Quick tips
- Luck halves every time the game checks it, pass or fail. Don't count on it twice in a row.
- Dexterity is the only attribute that matters in a ship fight: it sets how wide your aim window is.
- A Dexboost before a pirate fight makes the laser the better gun.
- Every attribute drifts back to its normal value each game hour.
- Vigor is your life: if it reaches zero you die. Keep Rest, Health and Nourish above a quarter and it looks after itself.
How attributes work
Attributes
There are five: Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma and Luck, each on a 0–100 scale. Each has a normal value, set when you create the character, and a current value. Every game hour the current value moves back toward normal: 5 points an hour, or 1 for Luck. Your personal menu has an Attributes window that shows "current / normal", except that current Luck shows as ??.
Luck gets spent
Dialogue and encounter checks roll against Luck plus a bonus (+40, +30 or +0): you pass if a random 0–99 is below that total. Every Luck check halves your Luck, pass or fail. Charisma checks work the same way but don't use Charisma up. Luck also tilts the fruit machine, without being spent.
Dexterity
It sets your aiming window in ship combat (see Ship guns) and one of your fighter's starting values in ground combat (Dexterity ÷ 5 + 3).
Boosters and beer
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Dexboost | Sets Dexterity to 100, then it drifts back at 5 points an hour. It also changes your condition bars. |
| Charmer | Sets Charisma to 100, same drift. |
| Peptab | Sets Strength to 100, same drift. |
| Beer | Costs about 9–11 points each of Intelligence, Dexterity and Charisma; the exact amount depends on Strength. In one condition state that isn't decoded yet it raises Charisma a little instead. |
Staying alive
Your personal menu shows four condition bars: Vigor, Rest, Health and Nourish, each from 0 to 255. Three of them are needs. Vigor is the one that matters: it's your life, and when it reaches zero you die.
How Vigor moves
Nothing drains Vigor directly. Every game hour it drifts 2 points toward the average of Rest, Health and Nourish, so keep those up and Vigor follows. But while any of them is below 64 (a quarter), Vigor falls instead, by 1–4 points an hour for each low bar. Several empty bars at once drain it fast.
Vigor heals you
When Vigor is above 128 and Health is above 128 too, Health recovers each hour: up to 12 points at full Vigor. After a street fight, Vigor can't be more than twice your Health.
Boosters cost Vigor
A Peptab takes 30 Vigor, and a Charmer or Dexboost 15. Use one when you're nearly dead and it can kill you outright. A Nutrapack gives back 50 Vigor and fills Nourish, the best rescue in the game. See Items for every effect.
How you die
When Vigor hits zero the game says "Sorry, …, you died of" and names the cause: exhaustion, wounds or starvation for whichever of Rest, Health or Nourish was below 50, or general bad health. There are special endings for a booster overdose ("medication induced cardiac arrest"), a lost street fight, a lack of air, and your ship breaking up. Then it offers to restart from your last save.
How it works
Every game hour each need drains by a step that depends on how full it is. The bar is read in quarters:
| Bar | 0–63 | 64–127 | 128–191 | 192–255 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rest | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Sleep restores it. At 0 you collapse asleep wherever you are. |
| Health | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Only slides once it's below 64. Above 128 it heals when your Vigor is high. |
| Nourish | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | A full stomach empties faster than a near-empty one. |
Health gains 4 × ((Vigor − 128) ÷ 32) when it's above 128. Then, for each need below 64, Vigor loses 4 − bar ÷ 16. If none is that low, Vigor moves 2 points toward (Rest + Health + Nourish) ÷ 3. At 0 it's game over: the cause list names each need below 50.
Strength and Intelligence
Strength sets your hit points in a street fight (Health × Strength ÷ 90), and makes beer cost you less Rest and fewer attribute points. Intelligence has exactly one job: it stops you being sold fakes. When a dealer offers you anything from the Charmer up (Dexboost, Nutrapack, the special upgrades or a ship part), the game checks Intelligence + 40. If that fails it tries Luck + 30, which halves your Luck, and then a flat 66% roll. Only if all of them fail is the item a dud. A fake booster still costs you the Vigor and Health but gives no attribute boost. A fake ship part burns out into a dead part moments after you fit it. With Intelligence 60 or more you can never be cheated.
No conversation ever tests Strength, Intelligence or Dexterity: every attribute check in the dialogue scripts is Charisma, backed up by Luck.