Surgery
All surgery requires a set of medical tools, typically found in the Operating Theatre, along with an operating table. Should the surgery tools be missing, more can be printed from the techfab in Medbay Storage.
Surgical Tools
Information about every tool used in surgery can be found here.
For every tools there are ghetto analogues. Using them lowers chances of performing a surgical step correctly, wounding your patient. Hover your cursor over the item's picture to see its name. Next to the items are the success rates.
Surgery Success Chances
Surgery success chances follow the following formula: (Surface + Chem) * Tool Success Chance
Surface refers to the surface the surgery is taking place on, whether it be an operating table, a bed or even the floor. The highest value will be used when multiple are taken into account (ex: Surgery done to someone on a tile with both a table and a bed will take the table's 80% over the bed's 70%. This applies even if they aren't buckled to the surface).
Chem refers to any applied chemicals applied via touch, vapor, or patches to the patient during the surgery (IV injecting a chemical or injecting it with a syringe will not count towards this value). This will not stack, and will only choose the highest applied chemical value.
Tool Success Chance is the chance of success intrinsically tied to a given tool. Surgical grade equipment is generally the best, and ghetto analogues are generally discouraged unless very desperate.
Beginning of any Operation
Step 1: Place the patient onto the operating table (or have them just climb onto the table). Do this by selecting grab intent. Then click the patient twice in a row until you have an aggressive grab. Then left click the operating table to place the patient on it. Switch back to help intent or your surgery will fail.
- If there is no operating table, you can use: stasis bed (100%), any table (80%), any bed (70%), ask them to lie on the floor (50%). Operating tables give a 100% surface value.
Step 2: Exposed the patient's appropriate body part. This could vary from simply having the patient take off their headwear, to having them fully strip (This can be performed at any point in the surgery prior to Step 7, but it's faster that they strip rather than have you slowly strip them).
Step 2: Sedate the patient using a tank of anesthetic and and any breath mask or inject them with Morphine. Keeping your patient awake for most surgeries will result in a 50% (100% if the step is failed) chance to cause a minor screw-up, causing damage and a chance for bleeding depending on how intensive the surgery step is. Pain killers such as (and currently only) Miner's Salve and the alcoholic drink Painkiller reduce the chance by half, and being unconscious for any reason reduces it by a fifth. Getting your patient drunk will also offset the slip-up chance depending on how drunk they are. If the patient has a disease containing the symptom Analgesia or the brain trauma Tenacity, they will count as being fully anesthetized.
Step 3: Switch to help intent. Pro tip: Disarm intent will fail every surgery step.
Step 4: Aim at the appropriate body part (important!).
Step 5 (optional): Place drapes or bedsheet over the part of body you are operating. To begin any surgery, you can use the first tool of the operation instead. For example, use the scalpel to begin organ manipulation.
Step 6 (optional): (Optional) Splash on, spray or apply a patch with Miner's Salve (+10%), Sterilizine (+20%), alcoholic drinks (up to +46%), or Honey (+60%) to improve your success chance. This must be done after the surgery has been chosen or during the surgery itself in order for the bonus to be considered.
- The stronger the alcohol, the more effective! The formula is: 0.1*(booze power/65). For example: Ethanol gives +10% success chance, Manly Dorf +15%, Bacchus' Blessing +46%.
Step 7: Do the surgery (see the steps below!). Afterwards congratulate the patient and kick them out.
- Note that increases from the surface used and chemicals applied are multiplicatively applied to a tool's success chance, so adding sterilizer for a 20% success bonus while operating on an operating table or stasis bed will increase a tool's success chance from for example 80% to 96% rather than 80% to 100%.
- Success boosts from chemicals additionally will not stack with other chemicals, only the highest increase is applied.
To abort a surgery, use the cautery in hand.
Procedures requiring no research or computer
Organ Manipulation
This surgery covers operations to remove/insert organs (brain, heart, appendix), lizard/cat tails, cyber implants and alien embryos.
The body part to target depends on which procedure you want to do.
See below for details about each procedure.
Ordinary organs that require Organ Manipulation
These organs are present in every normal human, and can be removed or transferred through the Organ Manipulation surgery type.
Brain
The source of consciousness, and where the player actually resides. Removing the brain from a body will make it unclonable through normal means. The brain can also be inserted into an MMI to allow it to speak, and to prepare it to be inserted into a Cyborg or an AI. Or it can be transferred into another body, which can then be cloned or defibrillated with the new host.
