Repairing and Upgrading Your Buggy | The Buggy Dying Light: The Following Guide
Last update: 03 June 2016
The dune buggy is not indestructible and its consumption is similar to that of your melee weapons. The vehicle can be divided into five main parts; engine, turbo, suspension, traction and brakes. The rate of consumption depends on your actions. To maintain your vehicle in a perfect condition, would require you to travel via asphalt roads only. Off-roading greatly affects traction and suspension. Any other activities may damage the other parts of your vehicle. In general, try to avoid hitting indestructible objects at high speed and avoid steep terrain which can cause your vehicle to roll over.
You can check the current state of all the car parts without leaving the vehicle. In the lower left corner of the screen you can see icons that represent them. If any of the icons turns yellow, it means that this part has been used a lot, and if it turns red, it is broken. You can continue your journey but your car will not be as effective (e.g. its speed will decrease).
In order to repair your vehicle, you need to stop, get out, approach its front part and press the interaction button. Analogically to melee weapons, each part can be repaired a certain number of times and you will need Screws to do that. Once the part reaches its limit, you can no longer repair it and may as well throw it out. You will have to replace it with another one (you can also replace the part earlier if you have high quality parts on you).
Remember - You don't have to wait until parts break down for good. If you are going to take part in a longer mission or in a race, replace the part before you begin the quest.
You can use acquired blueprints to craft better parts
Not only can you repair your vehicle, but you can also upgrade it. This takes place by installing better variations of its main parts (the engine, turbo, suspension, traction and brakes). By default, first level parts are installed but as the game progresses, you can replace them with parts of higher level. Parts can be found in the game world, bought from merchants, received for completing quests or crafted - you will need components and proper blueprints to do that. It would be wise to focus on modifying your vehicle as soon as possible, as your dune buggy will gain additional features such as better handling. You can install any new part right away or wait until the current parts break down.
Replacing parts is not the only type of modifications that you can apply to your vehicle. You can equip it with additional devices which have various purposes and do not break down. You can divide them into devices that you install permanently and those that can be selected from a list. In case of the latter ones, you have two available slots of equipment and each can be filled with only one upgrade. Once you upgrade your vehicle, you can select a device by pressing a button that is linked to this specific upgrade (E or R in the PC version) to activate it.
Among the most interesting upgrades we can list nitro (unlock it as fast as you can!), a reinforced cage, a remotely controlled car alarm that can distract zombies, and a mine dispenser which can stop your pursuers. Further information concerning your Driver skill tree - because this is how you unlock additional upgrades - can be found on the next page.
Remember - The game allows to repaint your car and new patterns and colors can be unlocked as the game progresses. Paining your car is merely an addition to the game and does not influence the gameplay.
In order to repair your vehicle or craft new parts you will need components such as Screws or Wires. Luckily, it is quite easy to obtain them, as you can find them in most of the vehicles that you come across during the game It is similar to finding fuel and the only difference is that you interact with bonnets. Hold down the interaction button and you may be rewarded with useful components or find nothing.
Less common components, which are required to craft parts of higher quality, can be found in certain vehicles. Such vehicles are military vehicles (jeeps and trucks), police and emergency vehicles. Use every opportunity to search for such cars. You can increase the likelihood of finding rare components by looking for Military Outposts.