Zaphtiera's Pathologic Survival Guide

Pathologic is described as miserably punishing. It doesn't have to be. This is how to make the game playable and accessible to more people. Consider this an instruction manual with a lot of swearing.

On Difficulty

This game has a reputation as being a lot harder than it actually is. I’m here to make the argument that it has that reputation not for being difficult, but for being poorly explained. I understand about the ‘intended experience’ the developers want you to have. My dudes, I get where you’re coming from, but your game has a 12% rate of people getting past day one as the Bachelor and there’s no reason that should be the case. I understand there will be some people who want to go in blind and have that experience. This guide is not for them. Godspeed, you lunatics, I hope you stick it out to the end. For everyone else that would just like to play the damn game, I am here for you. This game is absolutely doable, and here’s how.

Care and Feeding of Your Doctor/Miracle Gremlin

The first thing you need to know is that you actually have to do this. Your characters aren’t the Dragonborn, who can apparently stand in the middle of town all night until it’s time to kill again. The Bachelor, Haruspex, and Changeling all have to sleep and eat. You have meters in your status screen that show how hungry, tired, or sick you are. You have to maintain them, but they aren’t as odious as they appear. They don’t go down super fast as long as you’re careful.

Hunger- exactly what it says on the tin. You fix this with food. Food can be bought in the shops with the cow head sign, but that’s not always the best way to operate, as the prices are not set in stone. Meat will stave off hunger the longest. Crackers do basically nothing. Coffee and lemons aren’t for dealing with hunger, they’re for exhaustion. Nuts should not be eaten for any reason. (They don’t do anything for hunger anyway. I mean, if you’re starving, is a peanut really going to do anything but make you upset about it?) They’re currency for trade with children. Water will decrease your hunger a tiny bit, but you’re better off saving it for trade with carousers. (There’s not a thirst mechanic in this game). If you don’t deal with your hunger, you will starve to death. The best thing to do is buy as much food as you can budget on day one (and go pick up the food on Nina’s tomb). Don’t bother buying anything on day two- inflation will be insane.

Exhaustion- This ticks up as the day goes on. You can use coffee or lemons to give you a little more time to do things, but coffee will hurt you. You shouldn’t really need to do this much, if you balance your schedule right. You can sleep in several different places, although everyone will have a specific place the game intends you to sleep. (You don’t have to. If you want to exclusively sleep in the Bachelor’s bed as the Haruspex, you can absolutely do that). Basically if the place has a bed that’s interactable (gets lighter if you hover over it), you can sleep there. Each character has a storage space where you can put things down. The Bachelor has a small dresser beside his bed, the Haruspex has a chest in the lair, and Clara has an end table in Alexander’s side of the Rod. You can’t store your things in another character’s space.

Sleeping is how you regain health, if you drug yourself. Meradorm, etorphine, novocaine, and morphine are the ways to do this. They make you more exhausted, so don’t get lit until it’s time for bed. Health regeneration will be negligible if you don’t drug yourself. (You don’t have to worry about getting addicted or anything, there’s no mechanic for that) You can get meradorm from most children and the others from pharmacies.

Immunity- This is sort of how well you can resist the plague. Don’t rely on it. You can boost it with alpha, beta, and gamma tablets, with some health detriment. Clothes, specifically repellent ones, help a bit as well. If your immunity is over 75% and you’re wearing repellent clothes, you might be able to go through one plague cloud. This is in no way guaranteed, so don’t do it unless you have to. Plague clouds (screaming skull and blood angel varieties) will absolutely ruin your immunity. Rats will chip it away and can also infect you with their biting. Plague victims can infect you if they get too close. However, unlike Pathologic 2, you don’t take immunity damage just for being in an infected district.

Infection- if there’s a sliver of red here, you’ve got the plague my dude. Honestly, it’s never subtle when you get it. There’s a sound cue and the camera disorients briefly. There are a few ways to deal with this problem, but the best way is to reload and try again. (There are a few places as the Bachelor and Haruspex where it’s unavoidable, so reloading won’t help) The others will be discussed in the So You’re Infected: The Hell Do I Do Now section.

Trade: Do It

Trading is absolutely essential to surviving in this game. Shops will always be there and always be open, but inflation will make the prices different every day. Some of them, specifically day 2, are going to be crushingly exorbitant. Collecting garbage from trash cans and houses in burned districts will give you currency for the street economy- none of them will take money. How you initiate trade is through conversation, usually the first option. When you get to the inventory screen, you click what you have to trade, what you want from them, and then the little V in the upper right corner of your screen.

