Just how damaging is the leaky bionic to character health?

I picked up 0.C 6949 earlier today, and decided to try using the broken cyborg again, because apparently I hate myself. It’s my understanding that the leaky bionic causes a significant reduction in a character’s hidden health stat every 30 game minutes, with the end result of reducing the character’s health in general until it reaches the minimum. If this is wrong, then please correct me, but what I’m concerned about is that it has never before done that to the degree that it is now.

I made a character and got into a house, went about my business until night, then went to sleep and woke up to the “Awareness comes only after a battle, and your body seems to be on its side” message, which is, to the best of my knowledge, a sign that health is extremely low, and was quite alarming after only one day. I saved and opened the .sav, to find that healthy was reduced to a staggering -186, and healthy_mod was -190.

Is this the new standard for the leaky bionic? That you’re living on bandages from Day 1? If so, then could it be made easier to remove?

It is worth noting that I’m using PK’s Rebalancing, so that might affect the leaky bionic. I was mindful of the temperature though, so that couldn’t possibly be the cause of the serious decline in health.

Sounds about right. I can’t say for sure. Needless to say, you should focus on removing certain Faulty Bionics ASAP. According to the wiki guide, you should remove the Leaky Bionic, Acidic Discharge, and Itchy Metal Thing first. Leaky Bionic would be my go to, because it lowers your health and makes healing from sleep impossible. Find a First Aid Kit, and hope you don’t tear out your organs removing those bionics.

From what it sounds like, its acting the exact opposite of a Leukocyte Breeder Program, which quickly rockets your health to 100, fast enough that I noticed a very immediate change when I use it.

Best of luck to you. I’m gonna go back to asking why someone would stuff a person with faulty cybernetics in the first place.

It definitely shouldn’t be tanking your health that far into the negatives in one night. It’s bad, but not that bad. Might be worth making an issue on github about it.

As for why someone would stuff a person with faulty cybernetics, it seems much more likely to me that they were functional when they were put in. Maybe the cyborg got hit by a devastating EMP blast (god knows there were enough nukes going off) and the broken cyborg is the result.

Or that they should have been functional but something went wrong during installation.

Leaky bionic is always the first one I go for, generally followed by acidic discharge. Sadly, it’s not as simple as just pulling the bionics out. It requires the First-Aid Kit, along with a Scalpel or X-Acto Knife, and the success rates are abysmal, even with early mid-game to mid-game levels in all three relevant skills and every stimulant ever. I’ve played the broken cyborg several times before, and every attempt to remove a broken bionic that projected only 35% or so odds of failure always failed. Even with 25% failure odds, I’ve consistently seen failures in two-to-three out of five attempts, with every broken cyborg I’ve ever played. That, coupled with the excruciating penalty for failure, which usually ranges from 50-80% of the max HP on every single body part (even if you’re just removing something on one limb), makes removing any of them early-game virtually impossible.

The extreme likelihood of failure, and the severe cost of failure always made it extremely difficult to pull off, but it was bearable before the leaky bionic dropped you to “No Healing” in one day. Acidic discharge is basically damage all the time, so without natural healing you have to combat that, plus damage from combat, with only bandages, because First-Aid Kits are at a premium, from Day 1 all the way until you get more than level 6 in all three: electronics, mechanics, and first-aid, as well as a stack of Adderall, before you can begin removing the broken bionics without effectively dooming yourself.

Can you tell that I don’t much care for it?

Am I allowed to just go there and report this? I’m not really sure how GitHub works, but it seems like something you would need permission to access.

As for how the broken cyborg came to be, the profession description says: “You were normal once. Before the tests, before the procedures, before they stripped away every outward sign of your humanity. You’re more machine than man now, but that might prove an advantage against the horrors that await.”, so early RoboCop, maybe. If you can get rid of the worst bionics, it’s basically free weak armor with no encumbrance, but it’s not really worth it anymore if leaky bionic is intended to drop your health that badly.

Sure you are. Just make an account, and you’re ready to file issues 'till the cows come home. (Which reminds me I ought to turn some of my notes into bug reports.)

I would stay away from the lab start. RBD is more points and easier. Lab is a grind AND heavily dependent on luck. At least RBD is strictly luck. Technically, with lab start, you can spend a crap load of time getting out, and then guess what? You need medkits FAST to remove the bad bionics AND the success rate is abysmal. With RBD you just need medkit OR antibiotics and it’s pretty much 100%. And no need to breach the concrete walls.

If you do the Lab Challenge, you’re better off not using one of the Cyborg Professions. The lack of clothing will kill you faster than your bionics. If you do the Lab Challenge, I suggest Volunteer Mutant or Lab Technician.