How do I find treasure in Nomad Drive?
Hold a metal detector at a roadside location, follow the beeps until they turn into a steady tone, and dig there with a shovel.
How to Find Treasure in Nomad Drive
To find treasure in Nomad Drive, carry a metal detector around a roadside location until it beeps fast, then dig on the spot with a shovel. A locked chest rises out of the sand, and it opens only with the matching key: a Common Key for a common chest, a Rare Key for a rare chest. In the demo the rare chest and the Rare Key only ever turn up at bus stops.
Nomad Drive treasure: detector, shovel, key
For what Nomad Drive is and every guide we publish, start at the Nomad Drive guide hub.
- You need: a Metal Detector, a Shovel and a key.
- Where treasure is: buried at the places you stop at, not out in the open desert.
- Keys: each key matches one kind of chest and disappears once the chest opens.
- Rare chest: bus stops only, roughly one bus stop in four.
Nomad Drive treasure facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Tools | Metal Detector to find the spot, Shovel to dig. Evidence: The demo's game files (build 25361176). |
| Detector range | Picks up the nearest buried treasure within about 30 m. Evidence: The detector settings and code in the demo (build 25361176); distance in game units. |
| Where treasure is | Chests buried at the loot spots of roadside locations. Evidence: The demo's game files and loot tables (build 25361176). |
| Keys | Common Key opens a common chest; Rare Key opens a rare chest. Evidence: The demo's lock and key code (build 25361176). |
| After opening | The key is used up. Evidence: The demo's lock code (build 25361176). |
| Rare chest | Only in one bus stop loot table, together with a Rare Key. Evidence: The demo's loot tables (build 25361176). |
| Loot per chest | One item, drawn from the chest's loot table. Evidence: The demo's game files (build 25361176). |
Every row describes the demo, Steam build 25361176, read from its files and code on October 9 and 10, 2026. The Early Access build arrives on October 20, 2026 and will be checked on launch day.
How to dig up treasure in Nomad Drive
- Hold the metal detector at a location. Gas stations, radio stations, watch towers, factories, bus stops, cabins, car wrecks, the shipping container area and even the starter house all have buried chests in their loot tables.
- Follow the beeps. The detector locks on to the nearest treasure that is still buried, as long as it is within about 30 m. The closer you get, the faster it beeps, from just under once a second to more than ten times a second.
- Stop at the steady tone. When you are almost on top of the treasure, roughly half a metre away, the beeping turns into one continuous signal.
- Dig with the shovel. Switch to the shovel and dig at that spot. The chest comes up in a few stages; keep digging until it is fully above ground.
- Open it with the matching key. See chests and keys.
The shovel leaves a dig mark in the sand that fades after about two minutes, which helps if you lose your place. Players in the Steam thread "Treasure" drop the detector on the spot as a marker, walk back for the shovel and dig next to it.
The detector only points at treasure that is still buried. Once a chest is dug up it stops counting, and the detector moves on to the next one in range.
Where is the shovel and the metal detector?
There is no fixed spot for either tool. Each location picks one of several loot tables for your playthrough, and these are the tables that include them:
- Metal Detector: one loot table each at the shipping container area, the factory and the radio station always includes it; starter house tables include it at 28% to 100%, and watch tower and wooden cabin tables at about 29–49%.
- Shovel: one table each at the shipping container area, the factory and car wrecks, two at the radio station and three at the starter house always include it; watch tower tables include it at about 50%, wooden cabins at about 28%.
- Common Key: almost every loot table at every kind of location includes one, so keys are the easy part.
These are odds for a given loot table, not promises. If your starter house had neither tool, the factory and the radio station are the best next stops to search.
Nomad Drive chests and keys
There are two chests and two keys, and they pair up:
- Common chest: opens with a Common Key.
- Rare chest: opens with a Rare Key.
Hold the key, aim at the chest's lock and hold the interact button until it opens. A key of the wrong kind does nothing. When the lock opens, the key is used up, so you need one key for every chest. Players on the Discord noticed the same thing: "You do lose that key once you open the chest."
The crowbar is no help here. A chest lock only accepts a key; the crowbar only pries open stuck doors, as our crowbar guide explains.
Where to find the rare chest
In the demo's loot tables the rare chest and the Rare Key appear in exactly one place: one of the four loot tables a bus stop can pick. That table always places both, a rare chest buried at one spot and a Rare Key at another, so when you find a Rare Key at a bus stop, the rare chest is buried nearby.
Because each bus stop picks one of four tables, roughly one bus stop in four has a rare chest. That figure is an estimate from the demo's data, not a guarantee. No other kind of location has a rare chest or a Rare Key.
What's inside a chest
Opening a chest gives you one item, drawn from that chest's loot table. The common chest is an even spread:
| Item | Chance |
|---|---|
| Pills | 11% |
| Flashlight | 11% |
| Tire Repair Kit | 10% |
| Drumstick | 10% |
| Paint Spray (Purple) | 9% |
| Apple | 9% |
| Plate | 9% |
| Polaroid film pack | 9% |
| Engine Repair Kit | 8% |
| Radiator | 8% |
| Reviver | 5% |
The rare chest leans heavily towards repair kits and the Reviver:
| Item | Chance |
|---|---|
| Reviver | 24% |
| Plate | 22% |
| Engine Repair Kit | 21% |
| Tire Repair Kit | 18% |
| Pills | 7% |
| Flashlight | 2% |
| Each of the other five items | about 1% |
A Radiator from a chest is the same part you fill with water; our coolant guide covers it.
The Buried Riches and Find a treasure objectives
Two of the demo's objectives involve treasure:
- Buried Riches: grab a metal detector, grab a shovel, then dig up a buried treasure. The last step completes when a chest surfaces.
- Find a treasure: find a key, find a chest (pointing at one with an item in your hand counts), then unlock a common chest. A rare chest is not needed for this objective.
Since the June 29, 2026 update, treasure that has already been dug up also shows for players who join a co-op session late.
Version notes and limits
Two items are still open: whether the detector's 30 game units are exactly 30 metres, and whether the Early Access build changes the chests, the keys or their loot.
Launch day, October 20, 2026, triggers a fresh read of the Early Access build's files; any change to treasure, chests or keys is added with the date it was checked.
Nomad Drive treasure FAQ
Where is the shovel?
Loot tables at the starter house, factories, radio stations, car wrecks and the shipping container area always include one; watch towers and cabins sometimes do.
What does the Rare Key open?
The rare chest. Both appear only at bus stops, in roughly one bus stop out of four.
Do I keep the key after opening a chest?
No. The key is used up when the lock opens, so each chest needs its own key.
What can I get from a chest?
One item. Common chests give anything from pills and food to repair kits; rare chests mostly give a Reviver, a plate or a repair kit.
Can I dig without a metal detector?
You can dig anywhere with a shovel, but without the detector you will not know where a chest is buried.
Can the crowbar open a chest?
No. Chests only open with the matching key.
Does Find a treasure need the rare chest?
No. Unlocking a common chest completes it.
Sources and version history for this guide: Nomad Drive sources and versions.
Spot an error or a post-patch change? See how we label evidence and handle corrections in the Editorial Policy.