Health and Wellbeing Guide

Health

Health System

Health is a complex system involving direct damage, injuries, diseases and mental state.

Injuries

Specific physical traumas that require treatment:

• Bleeding: Caused by combat or accidents. Drains HP over time. Treated with Bandages (Requires Medicine or Paracord)
• Fracture: Broken bone. Severely limits movement/actions. Treated with Splint (Requires 1 Wood + 1 Cordage/Paracord)
• Injury: General trauma. Treated with Rest and Medicine
• Frostbite: Caused by extreme cold (< -15°C) with low warmth. Causes damage and numbness (dexterity penalty)

Diseases

Illnesses caused by environment or consumption:

• Infection: Caused by untreated wounds or low hygiene. Can be cured by Medicine or prolonged Rest
• Mild: Minor HP drain
• Moderate: Fever (warmth loss) and increased HP drain
• Severe: High HP drain, fever, and thirst
• Sepsis: Critical condition with rapid HP decay
• Skin Infection: Caused by poor hygiene. Cured by cleaning or Medicine
• Dysentery: From bad water. Causes Dehydration, Hunger, and HP loss
• Malaria: From bad water or insects. Causes Fever (warmth loss), Fatigue increase, and HP loss
• Stomach Bug: From raw/poisonous food. Causes violent fluid loss (Thirst)
• Pneumonia: Respiratory illness. Causes HP loss, Warmth loss, and Thirst. Recover with prolonged Rest/Sleep

Mental Health

A measure of psychological well-being (0-100).

• Components: Driven primarily by mentalHealth and trauma in current runtime logic
• Drain Logic:
• Base mental drain: 0.05
• If Trauma > 40: additional +0.20 drain
• If Morale < 30: additional +0.10 drain
• Effects: Low Mental Health (< 30) applies additional morale loss and psychological deterioration warnings

Healing

1. Medicine: Uses Intelligence scaling for core healing/cure calculations (generic medicine path includes HP recovery, bleeding reduction, and infection cure chance)
2. Bandage: Prioritizes bandage supplies and fallbacks (Tourniquet/Medkit/Medicine/Paracord). Stabilizes bleeding and restores HP (INT-scaled in core bandage logic)
3. Rest/Sleep: Sleep fully restores freshness and gives direct HP recovery; rest primarily restores freshness/recovery state and supports healing systems over time
4. Herbal Balm: Implemented as a direct healing item (HP recovery + infection cure chance), not just a placeholder

Injuries

Injury System

Survival is dangerous. Injuries can occur from combat, accidents, or harsh conditions. Understanding how to treat them is vital.

Injury Types

Treatment Actions

All treatments are performed via the Health Menu.

• Bandage: Primary bleeding-control action. Uses available treatment sources in fallback order (Bandage, Tourniquet, Medkit, Medicine, Paracord path) to reduce/stop bleeding and recover HP
• Take Medicine: Applies medicine-use logic with INT-scaled healing and infection-cure support. Different medical items (generic medicine, medkit, antibiotics, antiseptic, herbal treatments) provide different cure/heal profiles
• Set Splint: Applies fracture stabilization to damaged limb states. Splinted fractures heal through rest/sleep cycles and recovery time

Recovery

• Rest vs Sleep: Rest mainly restores freshness and mental state; sleep fully restores freshness and applies direct HP recovery. House quality improves recovery conditions and infection-recovery support
• Time & Splints: Fracture recovery is progression-based. Splinted broken bones heal during rest/sleep cycles; unsplinted fractures heal poorly and can worsen
• Intelligence: INT directly improves multiple medicine healing paths and cure/effectiveness rolls (including generic medicine and bandage-related healing)

Broken Bones (Specifics)

If you suffer a fracture:

1. Craft a Splint (current craft flow uses stakes/fabric + cordage or Paracord)
2. Apply Splint in the Health/Actions menu (set splint) to convert raw fracture states into splinted states
3. Recover through Rest/Sleep: Splinted bones progress healing over time. Unsplinted fractures can worsen, add damage pressure, and increase movement penalties

Medicine Mechanics

Medical & Health Mechanics Guide

This guide details all medical items available in the game, how to obtain them, and their specific effects.

