Can infection be avoided?

[Dan]

At some point in the game, it suggests that you shouldn't eat the fish under any circumstances, when of course, you've already gorged yourself on them.
Vaguely wondering if there could be some outside case where you play the game strictly vegan, avoiding eating fish and even filtering water with bladderfish? I guess you'd have to make a rapid opening play to get bleach and more sustainable plant-based-food sources than just eating vines.

I assume this wouldn't achieve anything, and infection is just a given in any playthrough?

[kwong20287]

No, as far as I know.

[ImHelping]

The closest you can do to avoiding is keeping your infection level flags lower, via some foreknowledge spoilers that will notably alter a first time experience.

You will always count as infected, and Warpers will attack you one way or another. But they will be somewhat less aggro if you never go do the Disease Research Facility and trigger your glowy green spots. Not only can you beat the game without ever going in there, it's outright detrimental to go in there

[Amanoob105]

You're infected from the moment you hit the water. Or at least from the moment you eat/drink anything.

[Tregrenos]

The trick is to not act infected. Bad breath? Even under water the Warpers would know. Occasional gas? Warpers would be on you before the bubble popped. Sinus problems? The Warpers have the cure, and the cure is death...

[Dan]

Hah, I've darted briskly past a couple of what I presume are warpers, good to know I should probably continue hiding my condition from them :-P

Thanks for the answers all, and the spoiler tags ImHelping... I'm attempting to avoid spoiling too much more of the game than I already have by stopping reading the wiki and just taking the game as it comes :-) Just wondered if the game tricked me into infecting myself or if it was entirely inevitable... figured it was probably the latter.

[HiJustHi]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

You're infected from the moment you hit the water. Or at least from the moment you eat/drink anything.

for me it was until i went to the containment platform

[SternLX]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

The closest you can do to avoiding is keeping your infection level flags lower, via some foreknowledge spoilers that will notably alter a first time experience.

You will always count as infected, and Warpers will attack you one way or another. But they will be somewhat less aggro if you never go do the Disease Research Facility and trigger your glowy green spots. Not only can you beat the game without ever going in there, it's outright detrimental to go in there

You mean... like this? :)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1302822083

[Nictis]

Originally posted by SternLX:

Originally posted by ImHelping:

The closest you can do to avoiding is keeping your infection level flags lower, via some foreknowledge spoilers that will notably alter a first time experience.

You will always count as infected, and Warpers will attack you one way or another. But they will be somewhat less aggro if you never go do the Disease Research Facility and trigger your glowy green spots. Not only can you beat the game without ever going in there, it's outright detrimental to go in there

You mean... like this? :)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1302822083

>OP Thanks someone for putting up a spoiler tag
>You decide to be a ♥♥♥♥

Originally posted by grimdanfango:

Just wondered if the game tricked me into infecting myself or if it was entirely inevitable... figured it was probably the latter.

Late response, but I wanted to say it seems to be the latter. Fairly new, but on my new save I constantly scanned myself to make sure I stayed clean, dodged the area that gets me a warning about bacteria levels, and stayed healthy as long as I could to... change an outcome on an island.You probably already know what I'm talking about.

But yeah, scanned myself immediately before departing for the island in my seamoth (Healthy) dodged the space that has the computer tell me to scan myself, crashed my seamoth onto the beach so I don't touch the water, scan and come up infected.

[bongerman85]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

You're infected from the moment you hit the water. Or at least from the moment you eat/drink anything.

not true u show clean i believe up until the point you hit the QEP. after that. is when it all starts to roll. i believe visiting the degasi base in the deep grand reef and then scanning yourself will trigger the same animation as the DRF. but no the infection cant be avoided. its part of the story and what keeps you on the planet until u decide to finsih. once cured warpers dont care aboput u anymore. you can swim right up to them after you are cured and nothing happens

[Krono]

The game mentions early on that the water itself contains high levels of bacteria, so presumably you get infected the moment you touch the water. Your scanner might say you're still clean, but that would be because the bacteria hasn't built up enough to be detected yet I guess?

[Pembroke]

If you repeatedly and constantly scan yourself you'll see that you transit to "infected" status quite early and there are also several occasional accompandied voice messages triggered by those scans even when you were in "normal" status that warned of growing contamination. Found out by the simple logic that since there was a specific command for a self-scan it had to have some function so did it repeatedly and often in my first try. Happened before the QEP.

So, shouldn't be a big spoiler that you're destined to get infected, especially as one of the PDA messages specifically says the bacteria are in the water and you really can't avoid that on this world...

[bongerman85]

even spawning in a suit, gloves and helmet/divemask(rebreather) will not stop you from getting infected. even if u do it while you are in the lifepod before you even exit for the first time. sorry homie. youre gonna get sick. welcome to 4546b

[MaddogDino]

I s'pose you could stay in the lifepod until you starve to death, but as soon as you take a dip in the ocean you're done for.

[ArcticPuffin02]

well if you spawn in a scanner as the very first thing you do (before jumping out) doesnt it still say *infected*?

[Dan]

As an update to this, and in keeping with what several posts already mention, having now played almost an entire playthrough to completion:

I tested the theory by playing an entirely vegan playthrough, which pretty much requires rushing To the floating island for plant cuttings and planter beds .

The scanner certainly doesn't mark you as infected from the start. I actually maintained clear status indefinitely by avoiding eating fish and avoiding using filtered water.

The tipping point came as The Sunbeam arrived - I checked and reloaded a couple of times... infection would only take hold when I passed a certain trigger point near to The Mountain Island .

Ultimately, it seems the plot itself is infectious... you can stay healthy provided you eat a wholesome plant-based diet and never try to leave :-P