Status Effects — darkwood

The Status Effects is a part of the game mechanics present in Darkwood.

Overview

A Status Effect is a condition that affects the player in a beneficial or harmful way. Positive effects are gray in color while negative effects are red. Other entities, such as creatures and certain props, can be affected by a handful of negative ones as well. Status effects are displayed on the top left corner of the screen, above the player's HP bar.

The duration and power of effects varies depending on the item types; for example, the odd meat gives a longer Endurance effect than the potato, and while the healing pill's regeneration is short-lived, it has a much higher health-per-second healing rate.

For the same icon of status effect, the newest dosage overrides the existing dosage in all circumstances. For example, after using one bandage (which lasts for a long period of time), using a healing pill (which lasts shortly) will completely remove the Healing effect from the bandages thereafter and apply the Healing from the pill (resulting in a shorter healing duration). The same goes for stepping on multiple poisonous mushrooms in close succession, which will cause less damage from being Poisoned than stepping on the same number of them over a longer time period (allowing the Poisoned to take full effect).

List of Effects

The following is a list of all types of status effects available in Darkwood.

Positive Effects

Most positive status effects are activated by using various consumables, while others are granted by wearing certain gear or being in event locations.

The Protagonist is the only entity capable of gaining these buffs.

Status Effect	Description	Effect	Granted by
Endurance	Your lungs are more efficient.	Reduces the stamina cost temporarily.
Sight	Your sight is better.	Increases the field of view for 60 seconds.
Healing	You are regenerating health.	Regenerates an amount of health over time.	^[?] ^[?] ^[?] ^[?]
Poison Protection	You are immune to poison.	Cures Poisoned and grants immunity to it.	(30 s)
Armor	Your skin is thicker.	Decreases damage taken by 50% for 150 seconds.
Armor	You are wearing armor.	Reduces damage taken when put in the hotbar.
Night Protection	You're in the hideout, under the influence of the protective gas. It will help you survive the night.	Prevents attacks from the Floor Gore.
Time Freeze	— ^{[No in-game description]}	Stops time and halts the generator's fuel consumption and the decay of hallucinogens.	after a night (always at 8:00) Event locations

Negative Effects

Negative status effects are often activated by certain weapon types and other harmful environmental happenings.

Most creatures are susceptible to half of these debuffs and certain props are vulnerable to Burning.

Status Effect	Description	Effect	Caused by
Burning	You are burning.	Inflicts 62.5 damage over 10 seconds.
Gas	You are breathing poisonous gas.	Inflicts AoE damage within a defined radius from the source.
Immobilised	You can't move for some time.	Prevents all actions for 15 seconds except for movement keys that can hasten the escape.
Pain	You are in pain.	Inflicts damage upon staring at the source.
Poisoned	You are poisoned.	Inflicts damage over some time.	(30 s) (60 s) (20 s)
Speed	You move slower.	Disables sprinting for 30 seconds.
Sight	Your sight is worse.	Reduces the field of view for some time.	(30 s) (20 s) (5 s)
Strength	You are weaker.	Reduces melee damage output for 60 seconds.	Two clusters of in the Bunker Entrance ^{[unconfirmed]}

Skill Effects

Skill status effects are perks obtained through leveling up. Active perks can be accessed by pressing Q, and passive ones are triggered under certain conditions.

Activated perks that are not displayed on the top left corner of the screen are not listed here.

Status Effect	Description	Usage
Moth	Once a day, I will be able to heal myself by standing next to an electric light source.	Regenerates 2.15 HP/s near electric lights for 45 seconds.
Third Eye	Once a day, for about a minute, I will be able to see all around me.	Temporarily increases the player's field of view to 360° for 60 seconds.
Runner	Once a day, I will be able to run for a short amount of time without losing stamina.	Temporarily halts stamina's consumption for sprinting for 20 seconds.
Careful Step	Once a day, you won't trigger a trap that you step on.	Grants the player immunity to damage from a trap and the Poisoned effect from a cluster of mushrooms or an infected corpse, and prevents their leg from getting stuck in the trap.
Adrenaline	I will deal double damage in melee when close to death.	Enables the player to deal double damage with melee weapons when their health is less than about 25%.
Chameleon	Once a day, I will be able to become invisible to enemies, if I stay still.	Makes the player invisible to enemies for 30 seconds so long as they do not walk or run.

Bugs

In version 1.3, the Armor effect from odd meat and insects used to be a negative effect which increases damage taken by 50% instead of decreasing it despite the effect's icon in gray color (with which all are positive effects).
- This effect was in fact bugged due to the wrong calculation of damage modifiers and has been fixed in 1.4 public testing.

Trivia

Notably, the effect Bleeding does not exist in Darkwood, yet bandages and bandages with alcohol can supposedly cure Bleeding. This is likely a concept that has been left out, though its icon still exists in the game files.
Stepping on worms does not display any negative status effects on-screen despite the area of damage over time and the disability of sprinting inflicted on the player.
The Armor and Poison Protection effects gained from wearing certain protective gear and the Careful Step skill effect are the only two status effects that persist on-screen without a timer and only wear off when the durability of the gear runs out and the aforementioned passive skill has been activated.

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