This guide assumes you are playing in normal mode, and not having changed any of the gameplay settings. However, this is probably the first thing I wish I knew a bit earlier: in the accessibility and gameplay settings categories, you can customize virtually any aspect of the game, ranging from simple quality-of-life settings all the way down to every facet of the game’s difficulty. Use at your own risk.

The second thing right off the bat: read the logbook. I want to really, really praise this game for its worldbuilding through logs and transmissions. Anomalies, junction conditions, tools, resources, everything can be found in the logbook, all of it is described in-universe, and those descriptions will in 99% of the time be enough to figure out what something is or how it works without a trip to the wiki. Hell, even the different decals and paint colors have their own flavor text.

• As you go through the game, your vehicle will develop quirks. These can be innocuous or extremely annoying. Diagnose these through the Tinkering Station. Using a bit of stable energy on the first hint can already help you a long way to determining what’s wrong.
  
• If you start hating the quirk minigame, or farming stable energy to keep getting hints, you can turn off the hint (and guess) costs in the gameplay settings; you can also turn off quirks altogether.
  
• Parts can wear out, which will be displayed by a ☒ symbol. These parts are way more prone to being damaged or receiving status effects, and should be replaced.
  
• Speaking of repairing, don’t underestimate the power of Repair Putty even late-game! Having a stack laying in your trunk can save you when you run out of blowtorches, and if you’re a loot goblin, you will have plenty laying about.
  
• Tires: there are many types, but honestly I found the Off-Road ones to be the best all around. Whilst slower in water, you will generally spend a lot more time off the road rather than on it, and somehow, the all-terrain tires feel like they have less grip on either surface. Also, Power Grip Tires are a scam, do not fall for them.
  
• Engines: be wary that despite the better-quality engines offering more horsepower, they do have less mileage. Equip extra fuel tanks if you’re rocking the last engine, or be ready to stop for fuel every few minutes.
  
• Racks: just unlock all of them. There’s 4 side, 2 roof, and 2 seat racks. They give you so much room to customize your car’s utility.
  
• Storage racks: you might be tempted to slap on as many as possible (4 side, 2 roof) but… you will realistically only ever use one of each at most, with your other slots being made up of handy gadgets and improvements instead.
  
• On that note, the Mini Turbine and Hydro Generator will have you covered in almost every situation energy-wise. The Lightning Rod and Solar Panel are subpar by comparison. Also, any sources of energy regen stack, including duplicate modules.
  
• Beeline for the Resource Radar as soon as you can. It is immensely helpful in locating harder-to-find resources. It only displays everything for about 10 seconds though. Side note: in junctions with Battery Sapping, this thing is more expensive to use.
  
• There are a number of parts with resistances, which to me were niche at best. I just facetanked most things with regular armor because having higher durability versions outweighed the utility taking a bit less damage.

Don’t ignore the many garage upgrade possibilities in the Fabrication Station once you have that unlocked. Here are the most impactful ones from my own playthrough:

• Pneumatic lockers: get at least one asap. It’s an infinite locker, perfect for your material, consumable, or parts hoarding. You can get up to 3 of these as you go along the upgrade path.
  
• Antenna upgrades: these give you more scanner charges, and eventually even a possibility to reroll a junction’s conditions, or bypass highway junctions. These will make deeper trips a lot easier.
  
• The Outfitting Station allows you to craft bigger backpacks and clothing that will offer more protection against many of the dangers of the Zone. It can be researched early and I 100% recommend it.
  
• The matter deconstructor gives back a solid chunk of what was initially used to make the item. I’ve had up to 80-90% of a tool’s materials refunded before.
  
• Both the Matter Deconstructor (and the Smart version) only cost stable energy and some basic resources. The Smart variant adds a yeeting mechanic and speed to it, which is fun.

• Keep a spare of the most common tools and consumables in your car: scrapper, hammer, healing/food, putty/blowtorch, jumper cables.
  
• If you’re extra paranoid, always bring an Anchor Radar. Word is, there exists a quirk that affects your minimap and stops Anchors from showing.
  
• Don't let higher-tier tools break. Leave them at their last durability point, and bring them back to your garage to toss ‘em into the matter deconstructor to get a good chunk of resources back (average 50% or so).
  
• The Hand-Vac and Thermal Vacuum are essential tools for gathering things like Marsh Eggs and Swamp Coral. For the latter specifically, a Thermal Vacuum will cut down your gathering time by a lot, since they otherwise take a while to show.
  
• On the vacuum note, they can pull a lot of different things, including loot right out of storage containers, as well as Tourist anomalies (just don't stand too close).
  
• Research the Plasma Scrapper as soon as you can; it sucks up what you scrap which will save you a lot of time, on top of being faster and more durable.
  
• Flares are useful throughout the entire game. Early-game they are your only reliable light source, and later they are useful for distracting anomalies and blowing up Tourists. Abductors and other ‘chasing’ style anomalies will prioritize flares over you; toss a lit flare right before grabbing an anchor, and it will divert some of the anomalies that spawn right after.

• Putting this one up top: (re)bind an extra accessible key for the “transfer all materials” keybind (default: T). Mouse-over any inventory to transfer all crafting materials to the other one. Saves some time looting.
  
• And this one: you can sort inventories with Y be default (as long as your mouse is over that inventory). No clue why the game doesn’t tell you this anywhere.
  
• Chemicals are a pain point early on (for Repair Putty), but if you have a bunch of paint stored up, those can give chemicals from the Matter Deconstructor.
  
