How to cure afflictions in Starfield
In the farthest reaches of space, you need to be your own doctor and cure your own afflictions
When you’re exploring wild alien planets, injuries are common. So if you’re going to survive in Starfield, you will need to know how to cure your own afflictions out in the field.
Afflictions are lingering side-effects that occur when your space suit integrity is compromised by extreme environments or external damage. This can be things like blisters from an ill-fitting suit that compromise your damage output, bleeding from a blunt trauma that constantly drains your health, or even a persistent cough from breathing toxic gas.
In case it wasn’t obvious, afflictions are bad news and can have all sorts of unexpected effects - none of them good. For example, not only will a cough sap your O2 bar sporadically, reducing your ability to sprint, but the noise will also alert nearby enemies to your presence.
Sometimes, afflictions can get better on their own depending on their prognosis, but they can also get worse too. An affliction with a poor prognosis is likely to get worse, while a stable prognosis is likely to improve. Afflictions with a good prognosis are likely to get completely better without the need for intervention.
You can view your afflictions by pressing “Y” in the menu to view your status.
From here you can see which afflictions are currently having a negative effect on your condition, their prognosis, the kinds of affliction they are, as well as the specific debuffs they’re giving your character.
How to cure afflictions in Starfield
Different afflictions are cured by different kinds of Aid items in Starfield. On your status screen, you will see a different colored icon based on the kind of affliction you have. There are:
- Orange for burns
- Blue for broken bones
- Pink for infections
- Red for wounds
- Yellow for breathing difficulties
To cure the affliction, you need to apply an Aid item with the matching colored icon. For example, heal paste carries an orange icon, meaning it cures afflictions like blisters, burns and frostbite, which also carry an orange icon.
If you keep a steady supply of inhalers, bandages and heal paste in your inventory, you should have all the bases covered for pretty much every injury that can arise.
Need more help with Starfield? We've got plenty of useful guides to help you on your space adventures, including our pages for the best Starfield armor, best ship upgrades, and best weapons. We've also got handy guides for the Starfield Red Mile and the Breaking the Bank quest.