Pacific Drive's Biggest Update Yet Adds Tons of New Content

Summary

Ironwood Studios launched the free Pacific Drive Endless Expeditions expansion, adding a new rogue-like mode and content.
Features include Expeditions mode, Anchor Locks, new Routes, and Performance Improvements.
The update fulfills fan requests with a saved game suspension feature and a new trader system for parts and cosmetics.

Developer Ironwood Studios has debuted a huge new update for its hit roguelike survival game Pacific Drive. Originally launched in February 2024 for PC and PS5, Pacific Drive intrigued players with its sense of atmosphere and unique driving gameplay.

Despite the increasingly crowded nature of the survival game genre, Pacific Drive stood apart from the pack as one of the best survival games of the 2020s, thanks to its unusual focus and moment-to-moment gameplay. Cast as lone travelers inside an anomaly-filled exclusion zone set in the American Pacific Northwest, Pacific Drive players are almost wholly reliant on driving, upgrading, and protecting their beat-up station wagon car for survival in the zone. This focus on first-person, vehicle-bound play lends Pacific Drive a distinctive atmosphere compared to the many on-foot survival titles that make up what most folks think of the genre. It also won the game fans, leading to more than a million sales in its first year and nominations at the Game Awards, as well as plans for a TV series adaptation.

Pacific Drive passes one million copies sold.

Pacific Drive Passes Incredible Sales Milestone

Ironwood Studios' debut game Pacific Drive passes an impressive sales milestone a year after its release despite its humble origins.

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By Aaron McKinley

Now Ironwood Studios has launched the free Pacific Drive Endless Expeditions expansion for Spring 2025. Deployed on April 3, just past the game's first anniversary, Endless Expeditions is billed as the biggest Pacific Drive update yet, adding an entirely new way to experience the game's roguelike structure. Called Expeditions, the new mode starts players in the garage with a unique, randomized set of challenges and restrictions while generating new routes and ramping up the difficulty. Expeditions aim to breathe life into Pacific Drive beyond its original narrative-driven core campaign and cement its place as one of the best science fiction survival games around.

Pacific Drive Endless Expeditions Update Adds Endless Roguelite Mode and New Content

Pacific Drive Endless Expeditions Expansion Content Roundup

Expeditions Mode
- 25 New collectible Garage Cosmetics found exclusively during Expeditions
Suspend Run Feature
Upgrades to the Plasma Scrapper and Thermal Vacuum
1 hour of new music, consisting of 21 tracks from new and returning artists
New Fax Machine entries
HUD options to allow for more organized, immersive gameplay
New car cosmetics featuring personalities from the launch period streamer contest

As teased in earlier Pacific Drive update previews, players will be able to access Expeditions after a certain early point in the main story, after which they'll be able to launch Expeditions at will and send materials back to Oppy's garage to turn into upgrades. A new trader called Ida's Exchange also allows them to trade resources for rare parts, recipes, and rare garage cosmetics.

On top of the Expeditions update, Ironwood Studios also added a major fan-requested feature: the ability to suspend a run in progress. Fans have called for the ability to save a game midway through a run for months, with Ironwood resisting and saying that the ability to save mid-run ran counter to the core gameplay loop. As a result, the default Pacific Drive save system only activates when entering new Junctions or making it to a safe garage. The Endless Expeditions update allows players to save their progress at any time in a Junction and keep their progress. Additionally, they'll also be able to turn off autosaving, and "jumpstart" a new game by skipping past the tutorial.

The new update shows the depth of support Ironwood has for Pacific Drive, far beyond its initial release window. With luck, it'll keep fans engaged further into the future.

