If you’ve spent even a few hours exploring Wuthering Waves’ sprawling open world, you’ve probably already groaned at the thought of running from one end of the map to the other. Stamina potions only go so far, and fast travel points are few and far between when you’re just starting out. I was in the same boat until I figured out how to build Rover in Wuthering Waves, and it completely changed how I play the game. This four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle cuts travel time by more than 70%, lets you zip past low-level enemies without stopping, and even has enough torque to climb most moderate mountain slopes. I’ve put together this guide based on my own experience building and upgrading the Rover last month, so you can skip the frustrating trial and error I went through.
Prerequisites You Need to Meet Before You Build Rover in Wuthering Waves
You can’t start crafting the Rover as soon as you boot up the game, but the requirements are surprisingly easy to hit even for new players. First, you need to complete Chapter 2 of the main story quest, “A New Horizon”, which unlocks when you hit account level 20. This quest will take you to the main industrial hub of Jinzhou, where you’ll get access to the city’s central crafting workbench, the only workbench that supports vehicle assembly.
Once you finish that chapter, a short side quest called “Wheels of Progress” will pop up on your map. You just need to talk to the city’s supply officer to complete it, and she’ll give you the free Rover assembly blueprint as a reward. You don’t need to spend any in-game premium currency to unlock the blueprint, so you don’t have to worry about saving up Lunite for this upgrade. The only other requirement is that your account is at least level 22, which you’ll almost certainly hit by the time you finish Chapter 2 if you’re picking up side quests along the way.
Required Materials for Crafting the Rover (And Where to Farm Them Fast)
All the materials you need for the Rover are easy to find in early to mid-game areas, and you might already have a few of them in your inventory if you’ve been looting chests and doing bounties. I farmed all the missing materials in less than 90 minutes when I built my Rover, so it’s not a huge grind. Here’s the full list of what you’ll need:
- 12 Reinforced Alloy Plates: Dropped by level 15+ mechanical enemies in the southern grasslands, or you can buy 2 per day from the Jinzhou general store for 500 credits each. I got 7 of mine just from clearing enemy camps I was already visiting for daily quests.
- 8 High-Power Energy Cores: Found in hidden supply crates in the Gobi Desert ruins, or as a reward for completing 3-star daily bounties. If you’re having trouble finding crates, just follow the glowing blue markers that pop up when you use a scanner item.
- 15 Rubber Composite Parts: Gathered from dismantling unused common and uncommon weapons, or farmed from the tire piles scattered around the port industrial area. Dismantling old weapons is the fastest way to get these, since you probably have a ton of unused 1 and 2 star weapons taking up space in your inventory.
- 1 Rover Assembly Manual: Given for free when you complete the “Wheels of Progress” side quest, no extra work required here.
If you’re really pressed for time, you can exchange excess event tokens for Reinforced Alloy Plates and Energy Cores, but I don’t recommend it if you’re saving tokens for limited character ascension materials. The farm spots are so accessible that it’s better to save your event tokens for rarer items you can’t get from regular world drops.
Step-by-Step Assembly Process to Get Your Rover Running
Once you have all your materials gathered, head back to the central crafting workbench in Jinzhou and select the Vehicle tab from the menu. You’ll see the Rover listed as the first craftable vehicle, and the game will show you if you have all the required materials. Click craft, and you’ll be taken to a short assembly minigame where you have to attach the wheels, body, and energy core in the right order. You don’t have to get the minigame perfect to get the Rover, but a perfect score gives you a free blue custom paint job as a bonus, so it’s worth taking 30 seconds to do it right.
After the crafting process is done, you’ll get a prompt to do a short test drive to unlock the Rover for permanent use. You just need to drive through 10 checkpoints outside the city in under 2 minutes. The checkpoints are all on a flat, clear road, so even if you’re terrible at driving games, you’ll be able to finish this on your first try. I finished mine with 30 seconds left, and I’m terrible at controlling vehicles in most open world games.
Once you pass the test drive, the Rover will be added to your mount menu permanently. You can summon it anywhere in the open world, except for indoor areas, tight cave passages, and combat arenas. If you crash into obstacles too many times, it will despawn, but you only have to wait 10 seconds to resummon it with no repair costs. That’s a really nice QoL feature the devs added, so you don’t have to worry about breaking it if you’re driving recklessly to get to a world boss spawn.
Optimal Rover Upgrades to Maximize Its Utility
Building the base Rover is great, but there are a few upgrades you can get that make it even more useful for exploration. All upgrade materials drop from world bosses and weekly challenges, so you don’t have to spend any premium currency here either. I recommend prioritizing these upgrades in this order to get the most value early on.
The first upgrade you should get is the Extended Battery, which doubles the amount of time you can drive the Rover before it needs to recharge. The base battery only lasts 5 minutes of continuous driving, which is fine for short trips, but the extended battery lets you drive across the entire map without stopping to recharge. I use this every time I’m going on a chest-hunting run in the mountain regions, where fast travel points are super spread out.
Next, get the Off-Road Tires upgrade, which lets you drive up 60-degree steep slopes without slowing down. The base Rover struggles a lot on steep hills, and you’ll often have to get out and climb if you’re exploring mountain areas. With the off-road tires, I can drive up almost every slope in the game, which saves me a ton of stamina that I would otherwise waste climbing.
The third upgrade I recommend is the Emergency Glider Deploy feature, which lets you open your glider directly from the Rover when you drive off a cliff. You don’t have to jump out first, which saves you a second of time and prevents you from falling to your death if you drive off a ledge by accident. It’s not a must-have if you only use the Rover for road travel, but it’s super fun for exploring high elevation areas.
Avoid wasting your upgrade materials on cosmetic paint jobs and decals first, since they don’t add any functional benefits. Save those for later when you have extra upgrade materials and you’ve already unlocked all the functional upgrades you want.
Once you know how to build Rover in Wuthering Waves, you’ll wonder how you ever played the game without it. It’s one of the most useful quality-of-life upgrades you can unlock early on, and it doesn’t require any rare materials or premium currency to get. If you’re still on the fence about putting in the time to farm the parts, just think about how much time you’ll save not running across the desert for 10 minutes just to complete a single side quest. I’ve logged more than 100 hours with my Rover so far, and I still find new uses for it every time I log on, from chasing down wandering bosses to giving my co-op friends rides across the map. The only downside I’ve found is that I now get impatient whenever I have to walk through indoor dungeons, but that’s a small tradeoff for all the time it saves me out in the open world.