Effects

Those who travel into the Gut may be subject to a variety of different effects: Positive blessings and negative afflictions. You are not the only one who can be affected by these, monsters and friendly NPCs are not immune to them either, so be careful. You don't want to heal your enemies or burn your friends to a crisp.

Both blessings and afflictions are only temporary and indicated by a meter next to your health bar. Each effect has its own meter, and will only become active once this meter has filled up completely.
You can gain effects from some monsters, traps, weapons, items and rooms.

## Blessings

### Regeneration

Regeneration will heal you at a moderate speed and is powerful enough to counteract most afflictions while it is active. Regeneration can be identified by its green/floral clouds when a Regeneration item is thrown.

Standing in patches of Eternal Field flowers that you can sometimes find in the Gut or grow yourself by throwing a regeneration item on the ground will give you this blessing, but it takes some time for the meter to fill up and the flowers will disappear after one use.

## Afflictions

### Bleeding

Being attacked by Dors will cause you to slowly bleed to death or by entering a room with disembodied slash wounds appearing and disappearing. Bleeding cannot be extinguished by running like Fire nor would it be halted by standing near a fire place like Bone Shiver. Moreover, Bleeding will continue to damage players unlike Poison which stops once the player reaches 1 health point, making Bleeding one of the more dangerous effects to look out for.

Quickly find an item or pay Pipe Snake to heal yourself and stitch up your wounds, removing the affliction. Bleeding areas can be identified by its red cloud and consistent red 'slash' patterns in the air.

The only weapon that has Bleeding as its natural effect is the Vein Whip.

### Bone Shiver

Bone Shiver is an affliction encountered in the Forest biome and its effected areas are identified by its light blue frost clouds.

Standing around in its blue frost will cause your body temperature to drop to dangerously low levels, slowly freezing you to death. Warm up your muscles by running around, but keep a close eye on your stamina and keep in mind that nearby enemies will hear you if you do. Use torches to extend the time the affliction needs to become active and Bonefire to remove the effect outright, as well as relight your torches.

### Fire

Being on fire will quickly drain your health and kill you if not dealt with swiftly and can be identified by...well...having the room lit up in flames. Fire can be put out faster by running. When an Item with the fire effect is thrown it will cause a flame effect to appear on the nearest surface. This fire spreads rapidly and can cause unwanted casualties, such as harming passive characters. Standing on the fire effect will also inflict fire on the player. It is therefore, the most chaotic of the effects as well as one of the most damaging.

Only two weapons other than upgrades are known to cause fire damage as its default effect. The first is the Torch whilst the second is the Fire Phallus.

### Gift of Mole

After eating an item with this effect, a small, low opacity version of the map will appear on the left eye of the player. While it's hard to understand it because of its size, it's still a very useful item if you're lost. Unlike other effects though, when thrown the item doesn't affect enemies in any way, instead teleporting the player to the location the item landed. Overall it's a very useful effect to hold onto.

### Gold Hunger

Gold hunger will quickly eat away at your gold reserves. If you don't have any gold for it, it will start eating away at your health instead. Gold Hunger effected areas are best identified by its cloud of golden-yellow. Being attacked by the bartering mimic will give you this affliction.

By far one of the more annoying effects especially if the player is gold mining. The effects can be lessened by continuously picking up gold. However, if the player does not have an item with a panacea effect, then the player needs to wait it out.

### Love

Just because they look weird doesn't mean they cannot love. Love areas is identified by its pink clouds.

Enemies that have fallen in love with you will refuse to attack you, follow you around and attack other enemies out of wild jealousy. Friendly NPCs will drop their prices for you (keep the Gut's anger in mind), but be careful. If you yourself fall in love again, you will refuse to attack anybody until the affliction runs out.

By far one of the more technical effects as it can have some beneficial advantage and disadvantages, depending if the player has a weapon/item equipped with love.

### Paralysis

Paralysis is a rare effect only predominantly used by Mr. Books. Paralysis is an effect that temporarily slows down the player for 5 seconds after being hit. Other than slowing down the player, they can also identify if they have Paralysis if a dark yellow bar appears or if a cloud of dark yellow appears when a Paralysis item is thrown. Afterwards, the effect would end.

Although it lasts quite short when compared to the rest, its effects are quite debilitating especially if the player wants to escape from a tense situation.

Weapons upgraded with Paralysis are also able to stop enemies in their tracks for a short while too. So far, the only weapon that has Paralysis as its normal effect is the Camera.

### Poison

While you are poisoned, your health will slowly start to drain away. Either use an antidote or simply wait for the effect to expire. Poison won't kill you by itself and will stop when you only have a sliver of health remaining. At that point, taking any damage will kill you unless you find means to heal yourself with.

While exploring the Office, you may find rooms with a reddish purple haze. Staying inside these room will quickly poison you, so it is best to quickly sprint through them. You can also remove this haze entirely by throwing an antidote or a healing item.
Moochers are also able to poison you. By far one of the more common effects.

### Rust

Rust will drastically increase the amount of durability you use up by swinging or firing your weapons. Either consume a repair item or simply wait for the effect to wear off.

Some rooms have golden filth raining from above which is a sign of Rust. Standing inside this rain will quickly give you the rust effect, so don't stand still while traveling through it. You can also throw a repair item inside these halls to remove the rain. According to the developer this is actually rusted gold digested by the inhabitants of the Gut.

When affected by Rust, a brown bar will appear on the player's screen.

## Synergies

Synergies occur when the player gets two specific afflictions, a new bar will appear and begin to fill up, once it fills up completely the afflictions that triggered the synergy will be negated and the synergy affliction will begin to slowly drain. The effects of synergies are all positive so its best to pursue these if you have one of the needed afflictions already.

### Love and Gold

*LOVE AND GOLD will strengthen your health, sweetheart*

Love and Gold will boost the players HP temporarily.

### Rust and Poison

*With RUSTY POISON you are more endurant. Run!*

Rust and Poison will boost the players stamina and speed temporarily.

### Blood and Fire

*When BLOOD BURNS - you are strong! Your blood is boiling*

Blood and Fire will temporarily boost the players damage with all weapons.