Medicine Overview

Health management covers multiple active conditions:

• Health Points (HP): General vitality
• Bleeding: Continuous health loss that requires immediate stabilization
• Infection Stack: Includes wound infection progression (infectionStage) and possible sepsis escalation if untreated
• Fracture / Broken Bones: Limb-based fracture states requiring splints and recovery cycles
• Skin Infection: Hygiene-linked periodic damage state
• Stomach Bug: Severe hydration/hunger/HP pressure requiring recovery management

Medical Items & Recipes

Your medical inventory is no longer one generic button. Every item has a specific role in the treatment chain.

1. Medicine (Generic)

• Use action: Use Medicine
• Effects:
• Heals 1-10 HP (Intelligence-scaled)
• Reduces bleeding by 5
• Infection cure chance scales with Intelligence (10%-100% baseline)
• Important:
• This is also consumed as a fallback by some other treatment paths when dedicated supplies are missing

2. Medkit

• Use action: Use Medkit
• Effects:
• Heals 25 + INT-scaled heal
• Stops bleeding immediately (set to 0)
• Infection cure base chance: 50%
• Fracture cure base chance: 80% (can reach guaranteed treatment with strong first aid setup)
• Crafting recipe (craft_medkit):
• 1 medicine
• 1 sterile_kits
• 1 fabric
• 1 chemSupplies
• Craft profile: 2.5h, medicine-balance fatigue cost 0.625.

3. Antibiotics (Infection Treatment)

• Use action: Use Antibiotics
• Effects:
• Heals +5 HP
• Infection cure chance: 90%
• Crafting recipe (craft_antibiotics):
• 1 medicine
• 1 chemSupplies
• 1 water
• 2 wildHerbs
• Craft profile: 1.0h, fatigue 2.5.

4. Antiseptic Solution

• Use action: Use Antiseptic
• Effects:
• Heals +3 HP
• Infection cure chance: 50%
• Crafting recipe (craft_antiseptic):
• 1 chemSupplies
• 1 water
• 1 charcoal
• Craft profile: 0.4h, fatigue 1.0.

5. Disinfectant Dressing

• Use action: Use Disinfectant
• Effects:
• Heals +3 HP
• Infection cure chance: 45%
• Crafting recipe (craft_disinfectant):
• 1 fabric
• 1 chemSupplies
• Craft profile: 0.5h, fatigue 2.0

6. Painkillers

• Use action: Use Painkillers
• Effects:
• Heals +5 HP
• Morale +15
• Freshness/Fatigue meter support +15
• Crafting recipe (craft_painkillers):
• Fire
• Pot
• 2 willow_bark
• 1 wildHoney
• Craft profile: 0.6h, fatigue 1.5.

7. Herbal Remedy (Infusion / Poultice / Willow Extract)

• Use action: Use Herbal Remedy
• Effects:
• Heals +10 HP
• Infection cure chance: 30%
• Crafting options:
• craftmosspoultice: 2 moss, 1 lichen, 1 wildHerbs
• craftherbalremedy: Fire, 1 wildHerbs, 1 willow_bark, 1 water
• craftwillowextract: Fire, Pot, 2 willow_bark, 1 water

8. Herbal Balm

• Use action: Use Herbal Balm
• Effects:
• Heals 8 + (INT / 2)
• Infection cure chance: 30%
• Crafting recipe (craftherbalbalm):
• Fire
• 1 beeswax
• 1 animalFat
• 1 wildHerbs
• 1 wildHoney
• Craft profile: 0.6h, fatigue 1.5.