• Dumpster pearls can be tossed into the matter deconstructor for some varied loot.
  
  • Goldshells can be a bit tricky to open sometimes, but a good few can be done in your garage:
    
  • Conductive goldshells can be charged with the battery pad your car is on.
    
  • Dehydrated goldshells can be held while interacting with the sink; you will unlock the bathroom a bit later in the story.
    
  • Combustible goldshells can be shot by the Liberator (or Mk.2 variant).
    Secured goldshells simply need a prybar or impact hammer.
    
  • The other two types are Wishbone and Corrodible, which respectively require being held by an Abductor or Bubblegum Buddy, or tossed into any source of acid.
• Almost all higher-tier crafting products use an intermediate product (gears, steel, and so on). If you are missing this but have the materials to craft it, it puts the crafting button for it on the right-hand side of the main craft, so you don’t have to go back and forth.
  
• You can pin crafting recipes to your log if you simply want to be in-and-out for just the amount of resources you need.
  
• Most handheld light sources aren’t particularly worth it. Flares let you come a long way, and once you have a crude flashlight, you can probably finish the whole game with just the one unless you’re using it religiously.
  
• Dropping items with X works from any inventory, be it your backpack or another container. Handy if you want to scrap those car parts often found in ARDA trucks.

• Please read the logbook on junction conditions. Some of them can be quite annoying to deal with if you’re not equipped. Obligatory mention as the biggest hater of electricity-infused anomalies and conditions: if the junction has Battery Sapping, this applies to any battery use, including on-use abilities, which will cost astronomical amounts of power.
  
• You know that yellow circle around an anchor? That’s the radius where anomalies will appear once you grab said anchor.
  
• If you see one of those ARDA Trucks (not the fuel tankers), they are an excellent source of loot for crafting mats, cosmetics, car parts (early on at least), and consumables. They have a very healthy range of variety and are always worth stopping at.
  
• Grinding the trunk of an abandoned car has a risk of destroying or damaging the loot inside. A prybar is cheap and will leave the goodies intact.
  
• The beefier cars with a roof attachment have armored doors and panels. These will drop a ThermoSap Crystal per part, which is a good source of them early on before you head to the Scorch. These cars can spawn as early as the Forest, but obviously more often the deeper you go.
  
• The little bunches of tech surrounded by lead plating are a great source of electronics (tech), copper wire (tech and lights), lead platelets (lead shielding), and compressed canisters (the lights). Don't forget to scan the lead shielding too!
  
• Regular houses and shacks are not worth going to if ARDA Trailers are present. These trailers are always worth going over compared to any other generic POI, even in the late game, albeit less often, since they contain the same resources but have a few higher-end ones on top.
  
• Gas stations have a Deco-Vend inside, pull the lever and receive a free cosmetic. Additionally, there’s usually a dumpster, so check that for a Dumpster Pearl for even more loot.
  If you’re going as far as Smokestacks or Red Spires, take some scrap metal with you (or scrap a bunch of cars on the way) to get some magnets out of the LIM Magnetizers[pacificdrive.wiki]. You need 105 Metal Scrap to exhaust a single one, receiving 30 LIM Magnets in return. There’s usually a good number of them per map, and trading a couple hundred Scrap Metal will set you up for life with the magnets.

• Radiation (Hot Zones and others) is not as big a hazard as you might think. Health kits are cheaper than repair materials or parts for your car, and especially food is pretty abundant. It’s often more worthwhile to zoom in and out of a radiation-infested POI and eat some food or apply a health kit than to park your car in it just to be a bit closer.
  
• Most anomalies are out to hurt you, but there are a few that are actually beneficial! The Beating Heart, a tree-like anomaly made out of speakers, will heal your vehicle (not fully), the Happy Hare bunny variant will do that too (uncapped, as long as it’s attached), and the Hopped-up Hare will charge your battery.
  
• Bunnies of any type can be kicked, grinded, or picked off your car. If you’re holding one, you can toss it like any other item. Bonus: if you get one of the aforementioned variants, stick it on your roof (less risk of getting knocked off) and drive around for 4-5 miles within your current junction for an achievement.
  
• Tourists, or any variant thereof, can be disposed of by tossing literally anything at them, and will sometimes drop loot.
  
• Missing that last anomaly scan for the Lazarus Station upgrade? Try dying and heading back. While you’re out there, get a piece of loot or a car part from your wreck (don’t forget the Liberator for this) to get an achievement.
  
• Pacemaker: can be found in any zone, and are basically a trading station with up to 45 trades (items put in). Look at this wiki page[pacificdrive.wiki] to see what it can trade. Most trades are uniquely useless to say the least, but trading a single Side Battery for 70 plasma cannot get any better. It is legitimately worth making a whole trip just to make a few of these trades so you never have to smash a plasma generator ever again.

Disclaimer: this is made as spoiler-free as possible.

Most achievements speak for themselves and can be gotten at any, except the following two.

• Scan an anomaly as the zone storm is approaching (yellow or red circle). Since there are a finite amount of anomalies, it’s best knocking this one out early. Simply scan a new anomaly as the storm starts approaching, and you’re good.
  
  
• Before the last mission, you will be given a cosmetic item inside the pneuma-tube to the left of the fabrication station. Use the detailing station to equip it, and then go into the last story mission. It’s easy to miss this, and this is the only chance you get per save to get this achievement.