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	Last updated for version 1.6.19.1 Last mentioned in changelog 1.6.18.1 The current game version is 1.7.7.0

See also: Afflictions

Husk Infection

  0-50 (Others): "A faint clicking noise can be heard occasionally from within the patient."
 50-75 (Others): "The patient is eerily silent, save for occasional clicking sounds apparently emanating from deep within the throat."
 75-99 (Others): "Something dark and unpleasant moves in the mouth. They are rendered completely mute."
99-100 (Others): "Violent seizures signal the emergence of the husk."

 0-50 (Self): "There’s an itch in your throat; the source seems to move around."
50-75 (Self): "Something growing in your throat prevents you from talking; it’s freaking you out."
75-99 (Self): "Deep down you know you should be worried about the thing chittering and moving about in your mouth. Yet, you feel oddly at peace."

A husk infection can be caused by being bitten by a husked creature (most commonly, the Husk), consuming Velonaceps Calyx Eggs or being injected with Calyx Extract. It can be inflicted upon humans and Crawlers, turning them into Husked Humans and Husked Crawlers respectively if not cured. A single bite/injection is enough to infect a character, and the affliction progressively gets worse. As the infection progresses, the player will be prompted with messages about the infection if the Show husk infection warning setting is enabled.

Effects

The infection can be divided in four stages: dormant, active, transformed, and final.

The dormant stage of the infection (up to 50 strength) has no adverse side effects. The affliction will not be shown on the health-interface until the infection reaches 75 strength. A player using a Health Scanner HUD can detect the infection once it reaches 40 strength. Upon reaching 25 strength, if Show husk infection warning is on, an infected player will receive one of the following warning messages:

Your throat feels sore
You feel feverish
It feels as if something was stuck in your throat
Your muscles are aching

The active stage (50-75 strength) will add a 30% speech impediment to affected humans. This will garble radio-communications (similar to the effects of approaching the maximum communications range), and reduce the range of local (i.e. non-headset) chat by 30%. Upon reaching 50 strength, if Show husk infection warning is on, an infected player will receive the following warning message:

You feel something moving in your throat. You try to scream but no sound comes out.

The transformed stage of the infection (75-100 strength) has both negative and positive effects: A stinger-like appendage will grow out of the character's throat which can be used to attack (with by default) and spread the infection to other characters or creatures, slightly healing the host by 1.5 Damage for every successful attack.It also add a 100% speech impediment, completely preventing any communication – neither the command-interface, nor text-chat, nor voice-chat will work. In this stage, the character will also develop an immunity to pressure everywhere, along with the ability to breathe underwater, allowing affected humans to freely swim in the Europan ocean without a Diving Suit. During the transformed stage, Husks and other husked creatures will not attack a character with this affliction unless attacked first. Note that attacking a husk will make them permanently hostile. Any character that dies during this stage will "revive" as a husk. Upon reaching 750 strength, if Show husk infection warning is on, an infected player will receive the following warning message:

A strange chitinous appendage bursts out from your mouth. Use it to inject eggs into a living body by pressing [Attack]!

The final stage (at 100 strength) will make the afflicted character have seizures while slowly dying of internal damage, before rising back from the dead as an NPC Husk or Husked Crawler. Husks do not revive a second time after being killed.
- It is not possible to treat a character with Calyxanide at the final stage, but it is possible to save them at a Medical Clinic in an outpost or by using or Husk Genes.

In the absence of treatment or Husk Infection Resistance, the dormant stage will last 166.6 seconds (2 minutes and 46 seconds) and the active and transformed stages will last another 83.3 seconds (1 minute and 23 seconds) each. Injection with Calyx Extract will therefore take 333.3 seconds (5 minutes and 33 seconds) to reach the final stage. Bites by husks will generally add some amount of husk infection, speeding the infection up.

Should a character have Husk Genetic Material implanted into them with a gene splicer, affliction strength will be slowed or even stopped, granting more time or outright preventing them from reaching the final stage which quickly kills characters, and also prevents turning into a Human Husk upon death, if the gene is of high enough quality.

Treatment

The most effective treatment for a husk infection is Calyxanide. It will heal 100 affliction strength, or 60 in case of failure, in 1 second. The other option is Broad-spectrum Antibiotics, which heals 21 infection strength, or 6 on failure, in 60 seconds. Note that Broad-spectrum Antibiotics cannot treat Husk above 75 strength; Calyxanide or use of the Medical Clinic is required. If the infection strength isn't brought down to 0, it will grow back, requiring more treatment. Completely removing the infection grants the player the "I am the cure" Achievement.

Neither treatment will be effective during or after the final stage, and Calyxanide will actually damage husks and patients in the final stage. The only way to save a patient at this stage is to either use Husk Genes or to keep the patient alive until they can be cured at an outpost clinic.

Broad-spectrum Antibiotics also apply 600 of the Husk Infection Resistance buff (300 if the skill check is failed). This buff grants the user a 50% reduction to the progression of Husk Infection. This buff reduces the rate that the infection advances from 0.3/s to 0.15/s. This buff does not reduce the chance of being infected by bites or injected calyx extract.

Table

Affliction	Limb Specific	Vitality Scaling	Strength Change	Strength Range	Effects	Treatments	Caused By
Husk Infection ID: `huskinfection` Type: `alieninfection`	No (Shown on Torso)	No	+0.3/s	0 - 50 Dormant stage	Hidden from Health Scanner HUD until 40 strength	Calyxanide (-100 \| -60)* 38 Broad-spectrum Antibiotics (-30 \| -15)* 25 (Only below 75%) Rum (-30)* -	Calyx Extract (+0.01)* - Velonaceps Calyx Eggs (+0.01)* -
				50-75 Active Stage	30% speech impediment. Garbles radio-chat, reduces range of local chat.
				75 - 100 Transformed stage	Waterbreathing Pressure immunity Unable to chat/radio Special infectious attack (Used by pressing the [Creature Attack] key (Default: )) Revival as a husk on death Affliction Hidden until 75 strength
				100 Final Stage	+6.3 Internal Damage per second; continues until death

Trivia

The name of the achievement for curing another player is most likely a reference to SCP-049, from SCP: Containment Breach, who also says "I am the cure". This is also enforced by the fact that the achievement's image is a medieval plague doctor, like how SCP-049 looks.

According to Dr. Happy (columnist for The Europan), husk infection is never cured, only pacified: "with proper treatment (I trust you’ve been taking your Calyxanide as prescribed?), a person with a dormant husk infection can lead a completely normal and fulfilling life, with practically no risk of further contagion. Also, knowing there’s a grotesque, flesh-eating snake-thing dormant in your throat will add an extra dimension of excitement…"

During the active stage of infection, a character does not need Oxygen Tanks when underwater, and will also be immune to the oxygen-sapping effects from wearing a Diving Mask or Diving Suit with a Welding Fuel Tank, and additionally will be immune to the effects of Inflamed Lung. However, they will also be unable to benefit from the positive effects of using Oxygenite Tanks.