Game Mechanics

"You got me wrong. You will be dying here much faster than in the Capital. Your body is wasting away just as a boat sinks with its hold full of water. Breathe in this air. Can you feel it?"

- Eva Yan, Day 1 of Pathologic

The Town-on-Gorkhon is unlike a normal world—people can starve or tire themselves to death within a single day. Locals claims that it's in the air; that every breath you inhale is slowly killing you.

The player must manage a variety of stats to stay alive, each function closely linked to the other. Along with basic bodily functions such as health or hunger, the player is also faced with outside forces such as reputation or the flow of time.

Health

 * The player's core stat. It is tied to all other functions—if you become hungry, exhausted, or plagued, your health will suffer. Health can also be lost during combat.


 * Health is increased by healing items such as tourniquets or bandages. Additionally, painkillers increase health should they be taken before the player sleeps.

Immunity

 * Immunity is tied directly to the player's infection and acts as a "buffer" between the plague and the player's other stats. While the immunity meter is full, it slows the progress of infection or can prevent it altogether.


 * It can be be managed and increased by immunity-boosting medicines or preventative vaccines.

Hunger

 * Naturally, hunger is sated by food items. Increases hourly. If the meter is full, the player's health will decrease continually until hunger is decreased, or death.


 * Food can be bought at stores, traded with townsfolk, or occasionally found. Different kinds of food can affect stats in different ways: for example, lemons strengthen immunity but increase hunger, while water lowers hunger but increases exhaustion.

Exhaustion

 * Fatigue increases as the day passes. If the meter reaches full, the player's health will slowly decrease.


 * The ideal way to deal with exhaustion is to sleep—but you can only sleep in the beds of private homes, such as the houses of Bound characters. Coffee can also be used to decrease exhaustion at the expense of health.

Infection

 * The player's level of sickness. Once infected, the meter increases continually; the higher the infection, the more health the player loses over time.


 * Infection cannot be fully removed without the use of special items, but can be managed by using antibiotics.

Reputation

 * The level of respect the townspeople have for the player. The lower the meter, the higher the chances the player has of being attacked and losing services. It can change greatly depending on the day or the choices of the player.


 * Reputation can be increased in a number of ways: completing quests, helping plague victims, getting rid of bandits, or donating money. Likewise, it can also be reduced by killing or insulting townsfolk.


 * While the Bachelor begins the game at full reputation, both the Haruspex and the Changeling begin with low reputation. In addition, the Changeling's reputation is constantly decreasing.

Time

 * Like in our world, the days in the Town-on-Gorkhon remain divided into 24 hours. One in-game hour corresponds to around five real-world minutes.


 * Midnight marks the deadline for quest completion and events, though 7:00AM is considered the start of the next day. Be warned—if quests remain uncompleted by the end of the day, they will be failed and one of the player's Bound will fall ill.

Health

 * The player's core stat. It is tied to all other functions—if you become hungry, exhausted, or plagued, your health will suffer. Health can also be lost during combat. If the player caps any of the other body functions they will begin to take health damage.
 * Health can be regained through sleep. Health is increased while awake by healing items such as tourniquets or bandages. Additionally, painkillers increase health a small amount while awake (at the cost of increased exhaustion) and when taken before sleep with increase the speed at which the Haruspex regains health.

Immunity

 * Immunity is tied directly to the player's infection. Touching infected surfaces, being touched by an infected individual, being in an infected district, or being hit by a Plague cloud will decrease immunity. Once immunity hits zero the Haruspex will become vulnerable to infection.
 * It can be increased by drinking Tinctures or taking Immunity Boosters. Basic tinctures will negatively increase another stat at the cost of increasing immunity. Medrel will increase Exhaustion, Yas will increase Hunger, and Zurkh will increase thirst.

Hunger

 * Hunger is increased by food items. If the meter is full, the player's health will decrease continually until hunger is decreased, or until the Haruspex is dead.
 * Food can be bought at stores or traded with townsfolk. Occasionally food can be found in looted homes. Food will decrease at Hunger at the cost of increasing Thirst.

Exhaustion

 * Fatigue increases as the day passes. If the meter reaches full health will slowly decrease until managed.
 * The ideal way to deal with exhaustion is to sleep. The Haruspex is able to sleep at the Haruspex's Lair, Shelter, Willows, Peter Stamatin's Loft, Lump and, if the correct quest is completed, the Stillwater. Coffee can also be used to decrease exhaustion at the expense of health. Lemons will also decrease exhaustion slightly with no negative effects.

