Condition Condition can refer to two things — either the condition of the character or ( in " Fallout 3 " and " ) " the condition of their equipment . Personal condition . The most common personal conditions found in " Fallout 3 " , " " , and " Fallout 4 " are poisons from Chems or from the environment , and damage from combat . " Fallout 4 " is currently the only one in the Fallout series to include illnesses . Illness . In " Fallout 4 " , the Sole Survivor can become ill in Survival mode . Illness can commonly be corrected with antibiotics , being well rested for several days , or by any doctor . Illness persists for a week and then disappears , but has a chance to persist for another week . Illness contributes to Fatigue and directly impacts Action Points . These illnesses are commonly associated with poor sleep and heavy combat . Sleeping for short periods of time to save the game increases the chance of getting an illness , it is good to buff the resistance to the most unwanted effects prior to such a power nap . Using chems , eating uncooked meat , drinking or swimming in irradiated water , and taking damage from feral ghouls , bugs or infected animals — all increase the chances of contracting an ailment . Various Herbal immunostimulants become available for crafting , purchase and as a loot in Survival mode : Equipment condition . Note that any equations are not to be taken as literal representations of what happens in - game , but as accurate , general representations of the logic . The condition of a weapon or armor directly affects its value and damage for weapon or Damage Threshold for armor , respectively . If the condition of an item degrades all the way to 0 % , the item is broken and cannot be used until repaired . In the case of equipped armor and clothing , bonuses to skills or attributes will still apply even if the item is broken , but once removed it will have to be repaired before it can be re - equipped . Another consequence of poor condition when using weapons is the reload animation . The lower the condition of a weapon , the more likely it is to jam , causing the player to adjust the magazine , thus taking longer to complete the animation . A weapon at 100 % condition will never jam , while weapons in a poor state of repair will jam quite frequently . Value . The value of an item is calculated by : Also , knowing the current value of an item it is possible to find the condition : For example , the 10mm pistol has a maximum value of 225 caps when in perfect condition . At 50 % ( or 0 . 5 ) condition , the pistol ' s value is 225 * ( 0 . 5 ^ 1 . 5 ) = 225 * 0 . 3535 , or 35 . 3 % of its base value ( 225 ) : 79 caps . " Fallout 3 " . Damage . As condition degrades , non - melee weapon damage will scale linearly from full damage at 100 % condition to roughly two - thirds damage at 0 % condition for single - shot ranged weapons and roughly half damage for fully - automatic ranged weapons and melee weapons . For example , the 10mm pistol has a . At 25 % condition and 100 Guns , the pistol ' s damage would be : In another example example , the assault rifle has a base damage of 38 . At 25 % condition and 100 Guns , the assault rifle ' s displayed damage would be : Armor protection . Armor ' s damage resistance and Damage Threshold are similarly affected , though skill is not necessary and the value for Minimum is . 62 : Equipment degradation . All equipable items in Fallout 3 and have " item health " , which helps determine how quickly an item condition degrades from use and from being hit in combat . At full item health , an item is in 100 % condition . Similarly , at close to 0 item health , an item is about to break . In Fallout 3 , item health decreases per use by a percentage of the base damage of the weapon . For example , the Plasma rifle has a base damage of 45 and an item health of 900 . Each shot will decay the health by 1 . 8 health , which means that it takes 500 shots to take this plasma rifle from full condition to broken . " Fallout : New Vegas " . Damage . As condition degrades , weapon damage will scale linearly from full damage at 75 % condition to half the damage at 0 % condition . Armor protection . As condition degrades , armor protection will scale linearly from full protection at 50 % condition to about 2 / 3 of full protection at 0 % condition . Equipment degradation . Weapon condition degrades at a flat rate of 0 . 2 item health per shot . V . A . T . S . does not impose an additional penalty , but various types of can increase or decrease the degradation rate ( indicated by a " CND x 1 . 5 " or similar in the Pip - Boy 3000 , which means a 1 . 5 multiplier for decay ) . Having Raul Tejada as a companion can make a weapon degrade slower ( a . 5 multiplier for Regular Maintenance , a . 25 multiplier for Full Maintenance ) . Armor condition degrades if an incoming attack power exceeds DT of the armor .