Drugs

Drugs in Samsara are much like potions and poisons in other games: Substances which alter your character's stats or state of being in some way. Some are common, some are rare, some are dangerous, some are quite benign, some are useful, and some are just plain dumb, but they're all worth knowing about.

The term "drug" in Samsara is applied loosely; it can refer to actual narcotics, other intoxicants, poisons, and many other effects that may seem surprising. This can be confusing at first, but the rule of thumb is this: If it's a temporary effect that uses the Heartbeat system, like nicotine, it's a drug. If it's a static effect that doesn't use the heartbeat system and has its existence controlled by something else, such as +2 science from a lab coat (controlled by wearing it or not wearing it), then it's a buff or debuff.

Stat drugs

These drugs are the most important type: They affect stats in some way. There are many of them, so they're organized in a neat table below. Most of it is straightforward reading, but note that the OD threshold is where something bad is guaranteed; unless otherwise stated, the penalty for overdosing is instant death. 5 doses of cocaine, for example, will kill anyone that is not an Abomination. Aboms ignore many OD thresholds.

You will also see a frequent abbreviation in this graph: phb. This stands for "Per HeartBeat", which means that the effect procs every heartbeat. See the linked article for more information on heartbeats.

Name	1mg	2mg	3mg	4mg	5mg+	Max Dose	OD Threshold	Withdrawal	Source	Notes
Alcohol	100% fear resist -2 stress per heartbeat (phb)	100% fear resist -4 stress phb	100% fear resist -6 stress phb	100% fear resist -8 stress phb	100% fear resist -10 stress phb +1 brw -1 Dodge	12 doses	N/A	N/A	Ubiquitous; from any alcohol pump or bar.	6+ doses will cause unconsciousness unless the drinker has Iron Liver. Also destroys the Pilot and Ride skills; don't drink and drive.
Amphetamines (Speed/Crank)	+1 ref +1 end	+1 ref +1 end	+1 ref +2 end	+1 ref +2 end	+2 ref +2 end	12mg	10mg	Stat debuffs depending on amount, random scamming. Having around 8 or more doses of withdrawal seems to cause periodic deaths by OD.	Speed hypos from many drugstores, crank rocks from the Crack Mansion.	Speed hypos are 3mg per use, while crank rocks hold 30 doses total, and can be snorted or smoked. This drug is particularly dangerous for people with low Endurance.
Cocaine (Crack)	+1 ref +1 sen +1 col	+2 ref +2 sen +2 col	+3 ref +3 sen +3 col	+3 ref +4 sen +3 col	+4 ref +4 sen +4 col	5mg	5mg	Automatically use any coke/crack in inventory. Stat debuffs depending on amount, random scamming.	4 dose baggies can be purchased in the Helliday Inn and Necropolis Gate, which can be crafted into 80 dose crack rocks through chemistry.	Highly addictive. 4 doses can be applied instantaneously buy using cut cocaine 4 times, then do line 4 times. This can be mapped to an alias.
Caffeine (Soda/Coffee/Tea/Stimsticks)	-	-	+1 brn +1 sen	+1 brn +1 sen	+2 brn +2 sen	10 doses	N/A	N/A	Soda is purchased in bulk in the Shoreline warehouse; stimsticks come from the chatsubo in Slagtown, which requires picking or a quest completion.	Causes very fast urine build-up, meaning lots of peeing. Stimsticks are lighter and faster to use, but harder to acquire.
Nicotine (Tobacco/Cigs/Nicotine Mints)	-2 stress phb +1 col -1 end	-4 stress phb +1 col -1 end	-6 stress phb +2 col -2 end	-8 stress phb +2 col -2 end	-10 stress phb +2 col -2 end	Unknown	N/A	Coughing fits, which can cause stuns.	Cigarettes, cigars, etc. are ubiquitous. Nicotine mints are purchasable in the Helliday Inn.	Ingesting through smoking can cause random stuns through coughing, especially with low Endurance, and can cause cancer. Nicotine mints do not cause these effects.
Endorphins (Orgasm)	+2 hp phb	+2 hp phb +1 brw +1 col	+2 hp phb +1 brw +1 col	+2 hp phb +2 brw +2 col +1 end	+2 hp phb +2 brw +2 col +1 end	Unknown	N/A	None, though having endorphins prevents one from being horny.	Comes from finishing a fuck or assfuck; facefuck works too but is capped to the +1/+1 variant.	Magnitude of the buff depends on the fuck skill total of the person who initiated the sex. Fucking corpses or inflatable sheep works just as well.