Here are the people on the street and what they want.

Carouser/Drunk- these men in gray suits look creepily happy and will be walking strangely.
Have- bandages, tourniquets
Want- 5 waters

Seamstress- Blonde women in white blouses with pinkish skirts. They don’t trade, but they will repair your clothes if you ask them.

Factory Man- old men in gray shirts with beanies. They repair your weapons.

Teensy- little blonde girls in brown aprons.
Have- meradorm, immunity tablets, lockpicks, shmowders
Want- needles, fishhooks, flowers, nuts

Bullet Girl- young teenage girl with pigtails
Have- various bullets
Want- sharp things and jewelry

Bullet Boy- black haired boy in pale clothes
Have- bullets, some medicine
Want- razors, watches, nuts, muggers’ razors

Medicine Boy- blond boys in brown jackets
Have- meradorm, immunity tablets, rarely bullets
Want- razors, watches, nuts, muggers’ razors

Guards- Men with moustaches in brown clothes stationed around plague districts
Have- Food
Want- muggers’ razors, crowbars, combustible fluid

Muggers- gleeful murderers in red and black, carrying knives openly
Have- knives, muggers’ razors, lockpicks, money, organs (Haruspex only)
Want- your blood

Arsonists- Men in gray coveralls wearing bottles of combustible liquid. Will be creeping around obviously and sometimes hilariously roar.
Have- medicine, money, combustible liquids, organs (Haruspex only)
Want- to murder plague victims and/or you

Combat: Today Is a Good Day To Die

There are some sources that will advise you not to fight. That is not an option in this game. In order to have money and up your reputation, you WILL have to fight and kill muggers and arsonists. Combat is built like it is in every horror game- that is, stacked against you. There are a few things you can exploit to even the odds.

Basically, how you fight is attack, back up quickly, attack, back up, and continue until the other guy is dead. It’s not a predictable rhythm by any means, but you can NOT just stand there and repeatedly attack. You will be murdered immediately. (There is a block, I think, but you don’t have to use it. Clearly, I don’t) Similarly, never fight multiple assailants. They will always, ALWAYS win. The Bachelor’s first quest from Eva will lead you outside to confront a factory man and a Worm she’s afraid of. Headlock the Bachelor and do not let him be rude to them. They will leave on their own and if you fight them, you will die. This is intended to teach you that you can’t approach everything as if you’re the Dragonborn. This lesson would land better if the game didn’t require you to be a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bounty hunter at night.

There are a few basic things you can do to improve your survival odds.

-ALWAYS GO FOR THE HEAD. With some hostile NPCS like the ones you find in burned out houses, you don’t have a viable choice other then shooting them in the head. Everyone is going to be faster than you so it’s in your best interest to end the fight as quickly as possible.

-Learn how to stealth kill. You do this by crouching and following a hostile NPC and then aiming for the head. You will know you did this right when your character changes their grip on the knife. This will one hit kill almost anything. When you get to Clara, you will have to know how to do this.

- Muggers throw knives when they see you, but they have a small animation where they flip the knife in their hands before they do. Use that animation to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY. If that knife hits you, you die.

-If you don’t want to fight or there are too many assailants, enter and leave a building to despawn them. There’s no shame in that. You are a doctor, not Boba Fett.

Exploit the Jank

This game will ♥♥♥♥ you. ♥♥♥♥ it back. There are several issues with the way it runs you can exploit to survive longer. If you feel like this is an inauthentic experience, feel free to skip this section and carry on with your day. If you think it’s only fair since the game explained absolutely zero of this and expected you to somehow survive, keep on reading.

The most important thing to exploit is the despawn mechanic. Sometimes (usually as Artemy) you’re going to be in a situation where you’re overwhelmed by enemies you can’t or shouldn’t fight. Go into and out of a building to make them go the ♥♥♥♥ away. In certain circumstances where the encounters are scripted, doing this can reset the attackers’ positions to something more manageable (like in the Notkin in trouble mission, you can move the muggers from right outside the door to a little ways down the alley). You will most often need to despawn rats, since there’s not a lot of benefit to fighting them and they can infect you. Plague victims will also be reset like this.

The combat AI picks a target at the beginning of hostilities and will focus exclusively on that victim regardless of what it going on. That can be a problem if it’s you they see. But before you have a gun, the best way to fight things is wait until the attacker is fighting someone else and stab them in the back. You can also get someone chasing you stuck on the background if you’re on different levels or there’s a pump in the way. They will run at you forever and give you ample time to safely stab them into oblivion.

