Survival Guide

So, you've gotten your bearings and studied the basics. But you find yourself dying in increasingly stupid ways! Alas, poor scrub you are. Well, this page shall offer you some essential survival advice without spoiling the great fun of the game for you.

Radiation

We live in a wasteland after all, and as such you will find that a lot of the areas outside Freedom City are radioactive. But not only certain places are, but there's plenty of sources for radiation. Fuel rods, plutonium, abomination, mutation spots - all can give you rads. Some very rare weapons and attacks from certain higher powered mobs also give you direct radiation damage and radiation sickness.

Radiation sickness is graded in points, 1 is rather mild but when you start gaining more you will take actual damage, mutate horribly and eventually die. There are some ways to protect from radiation. Certain suits of armor (like radiation suits) grant you full immunity, as does the drug rad-q (though taking rad-q while having rads will give you 50-80 rads, and taking more than one is equally dangerous). Even some other mutations can offer radiation resistance increases. If you are radiated, use a radiation detox kit as fast as possible. They are sold at Meds 4 Less.

The Elements

As you have noticed, Hellmoo has a rather hellish weather. Some areas are freezing cold and some painfully hot. Heat can be treated to some extent by hydrating, but also wearing a dishdasha helps - it is rumored that such could be pilfered from some place where it is most needed. The cold can be countered by mutation or by a good set of warm clothes such a parka or heavy fur cloak.

Heat and cold will lower your stats and if severe enough eventually start giving you damage. Fire is another form of elemental trouble you can get into - use roll to pat out the flames or have one of your buddies pee on you. Fire extinguishers and bodies of water work as well. Cold can get you killed if you get stuck in a place where such is consistent and you cannot heat up or you are wearing to little protective clothing. The sky is a very cold place for example, as is mountains and Weezer Village.

Heights

Climbing is a rather important skills for those without any form of mutations or specialized gear to aid them in propelling yourself upwards (or down for that matter). It can be grinded up easily at Rolf's Gym or at any other suitable safe location. It should be noted that lithodermis lets you jump safely from around 10 meters height without injury, and risking a little to none if you're armoured from even greater heights. Broken legs and arms can easily be sustained if you fall from above 10 meters without such a mutation however, and an unlucky fall can result in prompt death as well. Falling into water is perfectly safe, however, even from several hundred meters up.

If you're free-falling, for example if you've jumped off a very tall structure or out of a plane it is suggested you pull the cord on your parachute. A success check based on your quickdraw is made if you can deploy such a device. Note also, as mentioned above, that high altitudes are cold - dress appropriately for skydiving. If you've jumped such a height without a parachute or the ability for flight then I suggest you start praying you find your corpse first. It should be noted that you do see which room you impact in if you survive until that moment.

There are also zip-lines, that can go over dangerous territory and down from a great height to a lower one. You should also take care using the longer zip-lines, if you lose grip on a zip-line you simply plummet down without the comfort of a good landing and depending on the height of it you might go splat.

Hunger and Thirst

You've probably figured out that eating soylents will make you quesy after a certain point in your career - such food is for chumps. People with the ability to craft can cook up their own food with the help of a stove and food coprocessor. Others might want to shop around in the different food stores around Freedom City and beyond. It should be noted that certain rations do not rot and that crafty players can indeed develop a way to can their own food for later use. Food can also be stored in a cool room, like a freezer, or in refrigerators indefinatly - and placed in a cooler to be carried around for a prolonged time, though they will eventually rot in them.

Water is a trickier business, some sources can be poisonous and other hard to reach. Carrying around a spare container with some is practical, as every time you move you will get thirsty. Some food will also raise your thirst and heat and desert travel will also add extra thirst ticks. Note that drinks such as soda and booze aren't as feasible as thirst quenchers, but do offer other benefits to you (and can often be carried in the same kind of containers).

Defibrillators

A person with high enough medic skill (around 18ish or so, I'd say) can bring back recently deceased players from brink of death with a portable defibrillators sold at Meds 4 Less. If you're strong and even more cautious you might want to carry an autodefib with you. An item that holds a singular charge and has perhaps a one in twenty chance of bringing you back automatically after death. Beware that whatever killed you might be towering over you, and you're still at one health point. Regular defibrillators hold five charges and can be recharged anywhere with power. Defibbing someone might give them brain damage, something that can be cured by the most advanced of medics. To see if a corpse is eligible for defibing use check corpse. Raising yourself or others from the dead does induce a revival sickness which debuffs you severely for a while afterwards, though you do not suffer any lost unsaved progress on your clone.

Stress

Stress is rather important to monitor, especially since to high stress might.. stress you out! (And eventually lead to horrible things.) An obvious way to de-stress is to have a wank, that can be annoying to keep up without Fuck Machine. Drinking booze and smoking pot gives you a de-stressing effect, having a bath and sitting in very chill rooms does as well. Use appraise here to determine if the room is chill or not. Nimble Fingers allows you to massage other players using a medic check to de-stress them. It should be noted that being stressed might be useful if you need to de-buff in certain situations when it comes to aiding grinding skills.

Explosives

Handling explosives can be a dangerous thing, especially with low bombs skill. Premature explosion is often happened. Explosive damage from bomb-sources (suicide vests and the like) is lessened by the amount of experience points you have, so that older players can't be kamikaze:d by newer ones. Throwing grenades also relies on throw, so take care with that stuff. Most such weapons in Hellmoo cannot either be relied upon to function correctly 100% of the time.

Last Comment

Perhaps you've now discovered that there are also certain places in Hellmoo that will lead to your death regardless of what you do there, so be very careful where you go and what you do - preferably try to research mobs and places before engaging haphazardly with them. Most annoying deaths can be avoided with some preparation, bring a gas mask to a toxic place. Bring rad-q to radioactive places - so forth.

But remember that text items aren't worth much grief. Surely you should play carefully to avoid hassles for yourself or your corp-mates but please - if you manage to blow yourself up and all your stuff, don't fret to much. Learn from your mistakes, and share with others.

The disease and drugs pages might be of some interest as well.