So like, how do you guys build your cars?

[Ottomic]

Let's glaze over how stupid it is for a 30+ hour player to ask this.

I have done most of the game with Insulated bodywork, and recently got access to acid resistant parts. I can see some extra icons when inspecting individual parts, which I assume is resistance bonuses they get from other parts (or maybe it's susceptibility to damage by that type?). So like, I'm assuming you should kind of hit a balance with your composition?

I kinda feel like acid is the worst damage dealer by far at the point I'm at in the story. I don't think electricity or radiation have been a huge deal, ever (particularly with a lightning rod and the personal radiation protection), but I'd hate to be proven wrong at the tail end of a 3 hour drive.

Do you mix, do you spec, do you spread it out, do you prefer certain resistances on certain parts of the body, do you go for looks, am I massively overthinking this system on a game I have still not died once on (yes)? What's your take on this?

[HeOfManyGames]

I'm not as far through the game as you, but that being said; I optimised for an even balance of what I've unlocked so far.

Given parts grant a passive bonus to adjacent doors/panels, I spread a mix of armoured, lead plated and insulated bodywork in a way that covers everything. I've got armoured bumpers, but kept all the doors and panels lead plated or insulated in a distribution that means every part of the car is 20-50% radiation and electricity resistant, plus the parts that actually break down tree's barriers etc. are impact resistant. I've not reached the acid stage yet so I'll surely rebalance when I get there, but overall I prefer an even balance to cover every eventuality.

[HeOfManyGames]

RE radiation and electricity being a threat, its very circumstantial but can take you by surprise.

One run I got my car stuck halfway down a mountain while fleeing to the exit portal, red wave radiation hit me and obliterated the car very quickly. (I fell down the cliff on foot and so took me a while to get back to the car and reset it)

Electricity wise again, fine unless you get an unstable region full of the ground pop-up electric pylon things. I had several runs where they just repeatedly trapped me 360 degrees every time I stopped; they do pretty bad damage if you get caught or held in them.

[Ottomic]

Originally posted by HeOfManyGames:

Electricity wise again, fine unless you get an unstable region full of the ground pop-up electric pylon things. I had several runs where they just repeatedly trapped me 360 degrees every time I stopped; they do pretty bad damage if you get caught or held in them.

What I don't fully understand about electricity hazards is that technically, a lightning rod should absorb most of the electric damage unless it comes in at a very weird angle or the rod itself malfunctions, yeah? I mean even on serious electric hazard areas with extra damage modifiers I've never had to pull off an emergency repair on it, but even then you can carry a spare in the trunk. I'm not sure how the "shocked" debuff works, but it seems to me like the only point to "insulated" is that they're a cheap upgrade from steel HP-wise.

Originally posted by HeOfManyGames:

Given parts grant a passive bonus to adjacent doors/panels

Suspected as such but I either missed that part of the tutorial or it wasn't evident to me. I might give an armored hood a try and see if it helps when I inevitably head-on a tree trying to cut through a field.

[Nikas Zekeval]

My set up strategy is for at least adjacent coverage. For example, the front doors and rear hatch match, as do the rear fenders and hood. The former covers all but the bumpers and lights in whatever protection, right now I have them as insulated, with insulated lights covering the very front. The second I have as lead panels, for all around radiation protection.

This also means early on I only needed to research insulated doors and lead panels.

The rear doors and forward fenders I wanted to have as armored, but still need to unlock that, not enough on hand thermosap after the engine upgrade to spend the limited unstable klim there yet.

My current next step is switch to an armored front bumper and fenders, since that is where I seem to take the most collision damage. I'm in the middle of a multi zone run to get some more unstable anchors, t-sap, along with picking up what tree candy, swamp coral, and marsh eggs in that order. I'm going through a marsh biome on the way to a scorch one.

[HeOfManyGames]

Originally posted by Ottomic:

Originally posted by HeOfManyGames:

Electricity wise again, fine unless you get an unstable region full of the ground pop-up electric pylon things. I had several runs where they just repeatedly trapped me 360 degrees every time I stopped; they do pretty bad damage if you get caught or held in them.

What I don't fully understand about electricity hazards is that technically, a lightning rod should absorb most of the electric damage unless it comes in at a very weird angle or the rod itself malfunctions, yeah? I mean even on serious electric hazard areas with extra damage modifiers I've never had to pull off an emergency repair on it, but even then you can carry a spare in the trunk. I'm not sure how the "shocked" debuff works, but it seems to me like the only point to "insulated" is that they're a cheap upgrade from steel HP-wise.

