Addiction to a substance, or activity, means your body (or your mind) is in need of a daily dose to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Overview
- You can get addicted when you use too many drugs. As an addict, you suffer withdrawal symptoms that can cause ill effects when you run out of supplies. Many substances in the Fallout games are addictive. Each chem has a chance of addiction. One of the most addictive drugs is Jet.
- For Fallout 1 & 2, withdrawal effects occur after becoming addicted and going for some amount of time without using that chem. For non-jet addictions, addiction lasts 7 days from the onset of the withdrawal effects (nine days of non-use), while jet addiction lasts forever without the Jet antidote.
- Certain NPCs have addictions, not just the player.
Types of addiction
Type | Fallout | Fallout 2 | Fallout 3 | Fallout: New Vegas | Fallout Tactics |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alcohol addiction | |||||
Ant nectar addiction | |||||
Buffout addiction | |||||
Hydra addiction | |||||
Jet addiction | |||||
Med-X addiction | |||||
Mentats addiction | |||||
Nuka-Cola addiction | |||||
Nuka-Cola Quantum addiction | |||||
Psycho addiction | |||||
Rebound addiction | ¹ | ||||
RadAway addiction | |||||
Steady addiction | |||||
Tobacco addiction | |||||
Tragic addiction | ² | ||||
Turbo addiction | |||||
Ultrajet addiction |
- ¹ Only used in game files; possible bug.
- ² Only in modded versions.
Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics
ITEM | RISK | DELAY | DURATION | FORM | WITHDRAWAL EFFECTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beer | 5% | ? | 7 days | Alcohol addiction | -1AG, -1CH |
Buffout | 25% | 2 days | 7 days | Buffout addiction | -2ST, -2EN, -3AG |
Jet | 50% | 2 days | Until Cure is taken |
Jet addiction | -1 ST, -1 PE, -1 Action Point |
Mentats | 15% | 7 days | 7 days | Mentats addiction | -3IN, -2AG |
Nuka-Cola | 10% | 30 minutes | 7 days |
Nuka-Cola addiction | N/A: "You crave more Nuka-Cola" |
Psycho | 20% | 7 days | 7 days | Psycho Addiction | -2IN |
RadAway | 10% | 10 days | 7 days |
RadAway addiction | -20 Radiation Resistance |
Tragic | Disabled from Fallout 2, depends on mod version | Disabled from Fallout 2, depends on mod version | Disabled from Fallout 2, depends on mod version | Tragic Addiction | N/A: "You feel a burning desire to open another box of Tragic cards" |
- In Fallout Tactics you can gain the Psychotic perk which makes you suffer less withdrawal from psycho.
Fallout 3
In Fallout 3, addiction is permanent. It can, however, be cured for a price in caps by visiting a doctor (like the one in Megaton). If you own a house in either Megaton or Tenpenny Tower, the addiction can be cleared for free if you own a My First Laboratory house improvement. Also the healing archways in Mothership Zeta remove addictions among their other healing effects.
ITEM | CLASS | RISK | DURATION | UMON | WITHDRAWAL EFFECTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Buffout | Chems | 10% | 30 hours | 30 | -1EN, -1ST |
Jet | Chems | 20% | 30 hours | 30 | -1AG, -1CH |
Ultrajet | Chems | 20% | 48 mins | 12 | -2AG, -1PE, -1ST |
Mentats1 | Chems | 5% | 30 hours | 30 | -1IN, -1PE |
Beer | Alcohol | 5% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Vodka | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Wine | Alcohol | 5% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Psycho | Chems | 10% | 30 hours | 30 | -1EN, -1PE |
Med-X | Chems | 10% | 30 hours | 30 | -1AG, -1IN |
Scotch | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Whiskey | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Ant nectar | Chems | 5% | 1 hour | 20 | -2ST |
Nuka-Cola Quantum | Food | 10% | 48 mins | 12 | -1CH, -15 Radiation Resistance |
- 1Note this only applies to plain Mentats, the other variations (Berry Mentats, Orange Mentats, and Grape Mentats) are non addictive.
