooring it for the exit, or driving through hostile areas. This makes a large gas canister a savior, allowing the player to always have gas on hand without needing to risk their lives or waste time with siphoning.
4 Hand Vac
Gather Items Reliably
Pacific Drive tasks players with scrapping an abundance of items and rusted old vehicles. While the resources provided from scrapping are plentiful, each individual resource often goes flying from the scrapped item, only to roll around on the ground or disappear into a dark crevice.
The way these resources are provided to the player can be irritating, and collecting them piece-by-piece is often tedious. The handy hand-vac removes the pain of collecting these resources. Instead of having to pick up each individual item, players can vacuum everything up and be certain they didn't miss anything.
3 Liberator
Take Improved Parts Right Away
Although players spend a lot of time scrapping items in Pacific Drive, sometimes there will be a vehicle with an improved part ready for the taking. Unfortunately, players will have no choice but to waste these parts with their Scrapper until they've unlocked the Liberator.
The Liberator allows players to cut parts off of vehicles without damaging them, meaning players can upgrade their car out in the Zone. Coming across a steel door on an ARDA tanker, for example, can allow players to kit out their wagon with steel early on.
2 Fuel Synthesizer
Never Worry About Fuel Again
Although this upgrade takes a little work to access, having many prerequisites, the Fuel Synthesizer completely alleviates worries about fuel. This handy item creates fuel as players drive, though this comes at the expense of the car's battery.
This can be massively detrimental if players are unprepared for a dead battery. Howerver, having battery jumpers on hand and, eventually, a Hydro Generator, can combat this drain on the car's battery. With the right preparations, the Fuel Synthesizer can make the player's life a lot easier.
1 LIMPulse Emitter
Get Rid Of Those Pesky Bunnies
There are many anomalies in Pacific Drive that can wreak havoc on the player's car. However, it could be argued that one of the most irritating anomalies is the Bunny. This dangerous, erratic cluster bounces around seemingly at random, and will often attach itself to the wagon.
While attached, these Bunnies can cause massive damage to the vehicle. This is especially bad when driving through hostile areas or heading for the exit, as players have to exit the vehicle and tear the Bunny off manually with a Scrapper. The LIMPulse Emitter greatly helps with this, allowing players to trade off a bit of their battery to deter Bunnies.
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