Vehicles, buggies and rides

The mining buggy

The buggy is a six-wheeled rover with a seat for a driver, a seat for a friend, a hold for ore, lights, and a jointed arm on the front with a cutting beam. It drives on any world. Its arm, though, only cuts ground on a world that supports no life. On a living world, the arm refuses and says so.

A buggy is built in stages, at a Workbench and a Forge Bench:

Part	Made from	Where
Rover Chassis	14 metal, 2 glass, 2 hide or leather	Workbench
Mining Arm	10 metal, 2 glass, 1 Fuel Cell	Forge Bench
Arm Upgrade Kit	4 metal, 1 glass, 1 Fuel Cell	Forge Bench
Mining Buggy	1 Rover Chassis, 6 wheels, 1 Mining Arm, 2 Fuel Cells	Forge Bench

Set the buggy down with a click. It is placed on flat ground ahead of you. Press E beside it to climb in. A buggy cannot be picked up again. To move it, drive it into a ship's hold, or leave it where it stands.

Driving

• W and S drive forward and back. A and D steer. Shift boosts forward. C brakes.
• Space leaps. In low gravity the leap is long and high.
• The driver steers. A passenger takes the arm: they aim with the mouse and hold the click to cut.
• E climbs out. The passenger takes the wheel if the driver gets out.
• F feeds Fuel Cells from your bag into the tank. Each cell gives 300 seconds. The tank holds 900 seconds at most, and a new buggy starts with 300.

When the tank runs dry, the buggy crawls on what is left. It draws a cell from your bag if you have one.

The arm and its upgrades

Hold the click to cut ground. Only plain natural ground is cut: a block you have built, a crate or a model is left alone. The arm is also kept away from a base's claim unless you are allowed to build there. Cutting makes heat, and if the arm gets too hot it cuts out and must cool before it works again. Each cut wears the arm a little, and a piece of metal in your bag mends it.

Arm	Cuts up to	Reach	To fit
Mk1 Iron Arm	Tier 4 ground	6.5 m	Standard
Mk2 Steel Arm	Tier 5	7 m	1 Arm Upgrade Kit and 6 steel
Mk3 Tungsten Arm	Tier 6	7.5 m	2 Arm Upgrade Kits and 8 tungsten
Mk4 Plasma Lance	Tier 7	8 m	3 Arm Upgrade Kits and 6 stellarite

The upgrade is fitted from the buggy, and it takes the parts from your bag. A higher tier cuts harder rock, which an iron arm cannot.

The hold

The buggy's hold takes 24 tonnes of ore. Cut ore goes into the hold as tonnes of a kind: iron, copper, nickel, titanium, the platinum group, comet ice, helium-3 or carbon. Harder rock gives better ore, and plain rock gives a trace of iron. When the hold is full, the arm stops. Press Z beside a ship or a crate to unload it into the ship's hold, the crate or your bag.

A buggy can also be stowed in a ship's hold, where it takes up 3 tonnes of her hold, and rolled out again where she lands. Its fuel and arm wear are kept while it is stowed.

Other rides

A ride is something you can have on while you move. Each uses its own way to move, and some use fuel.

Ride	How it moves	Notes
Bike	Cruises at 9 m/s, 12.5 m/s when pedalling hard with Shift	No stamina. A ramp or kerb throws you higher the faster you roll. Reverses slowly.
Rowboat	Rows at 5.2 m/s on water	Floats at the water's top. Drags very slowly over land. Jump to hop out.
Sailboat	Up to 8.8 m/s with the wind behind, crawls into it	The wind is a steady push from one direction, with gusts.
Hang Glider	Glides at 10.5 m/s, faster in a dive, slower when pulled up	Hold jump while falling to open it. Steer with A and D. Costs no fuel.
Jetpack	Rises at 6.8 m/s while jump is held	Each Fuel Cell gives 60 seconds of thrust. It heats as it fires and cuts out when hot. Its lift fades out above about 50 metres.

The grappling hook

Fire the hook at a block up to 32 metres away and it holds to it. Hold the trigger to reel yourself in, or let go and swing on the rope. Pull up to a ledge and you are carried over its edge. Jump or crouch on the ground to let the rope go. The rope lets go by itself after 30 seconds.

Tips

• Bring Fuel Cells on a buggy trip, and a spare metal piece for the arm.
• Unload into a ship's hold before a long journey, so the hold never fills mid-cut.
• A jetpack and a hang glider together make a long flight: thrust up, then glide down.
• Cut on lifeless worlds only. On a living world the arm will not work.

For building the ships a buggy rides in, see ships and fighters. For the power and machines a buggy works beside, see machines and power.

← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.