Menkhu Knowledge



Menkhu Knowledge is a set selection of medical and surgical skills available to the Haruspex - a Menkhu - in Pathologic 2. It includes the ability to find Herbs, create Tinctures and Painkillers, diagnose patients and prescribe Antibiotics, boost immunity, and decrease pain.

Finding Herbs

 * See Herbs

When hunting for herbs, the player can rely on sight and sound to find them. The three common herbs (Black, Blood, & Brown Twyre.) all emit an identical buzzing sound, presumably made by pollinators that frequent those plants. The three rare herbs (Ashen Swish, Swevery, & White Whip.) each have their own distinct sounds, which can be interpreted to resemble sounds made by cicada bugs, the rustling of dried grasses, or the shaker instrument that was used when making the sound files. Some players find it challenging to locate the plants via sound alone, however wearing a headset with stereo sound can make this process much smoother. At night, the plants' insects still make their respective sounds, but also light up in the dark, making it much easier to find herbs during nighttime. All herbs respawn at 07:30 each day, and the three herb plots in Shekhen respawn additionally at midnight.

Haruspex Lair Repair
In order to create tinctures, painkillers, and antibiotics, the tools and machinery located in the Haruspex's Lair must first be repaired.

Alembic
In order to create tinctures the alembic must first be repaired. To repair the device, the Haruspex requires 1 Spring and 1 Metal Scrap, both of which can be found in the large cabinet upon first entry to the Lair. The alembic will only need to be repaired once. Tinctures are created instantly in the alembic.

Brewery


In order to create painkillers and antibiotics, the brewery must first be repaired. Unlike tinctures made in the alembic, items brewed in the brewery are not finished instantly and instead require a set brewing time (which is determined by ingredients used). Upon initial repair, the brewery will have 2 out of its 5 total brewing slots available for use, after which additional upgrades may be made to increase available slot count. Requirements for the brewery's initial repair and successive upgrades are listed below.

Creating Tinctures

 * See Tinctures

Tinctures are created by combining 2 herbs and 1 Water Bottle within the Alembic. Muddy Water cannot be used to make tinctures. Basic tinctures made with twyre herbs are weaker than those made with the rare herbs Ashen Swish, Swevery, and White Whip.

Tinctures can be administered to NPCs during prophylaxis, and otherwise consumed by the player to boost their own immunity. Each tincture type affects an additional status meter for the player, the extent to which is determined by the tincture's quality.

Tinctures can also be administered to infected NPCs during diagnosis, in effort to reveal their disease symptoms. During diagnosis, basic tinctures will reveal 1 symptom, and improved tinctures will reveal 2.

Brewing Antibiotics/Painkillers

 * See Antibiotics/Painkiller

The following tables display Home-Brewed Antibiotics and Painkillers' main and auxiliary effects, the potency of which is determined by the tincture and organ used while brewing.

Home-Brewed Antibiotics

 * See "Yas" Antibiotic/"Medrel" Antibiotic/"Zürkh" Antibiotic

Home-brewed antibiotics can be brewed by combining a tincture with an infected organ.

Brewing Times and Effects

 * Note that all of the following reductions made to Infection (Player & NPC) and Health occur relative to those stats' current value rather than their total value, such that neither status meter is fully depleted.


 * * If consumed by the Haruspex, Antibiotics brewed with an Infected Liver will give him a buff for 2 in-game hours, during which time his exhaustion recovery in sleep is improved.

Painkillers

 * Painkillers can be brewed by combining a tincture with a healthy organ. Painkillers are a home-brewed alternative to Morphine, with which they share similar properties: If consumed by the Haruspex, Painkillers will give him a buff for 2 in-game hours, during which time his health recovery in sleep is improved. If issued to NPCs during diagnosis, painkillers will reduce their pain.

Brewing Times and Effects

 * * If consumed by the Haruspex, Painkillers brewed with a Liver will give him a buff for 2 in-game hours, during which time his exhaustion recovery in sleep is improved.

