First aid in the wilderness

[smoelf]

Hi, new user here.

In my current game I am camping out in the wilderness with no cities nearby and my character broke a leg by stepping on a land mine. Since a leg splint requires first aid level 1 and I don’t have access to alcohol to craft improvised first aid kits, is there any way to level first aid from 0 to 1 in the wilderness? I suppose forcing myself to bleed and then use bandages might do it, but is there a way to do that in a controlled way, so my character doesn’t die?

[psyxypher]

Hi, Welcome to Cataclysm.

First off, (I am pretty sure) a First Aid Kit will not heal your leg. Or any broken limb for that matter. The main purpose of a First Aid Kit is to heal a lot of Hit Points at once, while simultaneously being able to cure infections/clean wound and cure bleeding.

Second, I just checked the game; The Splints require you to have Survival 1 and use the First Aid Skill (unless First Aid 1 is required to know them). Are you using the Stable or Experimental Version? The latter is far more up to date and is highly suggested over Stable.

Unfortunately, I see no way to help you other than suggesting that you attempt to raid a city, which is very dangerous with a broken limb. Or upgrade to Experimental so you could (probably) craft that Splint. Keep in mind dying is something that happens often in this game, especially to new players. But consider yourself lucky; you stepped on a Landmine and lived. Most people can’t say that.

[smoelf]

Heh, yeah. I suppose I was rather lucky.

I am on the experimental, but splints aren’t showing up. I think First Aid level 1 might be needed to learn the recipe.

[DeWolf]

I’m guessing you are not playing with the more survival tools mod as if you were you could do it with wild herbs instead of alchohol.

[smoelf]

Oh, that would be perfect. I guess I should turn that on.

[Ragnarist]

Would be nice to have some wilderness first aid. Won’t be as effective as modern made ones but probably as effective as a makeshift one. Maybe you can crush some herbs, boil them, leave some to dry and whatnot. Make a makeshift bandage that can disinfect your bites as well. Of course, it would be balanced if such recipe can only be learn through either high survival or recipe books.

[druidniam]

Would be nice to have some wilderness first aid. Won’t be as effective as modern made ones but probably as effective as a makeshift one.

Literally the birth of modern medicine was born in wild herbs, plants, roots and fungi, and are still a primary means of medicine in over 1/3rd of the world.

[tarburst98]

i’d say “herbal disinfectant” should be craftable at low level but it’s success chance is lower then chemical disinfectant, and it causes a little pain because it stings like hell.

[Mantar]

Thyme oil can be made with cooking-4, survival-4. It’s a good disinfectant, and is a decent healing salve as well, being inbetween bandages and the improvised first aid kits for healing. It takes an hour per use to make, and required not just skill, but cooking oil as well as thyme. Canola seeds can be foraged and planted or turned into cooking oil, though.

There’s also bee balm, which can make a substitute cough syrup, and mugwort, which is good for parasites.

If you’re playing a wilderness guy, I recommend foraging and planting as much thyme and bee balm as you can in spring. After you’ve got a decent supply planted you can keep any more you forage, but having a crop of that stuff is invaluable when you hit winter and can’t forage any more of it. Especially if you’ve got a cold and can’t sleep due to the coughing.