Survival & Farming

Staying fed and hydrated safely, sickness, fire, and farming

Hunger, thirst and temperature

• Drain is the same as vanilla: about 0.5 food and 0.67 water per real minute, plus about 0.4 food and 0.45 water for every 100 stamina you refill. There's no game option to change it.
• Health and stamina go up to 200. Below 52%, 27% and 4% food or water you get worse hunger/thirst stages; at the last one you lose 0.25 health every 2.2 seconds for each, and health regeneration stops.
• Heat: above 85° stamina costs four times the water (+300%) and you move 10% slower; at 100° and up it's seven times (+600%) and 20% slower.
• Cold: below 50° you burn 30% more food over time and twice the food per stamina; at 32° and below it's 60% more and three times.
• Fighting with tier 1 melee or empty hands while Death Rage is up drains extra food and water.

Dysentery is the early-game threat

Dirty water carries a chance of dysentery, which makes you lose water faster and slows your movement. It lasts up to an hour, and catching it again and again while you have it can kill you. (There's no food poisoning in Rebirth.)

• Murky water gives dysentery half the time. Boiled water has a 7% chance, so it's still your best source early on.
• Distilled water is 100% safe, and it always cures 6 minutes of dysentery; Goldenrod Tea always cures 12 minutes. You make distilled water at the Distiller.
• The author's advice: drink boiled water first, and keep distilled water for when you do get sick.
• Craft a diaper. It eases dysentery's effects while you ride it out.
• The Distiller station's mission unlocks at level 20.

Food

• Canned food has a small dysentery chance if you eat it straight from the can. Most cans also have recipes: combine them with simple ingredients and flours and cook them. That removes the risk and gives a better meal.
• Cooked food heals far less than in vanilla (Meat Stew 3 health instead of 25, Steak and Potato 2 instead of 25, Bacon and Eggs 1 instead of 18). It gives stamina bonuses instead, so heal with medicine. Stews give buffs: Gumbo grants fire immunity and Hobo Stew grants radiation immunity.
• Boiled meat beats charred meat, and a cooking pot is much easier to find than a grill.
• The Sous-Chef learns recipes earlier and gets bigger bonuses from cooked food.

Healing and radiation

• Bandages craft from cloth and heal 6 up front, about 10.5 in all. A first-aid bandage heals 25 up front and up to 50 in all, faster with medic skills. Healing is restrictive by default, so you can't spam it. Antibiotics are also in the game.
• Infection runs up to 7 hours, and its last stage kills you.
• Toxic zombies (green hands) cause radiation damage over time and radiation poisoning, which works like an infection: it progresses in stages and kills you if left untreated. The cure is Prussian Blue. Try to loot some before you meet your first toxic zombie; it is always craftable (chemistry station, mortar, or campfire), so you can make it later.
• Teleport to Backpack is a free craft when you respawn. It takes you straight to your dropped backpack and re-equips everything, which helps you avoid a death loop if the area is still dangerous.

Fire

• Fire spread is off by default. When it's on, wooden blocks burn, but cobblestone and anything stronger won't. Cop and mutant spit doesn't set wood alight.
• Fire extinguishers: with fire on, you start the game with one. Later you can refill them with potassium bicarbonate, which the vending machines behind Briston stock.
• Fire doesn't create screamer heat.
• Burning companion? Recall it with Q while carrying water, and you'll use the water to put it out.

Keeping screamer heat down

Mining creates a lot of heat. When it's getting high, move somewhere else for a while or switch to shoveling dirt, which creates little or none. The screamer heat detection mod shows your current level (see Gear & Armor).

Farming

Crops need water, light, and warmth.

• Water: put a water source in the center of your plots, reaching up to three plots across, and fill it with a bucket. A dew collector works too, but takes up more room. Without either, plants rely on rain.
• Light: at night, crops need powered lights; torches aren't enough. Lights reach in an arc, so corner plots may need extra.
• Warmth: crops need at least 45° (some are stricter). A campfire or other heat source nearby adds enough. All three requirements can be toggled off with the Advanced Farming setting. The Snow is often too cold, and nothing grows in the Wasteland.
• Harvesting doesn't give seeds back; plan to craft or buy more. The Plants vs Zombies room works out seeds, yields and water for a garden.
• Dig up existing farm plots with a shovel instead of crafting new ones. POIs have plenty.
• Seeds are sold by the farmer merchant at Rekt's compound. A global achievement boosts your harvest from planted crops (not wild ones).

Chickens

• You need a chicken coop, corn meal (it goes in the feed bucket), a feed bucket, and a chicken. Catch one by tapping E on it.
• Fence off an area for them. A one-block fence isn't enough, because chickens can jump on each other.
• One chicken per coop: release the chicken near an empty coop and the coop claims it. It eats Cornmeal from a feed bucket nearby; unfed, it slowly starves. The coop unlocks from a Special Mission. Ranges, feeding times and eggs per day are in the Plants vs Zombies room.