Body temperature
You start at 37°. In the frost your body cools down; in the warmth it heats back up, but no higher than 37°. Your temperature is shown under the thermometer in the icon column on the right, on a scale from 31° to 41°. The cold kills more quietly than zombies: it doesn't hit you, it builds up while you're busy with something else.
Stages
| Temperature | What happens |
|---|---|
| 34.5° and below: shivering | when you aim, your sights jerk once every 1.5–2 minutes; you cough about once a minute; hunger drains 1.5 times faster |
| 34° and below: a cold | a cough or sneeze every 20 seconds, and zombies hear it; the shivering gets worse. A cold doesn't go away even once you're warm: you need a heat pack |
| 31°: hypothermia | −400 blood per minute (full blood runs out in 30 minutes), the screen blurs |
| 38° and above: sweating | thirst drains 1.5 times faster |
| 39° and above: heat | thirst drains twice as fast, your vision swims |
| 40° and above: heatstroke | −200 blood per minute until you step away from the fire |
What chills you
- Weather. A blizzard is the worst; snow, light snow, fog and clouds are milder. On a clear sunny day the cold barely matters. A blizzard comes every 6 real-time hours and lasts 40–60 minutes. There's no warning: it follows a spell of light snow after the sunny and cloudy hours (events).
- Night (22:00 to 07:00 on the in-game clock) is colder.
- Altitude. Above 300 m over sea level it gets colder the higher you go. From 400 m you see the hint "Colder up high".
- Standing still. Standing, you cool 1.5 times faster than when walking. Running slows the cooling, and sprinting even warms you up.
- Water. In water you lose 0.6° per minute: shivering and a cold in 5 minutes, hypothermia in 10. Clothing and heat packs don't help in water. A wetsuit halves the chill, and a wetsuit plus scuba gear removes it completely.
- Wet clothes. Out of the water, you cool twice as fast for 10 minutes. By a fire, indoors or in a car with the engine running you dry three times faster.
How long you last
In daytime, in your starting clothes:
| Conditions | Until shivering | Until a cold |
|---|---|---|
| Blizzard, walking | 29 min | 35 min |
| Blizzard, standing still | 20 min | 24 min |
| Blizzard, walking in a parka | 73 min | 87 min |
| Snow, walking | 75 min | 90 min |
| In water | 5 min | 5 min |
Walking through a blizzard, you reach hypothermia in about 70 minutes. Standing still or at night, everything comes sooner.
What warms you
Campfires, buildings, cars and hot food or drink only warm you up to 37°.
| What | How it warms |
|---|---|
| Campfire, within 4 m | +1° per minute |
| Building, any interior | +0.1° per minute, and the cold doesn't reach you |
| Closed car with the engine running | +0.2° per minute |
| Closed car with the engine off | no warmth, but no chill either |
| Tunnel | no warmth, the cold is half as strong |
| Heat pack | instantly 37°, cures a cold, no chill for 2 hours (except in water). If you're already warm, it adds +1° on top |
| Thermos of tea | +2°, no chill for 60 minutes |
| Broth | +1°, no chill for 15 minutes |
| Canned coffee | +1°, no chill for 10 minutes |
| Cooked meat | +1°, no chill for 5 minutes |
On a motorcycle, a bicycle, in a convertible with the roof down or an open-cockpit plane it's as cold as outside. Tents and sleeping bags don't warm you.
Heat packWarms you up at once and cures a cold.0.5 kg
Thermos of teaThirst +70, 200 blood and warms you by 2°.0.5 kg
BrothThirst +40, hunger +30, 130 blood, warms you by 1°.0.5 kg
Canned coffeeThirst +50, 130 blood and warms you by 1°.0.5 kgCampfire
You need firewood and matches. Use the firewood or the matches and a ghost of the campfire appears. Turn it with the mouse wheel, Enter lights it, RMB cancels. It goes no further than 3 m from you. The firewood burns up, the matches stay. A campfire burns for 15 minutes and warms everyone within about 4 m. Firewood only comes from loot: you can't chop trees.
You cook raw meat on a campfire. Stand by the fire with meat in your inventory and the hint "Cook meat" appears on your inventory key (keys). In 5 seconds all your raw meat is cooked at once.
Once you're at 37°, step back a little. Right by the stones your temperature climbs above 37°, and if you stand in the fire itself, heatstroke hits in 3–4 minutes.
Clothing
Warm clothes slow down cooling on land (they don't help in water):
| Clothing | You cool down |
|---|---|
| Parka | 2.5 times slower |
| Climber | 2.25 times slower |
| Winter army, Special forces, Hunter, Police uniform, Firefighter, Stalker | 2 times slower |
| Snow ghillie, Rich kid, Medic, Biker, Military drifter, Pilot, Marauder | 1.5 times slower |
| Survivor clothes, Civilian clothes, Prisoner, Cultist, Scientist, Hazmat suit | no bonus |
By a fire it's the other way round: warm clothes overheat you faster.
Coughing
A cough or sneeze gives you away: zombies notice a coughing player from 24–36 m, and other players hear it up to 45 m away. The cold makes you cough from the shivering stage on. You also cough from infection and in tear gas. More in noise and stealth.