Fallout – Combating Fallout 4 radiation illness in survival

fallout-4

Before I start, let me make it clear that I'm not talking about radiation sickness, but rather about contracting illnesses from being irradiated in survival mode.

  • To be succinct, is it normal to contract illnesses from standing in
    radiation (and not a cause of one of my mods)?
  • If so, can this be negated with the Ghoulish perk or a hazmat suit/rad-x?
  • If there's no way to negate it, can anyone point me to a mod that does? Its' pretty immersion-breaking to get random illnesses (namely parasites, infections, and weakness) from a few seconds of gamma radiation, especially if even being "ghoulish" doesn't solve the problem.

Best Answer

  • It is unclear whether standing in irradiated water in vanilla Fallout 4 survival mode causes illnesses in particular:

    The FO4 Wikia only notes that

    swimming in irradiated water*

    increases the risk of contracting an illness.
    In addition, a Steam thread comment describes how

    "Exposure" can cause illness too, this includes any and all radiation sources, as well as rain.

    This claim is repeated here (by the same user).
    Therefor, I assume that the contraction of diseases by standing in water is likely (but not certainly) implemented by one of your mods.

  • Even so, wearing a hazmat suit, or consuming Rad-X, should be able to influence it, since both reduce your rads or rad absorption, making you less prone to contamination. Whether they can negate the direct effects on standing in water, depends on the radiation levels of the water and the duration. The Ghoulish perk won't decrease the amount of radiation you absorb altogether, but will return a percentage of it as health.

    I suggest you look here for additional information on gaining radiation resistance, and here for an overview of its (percentual) mechanism.

    Note as well, that Fallout 4 most likely has a Rad Resistance cap, like (some of) its predecessors:

    In Fallout, Radiation Resistance can go as high as 100%, which is needed to survive The Glow. In Fallout 2, it is capped at 95%; in Fallout: New Vegas, however, it is capped at 85%.

  • As for your third sub-question, as complete immunity to radiation may not be attainable, there are enough ways to make you stop worrying about its effects. Lead plated Power Armor, the Mysterious Serum, Hazmat suits, the Robes of Atom's Devoted all significantly increase your resistance.

* https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Condition#Illness
https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/2906376154334607210/#c2906376154334744788
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Radiation_Resistance#Notes