The Long Dark: Best First Aid Items

Key Takeaways

• Antiseptic is a critical first aid item as it prevents infection risks.
• Water Purification Tablets ensure access to safe drinking water, crucial for preventing dysentery.
• Antibiotics are essential for treating lethal afflictions like infections, dysentery, and parasites.

The Long Dark is a realistic survival exploration game developed by Hinterland Studio and released in 2017. Players find themselves lost in the Canadian wilderness after a geomagnetic storm and subsequent plane crash. Stranded on an island where everyone has seemingly vanished, players must learn to live with and overcome Mother Nature. Fortune can change in an instant, whether for better or worse.

First aid items play a vital role in survival, allowing players to prevent or recover from a variety of afflictions. For lethal afflictions, such as dysentery, having the necessary first aid items is the difference between life and death. Even non-lethal afflictions can greatly reduce your chances of survival.

8 Antiseptic

Infection Risks Be Gone

Antiseptic is a lootable item found in most containers, with an average of five uses. It prevents infection by treating an infection risk, usually gained through wounds sustained in wolf or bear attacks. Like most lootable items, it cannot be crafted.

A vitally important first aid item, players should never leave home without a well-filled bottle of Antiseptic. Infections can develop in as little as eight hours, quickly catching unprepared survivors off guard. Even for veteran players, infections can soon prove deadly unless Antibiotics are available. Curing this affliction is time, resource, and condition intensive, so avoiding it is vital wherever possible.

7 Water Purification Tablets

Fear Dirty Water No Longer

Water Purification Tablets are rare lootable items that can purify one liter of unsafe drinking water per tablet. These tablets prevent dysentery by giving players access to clean drinking water.

These tablets are helpful when players do not have access to fire or the time needed to boil water, such as when caught in a blizzard or recovering from a severe affliction. Purifying water only takes one minute, so even those stuck in cold conditions can use it without risking exposure. In circumstances where players are dying of dehydration, these tablets can save lives.

6 Antibiotics

Fight Those Afflictions

Antibiotics are lootable first aid items that treat infection, dysentery, food poisoning, and intestinal parasites. They can be found in bottles averaging six pills, with each affliction requiring two pills to treat. Intestinal parasites are the exception to this, requiring 20-40 Antibiotics over 10-20 days, depending on the difficulty.

Given that infections, dysentery, and intestinal parasites are all lethal afflictions if left untreated, players should always carry a bottle of Antibiotics with them. While not deadly, food poisoning, if left untreated, will reduce players’ condition to 15%. This will leave them highly vulnerable, particularly to animal attacks. Players who eat predator meat on higher difficulties should stockpile Antibiotics in case they contract intestinal parasites.

5 Bandages

Old Reliable

A versatile first aid item, Bandages can be looted and easily crafted using a single piece of cloth. Used to cure blood loss, broken ribs, burns, sprained ankles, and sprained wrists, players must always carry a good supply of Bandages. They never know when they might need them. This is particularly true of wildlife struggles where players can simultaneously gain many of these conditions.

Of all the afflictions Bandages can cure, it is essential that players use them for blood loss. If left untreated, this affliction will attract predators to their location and rapidly drain their condition. Sprained ankles can also be deadly if untreated as they prevent sprinting, making avoiding predators and poor weather almost impossible.

4 Emergency Stims

Escape A Crisis

Emergency Stims are rare lootable first aid items. Unlike most first aid items, they do not treat a specific condition. Instead, they allow players to escape deadly situations by overriding stamina limits and affliction effects. By providing short-term unlimited stamina, stims enable players to quickly escape predators and get home after attacks. Using this item will also allow survivors with injuries such as broken ribs to climb ropes unimpeded.

Be warned, using this item comes with a cost. After its effects have worn off, player fatigue will immediately drop to zero, and characters will become exhausted. Emergency Stims should be used as a last resort to escape dangerous situations.

3 Old Man’s Beard Wound Dressing

A Renewable Cure For Infection Risks

Old Man’s Beard Wound Dressings are the herbal remedy equivalent of Antiseptic. Like Antiseptic, one dressing is required to treat one infection risk, though these wound dressings are craftable. Used to treat infection risks obtained from animal attacks, quickly using this item after the attack will prevent an infection from developing.

Unlike Antiseptic, wound dressings provide long-term survivalists with a consistent and easy way to treat infections long after most buildings have been looted. They are also a quick and easy-to-access way for players to remove infection risks without Antiseptic. Old Man’s Beard can easily be located and gathered, and a wound dressing is crafted long before an infection sets in.

2 Reishi Tea

A Natural Alternative To Antibiotics

Reishi Tea is a craftable herbal remedy equivalent to Antibiotics, allowing players to treat infections, dysentery, food poisoning, and intestinal parasites. Unlike antibiotics, each affliction only requires a single tea per treatment dose.

This tea provides survivors with a sustainable long-term means to treat these diseases long after they have used up their Antibiotics. Unlike Antibiotics, Reishi tea does not decay, allowing for multiple to be made without fear of them going to waste. Reishi Tea also provides players hydration, a small amount of calories, and warmth benefits (if heated).

1 Go! Energy Drink

Energy When It’s Needed Most

Go! Energy Drinks are lootable single-use items. Rather than preventing or treating an affliction, these drinks help players survive hazardous situations. They do so by increasing fatigue, reducing the rate of fatigue degradation, and stopping stamina from decreasing.

These energy drinks are invaluable in allowing players to escape life-threatening situations such as animal attacks or blizzards. Even survivors far from home can escape these dangers thanks to temporary infinite stamina. Players must, however, remain mindful of the length of these effects. When they run out, player stamina will instantly drain, and 50% of their fatigue will be lost. This can be incredibly dangerous and even deadly if players are fleeing predators or climbing ropes.