The Long Drive: Survival & Road Trip Guide

This guide covers The Long Drive, Genesz's early-access road trip sim set in an endless procedurally generated desert. It explains how the stable and beta branches differ, how to keep your car and yourself alive, which tools to grab, the controls, multiplayer, and custom radio and mods.

Researched September 2026 — current as of stable v2023.04.19c and the "Upcoming version test" beta V2024.11.26b_test (the latest public build). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status in 2026: Stable vs Beta

The Long Drive is still in Early Access (since 25 September 2019). The developer originally aimed for 1.0 by the end of 2023, "or 2024", and has said the full release will cost about double the early access price.

• To join the beta: right-click The Long Drive in Steam > Properties > Betas > choose "beta - Upcoming version test".
• Warning: Beta update V2024.11.10_test broke old saves and saved cars. Beta saves and mods aren't guaranteed to work in stable, or across beta updates.
• Is it abandoned? In July 2025 the developer posted a short announcement: "Game Abandoned? No." Updates have been slow since late 2024, though.

Quick Start

1. Read your gauges. Fuel, oil and coolant are what matter. Engine heat and missing fluids will kill a run faster than anything else.
2. A full tank goes far. The store page says about 500 km per full tank. Still, fill every jerrycan you find and keep a siphon hose. You can siphon fuel from abandoned cars.
3. Loot every building. Buildings along the road and in the desert spawn loot: food, drinks, fuel cans, parts, tools and sometimes weapons.
4. Eat and drink. The survival update added HP, food and water. You can die from collisions or falls too. You can turn off starving and dehydration in the main menu if you just want to drive.
5. Carry basic tools and spares: oil, coolant, a spare tire if you can find one, and a fuel can.
6. Turn on Physics Lock. It keeps items in your trunk or on the seats from flying around. It works in trunks even when they're open or missing.
7. Save often, in multiple slots. It's early access, and physics accidents happen.
8. Watch out for rabbits. The desert rabbits are the game's running joke. They used to be able to kill you instantly (later patched), and they're still worth keeping an eye on.

Your First Hour

1. Pick your branch and settings first. Decide stable or beta before you invest in a save. In the main menu, decide whether you want starving/dehydration and winter mode on.
2. Search the starting house. It's your first loot stop, and the compass points back to it, so it doubles as a home base.
3. Learn the car before you drive off. Sit in, find the ignition, handbrake and lights with E, and check the fuel, oil and coolant slots under the hood. If you're on keyboard, try the automatic clutch/shifting options; if you have a wheel, set up the H-shifter and neutral now.
4. Turn on Physics Lock for the trunk and seats, then load everything useful you found.
5. Drive to the first buildings and loot them fully. Food, drinks, fuel cans and tools come from buildings, so early stops pay off more than distance.
6. Top up and siphon. Fill jerrycans at every gas station, and siphon from abandoned cars when you have the hose. Coil it with R afterwards.
7. Stop before dark on your first run. Park, sleep (hold V) and continue in daylight until you know how your headlights handle the terrain.
8. Save before anything risky, like steep hills, jumps or shooting at things near your car. Explosive items such as paint cans can blow up when shot.

Controls (Defaults Mentioned in Patch Notes)

Steering wheels and controllers are supported, including automatic clutch and shifting options for beginners. H-shifters are supported too, including assigning neutral.

Your Car

Fluids and Parts

• Fuel: Top up at gas stations or from fuel cans, or siphon from wrecks. There's also a propane canister. Some vehicles can take removable fuel tanks.
• Oil and coolant: Engines burn oil and need coolant. Check both when you stop. An overheating engine shows up on the temperature gauge and you can hear the heating and cooling sounds change.
• Parts: Wheels, doors, hoods, mirrors, headlights, seats, license plates and even engines can be removed and swapped (engine swapping arrived in 2019). Parts wear down and can fall off in crashes.
• Condition and looks: Use paint cans to repaint, a wire brush to remove rust, and a sponge plus polisher liquid to clean and shine.

Vehicles

You pick a starting vehicle in the main menu. More spawn out in the world, including buses, trucks, a car hauler, a moped and a motorcycle, plus several numbered car models. Trailers and hitch attachables let you tow cargo. The developer has also been restoring a family Trabant for the game. You can mount mirrors almost anywhere and add baskets to the moped.

