Starfield: How to heal from afflictions and monitor severity with prognosis

We’ve all been there. You’re trying to scale down a cliff and you’re thinking to yourself “I can jump that” just to find out no, you can’t. Now you’re stuck at the bottom of a cliff with a fractured limb: Welcome to Starfield.

Injuries and afflictions are just a part of the Starfield experience, but you’ll need to know how they work and what you can do to fix them if you plan on surviving in this world. Fortunately, once you get the hang of it, the system isn’t all that complicated.

I know when I started playing Starfield, injuries were something that had me stumped so to make sure this isn’t the case for you, here’s the breakdown.

How does the prognosis system work in Starfield?

If you’ve sustained an injury in Starfield then you’ll be given a prognosis. This mechanic allows you to gauge how bad the problem is, allowing you to decide whether or not you need to seek help immediately, or simply wait it out. You can see your prognosis by opening up the Starfield menu.

Your prognosis will fall somewhere between Excellent and Poor. Fortunately, anything other than Poor will likely heal on its own, but it can take a while. You’ll see a notification on your screen that says “improved prognosis” or “prognosis worsened,” depending on whether the injury is improving or getting worse.

If you have got a Poor prognosis then the chance of it healing itself is low, and you’ll probably need to treat the affliction to get back to health.

If this is what’s happened to your character then don’t panic! There are plenty of options that will have you back out in the stars in no time.

How to treat afflictions in Starfield

Each affliction falls under a different category and healing it requires a different tool or item. To make things easier to track, each type of affliction corresponds with a colored triangle symbol for its category. Using the information below you can see what tool is required to fix your problem, along with a list of the specific afflictions that fall into each category.

Blue

Here’s a list of all of the status effects curable with an Immobilizer:

• Torn Muscle
• Dislocated Limb
• Fractured Skull
• Fractured Limb

Red

Here are all of the things that you’ll need to use Bandages or Zupper Bandages to cure:

• Contusion
• Laceration
• Puncture Wound

Orange

For climate-related damage, you’ll want Heal Paste. Here’s everything Heal Paste can help out with:

• Burn
• Frostbite

Yellow

Snake Oil and the Injector items can help out with some severe status effects and injuries including the following:

• Brain Injury
• Heatstroke
• Concussion
• Hernia
• Hypothermia
• Lung Damage
• Poisoned
• Radiation Poisoning

Purple

Finally, Antibiotics might be required for one specific status effect.

• Infection

Now you know what you’ll need, simply head into your Aid inventory and seek out the right tool to remedy the issue. If you don’t have any of these items they can be purchased from some vendors and doctors across the galaxy.

If you want to get things healed quickly, simply visit a doctor and they can fix your problems for a fee. While it may cost more, this will get you back in action the fastest.