How to Find and Use Stable Energy in Pacific Drive

Stable Energy is an essential resource in Pacific Drive, which is required to build better upgrades to your car and garage. While you’re likely to gather some during your time in the game, it may not be entirely clear where you’re getting it from.

How to Find Stable Energy in Pacific Drive

You need Stable Energy to open Gateways to get out of the Zone and back into the Auto Shop. You obtain it by collecting the Stable Anchors in each region and hooking them up to your car’s ARC Device. Every anchor you collect will add a certain amount of Stable Energy to a pool saved in the car.

Collecting an Anchor isn’t always easy. Picking one up will usually attract anomalies, so you should always keep the passenger side of your car close when collecting one, allowing you to quickly deposit the energy. While there is a minimum amount of energy you need to collect in each area to open the Gateway, you can continue to collect as much as the car will allow. Just make sure that the car is in good condition and fueled up for the return journey.

In addition, while Stable Energy is used to open the Gateway, it’s not spent in the process. Even if you only collect the minimum energy required to open the Gateway, you’ll keep it when you return to the Auto Shop.

How to Use Stable Energy in Pacific Drive

Returning to the Auto Shop instantly transfers all Stable Energy to the Fabrication Station. This energy does stack on top of any unused energy from previous trips, so it is possible to build a stockpile.

The Fabrication Station will then allow you to convert the Stable Energy into upgrades for both the car and the Auto Shop itself. Many of the unlocks here are blueprints for crafting projects, which only need Fabric to produce. However, others are unique crafting projects such as additional locker space, improvements to the fuel pump or better diagnostics for the Tinker Station. These all require additional materials, listed next to their entries.

How to Find Unstable and Corrupted Energy

As you progress through the Fabrication Station unlocks, you may notice that some unlocks require different types of energy. Some items will require Unstable Energy while others will require Corrupted Energy. You obtain these energy types with anchors found in different parts of the Zone. The Outer Zone offers Stable Energy, Mid Zone is Unstable Energy and the Deep Zone is Corrupted Energy.

In addition, if an area is marked with Extreme Conditions (represented with a brown cloud on the Route Planner), this can cause the energy to move to the next level up, e.g. Outer Zone areas now having Unstable Energy. However, these areas are much riskier to visit and should be approached with caution.

Pacific Drive is out now on the PS5 and PC.