Where to Find It
The Snowmobile spawns in exactly ONE place: the Arctic Research Base, locked inside a building behind a blue-keycard puzzle door. It doesn't appear anywhere else, and the Arctic Research Base only spawns in arctic (snow) biomes -- so on some map seeds there isn't one at all.
The trip is worth it beyond the vehicle: Arctic Research Base is a strong loot monument with generous Low Grade Fuel spawns, crates, and food, plus a Recycler (the only scientific monument with one). It's guarded by self-healing scientists in winter camo, so bring a rifle and meds. Grab the snowmobile AND a fuel/loot haul in the same run.
Driving It
The Snowmobile has 300 HP and seats two: a driver and a passenger. The split matters --
- The driver handles steering and can reach the onboard fuel storage while moving, but can't use weapons while driving.
- The passenger keeps FULL hotbar control -- they can swing, eat, med, or SHOOT in any direction while you drive. A driver + a shooting passenger is a genuinely strong duo setup.
Unlike the modular cars, the snowmobile handles rough terrain well and stays smooth over bumps (though it takes some practice to control at speed). Press F for the headlight when driving at night. It offers NO armour or protection, though -- you're fully exposed to gunfire.
Fuel
The Snowmobile runs on Low Grade Fuel. The tank sits beneath the steering column, holds up to 500, and the vehicle spawns with 20 already in it. It burns roughly 9 fuel per minute of driving -- a low rate that, combined with its speed, makes it cheap to run for a duo.
If you do run dry, you're not stranded: you can dismount and PUSH a stationary snowmobile -- but pushing any vehicle burns a lot of calories fast, so keep some food handy or just carry spare low grade. Top it up at Arctic Research Base, which conveniently spawns plenty of low grade right where the snowmobiles live.
The Snow & Sand Rule
This is the one thing that defines the snowmobile: it's only FAST on the right surface. It runs at full speed on SNOW and on SAND/desert -- but the moment it leaves snow or sand, its speed drops dramatically to a crawl.
So you can rip across the arctic or the desert, but you can NOT speed off toward Oil Rig or across grassland on one -- it'll barely move on forest/grass terrain. Ice is its own quirk: icy surfaces wreck your traction and control while actually increasing speed, so frozen lakes are a slippery gamble. (Server admins can flip a variable to make snowmobiles full-speed on all surfaces, but on vanilla, plan your routes around snow and sand.)
Storage & the Tomaha Skin
On the back is a small toolbox -- 12 slots of extra storage -- but it has NO lock, so any player standing near the snowmobile can open and loot it. Don't stash anything you'd hate to lose, and never park a loaded snowmobile unguarded.
The cosmetic side: there are two looks for the snowmobile -- the default rusted "tin can" version and the Tomaha skin (a sleek black-and-yellow modern style, notable as the first cosmetic skin for any vehicle). The Tomaha is applied with a spray can found at Arctic Research Base. It's purely cosmetic -- both versions are mechanically identical, so the skin changes nothing but the looks.