Radiation

Radiation refers to the effects of radioactive items and objects in the game, which cause damage to the Engineer unless a Hazmat Suit is worn. While Radiation is in effect, the screen will become slightly distorted, Geiger Counter noises will be heard and a radiation level bar will appear in the upper part of the screen.

Radioactive items and objects

Currently, there are 7 types of radioactive items in game, with different amounts of radioactivity (internally reffered to as ItemDecay):

Item	ItemDecay
Uranium	15
Uranium Pellet	7,5
Encased Uranium Cell	7,5
Nuclear Fuel Rod	60
Nuclear Waste	20
Uranium Node	??
Uranium Deposit	??

Due to the different stack sizes (Uranium = 100, Uranium Cell = 200, Nuclear Fuel Rod = 50, Nuclear Waste = 500), 1 stack of Nuclear Waste is the most radioactive compared to the others.

All of the items listed above glow in the dark.

Radiation levels

The formula for calculating the radiation level (intensity) is: $\frac {ItemAmount\times ItemDecay} {4 \pi x ^ 2} e ^ {(-RadiationFallOffDistance \times x)}$

Where:

• $ItemAmount =$ Amount of items. So 2 stacks of Uranium counted as 200.
• $x =$ Distance between the player and the item, in meters
• $RadiationFallOffDistance =$ 0.0125
• $ItemDecay:$ Refer to the table above.

Radiation intensity for multiple radioactive sources, such as items in different containers, are summed scalar in 3D. After the summation, the intensity level is then capped between 0.2 (0.44% radiation damage) and 45 (100% radiation damage). An engineer will not receive any damage below 0.2 intensity. Beyond 45, the radiation damage is capped, which at this intensity, kills the Engineer in 5 seconds or consumes the Iodine Infused Filter at a maximum rate of 1 per 12 seconds. In-between, the filter lasts longer as the radiation level reduces. The radiation bar in the game screen is capped at 26.7% radiation damage.

Items closer than 0.5 meters or in the inventory are counted as x = 0.5 meters

The above formula can be applied to the following situations:

• Items on the ground
• Items in vehicles, including trains, and even if the vehicle has fallen onto the bottom of the void.
• Items in Storage Containers, Industrial Storage Containers and Personal Storage Box including the one in The HUB.
• Items in Miners or other production buildings.
• Items on Conveyor Belts.
• Items in Engineer's Inventory/hand.
• Items carried by a Lizard Doggo.
• Items in Player Crate or Loot Box

Be careful when hand-mining Uranium ores, as Uranium in the inventory can kill the Engineer quickly, due to the short distance of x = 0.5 meter. Other creatures such as Stingers or Lizard Doggos do not take damage from Radiation.

An Uranium Deposit produces radiation of 0.44 % starting at 85 meters and of 50 % at about 19 meters. There are no values that can be placed into the above formula to calculate this radiation, but an approximation would be ItemAmount 1, ItemDecay 167800 and RadionFallOffDistance 0.0262.

In Tier 7, a Hazmat Suit can be unlocked alongside nuclear power. Having the suit on won't stop the noises, but will protect the Engineer from Radiation damage. As the suit requires Alclad Aluminum Sheets to craft, it is advised to complete the Bayer Process Milestone before Nuclear Power (Experimental: The Hazmat Suit is now a separate milestone).

Examples

To get a feeling about how far the radiation goes, here are some examples:

Item	Minimum distance without radiation damage
100 Uranium (1 Stack)	22 meters
200 Uranium Cell (1 Stack)	22 meters
50 Nuclear Fuel Rods (1 Stack)	29 meters
500 Nuclear Waste (1 Stack)	48 meters
24000 Nuclear Waste (1 Industrial Storage Container)	161 meters
96000 Nuclear Waste (4 Industrial Storage Containers)	221 meters
384000 Nuclear Waste (16 Industrial Storage Containers)	289 meters
1536000 Nuclear Waste (64 Industrial Storage Containers)	363 meters

Tips

• Beware when disposing of radioactive items as it can currently cause a glitch, in which the area acts as if a dropped piece is still there.
• If keeping one or more Lizard Doggos, keep them in a containment pen, in case one brings you Nuclear Waste with a conveyor system ready to handle the waste. Alternatively, kill the Lizard Doggo to delete the waste.
• There is an online calculator to calculate radiation.
• An alternative radiation calculator. This one allows you to upload a save game and displays the radiation map.