The world of Pacific Drive is filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures, though they don’t present themselves as such. Instead, the inhabitants of the Olympic Exclusion Zone are known as Anomalies, and they change the world rather than inhabit it.
While exploring the vast open sandboxes in Pacific Drive, players will encounter all kinds of Anomalies. These are effectively the monsters of the Olympic Exclusion Zone, but instead of actively pursuing the player and attacking them, they’re more bothersome to the car they’re driving. In one way or another, each one will impact the player’s ability to drive and progress through the story, which can be terrifying right after using an Anchor to open an exit portal.
Note that we will add more Anomalies to this article as we discover them.
Related: How to Get Gears in Pacific Drive
Every Anomaly and How to Find Them in Pacific Drive
Below, we’ve listed every Anomaly we’ve encountered in Pacific Drive and how we found them. Anomalies vary from region to region, and players can find new ones by revisiting regions they’ve already explored.
We’ve included details on what to look for to find each Anomaly because they don’t always stand out. In fact, some rely on the fact that they blend in so players might miss or accidentally hit them, depending on what they do.
Tourist
The Tourist Anomalies in Pacific Drive look like mannequins, but they’re made of dirt and seem to grow out of the ground. They’re stuck in place, but radiate a red light when seen at night. If the player approaches them, they’ll blow up and cause significant damage because they usually appear in groups.
How to Avoid
Tourists appear everywhere, so players will need to dodge them on roads, while running through forests, and everywhere in between. Our favorite tactic for avoiding them is throwing a flare at them because it causes them to detonate without causing any damage.
Shocked Tourist
The Shocked Tourist Anomaly is one players will encounter in higher level areas in Pacific Drive. This Tourist variant has electricity flowing between each Shocked Tourist, creating rings players can’t pass through because they deal damage.
How to Avoid
Avoiding a Shocked Tourist is easy because the electricity between them is very clear. However, players can still accidentally run into them, so it pays to keep an eye out at all times.
Pothole
The Pothole Anomaly in Pacific Drive is one that manifests as an actual pothole in the road. The only difference between real ones and this one is that in the game, the pothole is caused by rocks floating into the air. Thankfully, the Anomaly is nice enough to also create warning barriers around itself.
How to Avoid
Potholes are easy to dodge because they’re not deadly. We’ve run and driven through enough of them to know. It’s always better to avoid them if possible, but it’s not essential at all. More than anything, they simply obscure the road ahead and make it easier for other Anomalies to sneak up on players.
Spike Puddle
Players will know Spike Puddles when they see them in Pacific Drive. They’re dark puddles with purple spikes sticking up out of them. These will hurt players and burst their tires if they drive over them. They often appear near Potholes but are pretty common in high level areas across all roads.
How to Avoid
It’s easy to dodge Spike Puddles by driving around them. However, players need to have their lights on and focus on what’s in front of them to see them. This isn’t always easy with everything else that’s going on.
Bollard
The Bollard Anomaly in Pacific Drive isn’t dangerous at all. They’re chunks of the ground that rise up like bollards, only to sink back down when players get far enough away. They seem more curious than anything else, looking up to see the players and what they’re doing.
How to Avoid
If players watch the road, they’ll dodge all Bollards. Most will appear already up and out of the ground. We have seen a few pop up here and there as we drive, though, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for them.
Airstrip
The Airstrip Anomaly in Pacific Drive stays in one place but can cause a lot of damage to a player’s car. If the player or their car passes through one, they’ll float into the air and then come crashing down. In a car, this causes a lot of damage to pretty much every part, so they’re worth avoiding.
How to Avoid
Avoiding Airstips is difficult because they always appear in the most annoying places. We’ve driven through them and caused significant damage to our car before, but sometimes it has to be done. To avoid them, drive around them if possible.
Electric Tower (Name to be Confirmed)
The Plasma Tower (name to be confirmed) Anomaly in Pacific Drive is a large metal structure with blue containers around it. We’ve seen some with one and others with up to three. They will blast out electricity that sparks in the player’s direction in a detectable pattern while players try to take the Plasma that powers them.
How to Avoid
To avoid taking damage from this Animaly, players need to walk up to it and tease its attack. When it starts to approach them, they can move around it and get close to destroy the Plasma containers and take the resources within.
Broken Bunny
The Broken Bunny Anomaly in Pacific Drive is a small tangle of wires that will latch onto the player’s car. They can’t damage players directly, but they’ll slowly degrade any part of the car they’re attached to. This means they can prevent the player from moving at all if they’re left alone. We found them when they popped out of nowhere from some tall grass.
How to Avoid
There’s no real way to dodge these enemies because they’re ambush predators. The best way to get rid of them is by using the Scrapper to grind them off the car. Abductors like to grab them and drag them away, so driving up to one of those is a good method as well. It’s worth grinding them up because they drop resources and paints.
