Fuel and refueling

Fuel and refueling  
General  
Type Mechanic
Applies to Every player vehicle with a fuel tank
Refuel options Fuel Canister, Refuel Station
Data  
Fuel unit Not labelled in the data (shown as stored)
Refuel rate Refuel Station: Fast 5% in 3 s, Max up to 100% in 9 s. Canister: 2.0 units per 0.75 s

Every driven vehicle has a fuel tank with a stored capacity and a stored fuel economy number. The data does not label the units, so this article shows them as stored and does not convert them to litres or kilometres. The fuel tank also has its own health, which is covered in Repair and vehicle parts.

Overview

A vehicle’s fuel is set by its vendor stats. Fuel is refilled in three ways: a 40L Fuel Canister carried by a player, a Refuel Station built inside a Forward Operating Base, or Fuel Supplies delivered to that station.

How it works

Running out of fuel

When a vehicle’s fuel reaches zero, the server stops its engine. A stopped engine cannot be restarted while the tank is empty, so refuel first. This comes from a static reading of the start check (the game was not run to test it): the check passes only once the tank holds fuel again.

Fuel leaks

Fuel tank damage makes the tank leak fuel, and the leak rate steps up as the tank loses health. On the fixed-wing airplane the tank leaks 0.1 per second below 90 percent tank health, 0.4 per second below 50 percent and 0.5 per second when the tank is destroyed. Other vehicles use their own steps. The heavy tanks reach 3.0 per second when destroyed, and the MH-6 and AH-6 family leak 0.1 per second below 10 percent and 0.75 per second when destroyed.

Most vehicles set their first leak step at 90 or 80 percent of fuel tank health, a second at 50 or 55 percent and a third at 0 percent when the tank is destroyed. The fuel tank also takes extra damage from some weapons, as explained in Vehicle damage.

Refueling

  • Fuel Canister. A 40L Fuel Canister costs 150 cash and has 40 durability. The shop’s 25 fuel per use is not what the refuel action uses. The action adds 2.0 fuel every 0.75 s. It is used until the can is empty or the vehicle is full. Canisters are filled for cash at world refuel points, see Fuel Canister.
  • Refuel Station. Built with the Large Hammer for 200 Build Supplies, with 1,600 HP. Only one can stand in each Forward Operating Base. It takes Fuel Supplies and must be inside the FOB radius to be used.
  • Fuel Supplies. Sold for 10 cash per lot of 50. A Fuel Supply Pallet costs 400 cash. The Refuel Station needs them to work.
  • Refuel at base. The in-game tip says vehicles can be refuelled by returning to your faction’s safe zone or a FOB, and that this is not free.

The Refuel Station has a Fast and a Max restock. Fast restocks 5% of the tank in 3 s for 75 cash. Max restocks up to a full tank in 9 s. A Max restock charges only for what the tank receives: the listed cash cost is scaled by the share of the tank restored and rounded up to a multiple of 50 (1,500 cash for a full tank), and the Fuel Supplies used are the item’s cost times the amount restored. A nearly full tank costs little, and a restock cannot give more fuel than the FOB has in stock. The Refuel and Repair Stations page has the full figures. A vehicle with an empty tank has its engine stopped, as described above.

Numbers

Fuel capacity and fuel economy for every drivable vehicle, from the vendor stats. Sort by either column with the header.

Vehicle Fuel capacity (as stored) Fuel economy (as stored)
Havoc 130 4.4
MH-6 105 4.4
AH-6M [Miniguns] 105 4.4
AH-6R [Rockets] 105 4.4
Z20 Lakota 120 4.4
Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] 120 4.4
Fixed-wing airplane Not yet known Not yet known
SPH-2 105 8.0
L2A6 110 8.0
Flakpanzer Gepard 110 10.0
T-72B3 110 8.5
M113 APC SV 100 5.7
Bobcat 18 2.2
Kodiak 50 2.9
Kodiak [Pickup] 50 2.9
Kodiak [M249] 50 2.9
Humvee 65 3.3
Humvee [Minigun] 65 3.3
Humvee [M249] 65 3.3
Dune Buggy 68 5.0
Ural 85 4.0
Ural Defender 85 4.0
Ural Defender [M249] 85 4.0
Wolf-110 60 4.0
Wolf-110 [M2 Browning] 60 4.0

The data does not say whether a higher fuel economy number means better or worse fuel use, so the table does not rank vehicles on it. The fixed-wing airplane has no stats sheet in the data.

Season 2 changed no fuel capacity or fuel economy value in the data.

Tips that follow from the numbers

  • The Bobcat has the smallest stored capacity, 18. One Fuel Canister use adds 25, so one use is more than its whole tank, if the two use the same stored unit.
  • The Flakpanzer Gepard has the highest fuel economy number, 10.0, but the data does not say which way is better. Plan fuel from the vehicle’s own article, not from this column alone.
  • The fuel tank is also a weak point for attackers. On the Humvee, bullets to the fuel tank take an extra 400%, so it is the fastest route to destroy that vehicle. See Vehicle damage.

See also

Sources