Medicine?

[Siamese55]

Hi. Newer player here. I've recently poured seven hours in and still cannot seem to grasp how to obtain medicine other than: 1) starting with it or 2) trading for it. I assumed at first a skilled doctor could craft it, but I do not even see an option at the drug bench.

Is it even craftable?

If not, how is it supposed to be early to mid game accessible?

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

Originally posted by Siamese55:

Hi. Newer player here. I've recently poured seven hours in and still cannot seem to grasp how to obtain medicine other than: 1) starting with it or 2) trading for it. I assumed at first a skilled doctor could craft it, but I do not even see an option at the drug bench.

Is it even craftable?

If not, how is it supposed to be early to mid game accessible?

unless theres something wrong with the pawn(missing organs and such that affects overall health of the pawn), a '' doctor '' and a herbal medicine with a lot of bed rest will outcome diseases, you dont need fancy glitterworld stuff for rabbit cuts.

You can craft medicines but its locked behind a lot of research so its not really worth going for it early on. Rely on quests and trades to get high tier medicines. That will be your best bet.
Having herbal medicine is better than not having anything for illnesses.

[Astasia]

You can grow "Healroot" in a growing zone which produces Herbal Medicine. As mentioned that's usually all you need, you can save your normal medicine and glitter meds for special situations like surgery or when diseases aren't going well.

Medicine production is a tech, but it requires neutroamine which you have to buy (or rarely get from quests), so you might as well just buy the meds instead. I don't think I've ever crafted medicine in this game.

[Jigain]

There's also multiple mods that add recipes for both regular and glitterworld medicine (or, for that matter, neutroamine), some more OP than others, but so long as you get used to using herbal medicine as your go-to medication and save the more potent stuff for when it's really needed, you can get by fine just with trading for medicine once in a while.

[ichifish]

Originally posted by Siamese55:

Hi. Newer player here. I've recently poured seven hours in and still cannot seem to grasp how to obtain medicine other than: 1) starting with it or 2) trading for it. I assumed at first a skilled doctor could craft it, but I do not even see an option at the drug bench.

Is it even craftable?

If not, how is it supposed to be early to mid game accessible?

As others have said, unlock the tech medicine and the option to craft it becomes available as a drug lab bill. You don’t need a doctor, just a pawn with 4 or more in both intellectual and crafting. You need neutroamine and herbal medicine.

I disagree with others about the efficacy of medicine. While you can get by without it, using medicine means getting higher tend qualities, faster illness recovery, and much better surgery outcomes. It’s much better to have it when you’re treating someone in the field with “that one pawn who knows some medicine,” too. There’s no reason not to have regular medicine and no reason not to be able to make it yourself, especially if you’re doing lots of surgeries.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Astasia:

You can grow "Healroot" in a growing zone which produces Herbal Medicine.

Note that growing Healroot yourself requires pawns with at least 8 in Plants to sow it.

Wild Healroot can be found in temperate or cold biomes, however. Anyone can harvest either wild or domestic Healroot, though failure rates apply as usual.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

If you decide to grow herbal medicine it will last a long time, the plant is cold resistant and will survive winter while the medicine itself will last several years without refrigeration but can be stuck in a freezer for long term storage. Also a decent trade good especially with tribals.

[Kittenpox]

Assuming that you're doing something similar to https://www.rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Quickstart_Guides and have started in a Temperate Forest biome, you should find https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Healroot growing naturally in the area.

As mentioned, you can harvest those plants to acquire https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Herbal_medicine , which I would recommend using for the most part, as the more modern-day 'Medicine' is harder to come by and requires you to have researched a specific technology to craft. Higher quality medicines are great for treating infected wounds or for doing surgery like installing bionic limbs, but is not vitally necessary otherwise. Herbal medicine is useful. :-)

[War Pig Wizard]

You can grow heal rot so you have herbal meds, which are not as good as normal meds.

Normal meds requires research to unlock so you can build a 'Drug Lab' work station where you will be able to craft meds using heal root, cloth and neutroamine. Neutroamine isn't really used for anything else and you get it from traders, they usually have a good stash so it's not hard at all to keep 100 meds in stock.

Usually I just set my drug lab to make '100 meds' and after that, roll smokeleaf joints. I buy the neutroamine whenever my stockpile gets below 50.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by War Pig Wizard:

Neutroamine isn't really used for anything else

It can be turned into Wake-Up, which is a perfectly reasonable way to get your researchers to turn their time into money by just buying Neutroamine and selling the Wake-Up.

[RCMidas]

I forget, isn't it also used in the go-juice recipe? Because I found that to be a fantastic supplement to my half-cycler pawns due to its Consciousness + Moving boost.

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

I forget, isn't it also used in the go-juice recipe? Because I found that to be a fantastic supplement to my half-cycler pawns due to its Consciousness + Moving boost.

According to https://www.rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Drug_lab , Neutroamine is used in Go-Juice, Medicine, Penoxycyline, and Wake-Up.

[RCMidas]

Thanks. I really need to remember that site exists. Would save me a lot of time trying to find everything by hand in game.

[Siamese55]

Thank you for all the responses and advice. My world seed was "purple" so I ended up picking Hardy Hornet Island for my first spot with a custom scenario. It seems tropical instead of temperate with permanent summer. I absolutely played the tutorial, but I imagine we all know it does not exactly go that far into longer term projects. No shame in admitting I chose one of the more peaceful settings while I figured out my play style and preferences.

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by Siamese55:

I absolutely played the tutorial, but I imagine we all know it does not exactly go that far into longer term projects. No shame in admitting I chose one of the more peaceful settings while I figured out my play style and preferences.

Nothing to be ashamed of. My first few-hundred hours were played at the 2nd difficulty setting (Community Builder), until I learnt that the reason I was never seeing the Toxic Fallout event was because that only shows up from difficulty level 3.

All good, btw. The tutorials is just to get you started - a lot of your learning will be through trial and error, creating ways to overcome the challenges presented to you, and being better prepared for next time around.
Having said that, don't be afraid to play out a difficult situation. If at least *one* of your pawns survives, your colony's story can continue. :-)

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Siamese55:

It seems tropical instead of temperate with permanent summer.

Tropical maps have the highest disease rates by quite a bit, so if you are experiencing a significant drain on medicine from diseases that's going to be the main factor.