Status Effects

**Status effects** or **status conditions** are phenomena that can alter the status of a player or machine. They can be caused by environmental hazards, the usage of specific items, the usage of experimental ammo, and the nature of specific weapons. Since humans and the machines do not share the same physical chemistry, they are also not affected by status conditions in the same way, and sometimes may not suffer a condition at all.

## Status Conditions on Humans/Players

### Fire

When a player is on fire, he/she will take small, yet sporadic amounts of damage over a short time at equally sporadic time intervals therein. A healing item should be used immediately to offset the unpredictable health decrease done by fire. Players on fire will be indicated by an orange flame symbol and will have an orange filter applied over their HUD with the sound of smoldering in the background. Fire resistance can be increased through clothing upgrades and using skill points.

The fire status is acquired by:

* Standing near flames, **including the ones you create** with your flamethrower or Experimental AG 4
* Getting hit by an incendiary machine gun, flamethrower, or by an Apocalypse-class Tank's fire blast
* Using tar ammo (small chance)

### Venom

When a player is toxified, he/she will take small amounts of damage at regular intervals over a decent period of time--still short, but longer than other status effects. Players afflicted by venom will be indicated by a green biohazard symbol and will have a pink filter applied over their HUD with the sound of eerie wheezing in the background. There is no way to build resistance against venom.

The venom status is acquired by:

* Getting hit with venomous bullets from Apocalypse-class Runners.
* Getting injected with venom by Apocalypse-class Ticks.
* Entering the biochemical gas cloud from an Apocalypse-class Harvester or a Reaper.

### Ionizing Radiation

When a player is irradiated, he/she will take damage at regular intervals for a short time. Irradiated players will be indicated by a yellow ionizing radiation symbol and will have a yellow filter over their HUD with the rapid clicks of a Geiger counter in the background. **All players are equipped with Geiger counters.** The frequency of the clicks made by the Geiger counters can thus be used to determine how close they are to a radioactive source and whether or not themselves are irradiated. There is no way to build resistance against ionizing radiation.

The ionizing radiation status is acquired by:

* Standing near radioactive waste (colored green) in the environment
* Getting hit by the irradiated missiles from a Reaper or Apocalypse-class Harvester, or standing within the green pool of waste they leave behind
* Getting hit by the irradiated blade of an Apocalypse Hunter
* Using radioactive ammo (small chance)
* Using radioactive stamina kits

### Sluggishness

This effect is only acquired by medical health kits. When a player is sluggish, he/she will move extremely slowly, but at the benefit of extremely fast health recovery (due to the nature of the medical health kit). Players affected by sluggishness will be indicated by a foot symbol with a line crossed over it.

### Gas

When a player is asphyxiating in gas, he/she will take damage at regular intervals for as long as he/she is in the gas cloud. The gas status does not have any special icons associated with it and is only acquired by standing in a gas cloud, whatever the source may be (excluding the Thermobaric Explosion). Gas resistance can be increased through using skill points and by wearing a gas mask, the latter of which will provide the largest increase in gas resistance besides the Vanguard specialization skill.

### Knockdown

When a player is knocked off his/her feet, he/she will be transported into third-person and unable to perform any actions until having reclaimed footing. The Steady Feet skill eliminates knockdown from most attacks.

The knockdown status is acquired by:

* Getting hit by a melee attack from a machine
* Getting hit by shotgun blast from another player
* Getting hit by an explosion or concussive blast
* Getting hit by an in-motion ragdoll from a Harvester, Tank, Reaper, or Wolf
* Landing on uneven terrain with high momentum
* Falling off a bicycle
* Any other situation wherein the player's physical body loses balance

### Unconsciousness/Death

When a player is unconscious, he/she is completely incapacitated and has no choice but to either respawn at a safehouse or be revived with an adrenaline shot. This condition is colloquially referred to as being "dead" because it is the sole consequence of letting one's health drop to zero. Increasing your max health and avoiding damage is the only way to resist the unconscious status. Unconscious players are indicated by a red & white skull symbol.

### Medicine

Players afflicted by medicine will have their health restored. This may be accomplished by using first aid kits or being hit with medical ammo. This is the only way to heal in Generation Zero apart from falling unconscious and respawning at a safehouse.

### Over-Encumberment

When a player is carrying more weight than his/her carrying capacity allows, he/she with be unable to sprint, and if carrying too much beyond that, the player with then be unable to move. Removing this effect requires dropping items from the inventory or expanding the maximum carrying capacity. Over-encumberment is indicated by a white scale symbol that is often accompanied by blinking white text reading either "Sprinting Disabled" or "Movement Disabled" depending on the weight carried.

Over-encumberment is most frequently encountered when looting for too long, and carrying too many unnecessary or infrequently-used items & weapons. Managing your inventory is imperative in Generation Zero, so players should only carry and store what they need and prefer to use. Everything else should be either recycled, saved for uses where they will inevitably be needed, disposed of, or given away to other players. It's also important to choose your loot carefully later in the game when storage is nearing capacity, as not all loot will be worth taking anymore.

## Status Conditions on Machines

Machines, being robots and the only enemies in the game, do not react to some status conditions the same way as humans, and are immune to some of the conditions they encounter altogether. Conversely, machines also encounter some status conditions that humans are immune to.

### Fire

As with players, machines take damage over time due to fire, but are significantly more resistant to it and do not appear to suffer the same sporadic health decrease.

Machines acquire the fire status by:

* Standing in a fire
* Getting attacked with a flamethrower
* Getting attacked with the experimental AG 4, which specifically deals damage over time to components

### Ionizing Radiation

As with players, machines will take "minor" damage over time due to ionizing radiation, but with the added effect of scrambling their optical sensors, blinding them temporarily. However, machines can only receive the ionizing radiation effect from radioactive ammunition--they are not affected by radioactive waste in the environment. Continued application of radioactive ammo prolongs the effect and with otherwise eventually wear off.

### Stagger

Similar to knockdown, machines can be staggered, which briefly renders them unable to attack and interrupts whatever they were doing. Staggers are mostly determined by luck, although higher-powered weaponry are generally more likely to cause them. The chance to inflict stagger can be increased by using skill points.

### System Shutdown

Sudden bursts of electromagnetic radiation will completely disable a machine by shutting their systems down. However, their systems will restart and will become fully operational again after about 10 seconds. EMPs themselves do not damage machines, and some machines like the Apocalypse Harvesters and Reapers are immune to EMPs entirely.

It may seem counterintuitive, but **shock ammunition (unless used with the Experimental Algstudsare) will not inflict EMPs on machines.**

Machines acquire the shutdown status by:

* Being near an EMP detonation caused by battery items.
* Being near an EMP detonation caused by destroying a building's electrical box.
* Getting attacked with EMP rounds.
* Getting attacked with the experimental Klaucke 17, which has a small chance to inflict an EMP.
* Getting a component destroyed by a weapon with the "EMP Detonation" augment.

### Tar

When machines are attacked with tar ammo, gunk (tar) will accumulate in their joints and thus slow all of their movements significantly. The effect gradually wears off as long as the machine is not still being attacked with tar ammo, so continuous application is necessary for maximum effect. The tar status can also be **stacked on top of a stagger to lengthen it.**

### Repair

Unique to Wolves, they can heal themselves and nearby Lynxes by deploying a nanomachine recovery field. This field will not repair Swedish machines.

### Shield

Unique to Reapers and FNIX base control centers, when a shield is active, the machine will take **no damage whatsoever.** The only way to remove this effect is to wait for the shield to drop or to destroy the generators of said shield.