Morale

Morale is how well you are feeling, and is the best way to generate experience. Your current mood is displayed as emoticon in the lower part of the game screen. To view current morale modifiers press %.

It is important to keep your morale up, and there are several ways to do so.

How morale works

Every in-game minute (10 turns) experience in pool is increased at one point. For every 20 morale, this gets one turn faster, until at 180 morale character is gaining 1 XP every turn. And with a negative mood experience will be generated accordingly slower.

The maximum amount of experience you can have at once is 800, so there is no need to keep your morale high if you are capped or nearly capped. Go out and spend that experience by using your skills!

In addition, if your morale is over 100 points you gain "Elated" status and bonuses to speed and stats:

• 1 intellect per 100 points;
• 1 perception per 125 points;
• 1 strength per 180 points;
• 1 dexterity per 200 points;
• 1 speed per 25 points and up to total of 10.

The same is correct for a bad mood too, but instead bonuses you will gain penalties and "Depressed" state!

In-game help tells, that you character may commit suicide if depressed enough, do not believe in it, such decisions are fully up to you.

Positive morale effects

The Optimist trait helps keep your attitude naturally high, and Masochist balances pain effects by giving some morale bonuses, ouch.

Drinks, foods and drugs all have an "Enjoyability" rating. These tend to be short-lived, however, and foods are very minor, but variety is a key.

But the best way to gain morale is to listen to an MP3 player. The amount gained slowly increases to a maximum of +50. Be sure to keep a supply of batteries around so you can reload as needed (it consumes one battery per 1.5 hours).

Negative morale effects

Some foods and complicated books have negative "Enjoyability", and thus hurt your morale. It is worth noting that since reading books does not spend experience, reading is a good way to spend time and gather experience between adventures, but reading SCIP, for example, might put your morale negative and slow down XP generation if you have no other modifiers.

Many negative traits like Hoarder and Mood Swings can seriously harm your mood if not properly managed. Prozac is a popular thing even after apocalypse, especially after apocalypse.

Rain is extremely damaging to your morale. As you are out in the rain, it will slowly increase the penalty to a maximum of -60 unless you are wearing a rain coat or have the Feathers mutation.