Scrap Mechanic left Early Access on July 24, 2026, and the Drilling Thunder update rebuilt Survival mode around a full story. That story now starts the same way for everyone: you wake up beside a crashed ship on the Farming Planet and have to work your way to the Mechanic Station before you can build anything serious. The opening runs as a chain of tutorial quests, each one unlocking the next.
Quick answer: Put out the three ship fires with a Water Bucket, insert the first Master Battery to restore ship power, draft a Connect Tool to fix the console, build a basic car on the lift, drive to the Mechanic Station, install its second Master Battery, and build the Craftbot. A radio distress call then starts the “A Stranger in Need” quest.
Getting Started at the crash site
Entering the crashed ship activates the “Getting Started” objective. The whole first stage is contained around the wreck, so you don’t need to wander far.
Note: the Master Battery from the crash-site ruin only powers the ship. The Mechanic Station needs a separate battery you find later, so don’t expect this one to carry over.
Build your first car before you drive
The Mechanic Station is too far to reach comfortably on foot, so the game hands you a “Your First Car” objective. You gather materials, place a lift in the highlighted spot, and assemble a basic vehicle on it.
Before building, harvest wood from trees and collect the loose car parts and resources around the area. A functional starter vehicle needs a minimum set of pieces connected correctly with the Connect Tool, wiring the engine and steering through bearings into the driver’s seat.
| Part | Minimum needed |
|---|---|
| Scrap Wood Block | 56 |
| Bearing | 6 |
| Scrap Wheel | 4 |
| Scrap Driver’s Seat | 1 |
| Scrap Gas Engine | 1 |
Tip: keep the chassis low so it flips less on rough terrain, and connect the engine and seat before you drive off. If the car won’t move, the most common cause is an engine or bearing that was never wired to the seat with the Connect Tool.
The drive to the Mechanic Station
Drive toward the station following the road. The trip is where the opening bites back. Orange, pitchfork-wielding Haybots ambush you along the way, and they hit hard enough to take you down. If you die, your gear stays where you fell, so you can drive back and recover it.
You’ll know the station by its large, illuminated wrench sign. Clear out any remaining bots on arrival before you start working on the power.
Power the station and build the Craftbot
The station’s power objective marks a second Master Battery, found in the bunk-room area rather than out in the world. Install it to bring the station online.
With power restored, build a Craftbot. This is the upgrade that turns the station into a real workshop and lets you craft beyond the Mini Craftbot’s basics. It also means the station can start receiving radio traffic.
You can set a respawn point here by sleeping in a Mechanic Bed, which is worth doing before you head back out into bot territory.
How you know the opening is done
Right after the Craftbot is built and the station has power, a radio distress call comes in from a trapped survivor. That call unlocks the “A Stranger in Need” quest with a “Find the Stranger” objective. When you see it in your quest log, the opening sequence is complete and the main story has begun.
If the distress call never triggers, the usual reasons are simple. The Craftbot has not been built yet, or the second Master Battery was not installed, so the station is still without power. Both must be finished at the station before the quest appears.
One thing to keep in mind for returning players: old Creative worlds still load in 1.0, but old Survival saves need an older Steam version branch and won’t carry into Drilling Thunder cleanly. Starting fresh is the intended path for the new story, and the crash-site opening above is how every new Survival world now begins. You can pick up the game on its Steam store page if you don’t already own it.
