Pacific Drive unstable energy and corrupt energy: Where to find them

Driving survival game — (Image credit: Ironwood Studios)

Looking for unstable energy and currupt energy in Pacific Drive? If you haven't found it yet, don't worry: it's not hiding or elusive and you don't need to scour all the junctions in the outer zone for it. To find unstable energy, you'll need to reach a certain point in the story where you travel into new zones of the map.

In the outer zone of Pacific Drive where you begin the game, you'll find stable energy in the form of anchors in just about every junction you visit. You use that stable energy not just to open portals back to your garage, but also to unlock recipes and craft new workbenches at your fabrication station.

You've probably noticed the energy gauge on the fabrication station also has a readout for "unstable energy" and "corrupt energy," and higher tier recipes and workshop gear can't be unlocked until you find those energy types. So, here's how to do it.

Pacific Drive unstable energy: How to get it

You won't find unstable energy anywhere in the outer zone. You'll need to search for a way through the wall into the mid-zone first. If you're wondering how close you are to accomplishing that, check your mission log. You'll need to complete the missions called "The Remnant Experiment," "Explore the Zone," "Stabilizing A Way Through," and begin "The Mid-Zone Crossing."

Once you're past the wall and in the mid-zone, unstable energy will appear on your car's map as yellow circles, the same way stable energy does. It will be located on the same structures and the anchors will look the same, but unstable energy will glow red instead of yellow. It works exactly the same way: grab the anchor and place it in the ARC device on the passenger seat. You can use it to open portals back to the garage and as a resource to unlock crafting recipes and workshop gear at your fabrication station.

Pacific Drive corrupt energy: How to get it

Once again, you'll need to cross another wall, this time from the mid-zone into the deep zone. This won't be possible until late in the game, and you won't have access to corrupt energy until you've completed the missions "A Little Favor," "The Visions," "Red Meadow Research Facility," and have begun the mission called "The Deep Zone Crossing." Once you're in the deep zone, corrupt energy will begin to appear in the junctions you drive through, but corrupt energy glows magenta instead of red or yellow. Otherwise it looks the same on your map (yellow circles) and works the same way.

Keep in mind you won't find stable energy once you're in the mid-zone or deep zone. Only one kind of energy will appear in each zone:

Stable energy: Outer zone
Unstable energy: Mid-zone
Corrupt energy: Deep zone

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.