If you feel unsure about how something might go, make a safety save. Since you can save anywhere, there’s no issue with saving before picking a possibly unwise fight or a dicey conversation. You will need to have multiple safety saves every day, in case you forgot something or didn’t know you had to do it. I would have no fewer than 6 per day.

Shmowders are supposed to be really rare, and the kid that has them doesn’t show up very often. However, if you’re willing to exploit this, you can basically get a shmowder whenever you want. (Granted you have to have the 10 trade to pay for it.) Don’t bother looking on the streets for Teensies. You can find them in houses. There are usually two of them in this house:

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The thing you need to know about this exploit is that you can reroll trading inventory by leaving and reentering the house. Now, this doesn’t increase the probability of a shmowder popping up, but it is SO MUCH FASTER to continually reroll the inventories than hunt these kids down and hope. It will probably take three in game hours to get one, but that is SO MUCH BETTER than your odds of getting one the normal way.

The Plague

Another vital part of success in this game is understanding how the plague works. You can get infected by the two forms of roaming plague, rat bites, or plague victims. Rats and plague victims have already been discussed. It’s time for the clouds, and the biggest secret of the game.

There are two types of the gray screaming skull clouds, and if you’re not paying attention it’s not going to be obvious which one hit you. There are static clouds that tend to pop up at the edges of plague districts and sometimes in the exits of parks. If you’re paying attention you should be able to avoid these. You can’t despawn them either, their locations are set. Moving clouds will come at your face from any direction (yes, even behind you) Outside they’re easier to dodge but in houses they will ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chase you. This is why you shouldn’t bother looting infected houses. There will be times when you have to go into an infected house, don’t do it more often than absolutely necessary.

The biggest secret in the game is about the blood angel form of the plague. Yes, this is scary as hell and they’re a lot faster. They show up on day 6 and only get more obtrusive from then on. HOWEVER. There is no reason you should ever be infected by them…

…because if you stand perfectly still and wait, they just go away.

I’m not kidding. That happens.

Now if you have a screaming skull cloud also coming at you or a rat, then by all means pop into a house and despawn them. This only works if you CAN stand still. It will take about 20 seconds, but I promise you it will ♥♥♥♥ off.

So You're Infected: The Hell Do I Do Now??

Well, reload if you can. There’s going to be a lot of errant and accidental infections. You don’t have to put up with them. You’re going to need your shmowders and cures for the end of the game, so try not to end up needing to use them on yourself.

Shmowder cures the plague, but it decimates your health. Don’t take one unless you’re about to sleep. You get these from Teensies (or sometimes quests, if you’re the Bachelor). The Haruspex’s mission involves making a cure, but if you’re the Bachelor and you’re nice to him you can get some cures from him. These don’t have health penalties.

The diciest way to cure the plague is by fire. The arsonists will attack you if you’re infected, but this is tricky to get right. You have to run through a fire that’s on the ground- the ones in midair do nothing, and bonfires aren’t accessible. You also have to get out before you die. This isn’t going to do you any good if you’re very infected, since you will die before it’s gone, but you should be using antibiotics to manage your infection level so it doesn’t get that high. The gigantic guys in full armor with flamethrowers will also attack you if you’re infected. Since they have flamethrowers, it’s way harder to use this method to cure yourself. I don’t recommend it. (You don’t have to be very infected for arsonists and flamethrower troops to attack you- they have AI clairvoyance)

Reputation: Don't Be a ♥♥♥♥, Even Though You Can

The last mechanic you have to worry about is your reputation. This is critical for your survival. If it’s too low, merchants won’t trade with you and the men will all attack you. The Bachelor never has too much trouble with his reputation, since it starts high and won’t get too low unless you for some reason decide to play him like the Boss from Saints Row. I mean, you CAN kill everyone you see, but why the hell bother? Everyone loves you, enjoy your privilege while it lasts.

The Haruspex has it worst when it comes to reputation, since you start out accused of murder. However, it is absolutely doable to get it back up to safe levels before the end of the first day. (I’ll detail this in the Haruspex-specific advice section) The Changeling also has reputation problems, since her sister is lowering it constantly, but you shouldn’t have any problems keeping hers up since she can cure the plague.

