Caught in a death loop

[Smoke]

I'm enjoying the game in the masochistic way it's meant to be enjoyed, but it seems like the game might have gone a bit too far with it's punishment.

I'm currently on day 4 and I'm infected. Maybe I hadn't noticed before, but it seem like the infection eats away at your health little by little. This is a desing problem for a number of reasons, but mainly because of what I'm about to describe.

I saved the game being low on health before I noticed that every 30 seconds or so I took a hit to my health. I can find some healing items on the pharmacies and I have enough money to buy them, but the time it takes to reach them and use the item is more than what they actually heal me. So, I'm on a loop:

1) I'm low on health, around 1/10 of life.
2) I can buy items to heal me, but there's only 1 per shop most of the time so I have to make rounds all over town just to stay alive.
3) Can't lower my infection level with medicine because I die.
4) Can't keep my health up because of my infection level.
5) Can't do "the spoiler trick". You know, setting myself on fire to cure my infection since I'm too low on health and can't survive it.
6) Every time I die, I get lowered stats but restart with the exact same low health of my save point.

I know the game is hard, but this loop is not difficulty, it's downright ♥♥♥♥♥♥. The fact that you only have one "save slot" is part of the problem. I even got "an offer" to undo all the cumulative restrictions from death, but I didn't take it since I thought I could find a solution eventually. Seems I might have underestimated the lack of care from the devs to situations like this... which is unfortunate.

So, is there a trainer software or something that I can use to get my health batck to 50% at least? I think that would be enough. I won't start the game over again. Please tell me there's a way out of this, I was really liking it up till this point.

[Chuck P]

It's not a single slot. The game doesn't overwrite saves, it keeps every single one you make all the way back to the beginning so that if you get yourself into a situation like the one you're experiencing you can just reload an earlier save from before things got screwed.

I recommend you roll back to a time before you got infected, cause that ♥♥♥♥ doesn't go away, and you do NOT want to waste precious, precious shmowders on yourself. Also, unlike the first game the immunity stat provides actual immunity this time around, instead of being just a mild suggestion that the plague can and will rudely ignore, so it's much easier to avoid getting infected. Remember to always stock up on immunity boosters or tinctures. If you're low on crafting materils there is a mound south of the cemetery where twyrine grows like crazy. Also you want to stockpile as much water as you can, so remeber to go garbage diving whenever you can.

[Smoke]

Thanks for the advice.

I'm actually not having issues with resources, or no major issues I might say. Wish there was another way around it that didn't mean going back 2 days, since it feels like cheating and this is my first playthrough. I wanted to find a way out of the situation.

It kinda makes me want to stop playing altogether, since I'm not going to get that first time experience that I was enjoying.

[kalevatar]

If you absolutely don't want to get back to an older save, you can open the console (ctrl+shift+f4) and manually fix your health stat, just to get yourself out of the loop.

[emile]

Infection is definitely pretty brutal in this game since there's very limited opportunities to actually get rid of it--if it helps I think it's a common tactic to reload and avoid getting it to begin with. I did that often in my first playthrough just because it really blows lol.

[NoTimeToWait]

Originally posted by Smoke:

Thanks for the advice.

I'm actually not having issues with resources, or no major issues I might say. Wish there was another way around it that didn't mean going back 2 days, since it feels like cheating and this is my first playthrough. I wanted to find a way out of the situation.

It kinda makes me want to stop playing altogether, since I'm not going to get that first time experience that I was enjoying.

If you are infected on the 4th day - that is a major mistake on your part, because the game gives you lots of chances to avoid the infection.

I understand that you might be distracted by everything that is going on around, but if you managed to get infected - you missed quite a deal of information that should have prevented you from being infected if you paid attention. So, I would say that your estimate of your situation is overly optimistic.

Sometimes the only solution is to restart the game or reload early save.

Or better, just give up. This game is downright PITA, so your expectations might be flawed too. "First time experience", lol.

[Smoke]

Originally posted by NoTimeToWait:

Originally posted by Smoke:

Thanks for the advice.

I'm actually not having issues with resources, or no major issues I might say. Wish there was another way around it that didn't mean going back 2 days, since it feels like cheating and this is my first playthrough. I wanted to find a way out of the situation.

It kinda makes me want to stop playing altogether, since I'm not going to get that first time experience that I was enjoying.

If you are infected on the 4th day - that is a major mistake on your part, because the game gives you lots of chances to avoid the infection.

