Hardcore Mode: Are doctor bags and doctor visits the only way to heal an injured body part, even if it isn't crippled yet?

[e11]

Asking, because bringing myself up to full HP, and sleeping in a bed, doesn't seem to do squat. My various body parts remain injured. if it really takes doctors/bags to heal them AT ALL, then it seems inevitable to be constantly crippled to various degrees.

[Baby_Cookie[WOLF]]

yes under vanilla conditions then yes

use "doctors bag" simply to restore condition to absolute minimum
then use "hydra" to recover limb health ( one hydra will not recover all ) if you are in the field

use a "doctor" to full restore all limb health at once at 50 caps per visit

use playerowned bed ( novac and lucky 38 ) to restore limb and overall health by sleeping
only those 2 though, every other bed simply functions to "sleep" and does nothing more then reduce the sleep value

simply taking a stimpack does nothing more then bring your hp back up, limb health is on a different track then overall health and stimpacks do nothing to it in hardcore.

if using cyberware 2281 as a modification, you'll have acces to limb regen implants ( providing you find them )
if using any other playerhousing mod or one that functions as it in a byproduct ( voyager for instance ) then those beds will also classify as playerowned

and yes, your early game is most certainly going to be limping to doctors for a while :)
hydra is somewhat of a rarity but can be crafted at the workbench later on ( use wisely untill you can get those reliably )
doctors bags you can craft as well, earlier and faster then hydra or you can just buy them in a reliable manner

fasttravel will work when crippled
so unless you restrict yourself from using it ( hardcore does not by default, you have to restrict yourself some other way on your own choice if you want so ) it's best to use it to jump to goodspring and give doc a visit when the need is high

[JediKnightSky]

Also, it is very possible to do Old World Blues pretty much as soon as you can reach its start location. Once you have access to the Doc, and can teleport back there fairly reliably in a lot of areas and situations once completed, you wont have to fret much about things like being crippled.

I honestly cant say I ever worry about it much. Healing Poultice and Weapon Binding rituals are pretty easy to always have a few made.

[psychotron666]

Honest hearts dlc also allows you to create healing poultice with survival skill which heals more than a stimpack while also healing limb damage.