All Starfield status afflictions and how to cure them

Starfield aid item heal paste packet — (Image credit: Bethesda)

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How to cure afflictions
All afflictions and cures

Picking up Starfield afflictions is inevitable when exploring hostile planets, but you can cure them easily with aid items. There's a whole range of debuffs, ailments, and afflictions that Starfield player characters can suffer from, ranging from Lung Damage due to inhaling toxic gases to damaged limbs from falling off a ledge or alien attacks. Having an array of aid items on your person will be useful then, but if you've not got the right remedy in your inventory, you can seek out a doctor instead. Whatever sickness or sprain you've got, I'll explain how to cure your Starfield afflictions below.

How to cure Starfield afflictions and status conditions

Starfield afflictions can be cured one of two ways:

Paying a doctor to cure you. Doctors and medical experts are found around settlements, and paying one 500 credits will have them remove all afflictions and restore your health to full. As far as we know there's no affliction that can't be cured this way, and doctors are relatively easy to find.
Use specialised aid consumables. There's a variety of consumables you can find and craft throughout the game, some of which heal a range of specific afflictions. You'll see a symbol on any curing items that shows what it treats so you just need to match that up with what ails you to fix it. Consumables can be made at a Pharmaceutical Lab workshops, with recipes unlocked through research projects, or you can buy them from most vendors, especially doctors, unsurprisingly.

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The clear advantage of one method over the other is that consumables can be carried with you and used at any time, even in the middle of a gunfight. However, doctors are the universal cure-all, and pretty affordable to boot. Use your best judgement - head to a doctor if one is nearby and you have the money, but use a consumable if it's a while before you find one and your affliction is seriously holding you back.

All Starfield afflictions and cures

Here's every Starfield affliction and what can be used to cure them:

Addictions - Junk Flush
Brain Injury - Injector, Snake Oil
Burns - Heal Gel, Heal Paste, Antibiotic Paste, Infused Bandages, Analgesic Poultice
Concussion - Injector, Snake Oil
Contusions - Bandages, Repairing Immobilizer, Infused Bandages, Analgesic Poultice
Dislocated Limb - Immobilizer, Repairing Immobilizer, Anchored Immobilizer
Fractured Limb - Immobilizer, Repairing Immobilizer, Anchored Immobilizer
Fractured Skull - Immobilizer, Repairing Immobilizer, Anchored Immobilizer
Frostbite - Heal Gel, Heal Paste, Antibiotic Paste, Infused Bandages, Analgesic Poultice
Heatstroke - Injector, Snake Oil
Hernia - Injector, Snake Oil
Hypothermia - Injector, Snake Oil
Infections - Antibiotics, Penicillin X, Antibiotic Paste, Antibiotic Cocktail, Analgesic Poultice
Lacerations - Bandages, Infused Bandages, Repairing Immobilizer, Analgesic Poultice
Lung Damage - Injector, Snake Oil
Poisoning - Injector, Snake Oil
Puncture Wounds - Bandages, Repairing Immobilizer, Infused Bandages, Analgesic Poultice
Radiation Poisoning - Injector, Snake Oil
Sprain - Immobilizer, Repairing Immobilizer, Anchored Immobilizer
Torn Muscle - Immobilizer, Repairing Immobilizer, Anchored Immobilizer

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.