Healing

Healing is a natural process of regaining hit points. This can be affected by many factors. Base healing factor is very low so, unless you treat your wounds, it can take days or weeks to fully heal them.

Healing factors

Sleep

Wounds heal twice faster when you sleep, but they also heal a little when you are awake.

Treating wounds

Treated wounds heal much faster. It is crucial to always treat your wounds if you have access to medical items. See below for how to tend to your wounds.
- bandaging: +1-3HP/day
- disinfecting: +1-3HP/day
- both: 2-6HP/day
- both while sleeping: 4-12HP/day

Health

Health is an important factor affecting healing rate. Keep good health to heal properly. Low health can be very detrimental to healing.

Treating wounds

Most important items in promoting healing are bandages and disinfectants. Beyond their primary purpose they also greatly improve healing rate of wounded limbs. Your first aid skill is used when you apply those items and can further improve the healing rate. You can examine the quality of applied bandages and disinfectants in the Player Info Menu (press @) by viewing the effects they impose on the limbs. If a bandaged or disinfected limb is damaged by incoming attack, their quality will drop as bandages will be torn and filth will gain access to the wound.

Bandages

Primary use of different bandages is to stop bleeding. They have different bleeding stopping factor - a chance to stop hemorrhage.

Their secondary, but very important trait is that bandages (and equivalent items) can be used to treat wounds, to give them a proper healing rate. Bandages and their equivalent items have different bandaging power, which is a base factor for improving healing rate of the limb you use them on.

Bandages, from least to most effective: cotton ball, makeshift bandage, boiled makeshift bandage, bleached makeshift bandage, medical gauze, bandage

Take note that some items, like hemostatic powder, stop bleeding but are not otherwise helpful in healing.

Disinfectants

Disinfectant (and equivalent items) primary use is disinfecting dirty wounds. They have a chance to clean deep bites, but not infected limbs.

Their secondary, but very important trait is that disinfectant and it's equivalents can be used to treat wounds, to give them a proper healing rate. Disinfectants (and equivalent items) have different disinfecting quality. It improves healing rate of the limb you use them on.

Disinfectants, from least to most effective: disinfectant soaked rag, disinfectant soaked cotton balls, cattail jelly, thyme oil, makeshift disinfectant, antiseptic powder, hydrogen peroxide, disinfectant

Traits and mutations affecting healing rate

Certain traits or mutations can either improve or slow the healing rate: Regeneration, Very Fast Healer, Fast Healer, Slow Healer, Poor Healer, Imperceptive Healer, and also: Rapid Metabolism, Weakening, Deterioration, Disintegration

Some traits can also increase the healing rate, or slow the healing rate of mending broken limbs.