Injuries, Conditions & Health
There is no hearts bar in Alone — the body is a set of separate systems shown through the corner meters, the temperature square, and a paper-doll injury figure, and damage becomes real wounds you have to treat before you can heal.
No hearts — separate systems and the paper doll
The vanilla hearts are hidden. There is no single vitality or health bar in their place — instead the body is tracked as separate systems, and you die from one of them failing (bleeding out, freezing, dehydration, starvation, trauma), not from an abstract HP pool. Your condition is read through:
- The corner meters — stamina, endurance, and thirst — and the temperature square (see Survival Meters & HUD and Body Temperature).
- A paper-doll injury figure — a small body that colors where you're hurt: red torso when bleeding, orange legs when sprained, brown hands when dirty, purple arms when infected, a bilious-yellow torso when you have dysentery, a gaunt sallow head with scurvy, green body when sick.
Because health no longer snaps back, damage persists as wounds that must be treated rather than out-healed.
Conditions and how to treat them
When you take damage, it can leave a lasting condition rather than just a number drop. Each has a cause and a specific treatment.
| Condition | Cause | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Bleeding | Cuts, claws, arrows | Sneak + right-click with cloth (string, wool, or paper) to bandage |
| Sprain / fracture | Falls, heavy blows (≥8 damage) | Craft a splint (2 sticks + string), then sneak + right-click to bind it |
| Infection | Zombie-type bites can fester | Dress with cloth (sneak + right-click) to stop bleeding and clean it down |
| Sickness (foodborne illness) | Untreated/dirty water, raw or spoiled food, or eating with dirty hands | Drink an herbal remedy (2 flowers + plant fiber) |
| Dysentery | Drinking foul water raw — worst from warm stagnant swamp/jungle or murky water | Keep drinking clean water to out-pace the dehydration; an herbal remedy shortens it |
Bleeding
Cuts, claws, and arrows can open a bleed that steadily drains your health (about 1 HP every couple of seconds) until it clots on its own or you bandage it. Bandaging is done by holding cloth — string 
, wool 
, or paper 
— and sneaking + right-clicking.
An open wound also reeks of blood: while you're bleeding, predators are drawn to you — a wolf or polar bear in the area smells it from about 8 blocks off (and it stacks with any raw meat you carry — see Food Preservation). So in predator country, bind a wound fast for more than just the health — bleeding is what brings them.
Sprains and fractures
A bad fall gives you a sprain — you limp, slowed, until it mends, which takes about a week (in-game). A heavy blow (8+ damage) can break a bone — a far graver injury that takes roughly three weeks to heal. These are real durations, so you don't sit and wait them out in real time: you rest to pass the days — lie down, day or night, to fast-forward the clock. A splint 
(2 sticks + string; sneak + right-click while injured) cuts the remaining time to about a quarter, so a break is a genuine convalescence you splint, then rest and eat your way through.
A serious fall can also kill outright. Falls under about 3.5 blocks are harmless; above roughly 8 blocks the fall rolls for death — about a coin-flip at 15 blocks and near-certain past about 22 blocks (deep water, hay, or honey soften it). Survive the fall and you're left with the injuries — but a sprain is a chance that climbs with the height, not a certainty: a fit person walks off a ~4-block drop most of the time (only ~1 in 10 turns an ankle), while by ~8 blocks a sprain is near-certain, with a fracture and internal bleeding on the harder landings.
Infection
Infection comes two ways: a zombie-type bite (about a 30% chance to fester), or an open wound handled with dirty hands — if you're bleeding while your hands are dirty (from butchering), the wound can turn septic (about 20% per 10 seconds) unless you clean up or bind it. It starts as a fever (weakness and nausea), and if it deepens it turns septic and drains your health — an untreated deep infection can kill you. Your paper-doll arms turn purple when infected. Dress the wound with cloth (sneak + right-click) to stop the bleeding and clean the infection back down, and wash your hands (drink from water) before touching a wound; a very deep infection may also need an herbal remedy to ease it.
Sickness (foodborne illness)
Several things can make you sick — a lingering illness that keeps you weak and hungry and persists even through a relog: drinking untreated or tainted water, eating raw or spoiled food, eating with dirty hands, or a chill from prolonged cold-and-wet exposure (see Body Temperature). See Food & Eating for the per-food sickness odds and Water, Thirst & Vessels for water quality. Drink an herbal remedy 
(crafted from 2 flowers + plant fiber) to knock time off the sickness, ease an infection, and clear acute nausea and poison.
Dysentery
Foul water can give you something far worse than a stomach upset: dysentery, an acute dehydration emergency. It's the likely outcome of drinking warm, stagnant swamp or jungle water raw (and of murky/tainted water from a vessel) — see Water, Thirst & Vessels. While you have it (about 4 minutes), your thirst drains fast (on top of weakness and nausea), so you must keep drinking clean water to out-pace it — run dry and the dehydration will kill you. The real cure is rehydration; an herbal remedy shortens the illness, and it passes on its own in time. The lesson is the old one: don't drink stagnant water raw — boil it first (a pot, or hot-rock boiling for a hide skin).
Armor protects your body, not just your health
Armor now has a role in the injury system: it reduces the chance and severity of bleeding and fractures. Bleeding is a damage-scaled chance — a harder hit is likelier to open a wound — and a full set of armor cuts that chance to roughly a fifth. Fractures from heavy blows are reduced the same way. Wearing armor means fewer wounds to treat, not just more hits absorbed.
Healing is slow
Vanilla's fast food-powered regeneration is gone. You mend only about 1 HP every 10 seconds, and only when all of these are true:
- You're well-fed (hunger at least 14)
- You're hydrated (thirst at least 30)
- You're not bleeding, infected, or sick
You cannot heal while wounded: any active bleeding, infection, or sickness blocks regeneration until it is cleared.
Death is a setback, not a reset
Dying doesn't wipe your progress — it costs you time. After you die and respawn, you wake "carried home, days later" in rough shape:
- Health at about 40%
- Hunger down to 6
- Thirst down to 25
- Stamina at 20
- High fatigue
- A lingering sprain to limp off
Recovering from all of that — eating, drinking, resting, and healing back up — is the real death penalty. Death is something to claw back from, not a clean respawn.