Your reputation lowers when you attack normally non-hostile NPCs. You should never do this (Not even as the Haruspex). There are some dialogue options that will lower your reputation, but you can avoid this if you aren’t a ♥♥♥♥. (Safety save before you talk to Maria always). Certain actions you can take will lower your reputation, but it’s usually obvious what. Raising your reputation is relatively straightforward as well. Kill muggers, looters, and arsonists at night. Do your quests. If you’re the Changeling, cure the plague. You do this by targeting a plague victim with your magic attack. You only have to be close to them when the animation starts. Feel free to back the hell up afterward. You’ll know you did it right when you hear kids clapping and the victim will bow to you. (This only works on the plague victims in rags and never on yourself.) You can roam infected districts and clear them of victims, and you should never have to worry about reputation again.

General Advice

-Use a walkthrough. Yeah, I know, intended experience, but do you want to play this game or not?

-The mail carriers in Gorkhon are all ninjas. You need to check your mail to know what to do. Press L to look at what you’ve got. The signal that the mail ninjas have been there is a circular character in the bottom left of the screen appearing and the sound effect of a page turning. Most of your quests will come from your mail.

-If you’re using a walkthrough and you know there’s supposed to be a quest, you can go talk to the quest giver before than the letter is scheduled to arrive and get an early start. (This works best for the Bachelor, he’s usually got something for you to do every morning). You should start on your quests as early as possible and get them all done before afternoon. Sleep in the afternoon and go hunt muggers at night. This should be your basic schedule.

-Stack food on day one, and don’t bother to shop again until day 4. There will be a slight hike on day 5, but the inquisitor will drive prices back down. By this point in the game you should be primarily getting food by trading with the guards rather than shops anyway.

-Exploit the jank.

-Be nice to the Haruspex as the Bachelor and he will give you panacea.

-SAFETY SAVES. Use them.

-GET YOUR MAIN QUESTS DONE EVERY DAY. You will never have to worry about your Bound being infected if you get your jobs done. Save all your cures and shmowders for the endgame. If you can cure everyone’s Bound, then you get a special ending. (I don’t know if this is normal, but I only needed 6 cures/shmowders to do this)

Bachelor-Specific Advice

-Don’t let him be rude to people. I know it’s always an option. Headlock the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and make him be nice. It will make your life a lot easier.

-Safety save before every conversation just in case. The most dangerous people for you to talk to are Big Vlad, Maria, Anna, and Aspity.

-NEVER fight Worms if you don’t have to. They have better reach, endurance, and strength than you.

- There is an herb bride being burnt in the Bone Stake Lot (behind Isidor’s house) on day one. You can’t stop it, but there are two dead men by the bone stake. One of them has a revolver. Take it.

- You can get another revolver by whining at Saburov. No, really. If you get dialogue options to repeatedly ask for a weapon, do it. He will give in eventually. Now you have two guns! Sell one.

-You really don’t need to pay Vlad Jr for maps of infected districts. It’s really obvious where they are. Safety save before you go in, but if you’re careful and despawn when you need to, there’s absolutely no reason to go around them.

-About the Barley quest: This is very simple if you have a gun. Safety save beforehand, and shoot them all in the head. When you have to reload you can run by the last guy to the back of the warehouse. By the time you get there you will have reloaded and can shoot the last guy in the head. You will take a little damage. It only took me three tries to do it with this method, and it was super easy. Welcome to all your new razors and money.

-Pay Grief to help you rescue the Haruspex. You’re doing work for rich people, you ought to have the 10,000 to spend on him. You will have to fight one guard, but that’s way better than all of them.

-On Day 5 make it a priority to do the Anna/hunchback quest. You can make BANK off these awful people, and you’re going to need it.

-I ran into a problem with the Hunchback arsonist quest on Day 6 that you might not, but be aware that the attack on the Termitary might spawn early. It’s supposed to be 10pm, but if you go there at any point during the day and see the guards run off to fight, it’s go time. Safety save and get in there. This fight is going to be a complete pain in the ass and you’re going to need to save incrementally as you kill dudes. Use the rifle. Kill an arsonist, run back to the doors to reload your gun, run forward and kill another. This will be arduous, but it’s doable. When the hunchback is alone, just run up on him. Be aware that he CAN hit you if he targets you, even if you’re at the doors.

-On day 8, get Taya’s toy. It’s annoying but it’s easier. Don’t give up Vlad Jr. Safety save at the house and run in to find the toy. Get infected, whatever, you’re just here to find it on the first run. When you know where it is, reload and try it for real. You will need kerosene in here, infected houses are very dark.

-On day 11, safety save before you deal with the soldiers trying to kill Andrey. Hide behind the rocks on the hills and snipe them one by one with the rifle. You’ll need to duck behind the rocks after you shoot one. DON’T loot them until they’re all dead. Up in the rocks, you should be too far away for them to run after you. Wait until the combat music fades to snipe the next one. This will also be annoying, but doable.