THC (dude weed)	-	+1 foc -30 stress phb	-1 ref -1 end +2 foc +? craft -60 stress phb	-1 ref -1 end +3 foc +? craft -90 stress phb	-2 ref -2 end +3 foc +? craft -120 stress phb	10mg	12mg	N/A	Can be harvested from marijuana plants or purchased in head shops. Can also be crafted into THC hypos.	Overdose is not fatal, but will cause intermittent unconsciousness. Buffs focus by up to 6 and craft by up to 3. Causes quick hunger gains that cap at 200. THC hypos inject 3mg per hit. Dangerous to Vampires and Freaks because of hunger and stress respectively.
Stimutac	+1 brw	-	-	-	-	1mg	N/A	N/A	Purchased in Slagtown's drug shop, or at Pegleg's in Botany Bay.	Causes horniness. Will cause user to vomit any food or alcohol in their stomach (problematic for Vampires).
Opiates (Heroin, Vicodin)	+Shock resistance Increased shock recovery	-1 brw -1 brn +Shock resistance Increased shock recovery	-2 brw -1 brn -1 ref +Shock resistance Increased shock recovery	-3 brw -2 brn -1 ref -1 col +Shock resistance Increased shock recovery	-3 brw -2 brn -2 ref -1 col -1 end +1 sen Shock immunity Increased shock recovery	6mg	6mg	Nausea, stat debuffs, random scamming.	Purchased from a vending machine in Helliday Inn or bought in Necropolis Gate. Vicodin is crafted.	Good against Screech. Heroin/Vicodin tablets give 1mg per dosage.
PCP	-	+1 focus	-1 brn -1 end -1 sen +1 foc	-1 brn -1 end -1 sen +1 foc	-1 brn +1 end -1 sen +1 brw +2 foc	Unknown	7mg	N/A	Found in combination with THC with PCP-laced joints, purchased in Vice City. Also sometimes found in the Slagtown hospital.	Very easily shrugged, very short duration. Increases the focus buff that THC gives you. Causes vivid hallucinations. Any time that a PCP-dosed character procs a Heartbeat while on a tile with a downward climb, they have a chance to flip out and jump down that climb.
Catfish	-	+1 brn -1 ref	+1 brn +1 end -1 ref	+2 brn +1 end -1 ref	+3 brn +2end -1 ref Brain damage.	4 bites	5 bites	Migraine headache.	Purchased in Jack and Wendy's, Freedom City.	Doses decay randomly and might spontaneously go from 4->0 in the middle of crafting. Overdose is not lethal, but causes brain damage.
Peyote	+1 Combat fear	+1 sen +1 Combat fear	+1 sen -1 col +1 Combat fear	+2 sen -1 col +1 Combat fear	+2 sen -1 col -1 ref +1 Combat fear	Unknown	N/A	N/A	Harvested from cacti in the Glass Mesa and Sea of Dunes.	Each bite contains 2mg. +5% to all XP gains. Combat fear causes 1 dose of fear on entering combat, which can be countered by alcohol.
Psilocybin (Shrooms)	+1 sen +1 foc +1 Combat fear	+2 sen +2 foc +1 Combat fear	+2 sen -1 brn -1 ref +3 foc +1 Combat fear	+3 sen -1 brn -1 ref +4 foc +1 Combat fear	+3 sen -1 brn -1 ref +4 foc +1 Combat fear	4mg	Unknown	N/A	Harvested from mushrooms in Crater Rim and Foggy Clearing; can also be scavenged in Crater Forest.	Each bite contains 2mg. Lasts an extremely long time and gives trippy messages. +5% XP, which stacks with Peyote. A good way for Freaks to buff Focus. Combat fear causes 1 dose of fear on entering combat, which can be countered by alcohol. Small chance phb to make the user try to have sex with anything nearby (including roombas). Eating the wrong kind of shroom will cause poisoning.
Beef juice box	+1 brw	+2 brw	+3 brw	+3 brw	+3 brw	3mg	N/A	N/A	Rare; sometimes found in Slagtown hospital.	Must be administered by someone other than the user.
Frenzy	+1 brw +1 sen +20% feint resist	+2 brw +2 sen +40% feint resist	+3 brw +3 sen +60% feint resist	+4 brw +4 sen +80% feint resist	+4 brw +4 sen +80% feint resist	4 doses	N/A	N/A	Gained from combat fatalities, Bleeder, Hideous Freak scare, frenzy hypos (Slagtown hospital) or human hearts.	Gives severe (hidden) debuffs to medic, scavenge and focus (by up to -10). An important brainy-b-gone tool.
ATP (Deathgear)	-1 brn +1 end	+1 brw -2 brn -1 col +1 ref +1 end	+1 brw -2 brn -1 col +2 ref +2 end +1 sen Random aggro	+2 brw -3 brn -1 col +2 ref +2 end +1 sen Random aggro	+2 brw -4 brn -2 col +2 ref +3 end +1 sen Random aggro Intermittent knockouts	Unknown	5mg	N/A	Comes from wearing deathgear (a deathsuit, deathshead, or both). Resisted with Hyperimmune.	Random aggro is less of a problem for Carebears, who can exploit their inability to aggro friends. This drug was reworked a few years ago and has had lots of strange, buggy interactions ever since, particularly with KOs, Brainslug and Stench.

The following drugs aren't removed by detox kits: THC, Catfish, Peyote, Psilocybin, Frenzy. Withdrawal from drugs also cannot be detoxed.

Withdrawal, Overdoses and Heart Attacks

Doing hard drugs while having low Endurance is a Bad Idea - you can suffer fatal heart attacks. Aspirin and the Jarvik 24 heart Implant help with those.

