Health and Life Support

[Charlemagne]

I've been assuming that the stat with the electrocardiogram symbol (Life Support) was my "health", but I noticed that when I opened health boxes and it says my health is at 100%, the Life Support stat is still damaged. So what is my health and where do I see how it is doing? And how does "Life Support" come into the picture?

[Redlegoguy1]

Health are the little circles under the shield bar at the top left of the screen. They’re usually hidden, even when you’re not at full health. Base is 3 I believe. There’s a keybind to briefly force show the hud that will allow you to see them whenever, I think the default is H. Techs that add to it usually refer to it as “core health”, and +33% is plus one pip.

[Rubio DarkYeti]

Life Support is basically your ability to keep breathing and living in a hostile environment. Even when you are on a Paradise planet you still need Life Support, since not all atmospheres are made of breathable elements. (At least to your species.)

The gameplay aspect of Life Support is kind of a overall Stamina bar. It is consumed when you walk, sprint, and jetpack. Doing different things uses up more Life Support, walking consumes a little, sprinting consumes a moderate amount, and jetpacking quickly depletes it.
If your Life Support bar is empty, you will slowly die, presumably from suffocation as the suit is no longer filtering the hostile environment.
To recharge your Life Support, you'll need Oxygen or Life Support Gel. Oxygen is the easiest way of recharging Life Support, Life Support Gel is a more efficient crafted way of recharging it.
You can get Oxygen by harvesting the glowing red plants around planets. All planets should have these plants, and they should be fairly common. To locate Oxygen-rich flora, press C to use your scanner. You will see pop-ups which will tell you where these plants are.

Your Health is pretty simple. When you are damaged or press H you will see a bar next to a shield icon with a + inside, on the top-left part of your screen. Underneath that bar will be circle icons with +'s inside them. The bar is your shield, it will automatically recharge after a while of taking no damage, and is your first defense against damage.

The icons below the bar are you health. They are more difficult to heal, and if all of the health icons run out, you die. To heal yourself, you can use medkits, which it seems you already have found.
Some buildings also have wall terminals that recharge your shield or health, you can hover over them to see which they will heal.

Here's some bonus knowledge to help you along.
The bar above your Life Support is your Hazard Protection. Basically while your Life Support filters the air to make it breathable for you, your Hazard Protection stops extreme temperature, radiation, toxic acid, and extreme water pressure from killing you.

If your Hazard Protection bar empties, you will slowly die.
It can be recharged in several ways, most are very easy. Walking into a cave or a building will shield you, allowing your hazard Protection to recharge. Sitting in your Starship or on a Trading Platform will also recharge your Hazard Protection.
You can also manually recharge it, albiet at the cost of materials.
You can use Sodium or Ion Batteries to recharge your Hazard Protection. Pressing C to use your scanner will also locate Sodium-rich flora to harvest. Ion batteries are a more efficient crafted way of recharging it.

Here's some recipes and tips!
Life Support Gel can be crafted with 1x metal plating and 40x Di-Hydrogen.
Ion Batteries can be crafted with 10x Cobalt and 5x Ferrite Dust.
You can quickly recharge your suits systems by pressing X and navigating to the battery icon, which will allow you to quickly recharge things without searching through menus.
Cobalt is found in the Stalagmites/Stalactites in caves.
Ferrite Dust is found in small rocks on the surface.
Metal plating is crafted in your inventory with 50x Ferrite Dust.
Di-Hydrogen is harvested from the blue crystals on the surface. Pressing C will also locate Di-Hydrogen crystals.

Hopefully this all helped and wasn't just a bunch of rambling lol

[Happy Monkey]

Originally posted by Rubio DarkYeti:

The icons below the bar are you health. They are more difficult to heal, and if all of the health icons run out, you die. To heal yourself, you can use medkits, which it seems you already have found.
Some buildings also have wall terminals that recharge your shield or health, you can hover over them to see which they will heal.

Eating meat also restores your health.

[Redlegoguy1]

Originally posted by Rubio DarkYeti:

Life Support is basically your ability to keep breathing and living in a hostile environment. Even when you are on a Paradise planet you still need Life Support, since not all atmospheres are made of breathable elements. (At least to your species.)

Just to add on to this, life support also represents food and water (and I think that’s mentioned somewhere in game but I can’t remember). Life support covers nutrition, so you don’t have to eat, but you can still consume food outside of that.
That’s not really reflected mechanically though, since there’s spots like space stations where life support doesn’t drain which would imply being in certain locations prevents you from getting hungry. The other part of that is that a lot of food items don’t restore life support, even though a few do.

[Charlemagne]

Thanks to all. Every day something new.

[Rubio DarkYeti]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Thanks to all. Every day something new.

No problem! Feel free to ask anymore questions you might have. I understand this game can be very complicated to get into.

[Caramirdan]

Life Support is also slllllowwwly renewed by Life Support mods with Solar Panels when installed into the Tech inventory.

[taniwhat]

Oxygen, life support gel or dioxite. Dioxite is found on cold worlds and is useful because it requires less Dioxite than oxygen.

