Bandages and wounds, what's the right thing to do ?

[WarMage]

Hey guys,

This topic.... is a bit complicated I guess ? I would like to have a general idea of how to play properly.

No need to describe the different types of wounds and their cure that's the most obvious thing to find. Stuff like splinters, suture or removing bullets / glass.

No, it's more about the proper way of treating wounds.

I've read that a ripped sheet comes with a RNG chance to infect you. Not sure if it's true.
I've read that cleaning bandages (whichever it is) is bad. It gives you back the bandage / ripped sheet, etc with extra chance to infect you.
I've been told that being bloody (the character) or the clothes (if they are overlapping a wound) has a chance to gives you the Knox Virus death kiss even if your wound isn't infected --- Then I've been told the opposite by someone here who sounded pretty credible.

All that nice stuff you see ?

So what's the right thing to do ? Since there's no way to learn / find that in-game I really don't feel bad asking you vets with 300+ hours to let me know. Always washing my clothes was one hell of a bother before I was told it was for naught. I'm pretty happy I saved all that wasted time now.

[Shurenai]

1: Not true...sorta. Just to be clear here, there are TWO kinds of infection in the game- Wound Infection, and the Zombie Infection. The Zombie Infection can ONLY occur when struck by a zombie if it inflicts a wound; In which a Scratch has a 7% chance, a Laceration has a 25% chance, and a Bite has a 100% chance to Zombie Infect you- This is determined at the time the wound is generated.

The game will never out right tell you that you've been zombie infected- Your only indication is the various symptoms like queasiness, continuing pain, etc.

The other kind of infection is Wound infection. Wound infection is the kind that is shown in the Health panel as 'Infected'. Wound infection occurs when you fail to change your bandages in a timely manner once they've become dirty. And this is why the answer here is 'Not true..sorta'; Ripped sheets don't have an RNG chance to infect you, but they do become dirty much faster so it's easier to get wound infections.

2: Patently false. Using cleaned bandages makes no difference, so clean your bandages. In fact, go a step beyond this and boil water in a pot and sterilize your bandages of choice and they'll last longer.

3: At this time, it makes no difference. You can dip yourself in a vat of blood while covered in lacerations and not get zombie infected in this manner. As described above, the ONLY way to get the Knox Virus is when a zombie successfully applies an injury to the character with a 7/25/100% chance depending on the wound severity. This chance is rolled at the time the injury is applied, and the injury from which you recieved the infection can even fully heal before you get the first queasy moodle if the circumstances are right.


Right thing to do: Sterilize your bandages, and change them in a timely manner. The moment it's dirty, if you have the means to, swap the bandage. You can achieve a similar effect to a pre-sterilized bandages by disinfecting the wound with alcohol/disinfecting wipes before applying a clean non-sterilized bandage.

[WarMage]

Wonderful thank you very much.
You've just answered most of my questions.

The only thing left in my mind that doesn't compute is what to do when you sleep. Does it penalize you if your bandage get dirty 2 hours in for a 8 hour sleep ? Probably, considering the game. Thus, what to do ?

As for sterilization, I've found that on my own (Yeah, I'm a good boy !) but when water or electricity stops I'm not really keep up with it. I haven't mastered that bit yet....

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by WarMage:

Wonderful thank you very much.
You've just answered most of my questions.

The only thing left in my mind that doesn't compute is what to do when you sleep. Does it penalize you if your bandage get dirty 2 hours in for a 8 hour sleep ? Probably, considering the game. Thus, what to do ?

As for sterilization, I've found that on my own (Yeah, I'm a good boy !) but when water or electricity stops I'm not really keep up with it. I haven't mastered that bit yet....

Pretty much just screwed. when that happens. Usually with better bandages it seems to take longer to get infected after it's dirty(IE, A Sterlized Bandage vs a ripped sheet); But that's observational anecdote rather than hard fact.

Really it's not too bad to get a wound infection- It mostly just slows healing down currently. If you manage to get one, just disinfect it and stay on top of replacing the bandage afterwards and the infection will heal soon enough.

[WarMage]

Alright, make sense. I'm pretty sure I can manage that mechanic.

[hardy_conrad]

It's a relief to hear I won't get zombified from anything other than the bite / laceration / scratch. Those are bad enough after all... So much misinformation about this game, some deliberate and some folks making guesses but not willing to admit it's only a guess.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by hardy_conrad:

It's a relief to hear I won't get zombified from anything other than the bite / laceration / scratch. Those are bad enough after all... So much misinformation about this game, some deliberate and some folks making guesses but not willing to admit it's only a guess.

Honestly, I think a lot of it is due to people not understanding the Wound infection vs Zombie infection thing, which in turn led to a lot of misinformation/urban myths. And these urban myths persist pretty much entirely because the game never actually tells you when you've contracted the Knox virus- So without external information from someone who actually knows how it works, They can never self-correct their misunderstandings.

Because of this misunderstanding, a lot of users get scratches (7% chance to zombie infect), tend the wound obsessively, never see the "Infected" text(wound infection)on their wound in the health panel, but then after the injury heals they still die of the zombie infection and are confused- They then assume, for example: "well, I was fighting zombies with scratches on my body and got zombie blood all over myself..that must be how I got infected." and talk about it on the forum, and bam- new urban myth that is reinforced by a dozen other users who went through basically the same experience and came to the same conclusion.