Infection

 * The player's level of sickness. Once infected, the meter increases continually; the higher the infection, the more health the player loses over time. In Pathologic 2 infection decreased Health extraordinarily rapidly.
 * Infection cannot be fully removed without the use of special items, but can be managed by using antibiotics. Antibiotics will decrease health upon use. Homemade antibiotics may be used alongside store-bought cures.

Stamina/Thirst

 * Stamina and Thirst effects how quickly the Haruspex is able to move from place to place. Stamina will drain while sprinting and thirst will increase as stamina recovers.
 * Thirst is decreased most commonly by drinking water, but can also be reduced by eating Apples, drinking Milk, or drinking Tan.

Reputation

 * The level of respect the townspeople have for the player. The lower the meter, the higher the chances the player has of being attacked and losing services. It can change greatly depending on the day or the choices of the player. Reputation is most commonly lost by attacking innocent Townsfolk, looting inappropriate houses, and harvesting most organs outside of the Hospital.
 * Reputation in Pathologic 2 is per district. Some actions will effect reputation in nearby districts, but a reputation decrease in the The Bridge Square is unlikely to effect reputation in the The Skinners.


 * Reputation can be increased in a number of ways: killing bandits, completing hospital quests, and curing Bound.


 * On Day 1 the Haruspex will rapidly begin to lose reputation until his name is cleared by Big Vlad

Time

 * Like in our world, the days in the Town-on-Gorkhon remain divided into 24 hours. At the beginning one day is approximately two real hours. On later days time will begin to move faster and faster. On Day 1 ten minutes lasts around 40 seconds real time. By Day 11 ten minutes lasts around 27 seconds real time.


 * Dialogue stops while in dialogue or while in menus, but otherwise moves forward.


 * Midnight marks the deadline for some quests and the final chance to assist in danger Bound's immunity. Some quests last only one day, some several. There is no way to know which is which without experience.


 * In Pathologic 2 there are no quicksaves outside of the Prologue. The only way to save the game is to do so at a clock. Clocks can be found in most major buildings such as Bound Character homes and the Town Hall.

Bound Infection

 * Every day from Day 3 onwards a number of districts will become infected. Every day at midnight Bound currently living within an infected district will be under threat of being infected with the Sand Plague. The Haruspex is able to assist Bound's immunity through the use of Tinctures or other immunity boosters such as the less effective Immunity Boosters and Twyrine. A boost in immunity does not guarantee that the Bound will be safe, only that they have a better chance at survival. A Bound character infected with the Sand Plague will roll for death on midnight instead. The Haruspex may assist the Bound character by decreasing their infection with antibiotics but, like immunity, assisting a Bound character's infection does not guarantee their survival.

Creating Tinctures

 * Tinctures can be created by combining twyre or otherwise special herbs. Herbs are found within the Steppe and The Town.

Creating Antibiotics/Painkillers

 * Home-brewed Antibiotics can be created by combining a tincture and an infected organ. Painkillers can be created with the combination of a tincture an a healthy organ. The harder the organ is to acquire (blood, kidney, liver, heart, and then brain) the more powerful the creation will be.

The Fund

 * At the beginning of the Sand Plague outbreak the powers of the Town create a Fund for the doctors in the Town. The Haruspex will be eligible for Fund rewards by working at the Hospital, curing infected individuals on the street and killing looters in burned districts. Applying antibiotics, even incorrect ones, to infected Townsfolk will increase the Fund meter - though correct diagnosis is awarded much higher. The higher the Fund meter is, the larger the reward is the next day. The Fund reward is collected at the Town Hall.

Death

 * Upon every death (outside of Day 1) the Haruspex will wake in the Theatre. With every death the director, Mark Immortell, will apply a penalty to all of the Player's saves in their individual file. Most penalties are a decrease in total health but other punishments such as a decrease in total hunger, a decrease in total exhaustion, and miscellanous punishments such as being cursed to occasionally find Cotton Wool instead of organs in corpses all apply.


 * The only way to remove the punishments for death is to restart the game with a new save file, or take the Fellow Traveler's deal.