The first purchasable stage of every upgrade system costs 25 Pebbles and the next one costs 50. The winch has a fourth stage at 75, and the three tool-slot purchases cost 25, 50 and 75. Meteorites pay 15-80 Pebbles each and your first Mechanic visit in an area pays 10. Upgrades are bought on one vehicle, do not transfer to another and are not refunded.
On this page
What each upgrade stage costs
| System | Purchasable stages | Cost per stage (Pebbles) | Cost to max (Pebbles) |
|---|---|---|---|
Engine | Stage 2, Stage 3 | 25, 50 | 75 |
Tires | Stage 2, Stage 3 | 25, 50 | 75 |
Suspension lift | Level 2, Level 3 | 25, 50 | 75 |
Protection | Stage 2, Stage 3 | 25, 50 | 75 |
Water resistance | Level 2, Level 3 | 25, 50 | 75 |
Winch | Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4 | 25, 50, 75 | 150 |
Tool slots (inventory) | Three purchases, 1 to 4 slots | 25, 50, 75 | 150 |
What one fully upgraded vehicle costs
Add the table up and one vehicle costs 675 Pebbles to max across all 16 stages, and the whole 21-vehicle roster on the same numbers runs to 14,175 Pebbles. The one-time rewards in the game add up to roughly 3,240, so most of that spend has to come from repeatable trails and meteorites rather than from first-time objectives.
The 675 figure comes from the one guide that prices all seven systems. The other community guide stops at four of them — inventory 150, winch 150, tires 75, engine 75, so 450 — and never states a whole-vehicle number at all. The two therefore do not agree on what a full build costs, so read the price on the card in your own merchant list before you budget for a whole garage.
Where Pebbles come from
| Source | What it pays | Repeatable |
|---|---|---|
Meteorites | 15-80 Pebbles each depending on size, shared when several players extract the same rock | Yes, wherever one spawns |
First Mechanic visit in an area | 10 Pebbles | Once per area |
Challenge trails | A one-time reward plus Pebbles on every completion | Yes |
Recovery missions | A one-time reward plus Pebbles on every completion | Yes |
Crates, cabins and scenic points | One-time reward | Once each |
First photo of each wildlife species | One-time reward | Once per species |
Which payouts are actually published
Meteorites and the first Mechanic visit are the only two sources with numbers anyone has written down. Trail, mission, crate and wildlife-photo payouts vary by objective and are not listed in any current guide, so the reward panel on the objective itself is the figure to trust.
Performance buckets and named parts
Upgrades are grouped by the driving problem they solve. Read the bucket that matches what actually slows you down before opening the merchant menu.
Because every first-stage purchase is the same 25 Pebbles, order matters more than price here. Cosmetic changes — paint, decals, accessories — sit in a separate tab and never touch the numbers, so leave them until the driving problem is solved.
Named parts in each bucket
| Bucket | What it targets | Named examples |
|---|---|---|
Traction | Wheelspin on mud, snow and loose gravel | All-terrain tyres, mud-terrain tyres, limited-slip differential |
Climbs | Steep and rocky ascents | Reinforced suspension lift, low-range gearbox, rock-rated tyres |
Damage | Engine and chassis damage thresholds | Reinforced frame, heavy-duty radiator, armour plating |
Recovery | Self-recovery and extraction | Winch upgrade, spare plank pack, repair kit capacity |
Merchant hub vs cabin purchase flow
- Visit the merchant hub when you want the full catalogue and want to compare every bucket against the price table above.
- Visit a cabin in the biome you are exploring to grab the items most useful in that terrain. Cabin stock is smaller and pre-filtered for the area.
- Confirm the install when the prompt highlights which bucket the part belongs to. Mixing a recovery-focused and a traction-focused purchase before testing either is how players overspend on upgrades that fight each other.
- Drive a familiar route after the install to verify the change actually helps before moving on.
Use the map and portal guide to plan which cabin to stop at for a fast local pickup; use the hub when you are ready to overhaul the car.
What the October 16 update changed
The October 16 launch patch covered two reward loops:
- Repeat Pebble rewards on completed challenge trails and recovery missions are restored, so a finished trail still pays out until you have enough for the next upgrade.
- Meteorite spawn points were adjusted in every area, so a pre-patch meteorite run may end up empty. Check a freshly mapped route from your current cabin instead of trusting an old path.
The patch did not add new buckets or move parts between categories. If a part was in the recovery bucket before the patch, it is still in the recovery bucket now.
Choose a practical first purchase
- Name the obstacle you hit most: traction, a climb that will not hold, damage, water, or no way out when you bog down.
- Buy the first stage of that system for 25 Pebbles and drive a route you already know.
- The most common opening order is tool slots, then tires, then winch — 75 Pebbles for the three — with engine bought last, which takes the four to 100. Tool slots decide how many tools you can carry at all, so they come before the tools.
- Only then add a second system, so you can tell which one helped.
If you are weighing an upgrade against unlocking the next car, the vehicle roster lists which trail awards what.
Sources
- OverTheHillDB upgrade prices — per-stage Pebble prices for all seven systems.
- Tool Slot Costs, Pebble Sources and the October 16 Patch — the 675 Pebble full build, the 15-80 meteorite range and the 10 Pebble Mechanic visit.
- Best Upgrades to Get First — the 75 Pebble trio and the 100 Pebble four-part order.
- Pebbles overview — the categories of earning objective.