Cars, Building and Solar Power

Advanced guide · Last updated 3 November 2026

Once you have survived a few nights you want more than loot: a car that actually drives, a spot behind palisades, and electricity for lights and a fence. This guide explains how vehicles, build mode, the forge and the solar array work in Duskvale – with the numbers the game actually uses.

Cars: from wreck to vehicle

There are eight repairable vehicles in the valley: two pick-ups by the barns, three estates in the village, two vans near the service area, motel and supermarket, and one armoured jeep at the barracks. Each type has its own seats and boot size: the van holds 30 slots, the pick-up 20, the estate 12, the jeep 10. The jeep is rugged and takes only half damage from ramming and gunfire.

A wreck will drive once four things are in order:

• Battery fitted (a car battery from your inventory).
• Tyres mounted until all four are on. Tyres turn up in workshops, in trades with settlers and from the caravan.
• Fuel from petrol canisters. The tank holds 40 litres; consumption is lower on roads than off-road.
• Condition above zero. With a toolbox you repair 25 % in 10 seconds; a write-off first needs 3 scrap to get back to 10 %. At your own forge you can also hammer out the bodywork.

Whoever makes the first repair becomes the owner. Only the owner, their faction and their clan may drive; anyone can ride along once someone is at the wheel. Cars stay in the world wherever you park them, even while you are offline.

Driving

On PC: W/S accelerate and reverse, A/D steer, H horn, F headlights, V camera inside/outside, E get out. Speed depends on the surface: up to 15 m/s on roads (54 km/h), 8 m/s off-road, 3 m/s in mud. A flat tyre halves your speed. The boot is storage that travels with the car.

Ramming and getting shot at

A car is a weapon, but not a cheap one. Running someone over only kills at full road speed with intact tyres; otherwise it is a heavy hit that raiders survive and answer with gunfire. Every ram costs the car condition – a pick-up takes about five or six before it is finished – and every fourth one costs a tyre. Raider bullets damage the car too and sometimes hit tyres. Occupants can be hit through the windows: an occupied car only provides cover up to the window line. An empty car, on the other hand, is full cover for anyone crouching behind it.

Building

T opens build mode. Parts snap to a 1 m grid and rotate in 45° steps with Q/E or the mouse wheel. Each player may place 60 parts. The parts and what they cost:

On top of that there are kits for a fireplace, crate, rain barrel, garden bed and barricade, traps, and the hidden cache you dig with a shovel. Nails and planks are home-made: nails at the forge from scrap, planks at the workbench with a saw blade.

Ownership and decay

What you build belongs to you and your clan. Only the owner, faction and clan can open gates, lock doors and use the crates behind them. Other people's crates can be forced open with a crowbar. Structures decay once their owner has not logged in for 7 days. Burnt-out parts vanish immediately.

Raids

Every 30 to 90 minutes the raiders pick a target: a fort of 6 or more parts, or a locked house belonging to a player who is online. You get 60 seconds' warning with a compass direction, then the group attacks for about 6 minutes, going for the gate first. Hold out and you are paid in ammunition; if the attackers break through, they loot half of your crate. Sandbags, a watch platform and barbed wire in front of the gate make the difference.

Windows

A locked house is not a safe: windows can be smashed with a melee weapon, a stone or a crowbar in 2 seconds (60 m of noise) and climbed through in 1.5 seconds – without gloves you get a cut. A barricade kit boards a window up.

The forge

A hearth made of 12 stones, 4 clay and a bellows, plus an anvil no more than 3 m away – that is the whole forge. Stones and clay come from the stream; the bellows is made at the workbench from hide, wood and wire. Each job burns 1 charcoal (the hearth stores up to 10) and requires a hammer. A glowing hearth gives warmth and light like a fire.

From scrap you forge knives, axe heads, pickaxes, crowbars, shovels, nails, fish hooks, saw blades, leg-hold traps, machetes, spear and arrow heads and bolts – and with additional parts the pipe shotgun (pipe, wood, wire, spring), the crossbow (spring steel, wood, rope), the scrap vest, pot helmet and shin guards. At the hearth you can also repair tools, melee weapons, armour pieces and tyres (1 scrap) and melt down metal items you no longer need. Firearm ammunition cannot be crafted – only arrows and bolts.

Solar power

Solar panels sit on the roofs of every fifth house as well as the school, sawmill, service area, motel and supermarket. Lean a ladder against the wall, climb onto the roof and unscrew them with a toolbox. A solar array takes up to four panels, a car battery as storage, a charge controller and wire. Output depends on sun, weather, season (halved in winter) and shade; the charge runs from 0 to 100.

In the array's power menu you switch consumers on and off:

• Light on the array – visible from 100 m at night.
• Fridge within 15 m: food inside does not spoil.
• Pump at a well or rain barrel within 10 m.
• Electric fence: electrify barbed wire within 10 m.
• Charge car: a vehicle within 5 m gains 10 % battery per real minute until full.
• Charge devices: torch, radio and night vision recharge at the array; a spare battery pack tops up your emptiest device in the field.

When the charge hits zero, the array switches off all consumers and notifies the owner. Add up your load: light 2, pump 3, fridge 4, electric fence 5 and car 6 charge per in-game hour.