Defoliant

is a type of gas that is a damaging to plants and to objects composed of live plant matter. can seep through walls and other occluding objects.

It can also damage worn equipment (such as a ), but does not affect items held in the inventory.

Damage
The damage done by defoliant depends on the target. For a more detailed breakdown of the types of targets listed here, refer to the Objects Affected section below.


 * Defoliant deals damage to photosynthetic creatures and to mutated plants. Mutated plants more or less encompasses all plants that are combat-capable and have faction associations.
 * Defoliant deals significantly increased damage to all other plants, generally meaning any sessile plants that are not capable of combat and do not have faction associations.
 * Defoliant deals significantly increased damage to objects composed of live plant matter.
 * Defoliant deals no damage to anything else.

The following damage formulas are used to calculate defoliant damage:

In theory, this means that a typical cloud of defoliant gas (~100 density) will deal approximately:
 *  1 damage per turn  to mutated plants.
 *  100 damage per turn  to sessile plants or objects composed of live plant matter.

In practice, gas damage is highly variable due to a significant amount of randomization involved in gas behavior. Gas is constantly moving between cells, dissipating over time, merging with other gas, and being affected by random calculations in the game engine. Its density, which is the main predictor of damage, is always changing. For more information about the mechanics of gas behavior, visit the Gas page.

The density of defoliant can get significantly higher than 100 if several sources of it are combined, such as multiple or successive shots from a. Because defoliant can seep through walls, however, it will not be contained by enclosed rooms or tight hallways - it will continue to spread and dissipate after it is released.

Mutated Plants
(Normal Damage)

Sessile Plants
(Significant Damage)

Objects Composed of Live Plant Matter
(Significant Damage)