If you’ve spent any time exploring the vast procedural worlds of Light No Fire, you’ve probably gotten your hands on the AE 1 scanning tool pretty early on. It’s supposed to be your go-to for marking resources, detecting hidden threats, and defending yourself against roaming wildlife, but a lot of players run into the ae 1 no light meter and no fire button bug right when they need it most. I ran into this exact issue last week while I was trekking through a volcanic biome looking for rare crystal deposits, and it took me three hours of messing around with settings and in-game actions to figure out what was going wrong. This guide breaks down every fix I tested, plus workarounds if you’re waiting for an official patch to drop.
Why Your AE 1 Has No Light Meter and No Fire Button
Most players assume this bug is a glitch from the latest patch, but half the time it’s tied to in-game progression or unmet requirements you might have missed. The AE 1 doesn’t unlock all its features right when you pick it up from the starter camp, for starters. The light meter unlocks only after you complete the first scanning quest for the camp foreman, and the fire button (which activates the tool’s short-range defensive pulse) requires you to install a power core you get from the first underground ruin run.
That said, if you’ve already completed both steps and the features are still missing, you’re dealing with a genuine bug that can be triggered by a few specific actions. For example, if you dropped the AE 1 on the ground during a combat encounter and picked it back up mid-fight, the game might fail to load its full feature set the next time you equip it. Fast traveling across biomes with the AE 1 equipped can also cause this glitch, especially if you’re moving between a high-humidity jungle biome and a frozen tundra where environmental effects can mess with in-game tool functionality.
Quick Fixes to Restore Missing AE 1 Features
Before you go submitting a bug report or restarting your entire playthrough, try these simple fixes that worked for 80% of players I talked to in the official community discord. I tested all of these myself when I ran into the bug, and the third one fixed my issue in 10 seconds flat. If you’re still seeing the ae 1 no light meter and no fire button error after trying these fixes, move on to the workarounds we cover next.
If none of these fixes work right away, try sleeping in a bed at any outpost for 24 in-game hours. A lot of in-game glitches reset after a full day-night cycle, and this one is no exception. I’ve heard from a handful of players that they had to sleep two full cycles to get the features to come back, so don’t give up if it doesn’t work the first time.
Permanent Workarounds If the Bug Persists
If you’ve tried all the quick fixes and your AE 1 still has no light meter and no fire button, you don’t have to go without those features while you wait for an official patch. There are a couple of workarounds that let you access the same functionality without having to use a different tool entirely.
First, you can craft a portable light meter from 3 copper ingots, 2 glass shards, and 1 battery that works exactly like the built-in AE 1 version. It takes up one extra slot in your quick access bar, but it’s just as accurate and doesn’t require any quest unlocks to use. The only downside is that it runs out of battery after 30 minutes of use, so you’ll want to carry extra batteries with you on long exploration trips. It’s a small tradeoff to make if you’re stuck with the ae 1 no light meter and no fire button bug and don’t want to wait for a patch.
For the missing fire button, you can bind the defensive pulse function to a custom hotkey in your control settings. Most players don’t know this, but you can manually map any tool feature to a separate key even if the in-game UI doesn’t show the button exists. Just navigate to the control settings, find the “tool secondary action” bind, and set it to whatever key you prefer. This will let you trigger the AE 1’s defensive pulse even if the on-screen fire button is completely missing. I’ve been using this workaround for weeks even after my bug was fixed, because it’s faster to hit a side mouse button than to click the on-screen icon during combat.
How to Avoid This AE 1 Bug in Future Playthroughs
Once you get your AE 1 working properly, you’ll want to make sure you don’t run into this annoying glitch again. There are a few simple habits you can build that will drastically reduce your risk of triggering the bug, based on what devs have shared about the root cause.
Never drop the AE 1 while you’re in combat or in the middle of fast travel loading screens. Most cases of this bug are triggered when the tool’s asset file is interrupted mid-load, so dropping it during high-activity game moments is the number one cause. You should also avoid installing third-party mods for the AE 1 until the devs have confirmed they’re compatible with the latest game patch. A lot of modders release updates a few days after an official patch drops, so waiting 48 hours to install new AE 1 mods will save you a lot of headache.
Finally, make sure you complete the starter scanning quest and install the power core before you take the AE 1 out of the starter biome. Skipping those steps and trying to use the tool early can permanently break its feature set for that playthrough, so it’s worth taking 20 minutes to wrap up those early quests before you go exploring the wider world.
Dealing with the ae 1 no light meter and no fire button bug can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you’re in the middle of a long exploration run and you need those features to stay alive. The good news is that almost every case can be fixed in a few minutes with the steps we covered above, and you don’t have to abandon your playthrough or wait for an official patch to get back to playing. If you’ve found another fix that worked for you that we didn’t cover here, feel free to share it in the comments below to help other players who are running into the same issue.
