Source: official over the hill website. Game imagery © Funselektor and Strelka Games.
Pebbles, meteorites and upgrade progression
The public Demo announcement describes recovering meteorites and gathering Pebbles, the in-game currency used to unlock upgrades in that build. The developer AMA adds that points of interest provide Pebbles and that extracting meteorites supplies additional income for completing the available unlocks. This connects vehicle development with exploration, because finding activities and resources is part of improving the vehicles rather than a completely separate side objective.
The same developer answers describe meteorites as repeatable resources and explain that points of interest provide enough currency for upgrades across much of the vehicle selection. These are documented pre-release economy rules, not a final table of prices or percentage improvements for individual parts. What can be stated reliably is the resource loop: explore the area, collect the currency provided by its activities and use that currency within the Demo's upgrade system.
Functional parts and cosmetic customization
The official FAQ identifies upgrades for vehicle parts and tyres alongside cosmetic add-ons, while the store describes finding upgrades and equipment throughout the world. Merchants and cabins are the stated places to customize colours, accessories and cosmetics, connecting vehicle presentation with locations encountered during exploration. This separates the ability to change a vehicle's appearance from the broader collection of equipment and upgrades used to continue an off-road journey.
The distinction is useful when reading a screenshot or an accessory description, because a visible cosmetic item does not automatically prove a measurable performance increase. The collected official material confirms both kinds of customization without supplying a numerical effect for every available part. A source-based account can explain where these systems fit into progression while avoiding an invented upgrade tree, a promised handling improvement or an unsupported statement that every accessory changes the vehicle's capabilities.
What the developer said about installed upgrades
In the pre-release AMA, the developer explains that upgrades can be mounted and unmounted, and that players can also use vehicles without upgrades. That gives the documented system a distinction between owning a part and having that part installed on the vehicle at a particular moment. It also makes it possible to describe an upgraded vehicle separately from its unmodified form without assuming that every purchase permanently forces a particular setup.
The same answers say that upgrades could not then be sold or moved to another car. That restriction is part of the June-build description, so it should be read alongside the resource loop rather than as a promise about an unspecified future version. The useful information is the developer's stated behavior at that stage: removable installation was supported, while resale and transfer were not included in the system described in the AMA.
Vehicle condition, grip and repair kits
The developer FAQ describes an overall health system in which damage affects both a vehicle's appearance and its performance. Repair kits can be used on a player's own vehicle or on a friend's vehicle, with the FAQ explicitly describing a limited supply rather than unlimited repairs. This makes vehicle condition part of the exploration experience, because a damaged vehicle is not simply a cosmetically different version of a fully repaired one.
The same FAQ states that multiple terrain types offer different levels of grip, with tyre condition and weather also contributing to the result. These rules explain why an account of a vehicle's behavior needs more context than its name or appearance alone. They also connect repair and equipment decisions with cooperative play, since the documented system includes helping another player's vehicle while everyone continues toward their own objectives.
The drivetrain described by the developer
The official FAQ describes the current vehicles as 4x4s and explains that the team aims to keep the driving controls relatively simple. Its gearbox description provides low and high gear and says there is no differential locking in that stated configuration. These are concrete features of the developer's published explanation, so they can be discussed without importing the complete drivetrain controls of another off-road simulator.
This streamlined arrangement belongs to the same FAQ that describes grip, vehicle damage and part upgrades. Together, those features show that simplicity in the gearbox does not remove terrain, condition or equipment from the wider driving experience. The useful takeaway is the documented control scope, rather than a guessed number of intermediate gears, an assumed differential-lock shortcut or a detailed transmission specification absent from the collected material.
How objectives connect to vehicle unlocks
The developer's official game page explicitly connects objective completion with unlocking additional vehicles, upgrades, customizations and cosmetics. The public Demo announcement gives a more specific example, describing challenging trails as part of the process of unlocking the three vehicles available in that build. These two sources establish the progression mechanism without requiring a guessed reward table, a hidden purchase requirement or a particular order for completing the entire map.
The same Demo checklist includes reward crates, scenic points and helping stranded off-roaders alongside difficult trails. Those activities make exploration more than a search for the next vehicle, because the game also offers equipment, cosmetic unlocks and things to photograph. The reliable distinction is between the overall objective system and an individual reward: the developer confirms the system, while the collected announcement does not assign every vehicle to a named launch challenge.
What the public Demo let players explore
The June public Demo covered Emerald Lake, described by the developer as the opening area of The Valhallas region. It included three vehicles to upgrade and customize, with the area accessible alone or with up to three friends in multiplayer. The official checklist invited players to explore for reward crates, visit scenic points, help stranded off-roaders and tackle challenging trails rather than follow a single fixed route through the landscape.
Players could photograph wildlife for the compendium, save their own photographs and collect Pebbles by recovering meteorites. The equipment examples in the announcement included winch anchors, repair kits, a camp and a meteorite radar, giving the Demo several activities beyond unlocking another vehicle. This content belongs to the documented June build, so it provides a concrete description of the playable preview without presenting that preview as the entire released game.
Changing weather and the surrounding landscape
The developer website confirms dynamic weather, a day-and-night cycle and terrain deformation as part of the exploration environment. The Steam description also emphasizes that changing conditions can transform a journey through forests, lakesides and mountains. These are confirmed environmental systems rather than a timetable of fixed storms or a promise that a route will feel identical whenever a player returns to the same place.
The wilderness also contains cabins, scenic viewpoints, landmarks and wildlife, giving those changing conditions a setting with things to discover. Photography lets players capture landscapes and animals, while equipment and vehicle upgrades fit into the practical side of reaching those places. This combination explains the game's focus on exploration: the environment is both a destination worth looking at and the terrain through which players drive alone or together.