StatusEffects
| Status Effects | |
|---|---|
| Type | Combat Mechanic |
Overview
Status effects are ongoing conditions that affect characters over time, dealing damage or restoring health in ticks. There are six status effects in the game: Poison, Radiation, Bleeding, Burning, Healing, and Stun. Each has its own behaviour, tick rate, and methods of application and removal. While triggered, a floating message appears above the character — PSN for poison, RAD for radiation, BLD for bleeding, and BRN for burning.
How It Works
Each status effect builds up on the character (for example, Poisoning Level) which then ticks down over time, dealing damage or healing with each tick. All status effect levels are capped at a maximum value, and when a character dies all active status effects are immediately cleared.
Effects are applied in several ways:
- Weapon attacks with special properties (poisonous, irradiated, burning, bleeding ammo or perks)
- Environmental hazards (irradiated maps, pools of Toxic Goo)
- Consumable items (Scorpion Tails add poison, Antidote removes it)
- Healing weapons (stim guns and needler ammunition)
Poison
Poison represents banked damage — the Poisoning Level equals the total amount of damage still to be dealt over time. Poison ticks once per minute, dealing damage and reducing the poison level by the same amount.
The damage per tick depends on the character's Poison Resistance — higher resistance means less damage taken. Each tick deals between 5 and 100 damage. Antidote items instantly reduce the poison level, and using First Aid skill has no effect on poison.
Poison is applied by weapons with the Poisonous attack perk, poison-coated ammunition, or characters with the Poisonous trait. Eating a Scorpion Tail also adds a significant amount of poison.
Radiation
Radiation works similarly to poison as banked damage, ticking once per minute. However, it only affects players — NPCs are immune to radiation damage. The entire Radiation Level is dealt as damage each tick (clamped between 5 and 500), and the radiation level is reduced by half the damage dealt.
Radiation Resistance reduces the amount of radiation gained when exposed (for example, when stepping in Toxic Goo or standing on an irradiated map). RadAway instantly reduces the Radiation Level. The drug Rad-X boosts Radiation Resistance while active.
Stepping on Toxic Goo pools applies radiation every 3 seconds while standing on them. Wearing Rubber Boots prevents this entirely, though the boots have a small chance of dissolving.
The Rad Child trait fundamentally changes how radiation works: instead of taking damage, the character heals from radiation ticks.
Bleeding
Bleeding has three severity levels and ticks every second. The damage per tick is twice the bleeding level — Level 1 deals light damage, Level 2 moderate, and Level 3 heavy. Each tick has a small chance of reducing the bleeding level by one step; if it reaches zero the bleeding stops on its own.
Bleeding is applied by weapons with the Bleeding attack perk, shredding ammunition, characters with the Bleeder trait, or the Piercing and Bleeding attack style. It has a moderate chance to trigger on each qualifying hit.
Using the First Aid skill or a First Aid Kit immediately stops all bleeding, but bleeding wounds also make First Aid less effective until treated.
Burning
Burning ticks every second, dealing damage equal to the Burning Level (clamped between 5 and roughly 30 per tick). Each tick reduces the burning level by the damage dealt. Fire Resistance reduces incoming fire damage when burning ticks.
Burning is applied by Fire-type damage and Burning ammunition. Flamethrowers cause significantly more burning — standard flamer fuel increases burn buildup, and Mk II fuel even more so. The Pyromaniac trait adds extra burning to fire attacks, and also sets the attacker on fire for half the damage dealt if they were not already burning.
A First Aid Kit immediately extinguishes all burning.
Healing
Healing is a beneficial status effect that ticks every second, restoring health per tick (up to 25 HP per tick). The total healing pool is capped. Healing is applied by stim-based weapons and needler ammunition with healing payloads. The effect does not stack — applying a new healing effect replaces the current one.
Stun
Stun is a simple, short-duration effect that prevents the target from running for 5 seconds. It is applied by Electro-type damage and Stunning ammunition, with a moderate chance to trigger on each qualifying hit.
Crippled Limbs on NPCs
NPCs automatically recover from crippled limbs over time. Every 20 to 30 seconds, one crippled limb heals — first eyes, then right arm, left arm, right leg, and left leg, in that order. Recovery only continues while the NPC remains injured. Player characters do not benefit from automatic cripple recovery and must use the Doctor skill instead.
Counters & Removal
| Effect | Removal Method |
|---|---|
| Poison | Antidote (reduces level), death |
| Radiation | RadAway (reduces level), death |
| Bleeding | First Aid skill, First Aid Kit, Doctor skill, death, natural recovery (small chance per tick) |
| Burning | First Aid Kit, death, burns out naturally over time |
| Healing | Expires naturally after all healing delivered |
| Stun | Expires after 5 seconds |
Prevention & Resistance
- Poison Resistance: Reduces poison damage taken per tick (capped at 90%). Derived from race, perks, and equipment.
- Radiation Resistance: Reduces the amount of radiation gained when exposed (capped at 90%). Boosted by Rad-X. Derived from race and perks.
- Fire Resistance: Reduces burning damage taken per tick (capped at 90%). Provided by race and perks.
- Rubber Boots: Prevents radiation gain from Toxic Goo pools (may eventually dissolve).
- Rad Child trait: Inverts radiation damage into healing and improves natural bleeding recovery.