Pacific Drive Endless Expeditions Patch Notes

Version 1.9.1

Features and Content

Expeditions Mode
- Expeditions start in the garage with an ever-changing set of challenges and restrictions, generating new routes, and ramping up the difficulty to ensure that every journey feels fresh. This also includes new Anchor types, Francis VO, and the ZETI device.
Ida’s Exchange
- Ida is a trader who has appeared in the Zone to swap resources for hard to find parts, cosmetics, and more
Anchor Locks
- A new type of obstacle - locked Anchors that appear in Expeditions
New Expeditions Junction Types
- Pit Stop Junctions
- Ida’s Exchange Junctions
- Anchor Junctions
- A.R.D.A Junctions
- Desolate, Junkyard, and Residential Junctions
Unrestricted Parts
- This is a new part category that helps specifically with Expeditions restrictions
Field Guide Quests
- Specifically used as a tutorial and for players using the Jumpstart feature to get into the game
Gas Island
- At the start of every junction, you will find a Gas Island to help you on your Expeditions
Suspend Run
- Exit your game at any time, and “suspend” your progress for the next time you join the game.
Jumpstart
- Experienced players have the opportunity to start a new game from the main menu and skip the first quest.
Autosaving
- Autosaving during transition points can now be turned off via gameplay settings
HUD now has three display options under Accessibility Settings to reduce or remove visibility
- Player Info HUD
- Mission HUD
- Item & Interaction HUD
Performance Improvements
- Minor Post process GPU optimizations for damage and other player effects
- Asynchronous loading for held-in-hand items has been improved to prevent gameplay hitching
Analytics implementation on PC versions of the game
- Prompt to opt out can be found in the Game Data section of the Accessibility settings as well as on first startup for the Endless Expeditions update
- Anonymized information that is helping Ironwood improve Pacific Drive
ARC Device Updates
- ARC Device map icons now display tooltip information when hovered over and have been increased in size for better visibility
- ARC Device map now consolidates groups of icons into a single icon
Plasma Scrapper and Thermal Vacuum updates
- Plasma Scrapper
  - The Plasma Scrapper now automatically collects scrapped resources, has received damage, activation time, and distance buffs.
- Thermal Vacuum
  - The Thermal Vacuum can now open unlocked containers while gathering materials, and automatically add them to your car’s inventory if it’s close by, also has a higher durability, wider range
25 New Garage Cosmetics
- Available as expedition rewards, Ida’s Exchange rewards and found throughout the Zone
Streamer Rewards Cosmetics
- A new Breebunn Bobblehead is acquirable for the car
- Two new mirror ornaments from Elliejoypanic and Outhouse069
Additional radio interstitials have been added
6 New Wilderness Junctions added to the map pool
21 new radio songs
- 6 of these songs have been added to the Streamer Safe music list
Improved Route Planner UI
- Split Route Planner information into 2 screens, Route Features and Route Details that you can toggle between
NEW: The Features Screen
- Displays your critical story mission
- Junction Features displays key info about the current hovered junction
- Junction Conditions now include a brief description
IMPROVED: Route Details Screen contains detailed route information with improved readability
General pass on colors and states of Junctions to make it a bit easier to understand
The route planning screen now more clearly shows undiscovered junctions and how to reveal them
Once the Bypass Junction garage upgrade is built, you now only need to drive through a single Highway map even if multiple stretches of highway are on the route
Additional Fax Machine Entries added
DLC digital store capsule updated
Will now rotate through all available DLC options
Credits have been updated
- Streamers featured in game
- New music credits
- Added additional IW Pets
Bugs and UX Improvements
- Fixed Battery Jumper charging animation for XL Roof Battery
- Abandon, Save and Quit Options have been removed from Pause Menu
- Fixed an issue where a Quirk with the “Brakes Weaken” behavior could cause problems with the car’s physics (i.e. Launch across the map randomly) when braking
- Fixed gas pump interactivity, including cables and vacuuming nozzles
- Fixed Radio audio doubling when installing the ARC Device
- Removed Legend UI prompts from ARC Device and Route Planner
- Fixed Sprint unintentionally toggling on if you were sprinting while opening a menu
- Also fixes some instances of sprint getting toggled while trying to use certain tools, preventing use
- Status effects now show up in list inventories
- Inventory screens now show an item's usage info by default instead of logbook info by default
- In the Player Menu, the Missions tab can now selectively hide and show individual active missions, allowing you to hide a mission's HUD tracker and objective markers if desired
- Pacemaker conversions no longer destroy items that cannot convert, there have been additional adjustments and additions regarding items in game
- Transmuters have been upgraded, rebalanced, with additional options for conversions - there is also a new visual indicator to clarify how many input items are required
  - This includes new Expeditions exclusive conversions
- Gameplay setting to prevent Harmful Status Effects now also prevents status effects from applying when an item runs out of health like ‘Breaking’
- Fixed a crash with old data conflicting with newer updates while starting a new game in the same save slot
- Backup saves are now fully deleted when starting a new game on a recently cleared save slot
- Controller zoom in/out now works while the game is paused
- Anchor requirements are now always revealed on maps which have been revealed mid-run
- Screen Shake intensity setting has been added under Accessibility Settings
- Fixed missing mission objectives in some map views
- Impact Hammer should now return materials when placed in deconstructor
- Fixed random returns to garage after selecting new node
- Fixed upgraded trunk UI cut off in some resolutions
- Oppy should no longer try to talk to you during a pause menu
- “Weak Brakes” quirk should no longer launch the car when combined with other brake quirks
- Fixed audio levels for music and interstitials when volume is set to “0”
- Fixed throw meter getting stuck at “2”
- Fixed some healing stations spawning in inaccessible locations
- Negative status’ should no longer apply after “Breaking” when the setting is disabled.
- Gas pump haptics, tool haptics and some other small haptics should now function correctly
- Scrapper will no longer be stuck in a Pacemaker when being dispersed
- Gas pump will no longer fly into the sky when vacuumed
- Reduced collision on garage toilet so that y’all can place things on it.
- Garage fuel nozzle should no longer clip through car to refill can
- Falling plates on stabilizers should now consistently fall to the ground during certain campaign events
- Fixed softlock when player flips car too close to exit
- Fixed some healing particles and sprites should no longer have a repeating texture
- Improved randomization and balancing:
  - Randomization seeds have been improved for expeditions and campaign maps
  - Updated Storm Speed, as occasionally storms would move slower than intended
  - Olympium Vein density has been increased
  - Adjusted anchor spawn frequency for main questline
  - Improved Spawn rates, certain materials now appear more frequently
    - Swamp Coral, Olympium, and Red Balloons
Known Issues
- When reloading from a suspended run, the car might experience an incredible amount of upward movement depending on how closely to the car the game was suspended
- This situation is dependent upon frame perfect scenarios and is affected by car and player collision
- Some Campaign Mission details might appear on Expeditions
- Details may appear in route planner information if junction is repurposed from a Campaign Mission
- The Paint Shelf objective is registering paints and decal kits in locked Goldshells
- Grid Inventory can become “sticky” and will not drag and drop certain items properly
- Some Expedition mission icons can appear incorrectly with the Campaign icon rather than an Expeditions icon
- Trip Report may not properly count trip time displayed when loading from a suspended run
- Some AMD Cards + Drivers are soft-locking while attempting to load into gameplay
- Recommended troubleshooting - update all drivers and verify game files via Steam or Epic
- Occasionally Tool Instruction UI will scale smaller via HUD
- Temporary solution: Using the tool will make the text scale properly
- Tesla Towers don’t target Conductive Goldshells
- Status effect indicators on bumpers are not rotating properly in inventory when storing part
- Player can stand on rear left door when exiting car if rear left door is open, will also cause door to break and fall off
- Occasionally, Players are able to highlight containers through walls