Barotrauma’s medical system is both deep and punishing. Whether you’re fighting off infection, trying to stop the bleeding, or reviving unconscious crew members, a strong understanding of afflictions, treatments, and stimulants is key to survival in Europa’s hostile depths. This guide covers all major afflictions, medicine mechanics, healing strategies, and everything in between.

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Afflictions Overview

Afflictions are the game’s damage types and debuffs, caused by monsters, the environment, weapons, and medications. Most afflictions range in strength from 0 to 100, but some exceed this. Here’s a breakdown of the main types:

• Internal Damage: Includes broken bones, bites, wounds. Reduces vitality 1:1 per strength. Caused by monsters, weapons, falls, and more.
• Burning: Functions like internal damage, common from fires and explosions.
• Low Oxygen: Caused by drowning or certain medications. Strength 50+ begins draining vitality.
• Bleeding: Up to 10 vitality loss based on strength. Diminishes over time. Can trigger Blood Loss, a secondary damage-over-time affliction.
• Blood Loss:
  • Strength 5–45: Up to 0.75 vitality/sec
  • Strength 46+: Up to 2 vitality/sec
• Stun: Disables actions and movement. Max 30 seconds. Can be exploited to permanently stun-lock.
• High Pressure: Not treatable—only avoidable with diving suits.

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Special Afflictions

• Husk Infection: Contracted from infected enemies or syringes. Grows in strength every 0.3s. Full takeover in ~5.5 minutes. Disables chat/radio around 2.5 minutes in.
• Nausea: Causes vomiting and organ damage. Stuns for 1.7s. Decays over time.
• Psychosis: Triggers hallucinations—fake fires, floods, and sounds. Caused by meds. Decays slowly.

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Opiate Overuse Afflictions

Excessive use of opiate-based treatments leads to meta-afflictions:

• Withdrawal: Up to -200 vitality, causes nausea.
• Addiction: Causes withdrawal and vitality loss.
• Overdose: Screen distortion, vitality loss, and movement reduction.

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Poison Types

• Cyanide, Morbizine, Delirium Mine: Deal escalating damage. Delirium causes psychosis.
• Radiation Sickness: Applies burn damage over time that scales in intensity.

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Medical Skill and Treatment Efficiency

Treatments have recommended skill levels, which dramatically alter their effectiveness and side effects.

Example – Morphine:

• At 30+ medical skill: Heals 50 internal/burn, reduces withdrawal, but adds 20 low oxygen, 5 addiction, 10 overdose.
• Below 30 skill: Heals half the amount, increases affliction risks more severely.

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General Healing Items

• Bandages & Plastaseal: Heal bleeding/burns. Plastaseal is stronger.
• Opioids (Opium, Morphine, Fentanyl): Heal internal/burn damage. Fentanyl is the strongest. Use naloxone to counter addiction/overdose.
• Liquid Packs (Saline, Blood, Alien Blood): Reduce blood loss, not root causes.

These general-purpose items are usually enough to stabilize most afflictions early on.

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Specialized Treatments

Some conditions require targeted cures:

• Low Oxygen: Treat with anabolic steroids, hyperzine, dioxazine, or liquid oxygenite.
• Opiate Meta-Afflictions: Cure with naloxone or stabilozine.
• Most medications carry side effects—always be aware of the tradeoffs.

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CPR and Reviving Crew

• CPR revives unconscious crewmates with low oxygen.
• If loss was due to injury, you’ll need to treat the core affliction first (e.g. internal damage) to stabilize them.

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Syringe Gun

An incredibly versatile tool:

• Fires healing or poison chemicals over long distances
• Can carry up to 4 doses
• Great for treating husk infections or emergencies outside the sub

Drawback: Applies effects using the minimum skill level, meaning you lose the benefits of high-skill treatment.

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Stimulants

Buffs that enhance combat and survival. All have a strength pool (typically 0–600) and decay per second.

• Slow Metabolism: Boosts all buffs’ durations. Gained from Tonic Liquid (300 strength/dose).
• Hyperactivity: +48% speed. Gained from Methamphetamine or Hyperzine.
• Husk Resistance: +75% resistance. Gained from Broad Spectrum Antibiotics.
• Psychosis Resistance: Gained from Ethanol and Pipe Tobacco.
• Vigor: +200% max vitality. Gained from Anabolic Steroids and Hyperzine.
• Paralysis Resistance: +300% resistance. Gained from Anaparalysant (very high skill required).

Best Combo: Tonic Liquid + Hyperzine for a fast, high-health character with long-lasting buffs.

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Acquiring Medications

• Stations: Vary by location; some items rare or locked behind reputation.
• Monsters: Loot alien blood, swim bladders, adrenaline glands, etc.
• Plants: Found in caves and ocean floors. Deconstruct to extract base chemicals.

Once collected, combine resources at the Medical Fabricator to craft needed meds.

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Bonus: Explosive Medicine

• Compound N / Volatile Compound N: Crafted in medical fabricator, act as explosives.
  • Damage: 150 structural, 200 burn, 50 laceration
  • 5s stun, 6m blast radius
  • Can be added to railgun or depth charge shells

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Healing Without Medication

Sleeping in a bed regenerates 0.05 vitality per second and can treat:

• Internal damage
• Blood loss
• Bleeding
• Nausea
• Opiate effects
• Drunkenness

A surprisingly effective fallback when resources are tight.

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Final Thoughts

Barotrauma’s medical system rewards careful planning and punishes recklessness. Whether you’re stitching up gunshot wounds, purging parasites, or reviving fallen crewmates, being a skilled medic can be the difference between success and total catastrophe.

Stay stocked, know your side effects, and always have a backup plan. Sleep off what you can—and shoot the rest.

Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and don’t forget your morphine.