The Lightning Rod in Dead Rails is a new item that can come in handy when you’re fighting the Nikola Tesla boss and be useful to protect yourself from lightning damage. Here’s everything you need to know about its uses.
Lightning Rod in Dead Rails
To get the Lightning Rod, you need to find the Tesla lab which can spawn at the 50-60km range, or earlier since some players have seen it at 20-25km as well. Apart from the lab, you may also find it in random abandoned buildings.
A Lightning Rod will attract lightning but makes it harmless because it nullifies the damage. So, if you see a lightning storm event at night (indicated by a blue sky), lightning strikes will hit randomly and can even land on you. If it does, you will unlock the “Struck by Lightning!” badge. But if you want to stay safe after getting the badge, use the Lightning Rod to survive the night.
There are no specific enemy spawns, just the lightning which can one-shot your character, unless you have picked the Priest class which is immune to lightning damage.
While you can hide inside buildings to potentially stay safe from lightning strikes, it can still hit you if you’re in a spot that gives access to you. Players can also try hiding under a roof as a cover.
Note that the Lightning Rod can also help to charge the Electrocutioner gun (obtained in the Tesla Lab) during the Lightning Storm event. But if you want to use the Holy Water to charge the ammo, you need to place the gun down and throw Holy Water on it. This will summon some lightning strikes and reload the weapon. Moreover, the Nikola Tesla boss shoots lightning which can be absorbed with Lightning rods.
You can check out the Lightning rod in action here: