Survival System



"The default in Fallout 4 wasn't necessarily bad, but it needed some tuning to make it not feel as awkward and annoying to deal with. Eating a good meal should prevent severe hunger for a fair amount of time. You shouldn't have to suffer through a day or 2 worth of debuffs in order to make good "caps" usage out of cooked food. It doesn't make sense. Horizon has rescaled the food/water consumption so the first stage lasts much longer. But the total amount of food/water you need to eat (over time) remains exactly the same. In other words, it now feels much smoother without pestering you so often. In short: If you eat a big meal (real cooked food that gives ~100 value) when it says you're "Hungry", it will actually use most/all of that value, and you will be "Well Fed" for longer. Don't bother eating before that though, or you waste food."

- zawinul

General

 * The time while sleeping to check food/thirst is increased to match a standard 24-hour eating cycle.
 * The penalty of engaging in combat is reduced slightly.
 * Being "Rested" gives you a bonus to the amount of healing received when using medical supplies
 * Sleep deprivation also reduces your XP gained
 * Lethargy's penalty is slightly lowered.
 * Being over-encumbered no longer damages you, but reduces your agility by -5
 * Mole Rat Disease is reduced to 2 hours and then it will wear off (that icon needed to go.)
 * The game mechanic of "requiring companions to be healed or they go home" is removed

Food & Water

 * Bottles of Purified Water now grant a buff of +10 Damage/Energy/Rad Resists for 15 minutes
 * Bottles of Purified and Dirty Water give slightly more hydration
 * Many cooked meals are worth more "food points" (i.e. caps value) now
 * Cooked meals in general require a lot more ingredients to craft
 * Some cooked meals have different versions now that require extra meat/crops, but give more value
 * Raw meat is usually worth less "food points" now
 * Most foods that give radiation damage, now give more radiation damage
 * In the Cooking Station, all food is now categorized in 3 main groups based on Perk requirements
 * When you drink any Beverage, it will give you back an appropriate empty bottle
 * REMINDER: Nuka-Colas are supposed to reduce a small amount of thirst, increase your hunger slightly, and give you rads

Field Kit / Personal Toolkit

 * Shows your Hunger/Thirst on the main menu
 * Survival Statistics Menu: Shows your hunger/thirst and revival mode stats

Detailed Survival Messsages

 * Shows the food/thirst values you still need after eating or drinking
 * Has 3 options you can toggle in the holotape: On (Every Use), On (Stages Only), Off
 * "Every Use" will show a message every time you eat or drink, even if the stage doesn't change
 * "Stages Only" will show a message only if the stage of hunger/thirst changed-
 * The "Every Use" option is the default in Horizon

Timescale Addon Differences

 * The timescale is reduced in half to 10 (instead of 20)
 * Sleep deprivation debuffs are more severe (doubled in most cases, since being awake is always half the time)
 * While sleeping, hunger/thirst now advance at normal rate (was 75%)
 * hunger/thirst advance at 1.5x the normal value per hour
 * Vendors respawn every 5 days (instead of 7 days)

Status Icons

 * Icons for all debuffs can come in varying degrees of color
 * Yellow/Orange/Red icons are based on how severe the debuff is
 * Beneficial buff icons will remain as the normal UI color (the color you have it set to)
 * Hunger/Thirst ranges from: yellow, orange, orange, red, red
 * It's recommended to use a pale color UI to get the most out of any text colors

Status Effects
NOTE: Status Effects can be displayed by using your Pip-Boy (Status) and/or Field Kit (Main Menu).

Hunger

 * The time it takes to reach the first hunger level is ~24 hours (up from 6 hours)
 * The food points required for the first hunger level is 4 times higher (roughly 96 food points, i.e. caps value.)
 * Every 12 hours after that, you will reach the next hunger level (similar to before.)
 * The total amount of "food points" (which is based on the caps value) that is needed to stop hunger per hour, remains exactly the same (1:4).
 * The total time it takes to reach the last "starve to death" level is slightly extended to 3 days (up from 2.6 days)
 * Hunger reduces the amount of healing received when using medical supplies
 * "Fed" is now "Well Fed", since that level range effectively lasts much longer.
 * "Peckish" is now "Hungry"
 * "Hungry" is now "Very Hungry"
 * Your lack of hunger will now display a warning perk on the top of your perk tab explaining the debuffs
 * The Hunger Pains debuff perk is now more descriptive for each stage, so its more apparent that the debuffs are different
 * The first stage of hunger no longer reduces your Charisma by 1

NOTE: 1 hour (in-game) = 4 food points 1 hour (in-game) = 3 minutes (real-time)

Thirst

 * The time it takes to reach the first thirst level is 16 hours (up from 8; the max level remains the same; water per hour remains the same.)
 * All thirst levels are pushed up by 8 hours, but everything still requires the same amount of water per hour of time passed
 * Sleeping reduces thirst accumulation (1/hour instead of 4)
 * While entering Combat, checks happen faster, 15m in-game each time

NOTE: - 1 hour (in-game) = 4 thirst points - 1 hour (in-game) = 3 minutes (real-time)

Radiation
Radiation effects and counter-measures has been largely changed in Horizon. Radiation should be something to be avoided if possible. You will find yourself needing a real doctor or valuable items to cure yourself of any sizable radiation damage.
 * RadAway will rarely drop from loot or containers, but continues to exist in static locations
 * RadAway cures half the amount of rads now, but the immunity debuff is reduced to 20 minutes
 * RadAway can still be increased by the Medic Perk, but the amount is reduced rebalanced
 * RadAway, drugs, and alcohol, no longer dehydrates the player (since I've made curing rads harder now, there's no need to penalize the player with annoyances like this)
 * RadAway also no longer causes starvation (again, this is a pointless annoyance to the player.. removed)
 * RadAway no longer benefits from Chemist or BioComm mods (this should never have been like this to begin with)
 * Rad-X now lasts for 10 minutes
 * The price for buying Radaway is greatly increased
 * The price for curing radiation from Doctors is increased, and scales based on the exact amount of rads you need cured
 * RadAway takes a few extra ingredients to craft it
 * Food and water that cause radiation damage now cause more radiation damage
 * All drinkable water sources now cause some radiation damage and are considered dirty water (which is everything except Purified Water bottles)
 * Filling bottles at any water source (including water pumps) now gives dirty water
 * Radiation resistances on Hazmat Suits is reduced, and they also have reduced "built-in" radiation reduction
 * Radiation resistances on Power Armor is significiantly reduced. If you want rad resists on PA, you must craft lead lining and/or rad scrubbers
 * Rad Scrubbers no longer remove radiation from food, but instead give you rad resists
 * Insomnia reduces your Rad Resistance by -100
 * NEW: "Radiation Poisoning" similiar to standard poison, it puts a debuff on you and may add rads over time

"Rad Resistance does not work in percentage terms as in earlier games. Power armor can provide over 1,000 rad resistance; this helps significantly but still does not make one completely immune to radiation. The basic principle is that if one's rads/second is exactly equal to their Rad Resistance, they will take half damage. If one goes swimming (10 rads/s in water) with a Rad Resistance of 10, they will only take 5 rads/s. Higher or lower resistance relative to the radiation level modifies the percent of damage one takes, but the effects diminish on both sides; even 5 rad resistance will significantly mitigate low-level radiation, but rads will still seep through the toughest of power armor."

- fallout.fandom.com

NOTE: The Radiation damage in Horizon has been tweaked. These tables are copied from fallout.fandom.com as a rough estimate. Expect different behavior inside Horizon though.

River near Sanctuary: Middle of Crater of Atom:

Poison

 * Parasites reduces your Poison Resistance by -30

Illnesses & Diseases
Most illnesses and diseases should be cured as soon as possible. NOTE: They are balanced so that you should no longer feel it's "ok" to just wait to cure them.


 * Infection does 4 damage per tick from level 1-4 (down from 5 damage)
 * Infection does 8 damage per tick from level 5-9 (down from 10 damage)
 * Infection does 12 damage per tick from level 10-19 (new)
 * Infection does 18 damage per tick from level 20+ (new)
 * Weakness now appears on the top of your perk chart as an alert
 * Insomnia reduces your Rad Resistance by -100
 * Parasites reduces your Poison Resistance by -30
 * The illness "Fatigue" is now renamed to "Overfatigue" so it isn't confused with the Fatigue bar

Infection
As you advance further through the Commonwealth, more deadly infections can emerge:

Illnesses & Diseases Table
NOTE: All diseases go away in time, ALL! Depending on your playstyle, some can be a bit challenging, but most can be overcome without any extra treatment. However, it is advisable to have Nuka-Cola Quantuums (Lethargy), Antibiotics (Infection), Psychotats (Parasites) and Buffouts (Weakness) with you. Yet the most easy way to "cure" yourself is by sleeping DAYS inside your settlement so the only thing you need is an apropiate amount in nutrition items. Again: If your experienced with the mechanics of Fallout 4: Horizon you can endure literally all diseases. In general these are just some new colors popping up on the bottom of your screen beeing either yellow or red BUT nothing to fear of ...

