Shortly before dying, I discovered that the atomic coffee was leaving an Irradiated [2] status on my character. I’ve never seen such a lovely device before, and didn’t have time to even figure out if the [2] was a countdown, or if it was tracking how many cups I had before unleashing some kind of !!fun!! on me.
It’s a minor spoiler request, but I’m a wee bit grumpy that the game ended so soon after such a lovely discovery. Is that a recent addition to the game? What would have happened to me?
If the coffee maker was damaged it will iradiate the nearby zone, imagine it as a breached mini reactor.
Yeah, I’m not aware of atomic coffee itself being radioactive. What it IS is only slightly less addictive than codeine and extremely unhealthy (you’d need to drink 5 servings of herbal tea to counteract one swig of atomic coffee.)
That said, as Sneaky_Potato indicated, any item which passively uses plutonium cells as a power source is extremely dangerous when damaged. This includes the atomic coffee maker, atomic lamp, atomic nightlight, atomic battery mod, mininuke (could probably have guessed this one) and the plutonium cells themselves.
They’re all perfectly safe when undamaged, however. The Atomic Coffee Maker actually makes a fantastic source of safe drinking water, as it can boil water for no cost.
I’ve also had one character who had a Leukocyte Breeder CBM (which makes you healthier) and a small coffee farm who simply never slept, with ZERO DOWNSIDES. All atomic coffee, all the time! All the time! All the time! More coffee!
Question: do you farm coffee?
And if you do how?
Very sure it is the Atomic Coffee itself that is radioactive. Granted, as others have said, any item with radioactive components (Plutonium Slurry, damage equipment using Plutonium Cells, Nuclear Fuel Pellets from Bright Nights) are radioactive.
The radiation from Atomic Coffee is so minor I didn’t notice it until someone else pointed it out to me, actually. I thought it was from the Glowing Bile that Huge Boomers shoot at you.
Well, if it was the coffee, then why would water made by boiling it in the atomic coffeemaker be any safer?
Not that real-world logic usually applies to programming logic…
No, it is emanating radiation only because it is damaged, if any atomic-related item gets scratched, battered or cut it WILL iradiate you until you repair it, otherwise it is as safe as mundane coffeemaker.
The atomic coffeemaker doesn’t iradiate the water, the plutonium cell inside powers the thing just like normal bateries or regular current, the thing is that plutonium cells last for several thousand years.
It’s definitely not the coffee doing the irradiating, unless someone has hardcoded the effect somewhere other than where it should be, which would be extremely unusual.
See here for it’s exact effects:
"type" : "COMESTIBLE",
"id" : "atomic_coffee",
"name" : "atomic coffee",
"name_plural" : "atomic coffee",
"weight" : 257,
"color" : "brown",
"addiction_type" : "caffeine",
"use_action" : "ATOMIC_CAFF",
"stim" : 25,
"container" : "bottle_plastic",
"comestible_type" : "DRINK",
"symbol" : "~",
"quench" : 40,
"healthy" : -5,
"addiction_potential" : 8,
"nutrition" : 4,
"description" : "This serving of coffee has been created using an atomic coffee pot's FULL NUCLEAR brewing cycle. Every possible microgram of caffeine and flavor has been carefully extracted for your enjoyment, using the power of the atom.",
"price" : 300,
"volume" : 1,
"phase" : "liquid",
"flags" : ["EATEN_HOT"],
"fun" : 10
I don’t actually think there exists a system in the game for irradiating the player with comestibles.
atomic coffee is absolutely radioactive when drunk.
it also reduces fatigue amd stims you up.
its useful for crafting, but for raids i prefer some kind of sleep.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’ve been trawling through the repository looking for where exactly this effect is coming from, and I can’t find any trace of it. Where would it be, if not under Comestibles?
EDIT: Aha! I finally found it! Looks like you’re right, it is radioactive. Which seems stupid to me as that’s not how a radiothermal boiler should work, but whatever. I guess it’s to do with whatever makes it more stimulating than regular coffee.
Here’s the relevant code:
int iuse::atomic_caff(player *p, item *it, bool, const tripoint& )
{
p->add_msg_if_player(m_good, _(“Wow! This %s has a kick.”), it->tname().c_str());
p->mod_fatigue( -( it->type->comestible ? it->type->comestible->stim : 0 ) * 12 );
p->radiation += 8;
return it->type->charges_to_use();
This must have been added within the last couple years. I definitely don’t remember getting irradiated with the coffee-ODing run I mentioned.