Panic
Night terrors
Panic is a moodle that indicates that the character is panicking, usually due to the sight of nearby zombies.
Overview
Being panicked narrows your vision cone, reduces critical chance, and reduces push knockdown chance and knockback.
This moodle can be removed and prevented temporarily by using beta blockers or alcohol, which greatly improve panic reduction speed. Sleep will boost the rate of panic loss, but there is a chance for a sleeping character to abruptly wake up with strong panic and stress due to a nightmare.
Characters accrue panic faster if a zombie is detected behind them. Re-spotting zombies increases panic, even if the character only turns around momentarily. Despite the moodle's description, weapon accuracy is not reduced.
Over time, this moodle will become less common as the character becomes desensitised to the zombies. A character's panic recovery speed increases every day, as time ticks over to midnight, up to a maximum of 150 days survived.
Traits
Characters with the desensitized trait can never gain levels of panic from exposure to zombies, though they may still gain panic from nightmares.
Characters with the agoraphobic and claustrophobic traits will slowly gain panic in open and enclosed spaces respectively. The rate of panic depends on the number of visible tiles, meaning claustrophobic characters will not gain panic if the room is large enough.
Brave reduces zombie-presence panic gain by 70%, whilst Cowardly doubles zombie-presence panic gain.
Fear of Blood characters will gain panic if performing first-aid on themselves.
Adrenaline Junkies will gain a 10% or 25% movement speed bonus when at strong or extreme panic, respectively.
Moodle levels
Slight Panic
"Do your best to remain calm"
- 1.3% decreased critical chance.
Panic
"Accuracy reduced"
- 2.6% decreased critical chance.
- Melee weapon damage reduced by 0.1.
- The player will stand up faster from a sitting position.
Strong Panic
"Accuracy severely reduced"
- 3.9% decreased critical chance. Melee weapon damage reduced by 0.2.
- Guns deal 0.4 less damage. At aiming 6, this damage penalty is removed.
- The player will stand up faster from a sitting position.
Extreme Panic
"Accuracy and vision severely reduced"
- 5.2% decreased critical chance. Melee weapons damage reduced by 0.3.
- Guns deal 0.6 less damage. At aiming 6, this damage penalty is removed.
- The character will stand up faster from a sitting position, and their vision cone will become narrower.
Note Weapon damage is not lowered under 0.1 (before applying endurance / tiredness damage output reduction for melee weapons).