9. Bandage

• Use action: Bandage
• Effects:
• Reduces bleeding by 5
• Heals 2 HP with Intelligence scaling
• Crafting recipe (craftimprovisedbandage):
• 1 fabric
• 1 water
• 1 wildHerbs
• Craft profile: 0.3h, fatigue 1.0
• Fallback consumption order when no bandage is available:
• Tourniquet (immediate bleed stop path)
• Medkit
• Medicine
• Paracord

10. Tourniquet

• Use action: Use Tourniquet (or consumed by Bandage fallback)
• Effects:
• Bleeding set to 0
• Heals +5 HP
• Crafting recipe (crafttourniquetaction):
• 1 fabric
• 1 cordage
• 1 wood
• Craft profile: 0.3h, fatigue 0.5.

11. Splint

• Use action: Apply Splint
• Effects:
• Converts active fracture state into stabilized/splinted recovery
• Enables safer recovery flow for broken limbs
• Crafting recipe (craftsplintaction):
• 2 stakes
• 1 fabric
• 1 cordage/paracord
• Craft profile: 0.5h, fatigue 1.0

12. Crutch

• Use action: Use Crutch
• Effects:
• Passive support item for fracture movement penalties (especially leg fractures)
• Crafting recipe (craftcrutchaction):
• 2 planks
• 1 fabric
• 1 cordage
• 1 fasteners
• Craft profile: 1.0h, fatigue 1.5

13. Vitamin Supplements (Foraged Tonic)

• Use action: Use Vitamins
• Effects:
• Heals +2 HP
• Freshness/Fatigue meter support +5
• Crafting recipe (craftvitaminsupplements):
• 3 berries
• 1 wildHerbs
• 1 wildHoney
• Craft profile: 0.3h, fatigue 1.0

Usage Tips

• Intelligence matters every day: It directly improves generic medicine outcomes and scales bandage healing efficiency
• Treat infection by tier: Use Antibiotics first (strongest cure chance), then Antiseptic/Disinfectant as backup when supplies are limited
• Control bleeding immediately: Bandage is your standard response, but if needed the fallback chain can consume Tourniquet, Medkit, Medicine, or Paracord
• Save Medkits for true emergencies: They combine major healing with bleed stop and can also resolve infection and fracture states
• Fractures are a two-step problem: Apply Splint quickly, then recover with safe pacing, rest cycles, and mobility support like Crutches

Mental Health and Sleep

Overview

Mental health is a live survival stat, not a one-way decline meter. It still drains over time, but the current runtime also lets you actively recover it through food quality, pain management, reading, and proper sleep cycles. Trauma pressure and low morale increase drain intensity, so stable routines are the core defense.

New Restoration Sources

The following actions directly restore Mental Health in current runtime logic:

Consumables

• Canned Food: +6.0 Mental Health per unit eaten
• Cooked Food: +2.5 Mental Health per unit eaten
• Painkillers: +5.0 Mental Health on use

Actions

• Reading: Reading a book (requires "Old Book") provides a significant boost of +12.0 Mental
• Sleeping: A full sleep cycle directly restores +8.0 Mental Health (and also grants +3 Morale)
• Resting: A short rest directly restores +5.0 Mental Health (and also grants +3 Morale)

Implementation Details

• Constraints: The Mental stat is clamped between 0 and 100.
• Drain Model: Base drain is 0.05 per hour. Active modifiers in current runtime:
• Trauma > 40: additional +0.20/hour
• Morale < 30: additional +0.10/hour
• Low-Mental Penalty: At Mental Health < 30, morale is additionally reduced and warning events can trigger, making recovery urgency much higher

Sleep Debt

Sleep debt is tracked by lastSleepH and activates when you go too long without using the Sleep action.

Trigger Rules (Current Runtime)

• Standard threshold: 36 hours without sleep
• Light Sleeper (negative perk): threshold is reduced to 24 hours
• Trigger only fires when all are true:
• sinceSleep >= threshold
• sleepDebtTriggered is not already active
• current tick reason is not caravan_travel
• On trigger:
• sleepDebtTriggered becomes active
• Fatigue is forced to 0 (fully exhausted state)
• Warning text is pushed, and sleep-debt modal can open if enabled
• Caravan travel exception:
• During caravan_travel, the sleep-debt trigger is skipped for that tick
• Runtime also advances lastSleepH by +1 in that branch, delaying debt pressure

