"So you've decided to take mushrooms..." a PSA (Slightly outdated, user beware)

Welcome, Mycomancers, to a comprehensive guide to safe munshromn consumption. Using this guid- I MEAN by reading the sacred texts contained within the Mycolonomicon, you will unlock great powers, including altering the fabric of reality itself and communicating with the dead. For the short periods in which your mortal vessel can contain the overwhelming force of Magic, you shall be as a God.

Foreword

Mushroom consumption is quite useful, but rather risky. By safely consuming mushrooms and being conscious of it's effects, when to use them, the risks and the drawbacks, we can safely take advantage of this powerful resource.

In this guide, I'll be taking you through a standard trip for me, giving you screenshots and console statistics of exactly what's going on so you can feel safe and comfortable to experiment on your own.

Like all good experiments, we must start with a control. And like all things is Obenseuer, we must start in the Sauna. The keen eyed among you might already notice one of the many benefits of the Sauna, related to the "Mushroom SMV progression rate" statistic. This buff persists as long as you stay within the Sauna and will be important for risk control in the upcoming sections.

A quick note for newer players: A future update will contain a better interface to convey player statistics, but for now, we can use a console command to view our own statistics. This is the only dev console command that is not considered cheating and will not disable achievements on your save if you use it. To access this console command, hit F1 and then type " player_stats get " (Without any quotation marks).

SMV and Me - A guide to Stahlberg Mushroom Virus

SMV is a virus infectious to both humans and certain species of highly addictive fungus that seem to have originated in the Stahlberg Underground. It rapidly infects mushroom hosts and causes their spores to become active airborne carriers of the virus, but the effects are more sinister within the human body.

Aggressively spreading throughout the human host, the Stahlberg Mushroom Virus is actually typically fairly simple to treat. Over the counter and stronger antifungals have a proven effect at preventing the progression of the virus, and accompanied by a skilled surgeon removing any fungal growths, a person can actually come out of a minor bout of SMV relatively unharmed. Unfortunately, with rampart poverty, substance abuse and mental health issues within Obenseuer, it's not always easy for the infected to get access to medication, or even realise that it's an issue before it's too late.

The virus has also been proven to be prone to pure alcohol and fluctuations in heat. The consumption of pure ethanol and methanol, while having varying degrees of effect on the host's health, actually cause immense damage to the viral cell walls. While the virus thrives in cool, damp environments that are native to it's mushroom hosts, the virus is extremely prone to hot, damp environments, such as the inside of a sauna.

Left untreated, the mushrooms grow primarily in the moist cavity within a human's skull and prefer brain matter as a form of nutrient, usually deeply impacting the individual's mental health and motor skills and eventually resulting in expiration of the host, when the colony enters a dormant state of spore distribution and energy conservation.

PURE MUSHROOMS are a product made using fresh water, plastic containers, methanol, syringes, coal as a filter and any 5 mushrooms. The hallucinogenic substances are extracted and the SMV is killed using a combination of methanol, heat and filtration. This is the safest way of consuming magic without any risk of SMV infection.

To summarise this section:

SMV regression methods (Slow or stop progress)

Experimental surgery (Huge decrease to both viral progression rate and current viral progress, random damage to HP from 1% to 100%)

Antifungal medication - Antifungal medication provides a 10% reduction in the Progression rate, slowing the disease, but a doctor will need to cut the existing progress out.

Sauna - Flat reduction of progression by .25 per hour spent in Sauna. This value can go below 0 as shown in the foreword and effectively cure existing fungal growths, but requires extended sessions in the sauna.

SMV reduction methods (Remove existing fungus)

Experimental surgery (See above)

Remove growths at doctor (Small amount of health damage, large amount of growth removal)

Drink Ethanol (2% reduction to growths, small reduction to health)

Drink Methanol (5% reduction to growths, large reduction to health)

Sauna (0.25% reduction per hour ASSUMING you have stopped the progression)

Addiction, apprehension, fear and loathing

Addiciton. There's no way around it when you're dealing with mushrooms. While there are no hard and fast rules, my general overall advice is to never consume mushrooms if you have an active need for mushrooms. The mushroom icon on the HuD is not an indication that you should consume mushrooms, contrary to other statistics like food or water. If you see the mushroom onscreen, you should simply not consume any more mushroom products until it's gone. Spiralling into mushroom addiction is a gateway drug to ducks, and has caused many players to outright restart their saves after hours invested into their character. There are many people who will tell you to try to treat the addiction symptoms using green cigarettes or other methods. I have never seen screenshot evidence that this works. Mushroom addiction is extremely severe and causes massive health complications, plummeting mental health and suicide attempts. Unless you are experienced, do not allow your addiction level to climb and if you see the need for mushrooms, do not take any more mushrooms until it goes away.