Haruspex-Specific Advice

-I know your reputation is terrible in the beginning. Don’t fight the men that are hunting you. Run away and despawn them. They aren’t the bad guys. You aren’t either, yet, and you don’t need to make things worse for yourself.

-DO. NOT. KILL. THE. DOGHEAD. I don’t care that he deserves it. I don’t care that he has a shmowder. I already told you how to get those. There is no reason to do this and it makes your life worse later.

-Only men will hunt you. Women will run from you, and children don’t give a ♥♥♥♥ if you’re Jason Vorhees. They’ll trade with anyone.

-Go through the steppe to get places until your reputation is better. There’s no one to hunt you out there, also you need twyre.

-You can’t avoid the plague when you’re arrested on day 5. Just accept this, safety save, loot the guard, and RUN. Get what you can on the way out, but it’s not worth looting everyone. Yes, you’re already infected, but you can be more infected.

-When the Bachelor asks you for a heart, pick the herb bride. It’s the easiest since you don’t have to go through the town and you’ll get the best reputation boost for it. This should solve your reputation problem for today.


How to get your reputation back on day one in 45 realtime minutes or less:
-I might have mentioned this, but don’t kill the doghead.

-Don’t kill your pursuers.

-Ignore your health, hunger, and exhaustion for now. You can sleep when you’re liked.

-Tell the doghead to piss off. Then tell Notkin and Grief you didn’t kill him.

-Grief will also get you a quest to save one of your assailants from earlier. Go through the steppe to get to the graveyard. Take this route to get to the hunchback’s with minimal interruptions.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/770614486208255833/D8CFD5238D3BB29924E0AFB210C6B9B611A00D05/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Take the reverse of that route to get back. Give the guy blood. Your rep is at 50% now.

-For the Family Home sidequest, just go to the Termitary first. Safety save, stealth kill one guard, then normal kill the other to get your house key. Deal with your house, then take the steppe route to get to the Bachelor. Talk to him, and your reputation will be at 80%. Congratulations, you won’t be attacked anymore. NOW deal with your health, hunger, and exhaustion. You should have no further problems with this until day 4.

[HoneyComb]

Btw for The Bachelor's side quest where you need to go into an infected house for 1 hour game time (5 mins irl I think), you can cheat it and not get infected by just standing on the window sill, very safe way to get a shmowder.
(Also I actually didn't know about the standing still for the angel plague clouds, I've been running from them this entire time, this is going to make my life so much easier)

[Dungeon Pavlik]

Actually there is a way to not get infected by day 5 as haruspex. You just need to f5 when you will be on the spot (jailhouse) and loot the corpse of dead guard ASAP, take out and reload revolver and shoot a guard in a head. The other one will charge at you, opening the doors, what will make you an escape route.

About the plague, it's possible to dodge : when cloud will be charging at you just go to the right corner of the cell, and go to the opposite one and repeat untill you won't let guard opend cell doors for you c:

[WiteNoiz]

Solid info but also entertaining as hell to read. Excellent guide, bro.

[Xander & Yalnif]

is it that bad If i got infected and never save-scum'd out of it? I'm on day 3 rn

[ndn]

You can't kill the little girls, even if they're holding Shmowder.
So- always have hazelnuts and such on hand!

[Battlesheep]

i noticed as Haruspex that all it takes for people to stop trying to kill you is to not kill Doghead and tell Notkin and Grief.

And yet IRL i don't kill a child for ammo every day and people still hate me :(

[Pusheen Collective]

No problem :)

[Citrinn]

I was half joking half venting; your advice is very good and I'm using it a lot. Thank you for the guide and for taking your time in responding me ^^

[Pusheen Collective]

What I mean by do your quests in the morning is to prioritize the main quest before anything else and get that done as early as possible. The main quest each day is the thing that determines whether or not your bound get sick, so you can really cut down on what you have to do later in game if you keep them all healthy this way.

[Citrinn]

I have no idea what do you mean by do your quests by the morning lol Im stuck in 4th day traying to do the main quest and just 2 of the 4 side quests and just theres no time. Did the day thrice already and going to my 4th attempt of getting all done in a day even though I spend the days running as a madman and eternally tired. And all that because I took a walkthrough and reorganized the steps to not be running in circles like an idiot madman, or I wouldnt get even a third of the things done. I couldnt check even half of the trash cans and still Im behind Barley's den at 23:00.