You were rooting around in the dumpster again, weren’t you? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. However, if you came across a Dumpster Pearl in there, I can tell you what to do with that.
Dumpster Pearls are real treasures in Pacific Drive. They seem to be based on Fordite or Detroit Agate, which are real-world semi-precious stones that are byproducts of car manufacturing plants. These strangely beautiful rocks were created when enamel paint would get built up in a layered glob within machinery within these factories. A lot of it was discarded in landfills, but when found, they’re often turned into jewelry.
In Pacific Drive, they are, as the name implies, found in dumpsters, usually next to gas stations out in the zone. They take up a lot of space in inventory and don’t have an immediately discernible use. However, figuring out what they do yields big returns.
And what you do with them is throw them into the Matter Deconstructor.
The Matter Deconstructor is one of the first upgrades you can research for your garage. In fact, you can’t research much else in that tree without first going through it. Once you have it, you place it near the side room’s entrance.
To put the Dumpster Pearl into the Matter Deconstructor, you can either put it in your hands and press and hold the deposit button on the machine, or you can open the Deconstructor’s inventory menu and drag the Pearl over to it. Once you exit, the Pearl will begin getting chewed up.
When deconstructed, Dumpster Pearls spit out a hefty number of resources. What you get is normally early accessible items like scrap metal and steel plates, but they also produce an assortment of things to customize your beloved car. It’s sometimes surprising just what comes out of them. They’re little treasure boxes, just begging to be opened.