The Experiment

For this experiment and example, I'll be taking 5 Doses of Pure Mushrooms (don't worry I'm a scientist). This will produce a predicted result of a 2 hour high, during which time we'll be taking advantage of our ability to access the memories of those who are on the Other Side, increasing all of our Production skills by 50%, to a limit which can exceed the maximum threshold. (Level 10 + 50% = Level 15).

In the following section, we will investigate possible practical applications for this and I will give a very common example of it's usage.

WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND BABY

Now that the Mushrooms are in your skull nugget, you should start to notice some... Changes in the world around you.


Don't panic. It's important you don't panic. You're not going to be able to walk very well, so turn sideways and crabwalk toward the machine you want to use. They're not laughing at you. They're NOT laughing at you. FOCUS. I used my big brain to prepare a screenshot in advance that plainly shows a practical application for this amazing power for players who are languishing in the mid to lategame.

hehehehehe

HE HAS A NOSE CATTERPILLAR PFFFTTT.... Guys shut up. Be cool be cool. -giiglesnort-

LOOK AT THIS GUY

I aema derf an im diggin a hol
diggy diggy hol
diggy diggy hol

Learning to Fly

Whathfu... Where are we? You know what? It doesn't matter. Now that's all over, we're going to have to head back to the tenement and bake some of the bad Juju off us. Like all things in Obenseuer, preventative measures are far more effective than countermeasures, so reducing our Mushroom Need Progession now, while our dependence is still low, is important, and the only way to assist with addictions to my knowledge is through Sauna use. Drink plenty of water, have a nice meal to bolster your happiness (It won't be necessary, but it's good padding) and wait for the coming storm.

The next and final log will show the crash. Now that you've learned to fly, little duckling, you have to learn to land, and coming down is usually the hardest part.

The Crash

And here we have it. The little guy that causes so much confusion.


As stated in the Addiction section, unlike eating or drinking, the solution to this mushroom being on the screen right now is to not take any more mushrooms again until it goes away. DO NOT have a cheeky green cigarette to keep the cravings at bay. DO NOT eat an infected rat for a buzz. (Unless you are fully comfortable with the systems and are aware of the risk). This warning is the OPPOSITE of the food and drink warnings for our purposes.


No matter how bad it gets...


24 hours later, you will reach the peak of your need and your happiness will begin to decrease. In this time, your addiction has dropped to around 12, so the happiness loss ins't too severe.


Keep holding out...


36 hours, the addiction is at 6%, and it's so low that even though we have 100% need, it isn't even dropping our mental health.


48 hours, our need is about to drop off, and we have no negative mental health effects because we controlled our addiction level.

Postword

Following the experiment in this guide, you should be able to safely consume mushrooms in order to make use of crafting benefits. Now that you know the safe potential limits, you can also decrease the dose, or even increase it for a longer effect.

This guide wouldn't have been possible without the folks over at the discord, and if you have any questions relating to any topic about the game, that is definitely the best place to ask.

All the best, and I'll see you on the Otherside.

[BigHelpEnergy]

i think you may have checked out Infra the infected mushroom guy i wana believe is that guy if not infra will help you dive deeper into the lore and situation that brought about this current state of obenseur i believe

[Funsocks]

I actually forgot about this guide so I've updated the title to hopefully alleviate any future confusion.

To be clear, THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE AND SHOULD ONLY BE USED AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE SYSTEMS. THE EXACT NUMBERS HAVE CHANGED.

It was created before there were even difficulty options, which is why I don't denote the difference between easy, normal and hard addiction difficulty.

[Funsocks]

Heya затру за тру. Unfortunately, the publishing date on this guide was a long time ago and the game has been adjusted and balanced since then, with Oskutin spending a fair amount of time refining the addictions systems, adding alcoholics anonymous, ect. Other methods of controlling and manipulating your depression levels have also been added to the game since then, such as the television.

This guide is currently outdated in terms of the exact figures and should only be used as a way of understanding the systems, as the numbers have changed but the calculation has not.

[затру за тру]

my guy got hella depressed doing this

[The Average Communist]

[naomiso soup]

wow so it turns out that accidentally chugging a jug of ethanol right after accidentally chugging a bottle of mushroom alcohol (don't put your substances in the same type of containers as your water 🙃) and then passing out in a tunnel for like, 3 days straight actually protected me from potential mushroom growth in my brain rather than being the singularly dumbest decision I've made so far

[Friedrich I.]

I don't fear mushroom addiction any longer. I carry around 48 ducks at all times to ease my mind.

[Benn120]

Choice work Socks, looking great mate!