Dust to the End Vehicle Guide

Foreword

Hi! This is a guide I thought I'd put together after struggling to find information on the available vehicles in Dust to the End. After "beating" most of the game, I decided to revisit all the major cities on a Vagrant and put together this guide. Some information (like the maintenance cost) may be slightly incorrect and will vary slightly due to RNG and party perks, though my testing had no mechanic perks and only March for extra party speed. I might go through it and reformat it later as well. Note that this guide may contain spoilers of the names of future cities and what vehicles they hold, though as far as spoilers go it's very light.

Hopefully you find this useful! If you find any mistakes, please let me know!

Handcarts

Handcarts are defined by not requiring fuel to run, only having room for a "driver" and moving no faster than base walk speed. There are a handful of them in the game and they continue to show up all the way up to the Desert Zone (Zone 3), but you shouldn't use them beyond the Dune Zone. I will not include Jack's Trolley given to you for completing the tutorial, and will instead include that under "Uniques".

This is the first cart you will come across in the game. You can buy it from Border Town and nowhere else. It is easily affordable and has the lowest maintenance cost in the game per durability (1.5/Durability). Use it at the very start if you're desperate, but don't depend on it for too long.

This is the second cart you will come across in the game. You can buy it from Border Town and Eagle Town. It is twice as expensive as the handcart and twice as expensive to maintain (3/Durability). Like the handcart you should avoid the trolley altogether, using it only in emergencies or for a challenge.

This is the largest cart you will come across in the game. You can buy it from Eagle Town, Gobi Town and Kilgaso. It is almost twice as expensive compared to a trolley and offers even less extra carry weight to cost, and is more than twice as expensive to maintain (7/Durability). If you're going to use handcarts at all, this should be your goal.

Bikes

Bikes are the first motorized vehicle you can buy in Dust to the End. We classify bikes as vehicles that usually only support a driver, but may have a spot for a passenger. Bikes also tend to be among the most fuel efficient, fast and cheap vehicles in the game, but not very good for hauling loads. Ironically, bikes can get you into more trouble because you might be moving so fast that you accidentally run into a fight you can't win; however, if used correctly, bikes can usually outrun most enemies both within the zone you buy them in and the next zone beyond.

This is the bread and butter of Dust to the End. Ideally you will save your starting money up until you can afford one of these bad boys. Available in Border Town and Eagle Town. Moto Tricycles are almost twice as fast as moving on foot and are the first vehicle you'll likely get that requires fuel. They are just a little more expensive than the Better Handcart in cost and maintenance (9/Durability), but are still the cheapest of their class and have excellent load capacity for early game with excellent fuel efficiency. Unlike most bikes they can even support a passenger, which is great for saving money on additional vehicles or carrying severely injured caravaneers without a party speed penalty.

If you like the Moto Tricycle but want something a bit better at everything except cost, this is the bike for you. It's available at Turt and Kilgaso in small amounts. Modified Tricycles have the same speed as a Moto Tricycle, but consume 50% more fuel and carry around 35% more weight. Unfortunately, they come at the hefty cost of being twice as expensive to buy and requiring slightly more maintenance (12/Durability), but they remain an affordable option for the early-mid game.

The Kiang Motobike is the first of its class: a true motorbike with a single driver seat and unrivaled speed. It's available at Eagle Town, Kilgaso and New Moon City. Unfortunately, it is a downgrade from the Moto Tricycle and Modified Tricycle in fuel efficiency per load capacity and load capacity in general. It is extremely expensive for when you first discover it both to buy and maintain (19/Durability), and in order to get the full benefit of it you will need one for every party member. Additionally, if a single party member gets severely injured, they won't be able to drive and thus will slow down your entire caravan. It is only recommended to invest in this early on if you absolutely want or need the faster movement speed.

The Sand Motorcycle is a direct upgrade over the Kiang Motorbike, though probably not worth saving up for over the Kiang. It can be found in New Moon City and Zhou's Company. It offers a generous 50% improvement to load capacity over the Kiang with a hefty speed boost as well (one of the highest in the game), but falls short with 50% more fuel consumption, buy price and maintenance cost (56/Durability). Similarly to the Kiang it suffers from only having space for a driver, meaning that severely injured party members in an all-motorcycle party will slow the caravan down. Not recommended for the same reasons as the Kiang.

