Pathologic 3 Guide | Pathologic 3: Beginner Tips

Pathologic 3 places You play as Daniil Dankovsky, commonly known as the Bachelor, in a town with a lot of disease. He tells you to survive by planning ahead instead of using raw force. You need to be able to deal with limited resources, figure out new diseases, get around dangerous neighborhoods, and keep your own mind in check. 

Time doesn't wait, and bad choices can have long-lasting impacts. This article shows you the basic methods and behaviors you need to know about early on so you can work well and avoid losing money you don't need to. 

Learning about Apathy and Mania 

The Apathy and Mania mood system is one of the most crucial things you need to keep track of. There is a meter at the top of the screen that moves between these two states. If the indicator stays in the middle, you are in a steady and neutral state. 

Your choices in conversation, actions, and the plot all slowly push you toward one side or the other. Each extreme has a different effect on your character. Your pace of movement slows down as Apathy grows. Walking gets quite hard at high elevations. If you reach the highest level of Apathy, Daniil Dankovsky will try to kill himself, which will start a quicktime event. If you survive this, your Apathy goes down, but you still take damage. 

On the other hand, mania makes you move faster. You can get across big parts of the map fairly rapidly when you are at a high level. The heart indicator at the top of the screen shows that Mania is bad for your health over time. Your health becomes worse faster the greater the Mania. 

It is important to find a balance between these two states. You can see objects that can change your mood when you use Concentration Mode. Things that make Mania worse are red, whereas things that make Apathy worse are blue. Your mood will naturally shift toward Apathy over time, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. So, if you have healing goods or can get to things that can drive you back toward Apathy, having Mania isn't always bad. 

There are times when leaning toward one extreme can be helpful. You can use Morphine to raise Apathy before conversations that are likely to make Mania worse. High Mania is also helpful when you need to get through places that are sick or hostile rapidly. You should always be on the lookout in infected areas since foes that spread the virus are often hidden in tight spaces and can kill you right away if you don't pay attention. 

How to End a Day Right 

The day in Pathologic 3 finishes at 2:00 AM. At this time, most things stop being beneficial, but there is one vital thing that should always be done. At 2:00 AM, go to Stillwater and talk to Eva. 

As you play the game, this conversation evolves, and on repeat visits of that day, you can use mechanical clocks to travel across time. It also gives you a lot of Amalgam as a prize. You can only do this once a day, and you can't do it again to get more resources by resetting the time. 

Using the Concentration Mode A lot of the time 

You should use Concentration Mode all the time, not just when you need to. In busy places, it's not always easy to see important people, places, and things. When Concentration Mode is enabled, anything that has to do with your current goals will be highlighted in green. 

Things and people that didn't matter before can become important later. You may need to go back to places you've already been to because new interactions can pop up at any time. When you travel, keeping Concentration Mode on helps you make sure you don't miss important details. 

Picking the Right Day to Go Back 

You might want to go back to the day before the current problem once time travel is possible. It's feasible to do this, but starting on Day 2 is much better. This lets you see important sights and unlock events that will effect later days. 

Going over the days in order helps you comprehend how things happen better. You can't see some tasks and interactions in later days unless you've finished earlier ones. The game pushes players to be careful instead of always trying new things, and going back to days without a reason often wastes resources. 

Running Decrees and Hospital Duties 

As the story goes on, you may see Decrees and the duties of the institution. Decrees that you govern from your office have an impact on public health, resource availability, and unrest in the town. You can modify these starting on Day 3, even if you go back to earlier days, and you can also edit them after the fact. 

This system is directly supported by your employment at the hospital. Finding the right diagnosis for every patient in one day gives you a strong Decree that helps keep the epidemic from spreading. As the illness and antagonism go down, it will be easier to get throughout town on later days if you manage both systems well. 

Figuring Out What's Wrong with Patients Without Guessing 

Guessing diagnoses and starting over if you're wrong is a waste of time and money. You should instead use an organized strategy. Begin by talking to the patient, taking pictures, and doing physical exams to find all of the symptoms. Some symptoms can be seen on the patient's face, while others need to be interacted with. 

Talk to the patient about all of their symptoms to have more choices for talking. If only one condition matches all the symptoms, that diagnosis is probably right. If there are still two diseases that could be the cause, get samples of the affected organs. Testing the intestines will show the answer, for example, if the choice is between Lymphotonitis and Burning Fever. This is because intestinal infection only happens with Burning Fever. 

Some cases need to be looked into outside of the hospital. When this happens, a conversation will guide you, and your map will indicate you where to go with an exclamation point. These tests give us information that helps us confirm or rule out symptoms. This strategy stops you from wasting resources and keeps your progress steady. 

Avoiding Getting Stuck in Unnecessary Dialogue 

A lot of the action in Pathologic 3 happens in conversations, although not all of them are supposed to go well. Some characters won't work together on particular days, or you might not have the information you need until later in the timeline. 

What looks like a failed conversation can be very important to the story later on. In certain circumstances, the game needs those failures to happen in order for other things to happen later. Trying to get the best results in every interaction might squander time and money. 

How to Live Through Rioting Districts 

You get a gun and tutorials on how to use it, but you don't need to shoot bullets very often. Ammunition is valuable, so you should only use it when you can't get away. 

The best way to get past a rioting area is to raise your Mania and run. Things like mailboxes and water pumps can help you go faster. If a thug is blocking your way, point your gun at them to get them to put their hands up. The weapon doesn't have to be loaded. Once they stop, run by them and keep going. 

Most of the time, it's safer to run through these locations than to fight. If you save bullets for emergencies, you won't be vulnerable when running away isn't an option.

Also, check our Pathologic 3 Review.