Happy Hare
When players find a Happy Hare Anomaly in Pacific Drive, they need to hold onto it. These Anomalies are similar to Broken Bunnies in that they attach to the player’s car. However, they’ll heal the part they’re attached to instead of slowly breaking it. We used one for the entire drive as soon as we found it and ended up with a car that was in better shape than when we started exploring.
How to Find
Since Happy Hares are an Anomaly players want to encounter, we changed this section up. We found ours in a Friendly Dumpster, and we advise all other players to search every single one they come across just in case they pick one too.
Glittering Boulder
Glittering Boulder Anomalies appear as golden rocks floating in the air in Pacific Drive. They’re enticing and look like they’d provide a decent chunk of materials, but they’ll simply explode and cause a tonne of damage if players approach them.
How to Avoid
Avoiding Glittering Boulders is easy. Players just drive around them or don’t approach them. These Anomalies aren’t messing around and will ruin every player who gets too close, so it’s worth taking the extra time to dodge them if possible.
Abductor
The Abductor Anomaly in Pacific Drive looks like a UFO made of trash. If players drive into the green light below it, the Anomaly will grab them and pull them off the road in an attempt to get them to crash into something.
How to Avoid
The best way to avoid an Abductor is to watch its movement pattern and drive or walk around it. Once the Abductor moves away, there’s usually a good space of time to get past it before it comes back to grab anything below it. When the Angry Abductor modifier is in effect in an area, these Anomalies are way more aggressive.
Hot Dust
The Hot Dust Anomaly in Pacific Drive is an area of the world that’s coated in bright green and has particles of the same color floating around inside. Hot Dust grows unexpectedly around the player when they stop their car, so it’s always recommended to leave it in drive to allow for quick getaways.
How to Avoid
Players can see Hot Dust very easily, but it doesn’t cause too much damage while they’re inside it. Only one percent every few seconds. However, it’s never a good idea to stay inside for too long, so we like to figure out where we’re heading and run through Hot Dust if we have to go inside one at all. Otherwise, taking the time to drive around them is always best.
Sizzling Mist
The Sizzling Mist Anomaly in Pacific Drive is one of the strangest we’ve seen. It’s a clump of blue mist with electrical sparks that hangs in the air in random locations in every open sandbox region.
How to Avoid
It’s easy to avoid Sizzling Mist by not driving or walking into it. These often appear near exit portals, so they can get in the way. However, provided that players are looking where they’re going, they should be fine.
Left-Right
The Left-Right is a crazy Anomaly in Pacific Drive. It appears as a group of red and blue lines moving around in the air. When players drive into it, the Anomaly causes their car to do everything, but not in a good way. The wipers will start, lights will flicker on and off, and the turning becomes incoherent. Every time we’ve driven through one, it’s sent us into a tailspin of nightmares and almost destroyed our car.
How to Avoid
Avoiding a Left-right is easy. Drive around them. They don’t move fast and are generally pretty docile. However, they can move across the world, so they can interfere with cars even when parked. This is something all players should watch out for, and park somewhere else if necessary. Trust us, we know.
Minuteman
The Minuteman Anomaly in Pacific Drive can appear by themselves, but they also link up with other Anomalies. They’re transistors that electricity rides between to cause barriers to the player’s progress anywhere, though usually around areas with an object the player needs, such as an Anchor.
How to Avoid
To avoid Minuteman Anomalies, players can either wait for them to disappear below the ground again or drive around them. They’re not too dangerous because players need to get hit by their electricity to take damage. As long as players pay attention, they should be fine.
Wriggling Wreck
Players will encounter the Wriggling Wreck Anomaly in Pacific Drive as they drive along clean roads. they’re massive piles of junk that will start to wobble with increasing frequency until they burst out of electricity, damaging players and their cars. This Anomaly can often appear with Minutemen around it.
How to Avoid
Players can avoid Wriggling Wrecks by driving quickly past them or reversing to avoid their attacks. They only have one good burst in them, making them easy to avoid if players time their movements right.
Can Opener
Players will know when they’ve found a Can Opener Anomaly in Pacific Drive. These beings appear as rotating blades that cut through the ground in a path and leave a red line that can damage players if they pass through it. They like to move around in paths or circles, so their patterns are easily predictable.
How to Avoid
While Can Openers are deadly, they’re pretty easy to avoid. All players need to do is check where they go along their path or wait for them to pass, then drive away from them as quickly as possible.
Crackling Crawler
The Crackling Crawler Anomaly is another enemy that drives through the ground, similar to the Can Opener in Pacific Drive. However, it spreads electrical waves around it that spawn Minuteman Anomalies too. These Anomalies disappear quickly, but the Crackling Crawler moves around in a wide circle and spawns dozens of them at a time.
How to Avoid
To avoid Crackling Crawlers, players must wait to see where its path takes it. Then, they can wait for the Minuteman Anomalies to disappear and drive past it. Alternatively, they can look for a new route, but that could end up getting into the path of this Anomaly anyway.
