Car Battery

General

Item Type

Tool

Wintermute

Yes

Renewable

No

Statistics

Weight
15.00 kg (33 lbs)

Harvest
30 min 6 x Scrap Lead with a Hacksaw

"Useless in the abandoned vehicles around Great Bear Island, car Batteries can still be Harvested for Scrap Lead."

— In-game description

Car Batteries are a crafting item in The Long Dark.

Overview[]

Car Batteries are the heaviest object in the game, weighing 15kg (33lbs), found under the hoods of a Car or Truck in any region that has them. Regions such as Mountain Town, Bleak Inlet, and Coastal Highway have the most cars, thus have the most Car Batteries to loot.

Harvesting[]

They can be harvested with a Hacksaw for Scrap Lead, required for crafting ammunition with the Gunsmithing skill at the Ammunition Workbench. It takes 30 minutes to harvest a Car Battery. One Car Battery will always yield six Scrap Lead; each piece of Scrap Lead may be crafted into six Bullets at an Ammunition Forge, so one Car Battery always allows the crafting of 36 Bullets.

Transmitters[]

For players that have the Tales from the Far Territory DLC installed, one car battery will be needed to fix each Transmitter. These batteries usually spawn near the transmitting stations, but may have to be looted from nearby vehicles:

A Battery spawns in a Supply Bin near the Shortwave Tower East Transmitter in Forlorn Muskeg.
The Radio Tower Transmitter does not have a Battery near it in Mountain Town. One must be scavenged near the town and brought up to the Transmitter.
Signal Hill has a Battery inside the Radio Control Hut in Pleasant Valley.
The Control Tower has all the materials needed to repair the Transmitter nearby in Forsaken Airfield.
Old Substation has a battery inside the substation for the Transmitter in Blackrock.
Hibernia Processing has multiple inside for the Transmitter in Desolation Point.

Trading[]

The Trader also requests 1 battery in his trades for Recipe Cards or Blueprints.

Special Locations[]

A select number of special areas contains around 5 Batteries in an indoor space. These batteries are typically not located near a Transmitter, and are useful if the player has run out of Car Batteries to use for trading or Gunsmithing.

Main Hangar in Forsaken Airfield
Hibernia Processing in Desolation Point
Blackrock Prison (inside the prison) in Blackrock

Products[]

Tips[]

Eventually all Hunting Rifle and Revolver ammunition will become depleted; crafting is the only way to obtain more ammunition outside of trading with the Trader.

Car Batteries may be found by lifting the hoods of cars and trucks. Not all vehicles have batteries, only ~50% will have one. At least on Interloper mode you should be prepared to haul car batteries from other maps to transmitters you want to repair.
They weigh 15kg, but can be harvested with a Hacksaw into 6 pieces of Scrap Lead weighing just 1.5kg. A convenient and safe way harvest Car Batteries is inside of their vehicle.
In prior versions, Car Batteries and Scrap Lead were useless on Interloper difficulty because firearms never spawn. This was changed with the introduction of Transmitters.
- They are still useless in Wintermute episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4 because there is no Ammunition Workbench.
Car Batteries and Scrap Lead are finite and non-renewable.
A Travois is extremely useful for hauling car batteries over longer distances.

Trivia[]

The Errant Pilgrim update introduced Gunsmithing.
12-Volt Lead-acid car batteries have 6 cells inside (2 volts per cell), which is why a Car Battery can be harvested for 6 pieces of Scrap Lead (one per cell).
The car battery bears the logo of the in-game company "ZAP." The same logo can be found on the energy bar.