The Vagrant Motobike is the first bike worth buying since the Moto Tricycle and therefore may be worth your investment end-game. It can be found in Ampton City, Dimore Town, Yin City and Zhou's Company. It can carry almost twice as much more than the Sand Motorcycle, consumes a little less than twice as much fuel, can support a passenger and has the highest speed of any vehicle in the game. Seriously, this thing is so fast it can run you into more problems than you avoid if you aren't paying attention for even a second. It is, however, wildly more expensive than the Sand Motorcycle both to buy and maintain (300/Durability), meaning that you will need to be making a lot of money through carefully planned trade routes for these bad boys to pay off. If you're going to run an all-motorcycle party, these can get it done and more.

Trucks

Trucks are defined by having a generous amount of passenger slots and excellent load capacity, but generally suffer from a high cost, expensive maintenance and awful fuel efficiency. Trucks are best for traders who like to buy and sell a lot of things at once, but usually demand a party equipped to deal with the few threats that might chase you down.

Though not technically a truck, this is the first and only vehicle of a similar class you'll find. Available in Kilgaso, New Moon City and Ampton City. It has excellent load capacity for a vehicle by the time you discover it, and a prepared player entering the Desert Zone may even be able to afford one off the bat. It comes with a reasonable cost for its improvement over other vehicles by the time you find it, though the maintenance cost may be crippling for unprepared caravaneers (47/Durability). Only buy it if you're desperate for an upgrade and don't want to wait for the Pickup.

Speaking of the Pickup, this is the first vehicle that is truly of this class. Available in New Moon City and Ampton City. It has roughly 30% more load capacity than the Car, can support an additional passenger and is only about 25% more costly in fuel. It is barely more expensive to buy and costs almost the same to maintain (50/Durability). If you can get your hands on a pickup truck after entering the Desert Zone, you'll find yourself outrunning almost all threats you come across until you reach the Wildlands. Definitely worth picking up one or two of these as they'll make your money back and more. Recommend you only enter the Desert Zone when you've saved enough money to get one, as all vehicles from the Gobi Zone except the Kiang will get easily run down by bandits, bug beasts and hyenas.

The Scrap Truck is much like the vehicle after it, but packing less bang in speed and load capacity in exchange for a much cheaper cost. Available only in Ampton City. It is faster than the Pickup and can carry over 65% more load, but uses more than twice as much fuel and is extremely expensive to buy and maintain (102/Durability). It can outrun Wildlands enemies for the most part and it's therefore recommended that you buy this early on. If money isn't a concern, however, you should invest in the next tier up instead.

The Iron Ox Pickup is perhaps the best vehicle of its class prior to the end-game. Available in Dimore Town, Zhou's Company and Yin City. It has the same fuel efficiency as the Scrap Truck but slightly more load and speed. It is, however, much more expensive than the Scrap Truck to buy and maintain (200/Durability), making it a good choice only for those who have figured out a good trade route in the Wildlands or have a decent mechanic. Recommended that you get this as soon as you enter the Wildlands to replace any Pickups or Cars you previously had, if you can afford it.

The Pioneer Truck is the best truck in the game. Available in Zhou's Company and Yin City. It consumes almost twice as much fuel as the Iron Ox Pickup and is only as fast as a Scrap Truck but can carry twice as much load and seat one additional passenger than both. It is, however, the most expensive non-unique vehicle in the game, and as of my current game I haven't had a chance to test its maintenance cost though it is presumably very high (~500/Durability). There's no reason not to get this if you were previously using Scrap Trucks or Iron Ox Pickups and you can afford it and don't mind the slowness of a Scrap Truck.

Uniques

Unique vehicles are classified by only appearing once in the game, either as part of a quest or at a specific city. Unique vehicles can typically fit into any of the other categories except for the fact they can only exist once.

This vehicle holds a lot of records, though none of them are good. Available nowhere, but is instead a quest reward for completing the main quest "Creating Wealth". It has half the load capacity of the Handcart and a slightly lower durability, while technically costing half as much (since you need 4k to complete the associated quest) and being the cheapest to maintain (1/Durability). However, despite being awful, it may be a good idea to use this vehicle until you save enough money for a Moto Tricycle- and it still has a cool unique appearance.

This is what a real unique vehicle looks like, and you've probably seen it in a few screenshots. Available at Yin City. It is currently the only buyable vehicle in the game with the "Unique" tag. It is prohibitively expensive, and clearly only exists as an end-goal for players that end up with way too much money. It consumes nearly twice as much fuel as the Pioneer Truck to run, carries almost twice as much load and can seat one additional passenger. It is more than 6x more expensive than the Pioneer Truck and is likely ridiculously expensive to maintain. I don't think I could realistically recommend this unless you want some sort of end-goal or to show off to other players of the game.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2322718751

Vehicle Guide

Foreword

Handcarts

Bikes

Trucks

Uniques

More Dust to the End guilds