Road Trip Loadout

The World

• Infinite desert: The terrain is procedurally generated, with mountains, biome blending, cacti, tumbleweed and occasional snow in winter mode. The map is set up to be about the size of Earth's circumference, and the stable road network runs for thousands of kilometres.
• Points of interest: Gas stations (small and big), roadside and desert buildings, water towers, watchtowers, rusty ships out in the sand, wells, and your starting house.
• Day and night: Nights are dark. Headlights, interior lights (three modes) and handheld lamps matter.
• Seasonal events: Pumpkins spawn around Halloween (roughly 25 October to 5 November). There's a toggleable winter mode, and the developers have added Halloween and Christmas items over the years.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer has been in testing since 2020 and was greatly improved in the 2024 beta. Players can create or join lobbies. Synced features include driving, lights, horns, doors, fluids, painting and repairs, weapons, food, and, as the patch notes proudly mention, burps and farts. All players should be on the same beta version, or the lobby may break. Clients can spawn items in Developer Mode in recent betas.

Custom Radio and Mods

• Custom radio: The game has a custom station at AM 1080 (it moved there from FM 99.2 in the March 2022 Menu Update, so older guides that say 99.2 are out of date). Drop your music files (ogg, wav and mp3, with flac and more supported since the October 2024 beta) into the folder set in Settings, then tune in with E + mouse.
• Music box: The crank music box can play custom tunes from the data folder.
• Maps (beta): Put BSP maps and .wad files, or heightmap and colour-map PNG/JPGs (named _height and _color), into Documents\TheLongDrive\Maps.
• Logs: The beta writes rotating logs (log1 is the newest) to Documents\TheLongDrive. Useful when mods break.
• Mods: There's a community modding scene with its own loader (see the "Using Modifications" Steam guide for installing and troubleshooting). Mods often break after updates, especially across the 2024 beta changes.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Driving on fumes. Refill whenever you pass fuel. Gas stations aren't evenly spaced.
• Ignoring the temperature gauge. An overheating engine can end your trip. Stop, cool down and top up coolant.
• Loose cargo. Without Physics Lock, a hard brake sends cans through the windscreen.
• Mixing beta and stable saves. Pick a branch per save, and back up before switching.
• Long night drives with low headlight coverage. Rocks and ditches are hard to see.
• Not saving. Physics glitches, falls and crashes are real threats.

Advanced Tips

• Scout with binoculars from high ground. A hill or watchtower shows you buildings and roads for kilometres.
• Use the car hauler or trailers to bring a backup vehicle along on long trips.
• Keep a stash car. Park a loaded vehicle as a supply depot and note its direction on the compass.
• Tune your draw distance. It's the biggest performance lever. Impostors make far objects cheap, but terrain resolution and tile size in the settings also matter.
• Stereoscopic 3D and VR look-around exist for novelty setups: anaglyph, side-by-side or depth, and headset look-around without motion controllers.
• Arduino speedometer: A USB-port feature lets hobbyists drive a physical speedometer from the game.

FAQ

Is The Long Drive finished? No. It's still early access. The newest features are in the "Upcoming version test" beta branch.

How do I get multiplayer? Switch to the beta branch (Properties > Betas > "beta - Upcoming version test"). Everyone needs the same version.

Can I turn off hunger and thirst? Yes. Starving and dehydration can be turned off in the main menu.

Why did my save stop working? Beta V2024.11.10_test broke old saves and saved cars. Go back to the matching branch or start fresh.

How far does a tank of fuel get me? About 500 km per full tank, according to the store page. It varies by vehicle.

Where do I put custom music? In the custom radio folder set in Settings, then tune the car radio to AM 1080 (not FM 99.2, which was the old frequency before March 2022).

Is the game abandoned? The developer said no in July 2025. Updates are just infrequent.

Sources

• The Long Drive on Steam
• Steam News API feed for The Long Drive (patch notes 2019–2025)
• Steam news: UPDATE V2024.11.26b_test / Game Abandoned? (July 2025)
• Steam community guides for The Long Drive