Scrap Mechanic: Survival Guide (1.0)

A guide to Scrap Mechanic after its full 1.0 release: Survival mode priorities from crash landing to the planet's core, building good vehicles, farming and raids, combat against the haywire bots, the new mining content, plus Creative and Challenge mode tips.

Researched September 2026 — current as of patch 1.0.6 (September 18, 2026, with a September 21 hotfix). Scrap Mechanic left Early Access with the 1.0 "Drilling Thunder" update on July 24, 2026. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Survival is now a full story. 1.0 turned Survival into a complete campaign with voice-acted NPCs and an ending, which takes you from the crash site down to the planet's boiling core.
• Your first goal is a working base and a vehicle. Salvage everything around the crash site, then get a simple car running so you can explore safely.
• Food and water come first. Hunger and thirst tick constantly. Collect water and carry food before long trips.
• The Spudgun is your main weapon, and it eats potatoes. Farm potatoes for ammo. Your garden literally is your armory.
• Crops attract raids. Growing crops will bring Farmbots and other attackers to your base. Build defenses before you plant big fields.
• Loot everything. Scrap metal, scrap wood, component kits, circuit boards, batteries and gas canisters feed almost every recipe.
• Don't overbuild early vehicles. A light car with a seat, a few wheels, an engine and fuel beats a heavy tank that tips over.
• Back up your saves. Patch 1.0.6 briefly caused save issues before a rollback. The game keeps backups, but copy your Survival save folder before big patches.
• Invite friends. Survival supports co-op, and many tasks (defending raids, driving while someone shoots) are easier with a second player.

Game Modes

Mode | What it is | Use it for

Survival | Story campaign with hunger, thirst, enemies, farming and crafting | The main 1.0 experience

Creative | Unlimited parts, no survival pressure | Designing vehicles and machines, testing

Challenge | Puzzle-style builder levels, including user-created challenges | Learning mechanics, sharing puzzles

Custom game | Modded or custom rule sets | Workshop content

1.0 moved many Survival parts into Creative and Challenge modes (patch 1.0.4). Patch 1.0.3 added the Creative chat commands /weather, /timeofday and /timeprogress. Patch 1.0.6 added Creative capsules for the Minerbot, the Green and Yellow Tapebots, the Blue, Yellow and Red Totebots, and the Cablebot and Cablebot Multi.

Core Tools

Tool | What it does

Sledgehammer | Melee; also breaks your own parts to recover them

Lift | Places and raises creations for building; essential for vehicles

Connect Tool | Wires interactables (engines, seats, logic, lights) together

Paint Tool | Colors parts

Weld Tool | Joins separate creations

Spudgun family | Ranged weapons that fire farm produce as ammunition

Claygun (1.0) | Shapes terrain. Works in Creative and Survival. Some bots can dig now, so clay walls aren't foolproof

Plasma Drills (1.0) | Mount on creations to dig through rock underground

Cornade (1.0) | A grenade for tight spots such as warehouse fights

Your First Hours

• Search the crash site. Grab every salvageable part and the materials around it.
• Use the Craftbot. It's your main crafting station. Your first tools, parts and vehicle pieces come from it, and it unlocks more recipes as you progress.
• Collect water and find food. Keep both in your hotbar-accessible inventory.
• Build a starter vehicle on the Lift: seat, wheels, a basic engine and fuel. Keep it low and wide.
• Find the trader and quest-givers. Trading produce for recipes and progressing NPC quests (the 1.0 story) unlocks better parts and tools.
• Plant potatoes near a defended spot for ammo, and other crops for food.
• Set up storage chests so materials don't sit in your inventory.

Building Vehicles That Work

• Low center of mass. Wide wheelbase and heavy parts near the ground stop rollovers.
• Suspension for rough terrain. The newer biomes and forest roads are bumpy; suspension makes cars much more controllable.
• Match engine to weight. A heavy truck on a small engine crawls; a tiny car with a big engine flips. Test and adjust.
• Bearings for steering. Put steering wheels on bearings connected to the seat.
• Keep the driver's seat reachable. Hammering the wrong block has stranded plenty of mechanics; build carefully around the seat.
• Add storage. A chest on a truck turns every trip into a salvage run.
• Lights for night. Driving in the dark without lights is how you drive into a bot patrol.
• Weld carefully. Welding onto bearings, suspensions and pistons was fixed in patch 1.0.5, so it now works as intended.

Farming and Raids

• Plant, water, protect. Crops need water and time. Better beds and the new UV Grow Beds (1.0) support different setups.
• Raids happen when crops grow. Expect waves of bots aiming for your field. Walls, choke points and turrets help.
• Produce is ammo and food. Potatoes feed the Spudgun; other crops go to cooking and trading.
• Keep a "war garden" separate from your main base if raids keep damaging important structures.
• If raids stop triggering or harvesting breaks, make sure you're on patch 1.0.3 or later, which fixed that bug.