Prophylaxis
Following the outbreak, the Haruspex is placed in charge of caring for the Bound characters. As the Plague sweeps across the Town, individuals within infected districts will become vulnerable to contracting the Sand Pest. Individuals who are marked In Danger roll for infection on the midnight of that day and, if infected, may later die.

To counteract the spreading infection and aid those vulnerable to infection, the Haruspex, while unable to absolutely prevent infection, is able to apply prophylaxis to tip the odds in his favour. To increase an individuals immunity, the Haruspex may use immunity boosters such as store bought Immunity Boosters, Twyrine, and his own Tinctures.

Diagnosis

 * See Layers

Patients afflicted with the Sand Plague can be aided through the prescription of antibiotics, but first, they will require diagnosis. While antibiotics can be prescribed at random, the effects of incorrectly applied antibiotics is reduced to 25% of their normal potency.

Diagnosis is achieved by administering tinctures to an infected NPC in order to determine in which Layer of the body the disease exists. Each layer of the body -- Bones ("Yas"), Nerves ("Medrel"), and Blood ("Zürkh") -- correlates with a tincture of a matching color: "Yas" Tincture, "Medrel" Tincture, and "Zürkh" Tincture. When tinctures are applied, layer-specific symptoms are revealed, which eventually allow the Haruspex to determine where the disease is located.

There are three types of symptoms in total:
 * 1) The central, ambiguous symptom, which is shared by all layers.
 * 2) The 3 secondary symptoms that are shared by neighboring layers.
 * 3) The 3 primary symptoms that are unique to each layer.

Positive diagnosis requires revealing a layer's primary symptom, or revealing both of its secondary symptoms that abut it. The central symptom is not necessary for either verdict, however its activation can help the player deduce which layer is infected. Note that basic tinctures reveal 1 symptom, and improved tinctures reveal 2.

Each time a symptom is revealed, the patient's pain increases. As such, improved tinctures will often result in more pain than a basic tincture. If a patient's pain reaches its maximum limit, they will not be able to reveal additional symptoms until the Haruspex reduces their pain. This can be mitigated by periodic use of Morphine or home-brewed Painkillers, both of which will reduce patient pain level. If below its maximum limit, NPC pain level has no apparent impact on diagnoses, so pain reduction should be done sparingly.

Generic NPC pain levels are often low to begin with, however Bound starting pain levels slowly increase as the game progresses (just as their immunity slowly decreases, and their severity of infection slowly increases.).

Prescription
The Layers of the body, in turn, correlate with an antibiotic of a matching colour. Antibiotics can either be brewed or bought in Pharmacies and traded with from Townsfolk. When applied, antibiotics decrease the level of infection in the patient. As stated above, the effects of incorrectly applied antibiotics is reduced to 25% of their normal potency. If the individual is a Bound character (including Big Vlad), applying an antibiotic will reduce their chance of dying come midnight. After administering antibiotics to non-Bound NPCs, there is a chance that they will produce a rapid Plague cloud animation, which will pose a threat to the player.

Antibiotics that counteract Plague found in the Bones ("Yas"):

Autopsy
In order to autopsy organs from corpses, the Haruspex must have a surgical tool. Bodies contain four types of organs: brain, heart, liver, and kidney. Organs' odds for successful harvest, and ensuing wear on surgical tools, decline in severity per the previous list, in that brains are the hardest to harvest and damage tools the most, while kidneys are the easiest and damage tools the least. Odds for successful harvest and ensuing tool damage data can be found in the table below. In most cases, harvesting organs will result in a reduction to player reputation, however corpses in the Hospital can be freely autopsied, as can bodies in the Steppe or any districts without reputation.

As opposed to harvesting organs, draining Blood does not require a tool, is always successful, and does not hurt player reputation. Its sole requirement is that the Haruspex is carrying an empty bottle to receive the blood.

While non-infected corpses will always produce healthy organs/blood, infected corpses can produce healthy and infected organs/blood. After autopsying infected corpses in the Hospital, there is a chance that they will produce a rapid Plague cloud animation, which will pursue the player for ~5 seconds before despawning.


 * Autopsy chance of success is constant, and does not scale with durability.