Dead Rails Fuel Explained: How to Get and Use

Fuel is the most crucial resource in Dead Rails. It helps you run the train, get to the last checkpoint, and escape the zombie outbreak. There’s an abundance of fuel scattered all across the in-game buildings and over the barren island. However, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it can get really difficult to reach the last checkpoint, leaving aside managing your cash for buying other essentials. So, if you’re facing trouble and want to understand what can be used as fuel and how to optimize it, this one’s for you. Keep reading as we explain fuel in Dead Rails right here.

What is Fuel in Dead Rails

In Dead Rails, fuel acts as a powerful source for the train that can help you escape to Mexico. Placing an item that can be used as fuel inside the train’s engine furnace will increase the gauge meter, depending on the source’s power. As such, anything that can be burned to keep your train’s engine chugging is fuel.

Dead Rail fuel items will be marked with a nice ‘Fuel‘ tag along with other classes of what they are. The gauge meter can thereby indicate how far you can travel with the amount of fuel you have left. For instance, a little more than half of the fuel tank can help you travel 10,000 meters (the next checkpoint) if you run at full speed without stopping.

What Items Can Be Used as Fuel in Dead Rails

Now, it should strike you what to use and how efficient a particular resource is as a fuel. As we mentioned, in Dead Rails, it can be anything with the ‘Fuel’ tag, excluding valuables like gold and silver, ammunition, armor, and other defensive materials.

For instance, you can use corpses of the in-game creatures like Zombies, Werewolves, Dead Rails horses, or junk items like chairs, books, wheels as fuel. The most efficient resource is coal, as it’s readily available and bumps up the fuel meter by a decent amount.

Another major fuel resource is Nikola Tesla’s corpse, as it can completely fill up the meter. However, his body can only be found at the last checkpoint, so currently, it’s not much use as fuel. That said, here is the list of all items you can use as fuel in Dead Rails, along with the distance they can take you.

Note that the distance values are valid once the train gains momentum, so you may travel a few meters less if you start from a speed of 0.

How to Manage Fuel in Dead Rails

1. Use Classes in Dead Rails

You will find the Tailor in the Lobby who can help you buy the best Dead Rails classes. Here, the Miner and the Conductor classes are efficient in managing fuel. The former spawns with two pieces of coal and can mine the Coal ores faster than any other class. While the latter spawns with the same items and can run the train at 30% faster speed.

This can help you complete the entire 80 km journey using just 16 pieces of coal at a cost of $ 320. Whereas all other classes will require you to have 19 pieces at 380 cash to reach the last checkpoint.

2. Use the Best Items

Now that you know what items can be used as fuel, you should always aim for filling up the meter using any sort of junk items or corpses you can find in the game, such as papers, chairs, wheels, and barrels. Here is the order in which you should prioritize using any item as a fuel source:

• Corpses: Zombies, Skeletons, Wolves, and Horses. Honestly, there’s no use in these things, and hence, throw them in the furnace first.
• Junk Items: Newspapers, Wanted Posters, Tumbleweed, books, wheels, rope, paintings, chair, barrels. These won’t sell for much and therefore should always be used as fuel.
• Coal: Coal gives you a huge bump in the fuel meter. However, it costs money to buy, and the ores are quite rare. So use coal when your fuel meter is completely out of range or when the above options are not accessible.
• High Value Corpses: These include Vampires, Outlaws, Werewolves, and Unicorns. Since you can sell these items for a decent amount of cash, it’s recommended to save them till the next checkpoint. However, if no other option is left, throw them in the furnace and save yourself.

How to Get Fuel in Dead Rails By Doing Nothing

The best way that I use to get fuel in Dead Rails is by staying at a checkpoint for a night or two. This way, as soon as night falls and monsters start spawning, the automatic turrets in the safe zone will instantly kill them, and I can then use the corpses.

Sometimes, I get lucky if there’s a Full Moon or a Blood Moon event. This way, I can stock up piles of Werewolf or Vampire corpses, sell them to make money, and finally buy coal or other essentials. There’s a full guide on all Dead Rails night events that you can refer to for better understanding.

That’s essentially everything about fuel in Dead Rails, what items you can use, and what to prefer first as a fuel source in the game. So, what do you think about using our strategy in the game? Let us know in the comments below!