Enemies

Bot | Threat | Tips

Haybot | Common melee bot | Easy with Spudgun or hammer; don't get swarmed

Totebot (Green) | Small, fast, jumps and zaps | Shoot early; they come in groups

Tapebot | Ranged, shoots tape | Use cover; flank

Farmbot | The big, dangerous one | Fight from range, use vehicles and terrain; avoid close range early

Minerbot (1.0) | The first flying bot; showers you with rocks | Keep moving, shoot it down quickly

Yellow Totebot (1.0) | Stomps across the planet | Keep your distance

Blue Totebot (1.0) | Built for offshore drilling; fast on land | Don't try to outrun it on foot

Red Totebot (1.0) | Explosive mine-clearing bot | Kill it at range before it reaches your build

Green Tapebot (1.0) | Fires "weaponized bubble plastic" | Treat like a Tapebot, stronger

Yellow Tapebot (1.0) | Sorting ink that hurts and slows | Avoid getting slowed in the open

Cablebot | Available as a Creative capsule from 1.0.6 | Test it in Creative first

Warehouses are indoor dungeons full of bots and loot. Bring ammo, food and the new Cornade.

1.0 Content: Drilling Thunder

The full release added the biggest changes in the game's history:

• Abandoned mine and underground. Deep caves where you drill through rock with Plasma Drills to unearth treasures and valuables, working down toward the planet's core.
• Growlabs. Underground facilities full of Green and Yellow Tapebots, with combat and loot. Patch 1.0.4 redesigned part of Growlab 5 where knocked-out players could get locked out, and the 1.0.6 hotfix fixed some Growlab doors not opening.
• Reworked world. New terrain tiles, reworked terrain generation, forest roads, desert biomes and tornadoes.
• Fire. Fire now spreads if you don't put it out; don't build flammable bases near hazards.
• New parts. Blocks, parts and interactables including a ladder, UV Grow Beds, an Ore Prospector and a Farmbot Target Part.
• Vault and valuables. The story includes a vault with quotas for valuables you bring back.
• Story and NPCs. A full beginning-to-end campaign with voice-acted characters and builder quests.
• Clothing. New shirts and outfits from missions, vendors and hidden garment boxes. Some are much harder to get than others.
• Steam Achievements, including some completionist ones.
• Tech. Up to 512 dynamic lights, volumetric clouds, weather and better network responsiveness.

Mining tips

• Prospect before drilling. Use the Ore Prospector to find where to dig.
• Build a dedicated drill rig. Mount Plasma Drills on a sturdy, compact creation with lights and storage.
• Mind the doors. A bug that trapped players and creations behind a mine door was fixed in patch 1.0.6. Save before going deep regardless.
• Carry food and water. Deep runs take time.

Patch History Since 1.0

Patch | Date | Key fixes

1.0.1 | July 26, 2026 | Schematic box fix, recipe unlocks in large games, mod crash fix

1.0.2 | July 27, 2026 | Challenge chest items, mods button restored, quest progression fixes

1.0.3 | July 29, 2026 | Creative chat commands, raids stopping fix, vault quota quest fix

1.0.4 | July 31, 2026 | Survival parts added to Creative/Challenge, Growlab 5 redesign, garage chest fix

1.0.5 | August 3, 2026 | Welding onto bearings, suspensions and pistons fixed

1.0.6 | September 18, 2026 (hotfix September 21) | Broken save fix, physics jitter fixes, Challenge mode fixes, new Creative capsules, Growlab door fix

If your save broke in the initial 1.0.6 rollout, move a backup save from the Backup folder into your regular save folder under your AppData Roaming, Axolot Games, Scrap Mechanic, User folder, following the developer's community note.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Planting huge fields with no defenses. Raids scale with your crops.
• Driving at night without lights.
• Hammering near your seat. Removing the driver's seat mid-trip is a rite of passage, but it's a long walk home.
• Ignoring hunger and thirst on long drives.
• Tall, narrow vehicles. They roll over on the new terrain.
• Forgetting save backups before patches.

Advanced Tips

• Design in Creative first, then rebuild the proven design in Survival with the parts you have.
• Use logic parts (switches, sensors, timers, logic gates) to automate farms, doors and defenses.
• Build a mobile base. A large truck with storage, crafting and a bed-style spawn point makes exploration much faster.
• Separate combat and utility vehicles. A turret car for raids, a hauler for materials, a drill rig for the mines.
• Challenge mode is a physics lesson. The puzzles teach bearings, pistons and logic in a controlled space.
• Report bugs properly. Axolot asks for a description, the session log (from the game's Logs folder) and the save file at bugs@axolotgames.com.

FAQ

Is Scrap Mechanic out of Early Access? Yes. Version 1.0 (Drilling Thunder) released on July 24, 2026.

Do my old Early Access survival saves work? 1.0 reworked terrain generation and the story, so starting a new Survival world is recommended to experience the new content properly.

Is there co-op? Yes. Survival and Creative support multiplayer with friends.

How do I get Spudgun ammo? Farm potatoes; the Spudgun fires produce as ammunition.

What's the Claygun for? Shaping terrain: building ramps, filling holes, making walls. Some bots can now dig through it.

Where did my Creative parts go? Patch 1.0.4 restored parts that went missing in the 1.0 update and added many Survival parts to Creative and Challenge modes.

Sources

• Steam store page, Scrap Mechanic
• Steam news hub, Scrap Mechanic (1.0 Drilling Thunder, patches 1.0.1 to 1.0.6)
• Steam Web API news feed for Scrap Mechanic