Radio Tower and Blueprint Locations
If you have ever driven your cozy little Outbound van back to the same quiet road, stared at a used tower, and wondered if the game wants you to become a full-time regional Wi-Fi technician, yes, this is the blueprint loop. In-game, these towers are called Signal Towers. They are the main places where you spend Download Coupons, the tower currency you make by recycling litter, to unlock most new tools, workstations, van parts, and build pieces.
The important thing for new players is this: Signal Tower blueprint choices are not fully fixed. Your first few downloads are more guided, but later towers can offer different options based on your map progress, milestones, and what you picked before. If you skip a useful blueprint, it is usually not gone forever. Skipped downloads can cycle back at another tower or when an old tower gets a fresh signal. The road trip is still about building your own mobile cabin; the trick is keeping the errands tidy so the cabin does not become a rolling junk drawer with headlights.
Best Early Tower Route
- Use every new Signal Tower once. When you reach a new tower icon, stop the van, interact with the terminal, and check all blueprint options before spending coupons.
- Prioritize progression unlocks first. Take Axe, Pickaxe, Recycler, Bolt Press, and Vehicle Research Station options before furniture or decor. If your Fire Lookout route or a nearby tower prompt leads to the Sawmill, grab that before comfort pieces too. Cute shelves can wait. Bridges and slopes are less patient.
- Clean up nearby campsites and tower areas. Litter is the steady path to more Download Coupons, so grab it during the same stop instead of making a sad little return trip later.
- After the Fire Lookout area, repair a broken bridge. The bridges near the starting river route need Everwood Planks, which means you need the Sawmill blueprint and a built Sawmill. Once one bridge is fixed, cross the river and keep checking towers and question-mark points of interest.
- Check the Community Tree side of the starting region. This northwestern point of interest, across the broken bridge north of the Fire Lookout, can lead you toward important upgrade blueprints such as the Vehicle Research Station in some runs.
- Return to old towers after progress milestones. Towers can reactivate, but the exact trigger is not always tidy. After you fix a bridge, lower the drawbridge, adopt a companion, reach a new biome, or clear a major point of interest, sweep your known tower icons again.
Blueprint Priority Checklist
| When You See This | Take It Before | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Axe or Pickaxe upgrades | Decor, storage cosmetics, optional furniture | Tools open new resources, and new resources open the next stretch of road. |
| Sawmill blueprint or Fire Lookout Sawmill step | Most comfort items | You need Everwood Planks for bridge repairs, and bridges cut down early backtracking. |
| Recycler | Almost anything cosmetic | Recycling litter feeds the Download Coupon loop, which feeds every tower stop after that. |
| Bolt Press | Extra furniture sets | Bolts are needed for key van upgrades, including early motor and battery progress. |
| Vehicle Research Station | Non-essential build pieces | This unlocks van upgrades, including upgrades that help with slopes and longer trips. |
How to Avoid Backtracking
Before leaving the van for a tower run, empty your personal inventory into storage, bring food if your current setup needs it, and make sure your battery has enough charge for the return drive. If you are low on power, park near renewable sources you already built around, top up, then go. Outbound is gentle, but it will still let you turn one missed coupon into a scenic three-point turn across half the map.
Use this repeat route when you feel stuck: start at your newest unlocked road, visit every fresh Signal Tower on that side of the map, clean nearby litter, check any question-mark point of interest, then loop back through older towers that have a new signal. If no tower has the blueprint you need, do not idle at one terminal waiting for mercy. Keep exploring, recycle more litter, and come back after a bridge, drawbridge, biome, companion, or landmark step opens more map or marks a new milestone.
Solo and Co-op Notes
Solo players should route towers like grocery stops: one clean loop, full pockets, then back to the van. In co-op, split the work. One player drives and marks tower icons, one cleans litter near campsites, and one checks question-mark locations on foot. Tool and recipe unlocks are shared within the save file in co-op, so the group does not need to spend coupons twice for the same recipe. That is the rare survival-crafting miracle where everyone gets the new toy and nobody has to stand in the van pretending to organize scrap metal for ten minutes.
If you think you are soft-stuck because a tool upgrade or workstation will not appear, first open your journal and confirm you have not already unlocked it. Then check every reachable fresh tower, revisit refreshed towers, and clear nearby points of interest. Your recovery goal is simple: gather more litter, make more Download Coupons, and widen the tower pool before you burn time sleeping through days. Most blueprint stalls are fixed by a better route, not by waiting beside one stubborn tower like it owes you rent.
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