Forum:Is Survival an acceptable substitute for Medicine?

Hey guys,I find myself distributing points equally to these two skills,Is one a substitute for the other? right now my character has 65 in both skills which is probably pretty inefficient lol.

Well, I think Medicine boosts the effectiveness of healing items, and Survival lets you make healing items, so if all thats right then you're actually doing pretty good! Knight Captain Ski (Com Link) 03:44, May 12, 2011 (UTC)

I've never invested points into Survival myself, I guess you can say I'm slow to embrace new ideas lol. I've always stuck with medicine since its always been good to me since Fallout 3, also because not only does it boost the effectiveness of healing medication, but radiation and other meds as well. VaultBoy Bobblehead 05:27, May 12, 2011 (UTC)

If you plan on making food, then yes, survival is just as good. The food you usually find (fridges, stoves, merchants, etc..) is mediocre, the best food you have to make at camp fires. It's rare to find better food, but not unheard of. Theres also an achivement for 10000 points of FOOD health, drinks, and healing powder do not count as food health. It took me half the game before I realized it. But you won't get 10000 points from eating just mediocre Brahmin steaks, and iguana on a stick.Pappy002 05:59, May 12, 2011 (UTC)

That depends what type of game mode you're playing, hardcore or casual. In hardcore mode Survival is a much better choice than Medicine, since food heal better than stims (both of them heal over time). In casual mode they are on par, with medicine having an advantage because you can heal crippled limbs with stims, so the higher your medicine, the better you heal them. But... "right now my character has 65 in both skills which is probably pretty inefficient". You are kidding me, right? Inefficient? With 65 survival you can make all poisons but one and the best healing items in the game, Desert Salad, wich restores 'only' 150 HP at this skill level (65) without the drawbacks of Super-Stimpak. Brfritos 05:48, May 13, 2011 (UTC)

What I meant was,I thought it would be wiser to choose one or the other for a casual game. When I made the character I gave points equally to both,but now I'm questioning whether i should of chose only one so I could distribute the points among the other skills I frequently use ( guns,lockpick,explosives, and repair) since they almost serve the same purpose. User:absolutely zero

Survival for Hardcore mode, you will get the most out of it that way. NegativeCreep 17:22, May 15, 2011 (UTC)

Now hold a second. Doing both of those skills is not asinine. Survival does help in hardcore mode a lot, buuuuuut it is also extremely helpful in regular mode. It allows me to save my stims for combat situations where a large immediate health boost is handy. If combat is over or if I did something stupid like not look for traps before I walked into a place, or run off a cliff (which I find myself still doing even after playing these games constantly) then food is a more ideal source of health. Plus there are other benefits to having both high medicine and survival skills. So I say that theres nothing wrong with pouring points into both. Its pretty much whatever you feel is right for the character youre developing. Fisto! The Relentless 02:09, May 16, 2011 (UTC)