Quirks are weird behaviors the car can pick up over time. These behaviors are triggered by certain actions, such as opening/closing doors, turning off/on the radio etc.
Quirks develop over time while exploring the Zone. They can develop at a faster rate if the car takes damage, interacts with Anomalies or under specific circumstances. Quirks can vary in impact on gameplay, from being almost unnoticable to downright malicious. The Status Monitor screen has a "Quirks" bar, which may light up yellow if a new or malicious quirk is present. (It may not change color in some cases even if such a quirk is present.)
Diagnosing Quirks
The Tinker Station is used to diagnose and fix quirks. The Diagnosis screen has 4 columns:
- The Red column is the triggering car part
- The Green column is the triggering action
- The Orange column is the triggered car part
- The Blue column is the behavior of the triggered part
A diagnosis is structured "When 1 does 2, 3 does 4."
The player has 8 guesses per run to diagnose quirks. Each guess when submitted shows the result as either "BAD GUESS - x/4 CORRECT" for an incorrect guess or "CORRECT DIAGNOSIS - GUESS REFUNDED". If multiple quirks are present, the correctness also depends on the combination (i.e. if actions A1 and A2 trigger quirks B1 and B2 respectively, guessing A1 -> B2 would give you a "BAD GUESS" message).
The Tinker Station can be upgraded via the Fabrication Station. The Investigator Module will report which parts of the guess are correct, while the Analysis Module allows the player to spend Anchor Energy to correctly pinpoint one part of the diagnosis (starting at 0.5 kLIM for the first use and increases by 0.5 kLIM per subsequent use = 5 kLIM to diagnose a quirk completely). Each upgrade also adds one additional guess per run.
Even without the hints, if one takes a structured approach to troubleshooting (like mechanics do in real life!) most quirks can be solved.
- Check the Fixes screen on the Quirk Station to see how many quirks you have, there may be several triggered by one action.
- Start in the garage with the car in park and turn it on.
- Change one thing at a time (turn off/on wipers, headlights, radio, steer left/right, accelerate/brake, change from park to drive). Since only one action corresponds to a quirk triggering, this is a good way to isolate the cause.
- If you found nothing in the garage, take the wagon out for a spin on the test track behind the garage. This combined with the previous step should cover most quirk triggers.
- Some sneaky quirks affect the fuel and battery gauge readings, so remember to check actual levels and compare.
Fixing Quirks
After a successful diagnosis, the "Fixes" screen shows the items (usually repair kits) required to fix the quirk. The player may choose to fix the quirk or keep it, however there is a small chance that the quirk disappears on its own after a while.
Difficulty Options
Quirk frequency can be reduced/increased under "Gameplay > Modifiers > Car Quirks". The quirk finding mini-game has two difficulty modifiers to make it easier: "Free Quirk Guesses" gives infinite guesses and "Free Quirk Hints" turns off Anchor Energy cost for the Analysis Module.