The levels in Roadcraft are big. 4km big, to be exact. And while there are definitely bigger game maps out there, the infrastructure is fractured at best (hence your reason for being there), meaning roads can be broken or non-existent and your 10-ton trucks can often struggle to get across them going more than 15mph.
As noted in our Roadcraft review, this can often mean it takes a while to get anywhere. While there technically isn’t a fast travel function, you do have a few options available to you to help get you around the map a little quicker.
Bases
You start with a single base which acts as a garage and recovery point. As you traverse the level you’ll often find two or three more bases scattered around, usually in a state of disrepair. Finding them will trigger a set of side missions that result in the base coming back online.
These can seem a bit arduous, especially when you’re already doing all these things for your main missions, however it’s well worth the time investment. Once you’ve activated the new base you can recover vehicles there so if you get stuck then you can just zip back to it by holding up on the d-pad. Additional bases essentially give you additional respawn points across the map, so they’re handy to have. Don’t forget: they also act as drop-off points for materials!
Mobile Base
You get a mobile base fairly on and it can be a lifesaver. It’s a quick, capable vehicle that has Caterpillar treads so can get more or less anywhere. It’s real value though is it lets you recall any vehicle you own directly to it. This means if you need to make a road 2km away from your base then you can just make the trip once with your mobile base rather than going 4 times with all your road building vehicles.
If you’re thinking there must be a catch then you’re right, there is. These recalls cost fuel, a little purple currency alongside your money and resources. It costs 1 fuel to recall something, and the only way to get more is to do side missions, so you’ll need to weigh up whether it’s a better time investment to do them or to just forgo using your mobile base.
You can see the rewards from side missions when highlighting them on the map. This will tell you how much fuel you’ll get from completing them (if any).
Retaining Vehicles
One other thing you can do is use the garage function at your bases to see all the vehicles out in the world and press Square or X to retain them, bringing them right back to the garage. This can be handy if you need a specific vehicle back near your base quickly.
Just bear in mind that if you have resources strapped to your vehicle then they won’t come with it. It can still be handy though, you may want to use a truck to deliver resources to a specific zone and then retain it back to base, which will quickly dump the materials there without needing to unload them!
So, while there’s no traditional fast travel in Roadcraft, you definitely have options for getting across the map quickly and reducing travel time.
