Mechanics - Injuries & Illnesses

###### **Injuries:**

For a more detailed explanation on Wound treatment, please refer to Wound System

Each injury varies depending on the source. I.e. Spiders will bite, bruises and abrasions come from falling

Consists of wounds from:

* Animal Encounters & Raids
* Falls from climbing
* Environmental sources
	+ Lung Damage without Gas masks (Volcano)
	+ Bug Bites from any Jungle areas, Wetlands
	+ Cuts and scrapes from the Shipwreck
* Foot injuries from walking without foot protection
	+ Wearing socks or wrappings temporarily neutralizes a portion of your foot damage. (Update 12)
* Hand injuries from hammering activities
* Metal injuries from losing against the hunter

The fastest ways to die appear to be Bleeding and Dehydration.

###### **Mental Illnesses:**

"Mental Structure:

This is a new hidden stat that governs how confident you are on your own worldview. A high structure stat makes you see the world as a predictable place you understand the rules of, a low structure on the other hand makes you see it as a chaotic and unpredictable place.

Structure will usually increase on its own while you are busy and relaxed, but intense emotions like euphoria, severe depression and severe stress/anxiety will tend to lower it. Feeling too lonely, not getting enough sleep or talking to Weston too often will of course not be the best for your structure either.

If this stat gets very low it will start causing altered mind states that can sometimes end in what some people would call psychotic breaks. The game currently has two of such episodes (although more will be added later) which can be triggered in different circumstances and have their own unique effects."(Update 26)

Mental Structure can be increased by spending time inside a home : mud hut or cave (?), but there must be objects inside the home that increases comfort

"Stress:

Characters will now get gradually stressed when under pressure. Having wounds, being hungry, thirsty or having worries of any sort will now impact your stress levels. If you stress gets out of control you will start getting anxiety attacks which will make you waste time, damage your mental structure and demoralise you,

To combat this however, you have many options:

* Doing leisure actions such as swimming, playing the drums, carving wood, making sand castles or just plain relaxing.
* Keeping busy with varied tasks and avoiding doing the same actions too frequently in order to stay fresh and focused.
* Drinking Kava, Wine or the new Jasmine tea as well as eating sugary foods." (Update 25)
* "Flower Necklace: You can now craft a necklace out of jasmine flowers and cord. It's nice smell can help a little bit with stress. Just a bit. :)" (Update 26)
* "The China Rose is a very beautiful type of flower that can be worn in your head, brewed into a relaxing and slightly immune-system boosting tea, eaten raw and of course used by bees to make honey. It can be found in the jungle highlands too." (Update 33)

"Sleep Changes:

Sleep can no longer be cancelled and is now affected by your morale and stress. Depression will cause you to sleep more while stress will cause you to sleep less and give you nightmares that wake you up in the middle of the night, giving you even more stress. The positive effects of sleeping over napping have now also been increased.

On another related note, you can now also get bitten by spiders while sleeping! Specially if you sleep on the ground in some of the more heavily forested areas.

New Altered States of Consciousness Mechanics:

Two new mechanics of this sort have been added to the psychological system, bringing the total of possible altered state experiences to 4. These two new experiences will bring some new challenge to the late game.

Isolation Mechanics:

The newest late game challenge added is the isolation system. As you character spends more and more time on the island alone, his previous mental structure will start gradually falling apart, making altered mental states easier to trigger and making loneliness more of a problem.

Don't worry though, permanently living in the island is still completely viable, some mental systems will just get a more challenging with time, and you will start unlocking some new experiences.

This system still needs a lot of tweaking and balancing, but it is on a good starting place at the moment I think. :)" (Update 26)

Altered Mental State

If this stat gets too low, your character will start to see illusions, such as the Hunter and the Watcher.

Affected by:

* Derealization, caused by pain and stress
* Euphoria (Max mood)
* "Magic Mushrooms can now be found in the grasslands (although they are hard to find) and can be eaten to alter your mind state." (Update 32)

Altered States:

* Hunter: When mental structure gets too low, your character will think they are being hunted. This leads to an encounter that can leave a "Hunter's Mark" or handprint on you that will lower your mental structure further
	+ "Hunter and Unravelling Marks now heal slowly at all times, and faster if you have an altered mind state." (Update 33)
	+ The Hunter's presence will decrease as the character moves throughout the island
		- The amount of the decrease seems to be based off your location - the further you are from a certain location, the more it will decrease.
* Watcher: When mental structure gets too low, possibly from several anxiety attacks, your character will begin to feel like they are being watched. If the bar reaches full while you are awake, you will get the Watcher Encounter.
	+ You can click on all the prompts, but in the end, you'll have no choice but to select "Scream in Horror"
	+ The Watcher event generally happens when the "Darkness" meter is filled, which can happen from nighttime situations or being inside dark caves.
* Similarly, one can avoid the Watcher by
	+ Having a light source (campfire or other) while sleeping
	+ Sleeping in naturally lit areas, such as coastal area, the beach, bay and the grasslands
		- Note: It can become dark during Heavy Rain even if you sleep in these areas, causing the Watcher to trigger. In those cases, you should rely on a steady light source while you sleep.