World & Exploration Hub
Roads, biomes, landmarks and the underground caverns you can only reach after 1.0.
How Scrap Mechanic’s world is laid out
The Survival Mode world is procedurally generated but follows a consistent template: a crash site, a network of roads, a Mechanic Station, several landmarks and (in 1.0) a deep underground layer. The roads are the easiest navigation aid — almost every interesting location is on or near one.
This hub links to the landmark guides you will need:
- Mechanic Station — your safe haven, the Crafting Bench chain and quest hub.
- Warehouses — dungeon-like late-game structures with the best loot.
- Underground mining — the Drilling Thunder caverns, the new Ore Crusher, and the plasma drill progression.
- Mining Island — Grow Labs, the collapsed elevator and Chapter 2 story NPCs.
- Weather and biomes — dynamic weather, desert tornadoes and biome-specific hazards in 1.0.
- Landmarks and navigation — how to read the in-game compass, find campsites and Trader hideouts.
Biomes in the 1.0 chapter
| Biome | Surface features | Underground features |
|---|---|---|
| Plains | Open fields, frequent Farmbot patrols | Sparse ore, easy entrance |
| Forest | Dense wood, lower visibility at night | Medium ore, lots of roots |
| Desert | Sand physics, sparse resources | Rich rare-metal veins |
| Mountain | Steep slopes, advanced ore | Lava pockets, plasma-only progression |
| Coastal | Mixed terrain, water hazards | Submerged caves |
Each biome has at least one warehouse and at least one underground entrance. The 1.0 patch improved the linking between roads and underground entrances, so you no longer need a helicopter to descend safely.
How to navigate without a map
There is no global map in Survival Mode — the developers removed it in 2020 to keep the world feeling vast. The in-game compass shows cardinal directions and quest markers. Use the roads as your reference grid: every landmark sits at a road intersection or within 100 blocks of one.
For a practical navigation tutorial, see landmarks and navigation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
Is the world infinite?
No. Survival Mode generates a fixed-size map (about 2x2 km on the surface, with a 1x1 km underground layer added in 1.0). Once you reach the edges, the terrain becomes unclimbable walls.
Do landmarks respawn?
Mechanic Stations, Trader hideouts and Campsites are static. Wrecks respawn every few days. Warehouse loot respawns only after a server restart or a manual world reset.
Can I teleport between locations?
Not in vanilla. The community teleport mod exists but is not supported by the official servers.