Only an opportunistic thing as oxygen is generally easier to find, if you get a chance to load up on dioxite a stack will last a very long time.

[Redlegoguy1]

Originally posted by Caramirdan:

Life Support is also slllllowwwly renewed by Life Support mods with Solar Panels when installed into the Tech inventory.

I'm 90% sure that's not how that works but I can't entirely falsify it as I've not tested it in that specific way. The accepted understanding that I've typically seen is that it's a consumption reduction during the day, though depending on exactly what you meant that may be the same net effect. I don't think it can cause your life support tanks to refill in the same manner as something like the starship launch recharger.

[TheCr33pur]

Btw how do you check your shield and health stats? I had to get myself hurt either by a hostile plant or fall damage to show it. But i also have this game on PS4, but i like the PC better cause got better graphic (depending on your hardware) and easier to aim. The PS4 i can use the one of the direction button will show the shield/health stats.

[Redlegoguy1]

Originally posted by TheCr33pur:

Btw how do you check your shield and health stats? I had to get myself hurt either by a hostile plant or fall damage to show it. But i also have this game on PS4, but i like the PC better cause got better graphic (depending on your hardware) and easier to aim. The PS4 i can use the one of the direction button will show the shield/health stats.

As mentioned a few times already there's a keybind to show the full HUD for a few seconds, probably the same thing you were doing on PS4. The default key is H, double check your keybinds if that doesn't do it.

[Rubio DarkYeti]

Originally posted by Caramirdan:

Life Support is also slllllowwwly renewed by Life Support mods with Solar Panels when installed into the Tech inventory.

Solar Power upgrades basically slow the draining of your Life Support during the day. Supposedly because there are no full solar-panels on your suit, it can only scavenge enough energy to slow the draining. I have +300% Solar Power and even when I'm not moving or using Life Support in any way, the bar does not fill.

Also the point about Life Support also covering nutrition is interesting. Why would you immediately die when it runs out? Is the bar also a representation of malnutrition?

I'm assuming that your suit has synced your bodies nutritional requirements with the life span of the filters. Basically, as you upgrade Life Support more, you get higher quality nutrition, thus lasting longer before hunger is a problem. So if your bar is very low, you are very malnourished, because you have not given the Life Support the materials to nourish your body with. At least that's what I'm thinking. Some foods not filling your Life Support could be explained by different nutrients or vitamins doing different things, but I've never heard of a Vitamin R, a vitamin that shields radiation...

[Galactic Starman]

I wrote this some time ago but it seems more appropriate here, in this thread if it helps someone : D Sorry if it duplicates the good advice already covered above.

Suit hazard protection installed (hot, cold, radiation or toxic), protects the life support. It has its own line indicator and also displays above it any of the mentioned hazard flags in use against the atmosphere, if the matching upgrades are installed.

If your Hazard Protection flag is out of the appropriate fuel or broken, you receive severe damage in a hostile atmosphere and the life support line at the bottom left of screen, will drop at a faster rate. (1-3 arrows). Repair or refuel the hazard protection.

Life support will also deplete gradually over time until nothing is left (unless refuelled), and one by one your current number of lives indicator (crosses at the top left of screen), will drop until none remain and you die. Depending on the situation this can be very fast or almost instant the moment life support is gone. Running (not walking) increases the rate of depletion and also a heavy fall.

Sentinel upgrades added to the suit can exponentially increase shield, life support and hazard protection (up to 3 allowed). You character can become virtually invulnerable in the worst environments, until Hello Games adds something even more dire to attempt to survive in. Until then the Minotaur or exocar may be your friend but also require upgrades.

You start the game with 3 lives and can gain more (up to 9 I think) by adding separate Shield upgrades and special items, These are a different item in addition to hazard protection upgrades. Shields correctly placed in your suit also receive shield bonuses. Your ship also displays similar indicators of the health of your ship. Your cumulative shield is the ultimate protection indicator of your suit or ship strength. If the shields are broken from combat, or fall damage or bites, your remaining lives count will be fewer and can all be lost extremely quickly and it's goodbye to life support, hello death.

[Charlemagne]

I've noticed that supplemental environment protections (against heat, cold, etc.) aren't very effective. They run out of juice real fast requiring constant recharge with batteries. The basic hazard protection does well enough and can be recharged with easy to gt resources. I hardly even bother with recharging the upgrades.

[Rubio DarkYeti]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

I've noticed that supplemental environment protections (against heat, cold, etc.) aren't very effective. They run out of juice real fast requiring constant recharge with batteries. The basic hazard protection does well enough and can be recharged with easy to gt resources. I hardly even bother with recharging the upgrades.

Really? with just one S-Class upgrade I can be out in an Extreme Storm for several minutes without needing to recharge. I will admit that anything under S-Class isn't worth it though.

One S-Class upgrade for each type of environment, plus a stack of Dioxite, Phosphorous, Ammonia, Oxygen, and Uranium make for an unbeatable defense. Those elements recharge very efficiently, so on an S-Class they last for forever before needing recharged.