What It Causes

• Immediate exhaustion lock: fatigue is set to 0, so every effort action runs in danger state until recovery
• Exhaustion no longer hard-blocks actions, but it enables microsleep checks:
• Up to ~10% chance on risky exhausted actions
• Microsleep can cost 1-3 in-game hours
• Additional injury risk can roll (~20% on microsleep events)
• Low freshness pressure also hurts navigation reliability:
• At fatigue < 20 (or morale < 30), movement can misroute with disorientation checks

How To Recover

• Sleep:
• Action duration: 8h base (sleep), can be ~10% faster with active companion Light Sleeper perk
• Resets lastSleepH to current time
• Clears sleepDebtTriggered
• Fully restores fatigue to 100
• Rest:
• Action duration: 2h base (rest), can be ~10% faster with active companion Light Sleeper perk
• Restores fatigue by +25 immediately
• Partially advances sleep timer by 25% of threshold
• Standard: +9h equivalent recovery
• Light Sleeper: +6h equivalent recovery
• Can clear active sleep debt penalty if triggered
• Does not replace full sleep for long-term stability.

Practical Rule

• Treat <4h sleep due as a red warning window: pivot toward a safe sleep location before long travel, combat chains, or multi-step objectives
• Hard limit: at 36h without sleep (or 24h with negative Light Sleeper), sleep debt can trigger and force fatigue to 0

Shelter and Recovery Planning

Shelter Quality Guide

Shelter quality is an active survival multiplier in runtime, not just flavor. It directly affects warmth loss and recovery efficiency, and its strongest bonuses apply when you are actually inside a built house structure (with scaling for partial vs complete completion).

Why Shelter Quality Matters

Better shelter quality improves:

• warmth retention through major house modifiers (up to 55% warmth drain reduction in complete-house state)
• encounter safety pressure (house protection layer includes strong wolf-risk mitigation)
• passive recovery while inside (+1.0 morale/hour and +1.0 HP/hour in complete-house bonus profile)
• recovery pacing through shelter/house bonuses (including ~40% faster fatigue recovery support in rest cycles)
• insulation scaling from built structure pieces (partial houses scale weaker; complete houses apply full multiplier profile)

Low-quality shelter can turn small weather problems into full survival crises.

When to Upgrade Shelter

Prioritize upgrades when:

• your house progress is below complete thresholds (target full frame set: 4 corners, 4 walls, 2 roof panels, 2 floor segments, 1 door)
• cold nights/fronts start draining warmth faster than your recovery loop can offset
• sleep debt pressure is rising and your safe-rest cycle is unstable
• you are preparing for longer routes where return-to-base recovery timing matters
• infection/fatigue recovery windows feel inconsistent outside protected shelter conditions

Practical Shelter Routine

• build shelter in stages toward reliable milestones: aim for at least 40% completion to activate partial bonuses, then finish full-house requirements for maximum protection
• run rest/sleep cycles inside the house footprint whenever possible, because many bonuses are positional and do not apply from outside
• pair shelter recovery with food, water, and medicine timing so sleep-debt and cold-pressure windows do not overlap
• before long routes, use shelter as a reset point: sleep to clear debt risk, then depart with high fatigue/freshness and stable warmth

Positioning and Use

Shelter/house bonuses are position-checked in runtime. Most major effects apply only when you are on the correct tile context (and for house systems, inside the house footprint), not by simple proximity.

Use placement intentionally:

• keep your shelter/house on a route node you return to frequently
• sleep/rest on-position before high-risk pushes (cold fronts, long travel, combat-heavy chains)
• avoid assuming nearby structures protect you if you are not in the valid bonus position/state

Common Mistakes

• stopping early below meaningful build thresholds (never reaching partial bonus activation or full-house completion)
• resting/sleeping near shelter instead of in the valid bonus position (inside-house context where required)
• entering cold-night or cold-front travel with rising sleep debt and no recovery buffer
• assuming one static shelter state is enough for all route phases instead of staging upgrades with progression and season pressure