| “ | One or more of your ribs are broken. You cannot climb, and your mobility will be reduced until this injury heals. | ” |
Broken Ribs are inflicted by a Moose Struggle. It is one of the worst afflictions one can sustain in The Long Dark, lowering the player's stamina by 50% and carrying capacity by 25%. Additionally, it's impossible to climb a rope until this affliction has healed (except while using an Emergency stim).
To heal, the affliction requires two Treatments of 1 Bandage and 4 Painkillers (or 2 cups of Rose Hip Tea) and 120 hours (5 days) of rest.
The medical treatments don't relieve any symptoms and aren't required for resting. Both treatments can be left until after the resting is completed. Sleeping and passing time both count toward the resting requirement.
Should the player be attacked by a Moose while already afflicted by Broken Ribs, they will receive a second (or more) Broken Ribs affliction. While extra Broken Ribs do not further hinder the player's carrying capacity or stamina, they take incrementally longer to heal; the second requires 168 hours (7 days) of rest, the third takes 216 hours (9 days), etc.
Details[]
The reduction in carrying capacity is unusual and does not behave in the same manner as a positive increase in carrying capacity. In particular broken ribs does not alter the maximum capacity that a player can sprint with and appears to have minimal effect on walking speed, the effect overall is more like being tired which also does not affect the maximum capacity which can be sprinted with. This makes Broken Ribs mainly just a problem in terms of Sprain Risk.
However should the player use a stim in order to climb a rope, the lost carrying capacity is not temporarily restored by the stim: only the ability to climb is granted, hence the player should drop sufficient weight to be unencumbered even with Broken Ribs before using a stim.
Trivia[]
Episode 4: Fury, then Silence begins with Will Mackenzie falling off a large cliff during the mission Prologue, resulting in him acquiring the Broken Ribs affliction. This affliction is scripted and is healed during the next mission, and is to date the only other way to aquire the Broken Ribs affliction aside from Moose attacks.
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| Negative |
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