Psychite tea

Psychite tea is a relatively safe social drug that greatly improves mood, slightly reducing pain and the rate in which pawns get tired, at the risk of addiction and overdose. It is relatively very easy to research compared to other drugs, especially for Tribal colonies who suffer a speed penalty while researching more advanced drugs.

Acquisition

Psychite tea can be cooked at a Campfire, Fueled stove, or Electric stove once the Psychoid brewing research project has been completed. Each dose requires 4 Psychoid leaves, 400 ticks (6.67 secs) of work, and a Cooking skill of 2. Its cooking speed is dependent on the Cooking skill.

It can also be purchased from Tribal traders, especially Shaman Merchants who commonly stock it, as well as Tribal faction bases. Tribal visitors and raiders will also occasionally carry them.

Summary

Psychite tea is a moderately potent social drug that has a variety of effects. These can be broken into effects that occur:

Instantaneously and one time upon using the drug.
While high on the drug.
While having a built-up tolerance to the drug.
While addicted to the drug.
While withdrawing from the drug.

Upon drinking

A pawn taking psychite tea will do so right where it stands without looking for a place to sit first. Psychite tea is taken by drinking, taking 210 ticks (3.5 secs). It has the following one time effects:

+40% Chemical recreation
+75% Psychite tea high severity (see "Psychite tea high" below)
+10% Rest
2% Addiction chance
If the pawn has an addiction already:
- +90% Psychite Tea need (see "Addiction" below)
- +15% Addiction severity (see "Withdrawal" below)

Psychite tea high

"Active psychite tea in the bloodstream. Generates a mild euphoric effect."

+12 Mood ("Drinking that tea made me feel great. I love having this energy!")
×90% Pain
×80% Tiredness (rest fall factor)

Tolerance

"A built-up tolerance to psychite. The more severe this tolerance is, the more psychite-based drugs like yayo or flake it takes to get the same effect."
— Tolerance description

If a pawn has a visible tolerance to psychite, they will develop chemical damage in the kidneys in a mean time of 120 days.

Addiction

"A chemical addiction to psychite. Long-term presence of psychite has caused neurological adaptations at the cellular level, so the brain can no longer function properly without the drug. Without regular doses of psychite from drugs like flake or yayo, withdrawal symptoms will begin. However, extended abstinence will force the brain to adapt back to its normal state, resolving the addiction."
— Addiction description

Developing an addiction means a pawn has a psychite need. The need for psychite falls by 50% per day, consuming psychite tea satisfies the need by 90% (see "Upon drinking" above), meaning the pawn will need to consume psychite tea at least every 1.8 days to prevent withdrawal symptoms.

Withdrawal

"Because of a psychite addiction, this person needs to regularly consume the drug to avoid withdrawal symptoms."
— Need description

As soon as the psychite need reaches 0%, the pawn will develop a psychite withdrawal. From then on the addiction severity falls by 6.66% per day from the initial 50%, meaning it takes about 15 days to overcome the addiction. Consuming psychite tea during a withdrawal will increase the addiction severity by 15% again (see "Upon snorting" above). During the withdrawal the pawn suffers from the following symptoms:

−35 Mood ("God I'm tired. Everything's so slow and boring. Especially me.")
−20% Consciousness
−20% Moving
−20% Manipulation
+30% Rest fall factor (meaning the pawn needs to sleep about a 30% sooner)
Mental break chances:
- Hard drug binge: on average every 40 days. This averages to 0.4 hard drug binges during each withdrawal.
- Psychotic wandering: on average every 10 days. This averages to 1.5 psychotic wanderings during each withdrawal.

Analysis

Psychite tea is much less addictive than flake or yayo. A colonist can drink it every 2 days without becoming addicted. If drunk more often, and the tolerance reaches 10% or more, then drinking psychite tea only has a 2% chance to create addiction - the same as smokeleaf - without smokeleaf's penalties to movement and consciousness. The tea is even better than ambrosia, especially in the mid-game, with the downside of only being able to give the mood buff every 2 days and a cost of research and time cooking and planting psychoid.

It is less cost-efficient than the other psychoid drugs, flake and yayo, as it is worth the least and takes the longest to make. However, its beneficial properties, lack of risk for limited use, simpler research requirement and much simpler production requirements (i.e. a campfire is adequate, any stove is faster) makes it a good option in the early game, and still useful to end game. This is an especially good option for tribal colonies, who start the game with psychoid brewing already researched.

Gallery

One tea
Partial stack
Full stack

Version history

Beta 18 - Added as Psychoid pekoe.
Beta 19 - Renamed from Psychoid pekoe to Psychite tea. No longer made at a crafting spot.
Beta 19/1.0 - tolerance gain 0.02 -> 0.03, market value 14 -> 10, restFallFactor 0.9 -> 0.8

Drugs