FROST and Fallout 4 Survival mode in general has very difficult combat but your most challenging enemy is time, it is always against you. Unless you learn to make efficient use of your in game hours, you will eventually end up dehydrated, starving, exhausted, and disease ridden; whittled down by a slow war of attrition.
Let’s take a look at the main 3 resources you will be managing, how often you’ll need to attend to them, and some strategies for doing so efficiently. These numbers were just measured using FROST v0.55 and are more accurate than anything you’ll find on a wiki as of this date.
Water
THIRST / Parched Thirsty / Mildly Dehydrated / Dehydrated / Severely Dehydrated:
- Effects / -1 INT / -2 INT, -1 PER / -4 INT, -1 LCK, -3 PER / -8 INT, -2 LCK, -5 PER / -10 INT, -3 LCK, -7 PER, Periodic Damage
- Begins After (Game-Time) / 3 hours / 5 hours / 10 hours / 16 hours / 23 hours
- Begins After (Real-Time) / 9 mins / 15 mins / 30 mins / 48 mins / 69 mins
- When Sleeping / 7 hours / 17 hours / 35 hours / 59 hours / 89 hours
- Water Required / 1 drink / 2 drinks / 4 drinks / 6 drinks / 8 drinks
You will need to acquire 1 drinkable water per 9-14 minutes of real world gameplay.
You use much less water while sleeping, your thirst grows 2 to 4 times more slowly than it does while awake.
Drinking alcohol or soda will dehydrate you even faster! Water is by far the most demanding of the 3 resources you will need to manage.
Food
HUNGER / Peckish / Hungry / Famished / Ravenous / Starving:
- Effects / -1 END / -2 CHR, -1 END / -3 CHR, -4 END, -1 LCK / -5 CHR, -8 END, -2 LCK / -5 CHR, -10 END, -3 LCK, Periodic Damage
- Begins After (Game-Time) / 4 hours / 7 hours / 13 hours / 19 hours / 33 hours
- Begins After (Real-Time) / 12 mins / 21 mins / 39 mins / 57 mins / 99 mins
- When Sleeping / 11 hours / 23 hours / 47 hours / 71 hours / 127 hours
- Food Required / 1 food / 2 food / 4 food / 5 food / 7 food
You will need to acquire 1 food item per 12-21 minutes of real world gameplay.
Food was measured using mutcrab omelettes as a unit of food, so your mileage may vary.
You use much less food while sleeping, your hunger grows 2 to 4 times more slowly than it does while awake.
The Parasite disease (more food required) DOUBLES the amount of food required.
Sleep
SLEEPINESS / Tired / Overtired / Weary / Exhausted / Incapacitated:
- Effects / AP Regen -5% / -1 STR, AP Regen -15% / -1 AGI, -1 LCK, -2 STR, AP Regen -30% / -2 AGI, -2 LCK, -4 STR, AP Regen -50%, Can’t Sprint / -4 AGI, -3 LCK, -6 STR, AP Regen -75%, Can’t Run
- Begins After (Game-Time) / 15 hours / 28 hours / 42 hours / 55 hours / 70 hours
- Begins After (Real-Time) / 45 mins / 84 mins / 126 mins / 165 mins / 210 mins
- Sleep Required / 2 hours / 3 hours / 4 hours / 5 hours / 6 hours
1 hour of sleep has no effect on rested state, always sleep 2 hours minimum!
2 – 5 hours will bring you back to rested from all but the incapacitated state
6 hours to fix incapacitated can be done on mats or sleeping bags as 5 hours, wake, then 2 more hours
7 uninterrupted hours (bed only) gives the “Well Rested” perk which, in addition to its normal benefits, will also allow you to go an additional 12-14 hours without sleep. As far as I can tell you don’t begin getting tired until the Well Rested perk wears off, so you could go ~28 hours in-game before hitting ‘Tired’ instead of the normal 15 hours.
The Insomnia disease (more sleep required) DOUBLES the amount of sleep required. 4 hours becomes the new minimum to change your rested state instead of 2 hours. Always use a minimum of 4 hours of sleep to save when you have insomnia.
The Fatigue disease (sleep required more often) HALVES the amount of time before getting tired. It takes only 7 hours to go from rested to ‘Tired’ instead of the normal 15 hours.
Sleep is how you save your game but it is also one of the times diseases are rolled for by the game engine.
- I’ve been working with the papyrus scripts for disease and I’ve discovered this. Beds don’t cause disease (nor does it matter what bed you sleep in), but that is a time when you can contract them. Doing disease-prone things during the day builds up a “Disease Pool”. The higher it is, the more prone to catching a disease each time you do such disease-prone things. However, when you go to bed, the game rolls for disease one last time before resetting your pool back to 0. So when you spend all day fighting mole rats and drinking pond water, you’re at a high risk of coming down with something when you go to bed. Think of it as an incubation period.
Conclusion
Every minute counts, always have a plan, don’t idle outside the menus / pip-boy. Use ‘transfer’ to loot bodies as it pauses the game. If you’re indoors use the pip-boy game clock to keep track of the passage of time.
Water requires the most upkeep, then food, then sleep.
- You will need to acquire 1 water per 9-14 minutes (3-5 hours in-game time)
- You will need to acquire 1 food per 12-21 minutes (4-7 hours in-game time)
- You require much less food and water while asleep. Remember this if you need to wait out a rad storm.
- Parasites will make it very difficult to keep up with your food consumption.
- Alcohol and soda will tax your water supply so be careful with them.
Know your consumption rates and try to get ahead of them when possible.
NEVER USE 1 HOUR NAPS TO SAVE, it’s a complete waste, 2 hour naps minimum, 4 hours if you have insomnia.
Fatigue + Insomnia is a brutal disease combo. Every 7 hours you will need to sleep 4 hours to get rested again, that means you have to spend more than a third of your game hours asleep. I’d recommend trying to sleep off fatigue ASAP.
Original Link – Continuation of discussion
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