- Items not listed in this table are not addictive in Fallout 3; this includes Rad-X, RadAway, and some other substances.
- Risk is a base chance of addiction per use, and only applies to alcohol items in Fallout 3.
- UMON is an accumulating chance of addiction. See Usage Monitor for a detailed explanation.
- Duration is the length of time required to pass without consuming the drug for the accumulated UMON value to be reduced.
- An easy way to avoid addiction is to save before consuming said substance. If you become addicted, simply load from the earlier save. This will not work if your addiction chance has reached 100%.
Usage Monitor
In addition to addiction chance, certain items have an additional, increasing chance of addiction with each subsequent use. Internally, this effect is referred to as the Usage Monitor Effect, or UMON. Each time you use an item, its UMON value is added to the total UMON value before the addiction check is performed. This value remains added to the UMON total until its specified time limit elapses, at which point it is removed from the current running total. An accumulated value of 75 appears to equate to an additional 1% chance (added on top of any existing addiction chance), while a value of 175 appears to be equivalent to a 100% chance. The specifics of the algorithm remain unclear.
Fallout: New Vegas
New drugs and addiction-causing substances were added to Fallout: New Vegas, many with their own new forms of addiction. Due to the engine used in Fallout: New Vegas, addiction behaves the same as it did in Fallout 3. It is permanent unless seen to by a doctor. Fixer will provide temporary relief from the symptoms of withdrawal. If you have Old World Blues installed the Sink Auto-Doc cures addictions for free as part of the basic physical exam. For information about UMON, risk and so on, see the appropriate Fallout 3 section.
ITEM | CLASS | RISK | DURATION | UMON | WITHDRAWAL EFFECTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Buffout | Chems | 10% | 30 hours | 30 | -1EN, -1ST |
Jet | Chems | 20% | 30 hours | 30 | -1AG, -1CH |
Ultrajet | Chems | 20% | 48 mins | 12 | -2AG, -1PE, -1ST |
Mentats | Chems | 5% | 30 hours | 30 | -1IN, -1PE |
Beer | Alcohol | 5% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Vodka | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Wine | Alcohol | 5% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Psycho | Chems | 10% | 30 hours | 30 | -1EN, -1PE |
Med-X | Chems | 10% | 30 hours | 30 | -1AG, -1IN |
Scotch | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Whiskey | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Ant nectar | Chems | 5% | 1 hour | 20 | -2ST |
Fire ant nectar | Chems | 5% | 1 hour | 20 | -2ST |
Irradiated Scotch | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Irradiated whiskey | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Moonshine | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Jake Juice | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Coyote tobacco chew | Chems | 10% | 30 hours | 30 | -1PE, -1CH |
Party Time Mentats | Chems | 15% | 30 hours | 30 | -1IN, -1PE |
Rebound (Uses jet addiction.) | Chems | 20% | 30 hours | 30 | -1AG, -1CH |
Slasher | Chems | 20% | 30 hours | 30 | -1EN, -1PE |
Rocket | Chems | 30% | 30 hours | 30 | -1AG, -1CH |
Irradiated beer | Alcohol | 5% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Hydra | Chems | 10% | N/A | N/A | -3EN |
Turbo | Chems | 20% | N/A | N/A | -2AG |
Absinthe | Alcohol | 10% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Dixon's whiskey | Alcohol | 50% | N/A | N/A | -1AG, -1CH |
Dixon's jet | Chems | 50% | 30 hours | 30 | -1AG, -1CH |
Steady | Chems | 80% | 30 hours | 30 | -1ST, -1AG |
Bugs
- After completing Dead Money with an addiction, it is possible for it to become permanent. [platforms tag needed]
- Fixer can permanently remove addictions in an unpatched game.
- Fallout: New Vegas patch 1.2.0.31x. The console command Player.RemoveSpell 0006dc6e will immediately remove the addiction on the PC version. Ant nectar addiction used to be incurable due to a bug, but this was fixed in