Vehicles and how to unlock them

Every vehicle belongs to one of four weight-and-torque bands. The class tells you what a car is built for before you have driven it.

All three starter cars are Trail class — the starter garage is a choice inside a class, not a separate tier. The in-game achievement 'Fleet Owner' asks for 18 of the 21 vehicles to be unlocked, so a player chasing it needs most of the earned list below on top of the starter they kept.

1. Choose one of Protector, Trailrat or Ding at the start of a new save.
2. Each of the three behaves differently on the same slope, so a short shake-down drive after picking is worth the time.
3. The two you did not pick become available later, so no starter pick is permanent.

All three are Trail class — 1,600 kg and 112 Nm. For a first session, the Protector is the most forgiving on loose ground; the Trailrat is lighter on fuel and easier to recover; the Ding is the shortest wheelbase and the most responsive on tight switchbacks in Aurès Mountains once you reach it.

The roster draws on off-road vehicles from the 1960s through the 1980s. Era and drivetrain tags are published for four of the 21 vehicles:

The other seventeen vehicles have no published era or drivetrain tag, so use the class bands above instead of guessing from the name.

Beyond the starter garage, vehicles unlock by:

• Named trail rewards — every one of the eighteen earned vehicles is awarded for finishing a named trail or ascent; Windy Joe Trail in Emerald Lake awards the Trail Burner and is the earliest one, and the in-game route display shows the reward before you start.
• Exploration unlocks — discovering certain viewpoints or cabins in later biomes can award a new vehicle, so keep exploring past the named trail.
• Repeat trail completions — the October 16 update restored Pebble rewards on repeat completions, and some vehicles are gated behind finishing a longer chain of the same area.

The roster table is the farming list. Use the map and portal guide to organise the search by biome and to keep track of which named trails you have already cleared.

1. Pick an obstacle that limits the car you already drive — a steep climb, a muddy slope, a deep water crossing.
2. Drive the newly unlocked car through the same line with stock parts.
3. Only then open Pebbles and upgrades and invest in the bucket the test showed matters most for that specific car.

A 1980s performance-tuned car can run modern tyres, while an older short-wheelbase rig benefits more from reinforced frame and recovery parts than from raw traction parts. Upgrades stay on the vehicle you bought them for, so test a new car before you spend on it — the tool and loadout guide covers what to carry while you compare.

• All Vehicle Locations, Unlocks & Stats — the 21-vehicle roster, the Trail, Wagon, Workhorse and Expedition classes and the area each vehicle belongs to.
• OverTheHillDB cars — the weight and torque of each class and the trail that awards every vehicle.
• OverTheHillDB achievements — the Fleet Owner requirement of 18 vehicles unlocked.