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Intestinal Parasites is an Affliction caused by consuming raw or cooked carnivore meat: Wolves, Timberwolves, and Bears. It is only present on Stalker, or Interloper difficulties, and can be enabled in Custom. It is only active in Wintermute if playing on the Hardened Survivor difficulty[1]. The Affliction is also present in the challenge As The Dead Sleep.

Risk[]

Game meat from carnivorous animals may be infected with parasites.
In-game description

Intestinal Parasites does not occur immediately or even if the meter fills up to 100% unlike many other Afflictions. Instead, the affliction has a chance of being contracted 24 hours after the first piece of carnivore meat was consumed. All carnivore meat (Bear and Wolf meat) has the same chance of causing parasites, regardless of type, condition, or weight (making it most beneficial to eat single servings rather than lots of small servings). Cooked meat is not safe from Intestinal Parasites (until level 5 Cooking Skill), and raw meat is never safe (having an innate +75% chance).

After consuming a single piece of predator meat, the affliction Intestinal Parasites Risk will appear accompanied by a meter. The meter will fill up for every piece of predator meat consumed, at a rate of +1% for the first piece, +3% for the second piece, and +5% for each subsequent piece. After one full in-game day (24hrs) the game rolls to see if you get the full affliction, with the chance of it occurring based how full your Intestinal Parasites Risk meter is. (i.e. 4% risk on the meter = 4% chance of getting Parasites after 24hrs). If you do not get Intestinal Parasites, the risk is cleared until more meat is eaten.

Intestinal Parasites Risk itself does not have any inherent negative effects.

Affliction[]

You ate infected meat and now have Intestinal Parasites. Recovery requires multiple daily treatments! You will continue to weaken until treatment has run its full course. [maximum 1 dose/day.]
In-game description

Intestinal Parasites causes a daily loss of 2% maximum Condition and 4% max Fatigue until fully treated (indicated by a red [ -#%]). While this may not seem as severe as other Afflictions, even immediate treatment will result in -20% maximum Condition loss (40% on Interloper) before being cured. Intestinal Parasites is fatal if it reduces maximum condition to zero.

Treatment[]

Treating Intestinal Parasites requires 10 cumulative days of consuming 1 Reishi Tea/Burdock Tea or 2 Antibiotics (making it possible to skip some days and retain treatment progress), thus requiring a minimum of 10 Reishi Teas, or 20 Antibiotics on Stalker.

On Interloper, it takes 20 cumulative days of treatment, meaning 20 Reishi Teas or 40 Antibiotics minimum.

Strategy[]

Only one instance of Intestinal Parasites can be present at one time, so additional carnivore meat may be consumed while infected at no further parasite risk (although low condition/raw meat may still cause Food Poisoning). In addition to this, this affliction will allow the player to rest as much as they want and whenever they want (even if their Fatigue meter is full), which can be wonderful for Hibernation strategies. Rapid healing on higher difficulties (especially if the player has Broken Ribs), and generally passing time in a resource-efficient manner. As an affliction though, it will also prevent the character from using Research Books. These powers come at an obvious cost, however, as not sticking to a regimen of antibiotics or Reishi tea could easily kill the player, especially on Interloper, and while Reishi tea is fairly common throughout Great Bear, antibiotics are not easily renewable, and as such it is not a recommended strategy to continuously give oneself the affliction.

With a stockpile of Antibiotics/Reishi Tea/Burdock Tea, a strategy is to run the risk and eat 1 (1kg) piece of carnivore meat per day. As an example, surviving on carnivore meat for 50 days (without level 5 cooking skill), by eating only one piece of meat per day (with starvation tactics), runs a risk of about 40% chance to contract this affliction at least once (1 - 0.99^50).

Trivia[]

  • Intestinal Parasites was introduced on 21 April 2016 in version 0.321 (Tireless Menace update).
  • Reaching Level 5 in Cooking does not remove preexisting risk of developing parasites, or a parasite affliction contracted previously.
  • Despite all the types of fish caught from Ice Fishing being predatory, none grant Intestinal Parasites Risk when eaten (raw or cooked).
  • Playing with the Endless Night setting enabled may make Intestinal Parasites permanent and incurable, resulting in an unfortunate and inevitable game over.

References[]

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