Explorer

“	This vehicle has been designed by our best Vehicle Designers™ to allow for easy, fast, and safe exploration of alien territories. *Wifi hotspot not included.	„
	~ Caterina Parks's assistant Steve

The Explorer is an all-terrain vehicle. It is faster and more agile compared to both Tractor and Truck and has improved drifting capabilities. The explorer grips or "grapples" the terrain, allowing it to climb steep surfaces and handles rough terrain well, though it has a tough time climbing surfaces such as walls. Certain plants and vegetation, notably including Beryl Nut and Paleberry plants, can be knocked down and permanently destroyed by the Explorer. However, the smallest plants and bushes can be driven over without destroying them, while trees and larger bushes provide a solid obstacle that will stop the Explorer dead.

Obtaining

Unlocking

 Explorer is unlocked via the Quartz Research chain in the MAM using:

10

100

Usage

Main article: Vehicles

The Explorer's inventory can be accessed by interacting with a red box in the rear of the vehicle, where it can also be fueled by inputting up to a stack of fuel into the fuel slot. All fuels are accepted, ranging from  Leaves to  Plutonium Fuel Rods. Fuels with more energy last longer, but don't affect anything else. Additonally, a built-in Craft Bench can be accessed from the same menu, using a tabber at the top of the menu.

Once fueled, entering the Explorer allows it to be driven. Running out of fuel while driving will automatically apply the brakes to bring the vehicle to a stop. Automated routes can be recorded using the self-driving menu Q.

Due to its high speed, the Explorer is very effective at ramming creatures. Given room to accelerate, it can kill Stingers or Fluffy-tailed Hogs with a single impact.

Fuel consumption

Fuel Consumption Table

Fuel Type	Fuel Value (MJ)	Biomass Burner (30 MW)	Coal-Powered Generator (75 MW)	Fuel-Powered Generator (250 MW)	Nuclear Power Plant (2500 MW)	Cyber Wagon (150 MW)	Tractor (55 MW)	Truck (75 MW)	Explorer (90 MW)	Chainsaw (75 MW)	Jetpack (60-600 MW)
Leaves	15	0.50s	-	-	-	0.10s	0.27s	0.2s	0.17s	-	-
Wood	100	3.33s	-	-	-	0.67s	1.82s	1.33s	1.11s	-	-
Mycelia	20	0.67s	-	-	-	0.13s	0.36s	0.27s	0.22s	-	-
Hog Remains	250	8.33s	-	-	-	1.67s	4.55s	3.33s	2.78s	-	-
Plasma Spitter Remains	250	8.33s	-	-	-	1.67s	4.55s	3.33s	2.78s	-	-
Stinger Remains	250	8.33s	-	-	-	1.67s	4.55s	3.33s	2.78s	-	-
Hatcher Remains	250	8.33s	-	-	-	1.67s	4.55s	3.33s	2.78s	-	-
Biomass	180	6.00s	-	-	-	1.20s	3.27s	2.40s	2.00s	-	-
Solid Biofuel	450	15.00s	-	-	-	3.00s	8.18s	6.00s	5.00s	6.00s	2.83s
Liquid Biofuel	750	-	-	3.00s	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Packaged Liquid Biofuel	750	25.00s	-	-	-	5.00s	13.64s	10.00s	8.33s	-	12.50s
Coal	300	-	4.00s	-	-	2.00s	5.45s	4.00s	3.33s	-	-
Compacted Coal	630	-	8.40s	-	-	4.20s	11.45s	8.40s	7.00s	-	-
Petroleum Coke	180	-	2.40s	-	-	1.20s	3.27s	2.40s	2.00s	-	-
Fuel	750	-	-	3.00s	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Packaged Fuel	750	-	-	-	-	5.00s	13.64s	10.00s	8.33s	-	5.00s
Turbofuel	2000	-	-	8.00s	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Packaged Turbofuel	2000	-	-	-	-	13.33s	36.36s	26.67s	22.22s	-	3.33s
Rocket Fuel	3600	-	-	14.40s	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Packaged Rocket Fuel	7200	-	-	-	-	48.00s	130.91s	96.00s	80.00s	-	4.00s
Ionized Fuel	5000	-	-	20.00s	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Packaged Ionized Fuel	10000	-	-	-	-	66.67s	181.81s	133.33s	111.11s	-	7.00s
Packaged Heavy Oil Residue	400	-	-	-	-	2.67s	7.27s	5.33s	4.44s	-	-
Packaged Oil	320	-	-	-	-	2.13s	5.82s	4.27s	3.56s	-	-
Battery	6000	-	-	-	-	40.00s	109.00s (1m 49s)	80.00s (1m 20.00s)	66.70s (1m 6.70s)	-	-
Uranium Fuel Rod	750000	-	-	-	300.00s (5m)	5000.00s (1h 23m 20s)	13636.00s (3h 47m 16s)	10000.00s (2h 46m 40s)	8333.00s (2h 18m 53s)	-	-
Plutonium Fuel Rod	1500000	-	-	-	600.00s (10m)	10000.00s (2h 46m 40s)	27272.00s (7h 34m 32s)	20000.00s (5h 33m 20s)	16666.00s (4h 37m 46s)	-	-
Ficsonium Fuel Rod	150000	-	-	-	60.00s (1m)	1000.00s (16m 40s)	2727.00s (45m 27s)	2000.00s (33m 20s)	1666.00s (27m 46s)	-	-

Stack size should be taken into account when considering the best available fuel for the Explorer. For example, in Patch 1.0 a full stack of 200  Solid Biofuel provides more runtime than a full stack of 100  Compacted Coal, even though it has less energy per item.

The  Battery is the longest-lasting non-nuclear vehicle fuel on a per-stack basis. In Patch 1.0, each stack of batteries will run an Explorer for slightly less than 3¾ hours, which is 20% longer duration than a full stack of  Packaged Ionized Fuel provides.

Achievements

Establish dominance • "Hit a creature with a vehicle."

Look both ways next time • "Get knocked over by a vehicle."

Too fast, Too factory • "Move faster than 140 km/h."

Trivia

• The Explorer used to have two seats since its introduction in Update 1 up until Update 6. However, it could only hold one person.

Current issues

• The Explorer has been known to experience a bug where the vehicle would be moved to the world origin (coords 0, 0, 0). This issue was prevalent prior to Patch 0.8.0.0, at which point vehicles were updated to use the Unreal Engine 5 Chaos physics system; however, it is not known whether this change fully resolved the issue. Should the bug occur, the only known fix is to use a save editor to move the vehicle to an accessible position. This bug can possibly be avoided via parking it on solid ground and not a foundation.

History

• Patch 1.0: Changed 5 Heavy Modular Frame cost to 10 Modular Frame
• Patch 0.8.0.0
  • Moved Vehicle physics to using Unreal Engine 5 Chaos
  • Overhauled all Vehicle sounds
  • Improved the manual driving of all Vehicles
  • Reworked all Vehicle trunks visually simplifying the animation and adding a new sound
  • Added functionality for Vehicles to deal damage to creatures by hitting them
    • Damage dealt is relative to vehicle speed and size
  • Reduced inventory size from 24 to 12 slots (not in patch notes)
    • When loading a save created prior to this patch, items in the last 12 slots are simply deleted
• Patch 0.6.0.12: Fixed player placement while riding the Explorer
• Patch 0.6.0.10: Changed model to only feature one seat (not in patch notes, but Tweeted)
• Patch 0.6.0.0: Changed 15 Beacon cost to 15 Steel Pipe
• Patch 0.1.5: Introduced