Solar Sponge

Solar Sponge is a soak mutation which gives resistance against burn, radiation, and laser damage, and allows mutants to derive buffs from the sun and heat.

This mutation requires Firewalker and is incompatible with Vampire.

Location

Solar Sponge can be found at ground zero, in the Wasteland. Follow the explosion marks until you find the big crater in the middle. The area is highly irradiated; bring protection!

Effects

This mutation grants:

    +1-3 burning resistance
    +2-2 irradiation resistance
    +2-3 laser resistance
    Healing effect when hot
    +2 to Brawn/Brains when in the sun
    Drastically reduced chance to acquire a Mental illness when using Carrie

Advantages

• 6-11 burn soak total - You'll outright ignore many sources of fire damage with this.
• 3-6 irradiation soak - Sometimes useful against things like treemen and giant ants.
• 2-3 laser soak - is an obscure damage type, but when it does show up it's quite hard to soak.
• Heal every heartbeat when hot - This can reach +6 health or more per heartbeat if it's really warm, which is on par with a trauma kit.
• No immolation damage - Carrie can still debuff you, but it won't touch your health bar.
• Synergy with Plant Whisperer - If you have both, your hunger/thirst will passively reduce in the sun/rain respectively. This is super minor and mostly a flavor thing.
• +1-2 Brawn and Brains in the sun.
• Reduced Carrie mental chance.
• Controlling temperature: If you want to heat up quickly in a hot area to activate your heal, spam wearing and removing any piece of clothing repeatedly. Every time you wear or remove something, the game re-evaluates your body temperature, forcing your character's internal "thermostat" to quickly adjust to the new area temperature rather than waiting for heartbeats to do it.

Disadvantages

• Not immune to associated debuffs - Solar Sponge only protects from damage; being hot or on fire will still mess up your stats.
• Still need hot gear - Because heat debuffs you so much, you usually still have to use gear to keep cool; the only added utility is in the extra heal.
• Sometimes overkill - Firewalker alone is enough to dampen most fire damage sources.
• Niche secondary soaks - Irrad and laser damage is rare, so it's hard to get consistent value out of these soaks.
• Inconsistent buffs - The sun is too fickle to rely on. Sometimes you're indoors, and sometimes the weather just sucks.
• Incompatible with Vampire.

Appearance

This mutation adds the following line to a character's appearance:

%P glowing skin has a bleached-white look to it.