PRM: Radiation: Invisible Death

Radiation: What is it?

In its most basic form, radiation is a field. It exists as a sort of 'invisible blood' that does not disperse; once in a location, will always passively emit itself on that tile only. Each tile can hold dramatically different levels of radiation.

Radiation also exists in gas. Radioactive nuclear gas will be created by either an emission from a monster or an item. This will create passive radiation on the tile in question, and the gas is perfectly safe to breathe at its lowest intensities. Only Dark Green gas (intensity 3 gas) is unsafe; and very much so. Max intensity radioactive gas will hurt all body-parts caught in it, killing an unprotected (N)PC well before they asphyxiate.

Radiation finally exists as an invisible and somewhat arbitrary property of items and mutations. Items like Plutonium or certain artifacts can leak radiation that will accumulate onto whoever carries them. It is possible to gain mutations that will cause the player to emit radiation passively. Having a mutation or item that emits radiation does not necessarily make the carrier of the item/mutation immune or even resistant to radiation poisoning ...

All Radiation can increase the amount of 'field' radiation a tile has, if it is intense enough or allowed to sit on a single tile for long enough. There is no known way to remove it outside of actively hacking the save file of a world. Thus, radiation can accumulate over time to make areas quite dangerous to dwell in.

Radiation in the Coregame

Radiation in the core game is surprisingly hard to find, and even harder to get sick from. Its found in symmetrical craters of dirt, inside waste depots and sarcophagi, and sometimes around piles of rubble. And very rarely from various monster attacks, and that's it. As a result, radiation managing medicines are fairly hard to find and largely redundant.

Radiation in PRM

Inside PRM, radiation is a much more pressing crisis. Many monsters now emit small amount of radioactive gas in addition to their regular toxic gas emissions. A new monster exists solely to spread radiation to the player in melee. And the frequency of passively-radioactive specials (craters) has been increased.

Staving Off Radiation Sickness

 - Consume Clay.  Clay from clay mounds (built in shallow water) will reduce the amount of radiation within you body as the hard minerals of the clay absorb the radioactive decay and passes from your body with it.  Boiling the clay will remove microscopic parasites and make the clay slightly more effective at this task.  Only 6 clay at a time can be consumed and do anything.

 - Use iodine tablets.  Iodine will, if taken before exposure to radiation, dramatically reduce the amount of radiation you absorb.  This is highly recommended before large battles with zombies - even if you don't spot any smoking zombies.  Since you don't know what zombies will follow the sounds of combat it is usually better to be safe than sorry, and using iodine tablets will reduce the amount of radiation you have to cleanse.

 - Use Prussian Blues.  Prussian Blue Tablets will rapidly remove radiation from the body, without the negative side effects of the cheaper, more improvised methods.

 - Aquarium Fertilizer is a highly effective but somewhat 'unpleasant' way to remove radiation from the body.  It will last much, much longer than any other method of rad removal (4-6 hours) and will remove more per second than similar doses of other methods.  3 doses achieves the maximum effect possible -more is wasted.

 - Gummy vitamins.  Gummy vitamins have been revamped to include rad removal.  Take them cautiously since they still are multivitamins.  3 gummies at a time or you risk wasting their rad-removing effect whilst keeping the other effects - such as hypervitamintosis.

 - Use bio-monitors and geiger counters.  These will let you monitor your own health.

 - When you are feeling pain or stat loss and do not know why, it is likely to be radiation poisoning.  Take some clay or a gummy vitamin and see if you dont feel better over a few hours.  You may also sleep it off or wait for your body to naturally cleanse the disease.

Remember - Radiation is a threat to provide pressure to the player and is avoidable with some planning. You can also persist with mild poisoning - its not a huge deal.

PRM Wiki Page Table

Type	---	---	---	---	---	---
Factions	Ants	Doom	Fungus	Insects	Triffids	Wildlife and Mutants	Zombies
Statdump	PRM Radiation	PRM the Conglomerate	Spawn Lists	Evolution/Upgrade Trees	Faction Balance
Locations	Trapdoor Pits	Bumblebee Hives	Doom Structures
Items	PRM Marine Armor	Medicine	PRM: Miscellaneous Items	Recipes