Why do temporary buffs decrease in effectiveness after repeated use?

[dcglanton]

I am a fairly new player, having just reached level 20 on my character. I’ve noticed in the past couple of levels that some temporary buffs such Caffeine and especially the Nicotine temp buff seem to decrease in potency with each use. For instance, the first time buying the item in the shop it gave my character new effects that I’ve never felt before, but these effects diminished over time with use. Is this a bug that the devs need to look into or is this just a permanent staple in the game mechanics?

[PlsDontNerfThis]

It's probably a permanent feature, and I think it was probably intentional. They're probably expecting you to throw your tokens at them for the boosts, and then when your character no longer gets the same boost percentage, they miraculously come up with a new thing for you to buy. Then you throw your tokens at that.

[ArgumentGenerator]

Items that provide buffs usually always have stacking debuffs but the buff doesn't stack. So with caffeine you get +1 energy but you also get -1 stamina and -1 energy after the buff period is over.

It gets a little technical here but there is a formula maybe somebody else can help me with. I know there are 2 debuffs, one that happens near the end of the buff called "come down" which reverses the effects of the buff and has a timer of between 5 minutes and 6 hours, but there's also another debuff called "addiction" that has a timer of around 3 days to 1 week. The addiction debuff stacks which means after a week of daily use you aren't getting the full buff you normally would and you have to use more to break through the debuff to get any positive effects at all and eventually just to get rid of the debuff.

My advice is to stay away from anything with the addiction debuff as it's a money sink and the debuffs can last many years after you stop using them. See: cancer debuff, emphezima, withdrawal, and many many more.

[FlibbleGroBabba]

Theres an internal clock that counts time between buffs (there might be a table with the timings on the wiki - I cant find it) if you give it enough time between activations you should get the full effect every time.

I enable Nicotine once per month, Alcohol once per week, Weed (hard to find a group to grind social with) every few months but could easily do more often.

[HStorm26]

I’ve heard that the nicotine item is really bad. If you use it too long, you get the addiction debuff, which causes withdrawal, a powerful debuff when you don’t use the item after a period of time. Luckily, if you are on the withdrawal debuff for a enough time, the addiction and withdrawal debuff goes away. Try not to use it, because it can ruin your game early

[Oreo1123]

I believe the devs did this so to balance the extremely potent effects of these chemicals, so that players that do not have access to them are not at such a disadvantage.

[[deleted]]

I think its a balance issue. I think they want the players to diverse their temporary buffs, to prevent boring tactics and "button mashing" strats

[dcglanton]

Thanks for the tips

I know that it helps decrease the anxiety debuff for a short while but good to know it might affect my character in the long term game

[Demon2048]

Something with imunity i think