Originally posted by HeOfManyGames:

Given parts grant a passive bonus to adjacent doors/panels

Suspected as such but I either missed that part of the tutorial or it wasn't evident to me. I might give an armored hood a try and see if it helps when I inevitably head-on a tree trying to cut through a field.

You may well be right about the electric part but I've not tested it personally. I crafted a lighting rod but then for some reason the game wouldnt let me install it, so I ditched it in a locker and ultimately decided to go for backup battery and fuel tank instead.

Passive resistances aren't explained very well its true. It now shows up as a loading screen tip, but beyond that I think it was only mentioned very briefly.

I haven't checked the exact numbers, but I think its something like any door/panel adjacent gets half the protection value of the modded one its close to. e.g a 40% radiation resistance door would give 20% radiation resistance to a normal door next to it. If you have 2 adjacent panels e.g 2 insulated front panels around the hood/bonnet , the hood will get roughly double the buff. Cant recall off the top of my head, but I checked my car's hood earlier and it had 20-50% in 3 different resistances, so clearly both the surrounding bumpers AND panels were supplying it with passive bonus.

[Ottomic]

Originally posted by Nikas Zekeval:

My set up strategy is for at least adjacent coverage. For example, the front doors and rear hatch match, as do the rear fenders and hood. The former covers all but the bumpers and lights in whatever protection, right now I have them as insulated, with insulated lights covering the very front. The second I have as lead panels, for all around radiation protection.

Right right, lights too. I've been using these bio-light ones which are just basically high beams all the time and while I find it kind of hilarious, it's straight up a continuous nuclear explosion in front of you on fog areas. Wouldn't mind trading that off for a little protection.

Is adjacency explained somewhere? Like, it should be obvious but all the lil icons on parts are kind of hard to fully interpret, and it doesn't tell you what comes from where.

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by Ottomic:

Is adjacency explained somewhere? Like, it should be obvious but all the lil icons on parts are kind of hard to fully interpret, and it doesn't tell you what comes from where.

I've seen it in tips here, and it shows up when you scan your car parts. Here's what I've got.

Fenders: Share the resistances with the door and bumper on their end of the car, front for front, rear to rear. The rear pair also share with the hatch back. Meanwhile the front pair share with the hood.

Doors: Share with the door and fender adjacent to them for the side pair. The rear hatch shares with the rear bumper and rear fenders.

Bumpers: Share with the adjacent tire pair and fender pair. The front also shares its resistances with the headlights, and the rear bumper shares with the rear hatch.

Lights: share with the bumper only and not with each other.

Hood: This surprised me. Despite what others say, it does not share with the front doors, but only with the front fender pair. I fired up the game briefly and pulled my armored hood off and the front door impact resistances remained the same.

Just scan the part. It will show a list of all parts of that type on your car, so if you look at a fender it will show all four and the hood. A door will show all doors, same with tires.

Below the health bar are icons and percentages, showing resistances to that damage. Impact, radiation, electrical, explosive, and acid I believe are all the categories.

[Raptor85]

Honestly I've just been using lead lined and armored pieces from the late first section all the way to the deep zone. Both make your car take practically no damage outside of direct hits from things like spike logs or acid, and they're cheap to replace, lead in particular you can stay in the yellow/red radiation for AGES without any worry. (Armored is better because it doesn't hide the decals and paint job as much though). All terrain tires were a must have upgrade though, the offroads were nice but all terrains are just better.

[Ottomic]

Originally posted by Nikas Zekeval:

I've seen it in tips here, and it shows up when you scan your car parts. Here's what I've got.

Jeez, that's more complicated than I thought it'd be. Thanks for the thorough breakdown.

So if you scan a part, all the +xx% white signs below it are the total resistance added to that part? Are resistances in absolute terms, or is that just added to a flat invisible value? I suspect the latter, 'cause otherwise there wouldn't be much point to run over 100% resistance, but just making sure.

Also lights only sharing with the bumper is... really counter intuitive and kind of a shame. I sure would love an overall view of all resistances in the car, but your explanation makes it much easier to understand.

