Healer mech serum

"spacer" is not in the list (Neolithic, Medieval, Industrial, Archotech, Spacer, Ultra) of allowed values for the "Tech Level" property.

The Healer mech serum is an item that can be awarded from quests.

Pawns can be directed to use it, or it can be administered by medical procedure. When used, it instantly removes the most severe health problem on the pawn, with only few exceptions. If there are no healable conditions, the serum will still be used up.

Exceptions

Below are the conditions which the serum cannot treat:

Luciferium need
Drug tolerances

To regrow a missing body part, the artificial part has to be removed first (by surgery) before the serum is applied.

Any other condition can be treated, including blood loss, malnutrition, heatstroke/hypothermia, diseases, toxic buildup, even other drug addictions – in many cases you do not want to treat these conditions with the serum, unless they would lead to certain death. Do not apply the serum unless absolutely certain it will heal the correct condition.

Usage strategy

Because this is the only item in the game that can cure many otherwise incurable conditions without any adverse effects, it should be used wisely. A missing limb or even a severely damaged spine can be replaced, while a demented brain cannot.

Do not expect to find more than a handful of these serums during a playthrough, if even that many.

Great for colonists with brain damage, dementia and frailty.
- There is no other way to heal these chronic ailments, which can be quite crippling, other than killing the pawn and then applying a Resurrector mech serum, which is another very rare item that can cause adverse side-effects.
- Brain scarring (not dementia or chemical damage) could be treated with Luciferium, which will, however, cause immediate hard dependence on the drug, which is very costly in the long run.
Repair shattered spines or pelvises to allow colonists to function again (the former can however also be fixed with a bionic spine).
Immediately end a colonist's catatonic break at quite a cost. Do so when the colonist is vital to your colony's operations -- this should be a very rare occasion.
Prevent resurrection psychosis from taking over your resurrected colonist. Do note that resurrection psychosis is not revealed until it reaches its second stage, but will still be cured by using a Healer mech serum if used before it is discovered.
This is the only option to fix certain Social penalties, such as the Disfigured debuff from a missing nose.

Organs that occur in pairs (kidneys, eyes, ears) will always be healed in pairs (e.g. the serum would cure a cataract in both eyes, not just one).

Order of conditions treated

The serum will heal conditions according to severity, in this order:

Toxic buildup
Diseases, in order of severity
Frail
Alzheimer's
Dementia
Scars on the brain
Missing body parts
- Limbs have priority over organs, and legs > shoulders/arms
- For organs, lungs > kidneys
Drug addiction
Scars on other parts

Note

The game does not necessarily rank the severity of conditions in the same way the player would. This can lead to the "wrong" condition being healed, since the serum only heals one condition. As an example, a "major infection (developed immunity)" is rated worse by the game than "Alzheimer's (minor)", even though the latter is normally incurable, while the former condition is not even a practical problem. Make sure to check the health condition of the pawn carefully before administering the serum.