Mechanics

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GameplayGuidesMechanics
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PlushSpiffo.pngThis article is about the crafting skill. For a general guide to vehicles, see Vehicles.
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Mechanics is a crafting skill allowing the player to scrap, repair and modify various parts of vehicles.

Skill Effects

Mechanics allows you to un- and re-install vehicle parts, with a success rate that improves as your Skill Level rises. It also allows you to salvage Spare Engine Parts from Standard/Heavy-Duty/Sports vehicle engines beginning at Skill Level 4/5/6 respectively, so long as the donor engine is at or above 10% Condition (note that the donor engine's Condition will be set to 0% following part removal, regardless of how high it was beforehand).

Improving your Skill Level also grants more effective engine repairs when using the aforementioned parts on other vehicles' engines, adding to the recipient engine's current Condition statistic:

Mechanics Level Standard Heavy-Duty Sport
4 1% n/a n/a
5 1% 1% n/a
6 2 % 1% 1%
7 2% 2% 1%
8 3% 2% 2%
9 3% 3% 2%
10 4% 3% 3%

The table above shows how much engine condition will increase upon successful repair based on skill level, showing it can be much more efficient to save a remarkable vehicle's repairs until you have a high Skill Level, and even at high Mechanics levels, it is much more time-efficient to keep the vehicle's hood in good repair to protect the engine.

Mechanics Guide

Step 1: Character Creation

During character creation, choosing an occupation and traits will provide the player with some skill levels, but it will also give an experience boost to that skill depending on the starting level. This bonus cannot be gained after the character is created, making this an important step in mastering any skill.
Starting Skill Level and Experience Boost

Level 0 - 25% (Default for all skills)
Level 1 - +75% (100%)
Level 2 - +100% (125%)
Level 3+ - +125% (150%)

Occupations

Name Starting Points Major Skills Description
Mechanic -4 +3 Mechanics Familiar with the maintenance and repair of all vehicle models on the roads of Kentucky.

Traits

Name Cost Description Notes
Amateur Mechanic -5 +1 Mechanics Has a detailed knowledge of common and commercial vehicle models, and repairs.

Step 2: Collecting Materials

Tools

Recipe Magazines

Other Useful Items

Step 3: The Mechanic Window

Start scrapping to level up. Note that success or failure has little effect on XP gain; you can continually try and fail to remove or install delicate parts like brakes or suspension and still level effectively. In fact, that repeated failure is the best way to learn. Choose a sacrificial vehicle to practice upon; it won't be working when you're done with it, but you can level up for a long time by repeatedly installing and removing components until you're confident enough of your skills to try working on a vehicle you care about.

Step 4: Metalworking

Main article: Metalworking

Parts of vehicles can be repaired using the metalworking skill.

Car wrecks (burnt cars) can be dismantled, gathering metal materials depending on the player's metalworking skill.

Step 5: Hit & Run

Build the ultimate machine and run over some zombies. Do note that hitting zombies will damage your hood and tires. Hitting any object or a zombie with a hood at 0% will start to damage your engine. Running over zombie corpses does not damage your car, but can cause the car to roll over if the car is going too fast.

See also