[doctorblue5]

front bumper is currently limpulse(will change after I unlock armored again) headlights are normal headlights(if I can find that coal then bio, if not then insulated) hood and front two panels are armored(from liberator) front doors are lead plated, back doors are armored(again liberator), back panels are insulated(I like the fins and poles), back bumper is insulated(though will prob change IDK) and trunk door is armored becasue I just needed to replase the door(i had no putty) and there was a squire, so i took a door, put it on(still had more health then what the steel door was) and healed that when I got back to the shop

[ShockedHearts]

single lightning rod makes insultated parts useless (as well the lightning rod is a great battery recharger in any zone with electric anomalies)

I use mostly lead/steel parts early game

armored doors with corrosive/lead panels mid game

and olympian/armored parts late game.

I keep an extended gas tanks in backseat for ton of gas for long runs. and XL roof battery for ton of battery charge for long runs.

on the sides I keep a single lightning rod, hydro generator and 2 wind turbines.

roof utility is resource scanner (because its the best item in the game) with my 3 abilities being car heal, resource scanner and hand brake. with an optional lim shield or emitter depending on where I am in the story and if I feel like I need/want it.

headlights basically just upgrade to normal>insulated (to avoid charged/burned out from any radiant electric dmg it might get) > armored.

bumpers are typically armored.

[Aesyle]

From logbook you can view your runs report and see what kind of damage you and your car mostly got.

In early game, i had Steel panels. Then got Insulated (electricity), but now i'm running Armored all around (except insulated headlights and back bumper which is LIMpulse).

If you do the run only in outer zone, then insulated panels are best, since most anomalies are electricity based. Mid zone anomalies are acid based, so, Acid inulated panels could work there the best.
Haven't gotten to the deep/inner zone yet. So, don't know what waits there.

But after reviewing my run logs, most damage i've gotten for my car is Impact damage, and for that, Armored panels are the best. Also, they look the best, especially with ARDA decal and government yellow paint. ^_^

Radiation is everywhere. But once you get ION shield, radiation isn't an issue anymore.
Lightning rod protects quite well against electrical sparks and also recharges the battery.

So, my usual setup is:
Armored panels/doors/front bumper
Insulated headlights
LIMpulse bumper on rear (for bunnies/abductors/pickpocket)
2x side storage
1x wind turbine
1x hydro turbine (probably replace it with lightning rod)
XL roof storage
ION shield
4x off-road tires
Edit; back seat: large fuel tank and lage battery
2nd engine

When doing resource collecting run, i'll replace ION shield with resource radar.

Currently i have Red Meadow Research Lab mission ahead, so i'll configure my car for darkness, with roof floodlights pointing front and side floodlights (one on each side). And 4x all-terrain tires (since i'm planning to stick on roads mostly).

[HerbertWess]

Usually a combo of armored doors, front panels olympium and depending on runs i switch between lead and corrosive. If the run is taking me to a deep zone for olympium possibly ion shield coupled with LIM, as it is highly likely i may get meteor shower, dust devils and some blacksmith, and i have had times in which all these combined did massive dmg to the car. Rest is fuel synthesizer, huge tank/battery for backseats, wind turbine and 4th slot i tend to switch often. Off-road tyres, as i well... go offroad a lot? every special tire struggles to keep traction.

In general, i'd say don't bother going full olympium. A bad run will take as much dmg as armored plates, but they are more costly to produce. Hell, some gear needs olympium AND LIM chips, that's a bit overkill. Also, just so you don't screw it up like i did in my first test, if you ever try an arc converter for battery recharge, these do not count for the arc device in copilot seat.

And final tip. Once you get repair station, the repair charge is limited, it does not fully repair the vehicle if there is massive dmg. Before entering the workshop, remove every side device or part that you may not be interested in repairing, so the station focuses on the stuff you do want topped up.

[Quill]

I outfit my doors with a mix of corrosion and radiation resistance

Then the panels have explosion/physical resistance. Been the best combo for me so far

As for tires I say that is more hazard based. Expecting a lot of stabby stabbies? Puncture proof. Lot of off roading or backroad junctions? Off road. Just kinda traveling around everywhere? All terrain

[Tomorrow_Today]

I'd recommend having as much impact resistance you can at the front of the car, as that is the part that will be encountering damage most often, particularly of the kintetic and explosive varieties
after that, radiation protection is a fair-ish investment due to the fact that the storm itself, is radioactive, and if you intend to be getting all of the loot you ever can, you'll be driving though that storm ALOT. however, the olympium parts have about 15-20 more health then the rest of the parts. while i think having radiation resistance is better than having part health, its up for you to decide, all i have to add is; the most common damages are kinetic and radiation. the rest are often avoidable.