Pathologic Classic HD – Beginners Guide

A basic tutorial to Pathologic Classic HD, including its controls, objectives, and general game structure, written in an easy-to-understand yet immersive way. There are no spoilers in this bad boy.

Guide for New Players

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Introduction

Pathologic is a story about suffering, failure, and perseverance. It is played in 3 separate perspectives, each with their own conclusions and solutions to the plague taking over the Town-On-Gorkhon. They each have 12 days; 12 days in which they must balance survival and investigation to their own ends.

The three characters you play are known as the Bachelor, the Haruspex, and the Changeling. The Bachelor is a well-known doctor from the capital famous for his laboratory, Thanatica, in which he strives to defeat Death itself. The Haruspex is a surgeon with the cultural right to cut bodies in the Town, returning from his studies in the capital following a disturbing letter from his father. And finally, the Changeling is a girl seemingly born from the earth who claims to work miracles.

Each have their own motives to defeat the Plague. Each are convinced that their solution will be the only one to succeed in the end.

When you start a new game, you will appear in the Theatre, where the three argue over these very motives. Once it ends, and you walk through the door on the far right of the stage, you will be prompted to choose either the Bachelor or the Haruspex as your character. The Changeling is only available after you beat either one of the two. However, it is highly recommended you play from left to right; that is, starting with the Bachelor, and ending with the Changeling. With this approach, you will be able to learn of this town’s ways through the Bachelor’s outsider eyes first, and progressively move deeper into its lore as you go.

Basic Controls

• Press Q. That’s your quest log. It’ll fill out when you follow the events of the game. It has three tabs: mission, today’s quest, and other tasks. Your mission is your overarching goal, which rarely changes. The “Today’s Quest” tab is your main goal for each day. The “Other Tasks” tab has your optional side quests, though they may provide rewards when completed. When it fills out, there will be a sigil at the bottom left corner. This normally happens after plot-progressing dialogue.
• Press M. That’s your map. It’ll show you where to go next. The red hand symbol means your main quest can be progressed at that area if it shows up. The white hand means a side quest can be progressed in that area. A circle means it’s a notable area to check out if you want to (though for the most part, you should.). Yellow buildings are shops, and red buildings are places where people live (mostly).
• Press L. That’s your mailbox thingy. You’ll get letters throughout the game, from people wanting to meet up with you, warn you, or just call you a bastard. When you receive a letter, a writing noise will happen, and a sigil will show up at the bottom left of the screen. If you feel like you missed something, or if you’re suspicious of the free time you have, check the mailbox to see if anyone has tried to talk to you.
• Press I. That’s your inventory. You can equip weapons and clothes, eat things, and look at item descriptions there. You can equip clothing or weapons by left-clicking it, and a white outline will show around the item. You can eat things by simply left-clicking the food item in the Rations tab. Additionally, if you right-click something in your inventory, it drops the item in a small bag on the floor. Note: If your inventory is full and you receive an item (whether from dialogue or trash cans), your character will drop it. This makes a noise, and the item will be shown in the top left.
• Press F5. That’s your quicksave. SUPER handy for when you’re about to go into a situation you’re not too crazy about. Try to build a habit of quicksaving before talking to people. Sometimes saying the wrong thing can stop you from getting a quest or receiving certain information. You’ll want to manually save every once in a while though, of course.
• Press Tab. That will bring out your fists. As the Bachelor, you start out with a scalpel at around half durability. You can click to attack, and right-click to block, though blocking is next to useless, unfortunately. The actual attack is a little unsynced with the animation as well, but once you get the hang of it it’s not impossible. Combat is not preferred in Pathologic; you are a doctor.

Side note: The inventory screen does not pause time. If you want to change weapons in the middle of combat, do it quickly.

Progressing the Story

Throughout Pathologic, you will talk to members of the town and do various things for them, while trying to convince them to see things your way in turn. Each character has their own unique takeaway on the events before and during the plague, and as you progress you start to learn their motivations while finding your own true Path of Logic. It’s a dialogue-heavy game, but never assume that’s the extent of what it offers.

Every time you complete a part of a quest, your character will summarize what just happened in your log, play a writing noise, and show a sigil in the bottom left corner as I mentioned before. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of the different noises and what they mean. Context is key in these situations; If you hear a paper-like noise while simply walking around, that would likely mean you received a letter.

When you complete a quest, your character will summarize the experience after 3 asterisks at the bottom of the log. For example, this might show up after dialogue with the last person you needed to talk to in a quest:

Note: I have learned that your mom is gay. A surprising development, but a welcome one.

Always prioritize your main quest. If you do not complete it before midnight, one of the lives entrusted to you will attempt to complete it for you, and get infected in the process. If you’re starting as the Bachelor, sleeping through midnight on the first day without fully resolving its conflicts will kill you.

With the first few dialogues, you’ll likely notice that everyone speaks like they’re trying to hit the word limit on a paper with 500 words to go, and it can be hard to understand the flowery text sometimes. You get used to it. But trust me, Daniil is just as mad at these weird town natives as you are. You have plenty of opportunities to be sassy with them (never be too sassy though; sometimes that will cost you crucial information).

Basic Survival

Due to an abundance of twyre (an indigenous herb of the Steppe) this year, people get exhausted and hungry quite quickly. You have to feed yourself almost constantly to avoid stroke by visiting shops with a symbol of a bull marked just outside its door. Exhaustion is a bit easier to deal with, but if it becomes a problem, the Broken Heart Tavern sells coffee daily. It hurts you, but it’s pretty good.

You can trade with most townspeople. Children are the Most handy. Some trade bullets, and some trade drugs. As you walk around, your character picks up cool things off the ground automatically. Some of the children like that stuff, and trash cans will always offer you some trinkets if you don’t have enough from just walking around. Mostly bottles, though you’ll learn to appreciate those.

• The weird creepy smiling dudes limping around are hungover drunks. They’d sell their soul for water. You can trade with them, and they’ll give you bandages or tourniquets for 5 bottles of water each. You can fill up empty bottles in the kegs scattered around the city.
• The old guys can repair your guns/knives for coin. They hang around in the poorer side of town mostly, at the far east.
• The women can repair your clothing for coin.

At night the town becomes a little more dangerous. Though the Town-On-Gorkhon is normally quite docile, this year the townsfolk have been resorting to burglary. You are one of their targets. And their attack patterns are quite frustrating. They always start out by throwing a knife that will deal a lot of damage if you don’t dodge it, then they charge at you. You can despawn them, or any enemy really, by walking into a shop and walking right back out (if you’re WEAK). But if you do manage to kill them, they’re a good source of income. Plus you get a reputation boost for it.

Very Very Brief Plague Guide

As Daniil, you start with a Plaguefinder (press V) that can sense incoming clouds of pestilence. Watch out for them. And rats (the little SH*TTERS). Buy clothes and immunity boosters and you may get through the districts in good health. Plague houses can be looted with no drops in reputation, but be wary of infection. I won’t say too much else; I don’t want to ruin the fun of the outbreak. Good luck out there.

Parting Words

Stock up. Don’t underestimate future obstacles. Rest only when you need to. And for god’s sake, remember your oaths as a doctor.