I understand that you might be distracted by everything that is going on around, but if you managed to get infected - you missed quite a deal of information that should have prevented you from being infected if you paid attention. So, I would say that your estimate of your situation is overly optimistic.

Sometimes the only solution is to restart the game or reload early save.

Or better, just give up. This game is downright PITA, so your expectations might be flawed too. "First time experience", lol.

I don't think it's as bad as people make it to be, I'ts hard all right but if you're ready to make some sacrifices and manage your time, it's manageable. This is something most modern gamers and their "100% that game" mentality don't adapt to easily.

I did get hit by 2 consecutive plague ghosts, and that's where I got my infection. Literally had like 50% of my immunity up, got hit by one, thought I'd manage till the next safe zone, turned a corner and got hit in the face by another one. I had like 4 immunity pills on me still, I just didn't know it'd ♥♥♥♥ up my entire game from then on, I thought it'd be hard but manageable, like everything else.

The death loop is something else. This is not difficulty, this is a design flaw. I have a generous stockpile of resources from dumpster diving everything in my path on my daily routes, and some money from becoming a thief hunter at night (best thing ever, you fight, you win, you get money AND good rep), but none of that helps at all. Guess I'll go with the console hack, 50% health is all I need.

[Dcsmall]

I concur with my colleagues, getting infected at Day 4 is a really difficult, I'd say an impossible situation. It just takes too much of a toll on your early game resources that you need for later on. You might think you've got good stockpiles and resources but it really comes down to the wire by Day 12, and that's when things are going smooth.

But this game is a learning curve and that's part of it's charm. My first playthrough I got to Day 7 and had to restart because I made some bad choices. Intended difficulty. I had to put the game down for a few days.

My second playthrough I completed the game. You learn as you go and that's what this game wants you to do. If you want to use the console hack go for it. But you said earlier you didn't want to reload two days because it felt like cheating so...

[Chuck P]

This game isn't fair, all the odds are stacked against you, which means you're inevitably gonna have to deal with some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ situations. Just take the hit and move on. Don't feel bad for reloading an older save, having to redo 2 whole days is enough punishment as it is, and you need to use every advantage you can take if you want things to end well.

And besides, reloading is an in-game mechanic, so it's not like you're actually cheating. Real cheating would be to opening the "profiles" file in AppData\LocalLow\Ice-Pick Lodge\Pathologic 2\Saves and changing the "deaths" parameter to 0 (which I've totally absolutely never done trust me). Or following a guide in order to complete all story objectives and save everyone on my first playthrough on intended difficulty. That is something I would never even consider doing, how dare you even suggest it?

And yeah, I agree with Dcsmall, don't get complacent about your resources. You think things are fine now, but wait until water becomes scarce and you have to drink it instead of saving it for tinctures, or the streets get all empty and there is no one to trade with.

[CaptainVest]

Just crank down a few relevant difficulty sliders and bring them back up after you clear the death loop.

[Timewave Zero]

Originally posted by Smoke:

So, is there a trainer software or something that I can use to get my health batck to 50% at least?

Shift+Ctrl+F4 -> Inspector -> UpdateService - > PlayerUpdater - > Updatable - > Element 0 -> Health -> set it's value to 1 or something.

And also you can just eat a stockpile of antibiotics and get into bed.

[Komaru]

I personally only load older save files, if I get completely stuck.
Getting infected can easily do that for you, if you don't happen to have anything to cure it with.

[NoTimeToWait]

Originally posted by Smoke:

The death loop is something else. This is not difficulty, this is a design flaw. I have a generous stockpile of resources from dumpster diving everything in my path on my daily routes, and some money from becoming a thief hunter at night (best thing ever, you fight, you win, you get money AND good rep), but none of that helps at all. Guess I'll go with the console hack, 50% health is all I need.

Whatever your wish, if it works for you, then go on. There is no way to play this game wrongly. The only thing you can get wrong about it is your way of thinking.

This game was intended to be a type of a game where you never know which mistake leads to fatal consequences and which will have minor effect (unless you really put yourself into protagonist's shoes, and consider every action as if it was real). Thus, the end might come suddenly, so it also goes according to the game design that at some point you would restart your game.

I would say, that one of the purposes of the game is to let you learn how to LOSE. Not to lose in gaming terms, but to lose in terms of your own abilities. Why the hell does player(or rather a human being) need to learn to lose? Well, it might be interesting to find an answer to that question on your own. I would rather say, that the first thing they teach you in martial arts is how to properly FALL.

But, I guess, even if you cut a part of the game away by refusing to lose, there is still plenty of stuff to get out of it anyway