What it does
The Tourniquet is one of the highest-value medical items in the game. It instantly blocks bleeding on a limb, buying time to find a safe spot and apply a proper Dressing. It has eight uses and weighs only 0.2u, so there is little reason not to carry one once you can craft it at INT 9.
The trade-off is time. After nine minutes the tourniquet damages the muscle below it and can seed infection. It also adds pain continuously, up to 40 limb pain. Use it as a bridge to definitive treatment, not as a permanent solution.
Effects and usage
- Instantly stops bleeding on the selected limb while applied.
- Loses 12.5% condition per use, for eight total applications.
- Adds 2 limb pain per second up to a cap of 40.
- After nine minutes, cut-off tissue loses muscle health and can become infected at 10% progress.
How to get it
Medical crates, life-pods and survivors. Craftable at INT 9.
The recipe requires INT 9. If you are below that level, the craft can fail or disappear from the menu. See the crafting guide for the exact failure thresholds, or open the crafting calculator to check the ingredients.
Field notes
- Apply the tourniquet first on a spurting or rapidly bleeding limb, then move to safety.
- Remove and reapply before the nine-minute mark if you still cannot bandage the wound.
- Never put a tourniquet on the head: it causes respiratory arrest. It cannot be used on the thorax or abdomen.
- Pair it with a Dressing: the tourniquet stops the clock, the dressing fixes the wound.