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Radiation

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Radiation in Last Frontier doesn’t hit you all at once — it builds up. A contaminated zone looks crossable, the objective seems close, and the whole cost of the risk comes down to the time you spend inside. Here’s how the buildup works, what penalties it brings, and how to treat it.

How radiation accumulates

In contaminated places radiation isn’t added in one lump — it comes in separate environmental pulses. On such maps a pulse fires every 10–20 seconds, and each time it adds a dose of radiation to every living being on the map — hiding behind a wall won’t help; what matters is simply being present in the zone. The accumulated load (radioactive contamination of the body) comes precisely from this — from the time spent inside the contaminated zone.

Separate from that, there is direct radiation damage in combat: some mutants’ attacks deal radiation harm that strips health directly every second. This is not the same as the accumulated load — such damage does not raise your contamination level, but it can be fully blocked with radiation protection (see below).

The longer you stay exposed, the higher the accumulated level and the more serious the consequences. That’s why radiation is, first and foremost, about a dangerous zone and the time spent inside it.

Effects: radiation sickness

While your radiation level stays high, Radiation Sickness develops. It’s a passive condition that:

  • kicks in when the radiation level reaches 8;
  • only lifts once the level drops to 3 or below;
  • imposes penalties: −2 to Endurance, −1 to Perception, and −25% to health regeneration.

In other words, a contaminated character holds onto health worse, recovers more slowly between fights, and sees the surroundings less clearly. Nearby players and medics see a rough severity icon RAD# above the character — the exact number stays with the owner alone.

Recovery: the zone is behind you — the problem isn’t, not yet

Leaving a dangerous place doesn’t close the problem instantly. Accumulated radiation drains slowly: the level drops by 1 every 180 seconds (3 minutes), and the first drop only happens after a full interval has passed since you picked it up — there’s no instant “discharge”. As long as the level stays above zero, the stage counter keeps climbing with every drain tick. In practice this means: “I’m already out of the zone” does not equal “I’m back in shape” — you stay weakened while the load slowly bleeds out.

Treatment and protection

Waiting it out on your own takes a long time, so radiation is treated with medication.

  • Anti-Rad — an intravenous drug: lowers your accumulated radiation level by 6 and applies temporary radiation protection that blocks direct radiation damage in combat. The use cooldown is 4 seconds.
  • X-Blocker — a stronger drug: removes 12 units of radiation at once and grants long-lasting radiation protection. The use cooldown is 6 seconds.
  • The medical skill Radiation Shielding (the “Medicine” branch) turns a successful Anti-Rad treatment into a long protective course and passively grants +1 to Endurance and +10 to maximum health (at the cost of −8 to maximum stamina while the skill is active).

On a successful treatment, a tag flashes above the target — RAD (basic treatment) or PURG (the enhanced purge from the ability). The best protection is still a routing decision: plan your time inside the contaminated zone and your exit before the accumulated consequences start to break your combat and your recovery.