Days Gone marketing materials have routinely emphasized Deacon St. John’s motorcycle. It’s like a secondary protagonist. Not only is the hog your main means of travel, but it also needs care and attention to stay fit and healthy. The emphasis on the motorcycle makes sense, seeing as Deacon was part of a biker gang before the apocalypse. That doesn’t mean you cannot fast travel, though; it simply means fast travel isn’t as cut and dry as it is in many other open world games. Here’s how to unlock and use fast travel in Days Gone on PS4.
For more on Days Gone, check out our full review, beginner’s guide, and Trust system guide.
How to unlock fast travel in Days Gone
Fast travel unlocks early in the game, but it’s very limited. You’ll unlock a fast travel spot at O’Leary’s Mountain Safehouse where Deacon and Boozer live. You’ll also get fast travel to encampments as you visit them. The first of which is Copeland’s camp not long after the adventure kicks off.
Some fast travel spots are tied to missions, such as the Cascade Radio Tower Ambush camp just west of O’Leary’s Safehouse. Many fast travel spots, however, are unlocked through optional objectives — mostly NERO checkpoints.
Introduced early in the game, NERO checkpoints are trailer-type buildings that are initially locked. Almost all of them follow the same loop. First, you must find fuel to feed into the generator. Before clicking on the power, you should look on the rooftops and surrounding area for speakers. You can cut these, which you should definitely do before powering on the generator. If not, the speaker system will start blaring audio right when the generator is turned on, alerting all the Freakers in the vicinity.
After turning on the generator, the doors to the building will unlock. Go inside and raid the stash (usually a fancy looking storage box). Inside you will find a NERO injector to increase your health, stamina, or focus. With the objective complete, you will now be able to fast travel to that spot.
NERO checkpoints will be marked on the map with a white “x” after you discover them. Once they are cleared, a black diamond with three white lines in the middle will replace the symbol, letting you know you can now fast travel there.
What you need to Fast travel
Fast traveling isn’t “free.” Traveling to a spot on the map requires a varying amount of fuel, related to the distance you are from that point. This means that traveling far stretches is sometimes not possible, especially when you haven’t had the chance to upgrade your fuel tank yet.
Fuel tank upgrades can be purchased from mechanics in camps, but only after you help the camp out with missions and bounties to increase your Honor.
If you don’t have enough fuel to fast travel, you won’t be able to make it to that spot by riding your motorcycle anyway. So simply look on the map for the nearest gas canister or station (marked with a white fuel pump symbol) and then decide if it’s worth fast traveling still.
Fast traveling also advances game time, so if you travel in the evening, it could be pitch black when you arrive there. This isn’t much of a worry since the day/night cycle advances quickly, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
If you’re not close to your bike, you won’t be able to fast travel either. That makes sense, but it further shows how important Deacon’s bike is to the gameplay loop.
Clear nearby Freaker nests to unlock Fast travel
In addition to needing enough fuel to fast travel, you also are limited by Freaker nests. You’ll come across infestations all across the mountains of Oregon. The game tells you when you’re in a nesting area and how many nests you need to clear.
Typically, these nests are located inside buildings, either along walls or ceilings. They basically look like giant birds nests. Throw a molotov at them to start a fire that will destroy the nest. You’ll have to kill a handful of Freakers with each nest you destroy as well. Once all of the nests are clear, fast travel points will be open again.
Because fast travel is tied to infestations, it’s important to clear these out as you find them. Even main encampments will be locked from fast travel until the nests in the area have been destroyed.
