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Medicine and Healing

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In the nuclear winter, healing matters not only after a fight but before it: wounds, cold, radiation, and poison stack on top of one another, and a single untreated effect can wreck an entire expedition. Let’s break down what each medical item treats, how dressings work, and why it pays to level up the “Medicine” skill.

How medicine works

You can use a medical item on yourself, and on another character only if the item is “positive” (helpful) or the target is knocked out (that’s how you get a downed ally back on their feet). You can’t treat a dead target; knockout is allowed for the sake of revival.

Every successful use instantly applies its built-in effects, triggers bonuses from your medical skills when relevant, shows a brief marker above the target, and consumes one unit. Empty syringes are consumed too, but they show no marker — they have no payload.

Restoring health

Some medications restore hit points directly. Healing comes in different strengths:

  • Light — +1 HP per second for the duration.
  • Medium — +3 HP immediately and +1 HP per second afterward (for example, Dex).
  • Strong — +2 HP per second (provided by Bandages).
  • Risky — +5 HP per second, but removes 15 HP at the end. Use it only with health to spare.
  • Emergency — powerful instant healing (+20 HP), but it triggers a healing lockout: while the effect is active, no other restorative items work on the character. That’s how Alma works — it saves you in a critical moment but “occupies” the healing window, so don’t combine it with other healing items.

Remember: passive regeneration doesn’t run in combat and is slowed by dangerous conditions (hypothermia, radiation weakness). That’s why in a fight it’s the medications that keep you on your feet, not “it’ll heal on its own.”

Dressings

Dressings are healing consumables that additionally grant protection from bleeding. The currently confirmed options:

  • Bandages — strong healing (+2 HP/s) plus protection from bleeding. They’re part of the character’s starter kit, so you have a basic dressing from the very beginning.
  • Healing bandage — light healing (+1 HP/s) and protection from bleeding.
  • Antidote bandage — removes poison (−7 to the poisoning level) and grants protection from bleeding; it’s both a dressing and an antidote at once.

By canon, dressings are crafted: a simple bandage from rags, a sterile one adds alcohol, and the healing and antidote variants add the corresponding ointments. Dirty cloth is brought back into use with cleaner.

What treats what

Each survival threat has its own remedy; keep on hand whatever suits your route:

  • Health loss — Dex (medium healing), Alma (powerful instant, but with a lockout), Bandages and other dressings.
  • Poisoning (poison) — Antidote ointment (−4 to poisoning) and Antidote bandage (−7).
  • Radiation — the Anti-radiation drug: reduces radiation load (−6) and grants protection from radiation.
  • Frostbite and cold — Moonshine (removes frostbite, adds protection from cold and resistance) and Alcohol (removes frostbite).
  • Pain and shock — Xylium: a painkiller that grants resistance and protection from shock.

Clearing radiation and poison doesn’t get you back in shape instantly: the load drops slowly, and until it fades the character stays weakened. The remedy speeds up the process but doesn’t cancel the accumulated stage.

Drugs with phases of action

Some agents don’t work instantly but go through sequential stages — buildup → plateau → decline → recovery. That’s how the painkiller Xylium works: its effect unfolds over time and persists even after relogging into the game. It’s a full cycle, not a one-off shot, so plan such drugs in advance.

Healing markers

A brief marker flashes above a treated target, confirming the result without revealing the exact numbers:

  • AID — ordinary helpful aid / field first-aid.
  • RAD / TOX — basic removal of radiation or poison; WARM — removal of cold/frostbite.
  • STIM / SHK — a stimulant and its resistance layer.
  • REV — emergency revival or getting a downed character back up.
  • TRI+ / CARE / TRI / PURG — enhanced effects from leveled-up medical skills.

The “Medicine” skill

Healing isn’t just about items but also about developing your character. The “Medicine” branch has 18 skills across levels from 4 to 150, all the way up to “Resuscitation.” It boosts restoration and regeneration, sustains your stamina pool, adds resistance and combat survivability, and most importantly — enhances the effect of suitable consumables through “bindings”: dressings, recovery items, hardship remedies, antidotes, and anti-radiation drugs.

Examples of what leveling up gives you:

  • Adaptation to the cold — adds frostbite removal and protection from cold to the healing of a freezing target, and slightly speeds up regeneration while you’re cold.
  • Radiation shielding — turns ordinary radiation removal into a lasting protective course (plus a bonus to Endurance and maximum health).
  • Natural regeneration — doubles health regeneration at the cost of part of your maximum HP pool.

A character invested in medicine is useful both before a fight and after: the same bandages and anti-radiation drugs in their hands work noticeably stronger than in those of an unprepared fighter.