[WarMage]

Yeah I see exactly what you're talking about. Although, I think the moodlets are helping a bit. One of the very first I figured out was that the combination of Queasy + Stress + Got a wound recently = Knox virus, you're dead.l It was reinforced by a few players talking about that combination too. It's the best way to tell it's the virus and not just a simple normal infection.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by WarMage:

Yeah I see exactly what you're talking about. Although, I think the moodlets are helping a bit. One of the very first I figured out was that the combination of Queasy + Stress + Got a wound recently = Knox virus, you're dead.l It was reinforced by a few players talking about that combination too. It's the best way to tell it's the virus and not just a simple normal infection.

Yep! But you can, through other means, inadvertently obtain those moodles all at the same time. For example, you can get queasy from lingering around zombie bodies.

You might, for example, get injured during a prolonged fight around a bunch of corpses, take so long to clear the enemies and loot them that you get Queasy, see your stress and pain are high from the recent injury- If you then assume you got infected from that alone, you might suicide by bleach or something to just get it over with..only to not see your corpse stand back up afterwards. :P

Similarly you could have caught a cold in the rain, and gotten feverish (another tell of the infection), or ate something poisonous without realizing (Tossing random berries into your food without appropriately testing them/having the herbalist guide book) and get queasy.. etc, etc.

Queasiness, continuing pain from an injury (Usually the pain is only noticable for maybe 1/5th of an injuries life time, ish.), rising anxiety.. All symptoms. But all gainable through other means and can lead you to a false diagnosis.

Oh.. And to dispel a couple another common myth while I'm here:
There is no surviving a "Bitten" wound from a zombie unless the infection is disabled in the sandbox settings. If you get a Bitten wound, You're already dead. It's a 100% chance to infect you. There was a bug a while back that lead to the infection from a bite not always taking, it has long since been fixed but the myth still goes around.

There also is no cure, or solution that can help you survive the knox infection- It is 100% lethal when contracted. You can't stop it by immediately disinfecting the wound, nor can you just hole up with medical supplies, food, drink, and power-sleep your way through the situation. (Sleeping and a high food moodle help you regenerate health)

And also, in case it wasn't previously obvious, you cannot contract the knox infection from non-zombie injuries- Getting a scratch or laceration from climbing through a broken window or running through trees won't infect you.

[WarMage]

Your knowledge's solid man.

I've just reached the end of my current run. On day 6, I lost water. On day 13, I lost power. I still had no car and realized I would need to find enough gas to move the theoretical car to the gas station while also loading up a generator to power up the pump....... that's when I grabbed the shotgun I had found a few days earlier, loaded up all my buckshot and went out to enjoy a great summer day. It was quite literally a blast.

/sad

I'm not good enough yet to power through losing both services.

[Andy Mil]

boil bandage and rip sheet allll the way
as long as no zeds wound u
u dont worry much
til there is human enemy with gun and also do go slow through thing.. There sharp glass

[hardy_conrad]

Speaking of getting confused by corpse sickness, quick question on that topic.

Can it kill you?

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by hardy_conrad:

Speaking of getting confused by corpse sickness, quick question on that topic.

Can it kill you?

The miasma from lingering corpses absolutely can kill you if you stay near them too long. You'll get queasy first which is your warning to get out of the area. Then nauseous, sick, and lastly fever.

Each stage increases temperature generation (you overheat easier), reduces health regeneration and healing times, etc- Health begins to decline and can kill you in the Fever stage, when the queasy/nauseous/sick/fever is caused by lingering around corpses.

[Bainrow Kicks]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Originally posted by WarMage:

Wonderful thank you very much.
You've just answered most of my questions.

The only thing left in my mind that doesn't compute is what to do when you sleep. Does it penalize you if your bandage get dirty 2 hours in for a 8 hour sleep ? Probably, considering the game. Thus, what to do ?

As for sterilization, I've found that on my own (Yeah, I'm a good boy !) but when water or electricity stops I'm not really keep up with it. I haven't mastered that bit yet....

Pretty much just screwed. when that happens. :winter2019happyyul: Usually with better bandages it seems to take longer to get infected after it's dirty(IE, A Sterlized Bandage vs a ripped sheet); But that's observational anecdote rather than hard fact.

Really it's not too bad to get a wound infection- It mostly just slows healing down currently. If you manage to get one, just disinfect it and stay on top of replacing the bandage afterwards and the infection will heal soon enough.

You can set an alarm to wake up earlier, which I would guess would be one of the few reasons to use an alarm.

I need to start taking the time it takes to make different recipes in the oven and just use an alarm for that as well, instead of waiting and watching the bar fill up.

[Andy Mil]

Dont sleep with corpse
in first place

[Playzr 🐵]

There is a useful mod that allows you to test yourself for the zombie virus using a ripped sheet. Also I always used ripped sheets and never bother with bandages. Replace them when they get dirty. If when you remove the ripped sheet from the wound it is infected then it's time to disinfect it if you have the supplies like alcohol.
With the power going out that is difficult to adjust to considering how hard it can be to find the electrical skill 1 book and the generator manual. It's very RNG and for me I had found like literally 5 or more of every book before I found those two, then suddenly started finding lots of them.