Sleep



 * You can now sleep in a sleeping bag or dirty mattress for up to 9 hours
 * Sleeping bags and dirty mattresses no longer have a penalty to block you from getting "rested" status
 * Sleeping bags and dirty mattresses still do not let you get the "Well Rested" buffs
 * The time while sleeping to check food/thirst is increased to match a standard 24-hour eating cycle
 * Iron Defender now reduces the amount of sleep you need to become "Well Rested", by 1 hour per rank for ranks 1-3 (thanks Pranj for the idea)
 * The first stage of being tired from lack of sleep no longer has an XP penalty (this stage should be more of a minor warning, than an actual debuff)
 * The first stage of being tired only has -5% AP refresh (-10% on the timescale addon)
 * Rocket: Cures Tiredness

Over Encumbered
=Strategies=

Hunger/Thirst Management
NOTE: monitor your nutrition intake by using your Field Kit


 * if possible craft "Mutated Hound Chops" Common Meals and eat as many as possible while drinking "Dirty Water" very easy and cheesy tactic in order to suppress the Radiation Exposure
 * craft Rad Treatment Remedies and drink Dirty Water till there is no tomorrow
 * craft Soup's and Stew's (these count both for hunger and thirst)
 * save Purified Water to craft either Animal Stew (Common Meals) or Anthropod Stew (Exotic Meals) both neutralize 86 NP
 * trade your Food Items at Diamond City to Takahashi, located at the inner circle, against noodle cups (42 NP )
 * trade for Purified Water:
 * go to Sheng Kawolski to buy purified water
 * certain Vendor Stalls (general & doctor) can sell purified water

Time Manipulation (Desolation Mode)
NOTE: If you want to plan your walkthrough based on Cell Timers and/or Vendors Inventory Cycle here are some "options": Takahashi & Sheng Kawolski "buy" Ground Meat and any other Food Items as well as Chems, Medical, Alcoholic Items and certain Plants of course. You're able to gain 7x Purified Water Bottles (Sheng Kawolski) and 8x Noodle Cups (Takahashi) per Cycle. So all you need to do is to gain Food from various sources, be it hunting Enemies (Animals) and/or producing Crops, and trade those Items once per Week to cover your Nutrition (Hunger/Thirst) needs.

General Facts

 * World Item Respawning: uncleared cells respawn in 7 days ~672 H/T pts or Caps
 * World Item Respawning: cleared cells respawn in 20 days ~1920 H/T pts or Caps

NOTE: World Item Respawning can be changed in the Horizon Holotape Settings

Realising/Obtaining
DC Vendor Inventory/Cycle Example:
 * 7x Purified Water Bottles = 3.5 Animal Stew (86 NP) = 301 NP
 * 8x Noodle Cups (46) = 368 NP
 * 7x Purified Water + 8x Noodle Cups = 669 NP per Week (3 Pts off)
 * NP per Week = 672 so a difference of 3 NP (technically that is save for 64 cycles till you suffer the status effect of severely dehydrated which hits hard at 192 NP)

NOTE: Per Week you will need to neutralize around 672 NP, which can be easily managed by trading, using the DC Vendors (explained above). If you can this will allow for various strategies concerning time-manipulation playing around with Settlement Production especially "Advanced Production". If your Workshop Technology Level, Skill as well as other Items (next to your daily/weekly nutrition needs) matches the required Production Schematics you can thus "jump" large in-game time gaps (days, weeks, months, ...), either by waiting or sleeping, and henceforth produce powerful items and supplies in large quantities by gaining items which respawn per cell after time X. Triggering a "Cell Respawn" that way offers next to no real-time loss compared to common play style. Again: all you need to do is to acquire the daily/weekly nutrition needs and your set!

NOTE: As of now the game caps at Hunger 288 and Thirst 192 no matter how long you sleep. You don't take periodic damage while you sleep and thus you can spam day after day the "use" button on beds and sleep till there is no tomorrow. Henceforth forcing a cell respawn (cleared/uncleared) never was easier.