Whenever you take a dose of a drug that can cause withdrawal (like crank), you will also have a chance of gaining a dose of "withdrawal". This shows up as being "strung out" on your status prompt. There is no way to measure this; you have it or you don't. Every dose of withdrawal increases your chance of having a random heart attack, and the doses don't start to decay until after all the buffs from your drug wear off. Most of the buffs from drugs can be removed quickly by a medic with a detox kit.

It is possible to have two messages of "strung out" on your status prompt if you are strung out from both crank and cocaine. High endurance, or zombie's addiction resistance, will give you a much higher chance to shrug off withdrawal doses. Some heart attacks can be shrugged off with high enough endurance or negated by the zombie mutation or a Jarvik-24 heart implant.

Taking too many doses of certain drugs (cocaine has a cap at 5 doses and crank has a cap at 10) will result in an instant death by overdose unless you're a hideous abomination.

Drugging for Dummies

Here are a few tips on drug use for your everyday Samsara junkie:

• diag requires 9 medic skill. If you have less, check your st, which will often tell you what you need to know in an obfuscated way. "Your heart is racing from a massive dose of speed", for example, means that you've reached the max buff level (5mg+) for speed.
• Iron Liver adds resistance to speed and THC, so you may need to use more speed/weed to get high. This isn't the end of the world; both drugs are cheap and the hypos work fast.
• If you have baggies of cocaine, you can cut cocaine 4 times to cut a 4-dose baggie into lines on the floor. do line to rail them one by one. This is very quick and bypasses any chance of resisting the cocaine from your Endurance, but will still allow you to resist the strung debuff as you normally might.
• Frenzy nukes your medic skill, which can be a problem if you're using Bleeder and want to patch yourself up before you bleed to death. To solve this, use rolls of makeshift bandages. They require no medic skill at all and can still be applied at -10 total medic, and will stop the bleeding.
• Drinking alcohol before a fight counters one fear dose from peyote/psilocybin. If you're dosed on both, however, one of the doses will still get through.
• ATP synergizes poorly with Stench. If you're alone in a room at 3mg+, you'll constantly try to aggro yourself. The game will stop you from killing yourself, but you'll still take large hits of stress from engaging a player (that is, yourself) that is musking. This is probably a bug.
• Stimutacs can't be used well with alcohol; combining the two will make you constantly puke, which will remove your alcohol doses and annoy the hell out of anyone you're partied up with. Vampires will also puke up their valuable healing blood from feeds, although Zombies will not puke up their brains.
• Alcohol will buff your brawn by +1 at max dosage ("You talkin' to me???" in st). This dosage can't be safely sustained without Iron Liver because you'll constantly pass out, but Iron Liver counteracts that problem.

Hallucinogens

These pills all cause unconsciousness, so use them with proper discretion.

Q-tablet

Bought at Barry's Rainbow Dream Emporium for 15 dollars a pop. They allow entrance into the Quake world, a mental realm modeled after the famous Quake FPS.

Blue Horsepill

Available at Barry's Rainbow Dream Emporium. It's possibly a reference to the Blue pill in the matrix and transports you to a world where everything is weak and easy to kill. You gain no XP or IP (unconfirmed) by killing, but it is a good way to relieve stress.

Jerkpill

Transports you to the jerk realm, an area consisting of two locations, under the sink and the surface of the moon. This area is inhabited by 3 talkative aliens who do little more than make puns and insult you. All three of them also allow sex, hooray! Also available at Barry's Rainbow Dream Emporium.

House pill

Transports you to your childhood home, where your father bitches at you. Depressing, but only costs 7 bucks at Barry's Rainbow Dream Emporium.

Eyeball

A candy eyeball bought in jars from Barry's Rainbow Dream Emporium for a tidy sum of 375 dollars. Transports you to Humanitymoo, a world of blind griefers and helpful people. Thankfully, it's effects are relatively short.

Old pill

At 750 bucks a pop (from Barry's Rainbow Dream Emporium) the old pill is quite the expensive trip, though its also quite a long one. Brings you to the Museum of Oddities and allows you to explore, assuming you find the secret passage way into the building proper. Exhibits include a stuffed beefalo, a hyperintelligent flying penis and a book detailing the history of KREW.

Healing cube

Transports you to an area that's not supposed to exist.

Other drugs

These affect stats or something else, rather than transporting you anywhere.

Black pill

Curare. Paralyzes, very heavily debuffs stats, and can kill you. Always fun.

Birth control pills

These decrease the chance of pregnancy (when taken by a woman, of course).

Aspirin

Helps old people and drug users survive heart attacks. Lasts for a fairly short time compared to most drugs.

Rejuvex

Lowers your character's age each dose. Only removes age gained by recloning, rather than natural aging. Effectiveness is massively reduced by Fibrocartilage.

Rad-Q

Protects from radiation sickness. Will not protect you from the irradiation damage type. Debuffs some stats, causes nausea, and occasionally stuns the user. Bad things happen if you take more than one of these at a time or take one while already irradiated.