Which would you rather find on day one? A wrench or a water purifier mod?

[Suxar]

There's plenty of other things you want but which one is going to make your post-apocalyptic day?

Are you one of those who thinks that the main thing in the game is to dismantle a bunch of cars?

I would understand if we were discussing A20, where a key was required to create a workbench, but now what's the point? You can get money just by collecting cotton, chrysanthemum and goldenrod. It's enough to buy food if you suddenly don't find enough of it in the kitchen cupboards.

 

[theFlu]

What's a wrench for?

It's one of the three tools to salvage electrical and mechanical parts, from cars and all kinds of electrical gadgets. Those are required for some recipes, and can't be obtained otherwise, except for traders.

 

[BFT2020]

Hands down wrench.

The sooner I can start wrench down items to base components, the sooner I can gather the materials I need to start building things. I find plenty of dirty water in the initial POIs I loot so drinking murky water from a jar is the same as drinking it from a lake.

 

[theFlu]

Plenty of people are picking "obviously wrench"; makes me think I'm doing something different. But I guess it might just be:

I've never suffered for the lack of a wrench since I don't actually need to craft anything anymore. Getting that "alternative purifier" on D1 wouldn't mean a playthrough without a wrench, but getting one on D2-4. And if a little later, still wouldn't lose much, ain't got the stamina to wrench a lot anyway. The purifier isn't needed at all, but it's so randomly rare that I might as well secure one. Really early it'll save you from gathering 200 plastic, later on it can live in your trader hat

 

[Sapient6]

A wrench. It's a useful way to get materials, particularly springs. I never use the water purifier mod, so getting one on day 1 would be a non-event for me.

 

[linewalker]

For me the wrench is always the holdback. I can drink murky water and cure it with the meds I find literally everywhere if I happen to be unlucky enough to get the debuff.

 

[hampy_251]

Wow so, I had enough skill books and made a lvl 6 ratchet. Sheesh! The amount of mechanical parts, etc that I now have!
I didn't know.

 

[theFlu]

Sheesh! The amount of mechanical parts, etc that I now have!

Welcome to the pack rat life

 

[NiteVIper]

Plenty of people are picking "obviously wrench"; makes me think I'm doing something different. But I guess it might just be:

I've never suffered for the lack of a wrench since I don't actually need to craft anything anymore. Getting that "alternative purifier" on D1 wouldn't mean a playthrough without a wrench, but getting one on D2-4. And if a little later, still wouldn't lose much, ain't got the stamina to wrench a lot anyway. The purifier isn't needed at all, but it's so randomly rare that I might as well secure one. Really early it'll save you from gathering 200 plastic, later on it can live in your trader hat

Well, you still need the pipe, plastic and tape to build the dew collector for the challenge, so might as well get the wrench early on to help with collecting the materials needed IMO

 

[theFlu]

for the challenge

Hmm, we play different games. After the initial skill-point-ones, I look at the challenge page every couple weeks to see if I've popped something. Can't say I'm too bothered not getting that one done on D1-4. Might make a collector, sure, but

pipe, plastic and tape

Pipes are everywhere (trash, if I "must have them now" sinks/toilets with a stone axe), plastic I get from tires and barrels, no wrench needed and tape is .. mostly trash + some curtains/cotton whatnot. I don't think a wrench would speed my progress there, at all.

 

[Riamus]

I don't use the purifier even if I find one, so wrench.

 

[NiteVIper]

Pipes are everywhere

Oh yeah, I know, but was just using that as a somewhat example, probably not the greatest of examples lol

Post automatically merged: Jul 14, 2025

I don't use the purifier even if I find one, so wrench.

I have never found a purifier, but I have found the schematic and still never bothered to make one lol

 

[hampy_251]

I figured out very early after finding a cast iron pot in someone's under sink cabinet that I could boil and clarify the water. So, that was super easy. I literally just put a fire pit outside the front gate of Rekt's trade shop.

 

[Suxar]

Well, you still need the pipe, plastic and tape to build the dew collector for the challenge, so might as well get the wrench early on to help with collecting the materials needed IMO

Why do you need a wrench for this? You don't need a lot of pipes and tape, you can easily find it in the trash. As for plastic, it's easier to get it with a stone axe from tires and blinds. In general, I only had problems with plastic when playing through force, when I was making a lot of bullet cartridges for a shotgun.

 

[Riamus]

Not counting things that only come from scrapping vehicles (engines, radiators, etc.), the only thing that having a wrench for in the early game that would be helpful is in getting mechanical parts. Those can be found without a wrench, but they can be time consuming to find before you get a wrench and start scrapping stuff. Other than that, a wrench isn't critical in the early game. But it is still nice to have. And given the choice of that or the water purifier mod, I'd always choose the wrench.

But yeah, you can find everything for the dew collector very easily without a wrench.