Changelings' brains are vestigial, and they can survive without them. Beheading a changeling will not prevent one from reviving.
Note: Brains can also be removed by beheading the target and using a sharp object on the head to extract the brain.
Note: There's also a non-surgery method to put a brain back in:
Step 1: Place the patient onto the operating table.
Step 2: Cram their brain back into their skull.
Step 3: Usually, you take the body to be cloned (this can be done without step 2).
Heart
Required for basic survival, removing it will cause a heart attack, dealing huge amounts of oxygen damage until a new, beating, heart is inserted, or death. This can be delayed with epinephrine, if you need more time.
On their own, hearts only beat for a short time when removed from a living body. To get a heart beating again, click on it while it's in your hand.
Heart attacks can also be induced by initropidril, and a heart attack may continue if you insert a still heart in a patient. In either case, to restore the heart to normal functionality, the patient needs to either be defibrillated or receive an electric shock. Target: Chest
Name | Icon | Description |
---|---|---|
Cursed Heart | Provides a powerful regeneration effect to the host, but comes at the price of needing to be pumped manually, or else they begin to suffocate. | |
Heart of Freedom | When the user falls to critically low health, will heal a small amount of brute and burn injuries across the body, and also add ephedrine to the user. This effect has a random cooldown between 4.5 and 10 minutes. Often found after a Meat-eor storm event. | |
Maintenance Heart | Half as durable as a regular heart, and half as effective in generating blood. A terrible replacement option, but will keep someone alive in an emergency. | |
Cybernetic Heart | Functionally identical to a standard organic heart. Suseptible to EMP | |
Upgraded Cybernetic Heart | When the owner falls unconscious, will inject 10u of epinephrine. This effect has a 5 minute cooldown. Suseptible to EMP, but capable of restarting itself after. | |
Nanite Heart | Functionally identical to a standard heart, but with the added benefit of increasing nanite generation in the host. However, if the host's nanites are depleted, the heart will collapse entirely, resulting in a rapid death. Suseptible to EMP by way of harming nanites in the host. |
Eyes
They're required for sight; removing them will, obviously, turn the patient blind. Some races' eyes can see in the dark.
Ears
They're required for hearing
Lungs
Required for breathing. Removing the lungs will cause the patient to suffocate, regardless of air or internals. Some species have mutant lungs that don't need air: transplanting them onto an breathing race will transfer this property.
Liver
Processes reagents in the body. Without this, you can't process any reagents, and even worse, you can't get drunk. Taking toxin damage or binge drinking will damage this organ.
Stomach
In charge of telling you when you're starving or stuffed. Handles the processing of nutriment to make a spessman full and happy.
Tongue
Affects speech. Lacking a tongue will make speech very hard to comprehend, while mutant tongues such as lizards' or flypeoples' will give the patient the race's speech quirks. Abductors' tongues carry over their telepathy, but they prevent normal speech.
Appendix
Removing it cures appendicitis and prevents it in the future, too.
Other organs that require Organ Manipulation
There are also non-natural organs which can be added to give bonuses or to harm the patient in a few cases.
Cybernetic Implants
These offer benefits to the patient at the cost of being very vulnerable to EMPs, with malfunctions ranging from eye-flashing to heart attacks. Cybernetic implants always require the Organ Manipulation type surgery, even for arms. Cybernetic implants can be printed by Robotics or the medbay techfab after research. Target: Chest/Head/Eyes/Arms
Cybernetic Organs
Cybernetic organs replace organs entirely. You need to remove the corresponding organ first to make room for the cybernetic organ. They are vulnerable to EMPs. Cybernetic organs can be printed by Robotics or the medbay techfab after research.
Xenomorph Embryo
An alien larva growing inside the patient. If not removed quickly enough, it will gib the patient and try to escape, growing into a dangerous Xenomorph.
Plasma Vessel
Implanting this allows for your plasma count to be raised. It allows you to plant alien weeds and heal from standing on them, and transfer plasma to others.
Neurotoxin Gland
Implanting this allows for you to spit neurotoxin.
Acid Gland
Implanting this allows for you to spit corrosive acid at an object, which will remove it slowly over-time.
Hive Node
Implanting this allows for you to speak with others who also have this (using .a). It will also stop NPC xenos from attacking you.
Resin Spinner
Implanting this allows for you to secrete resin to create walls and nests.
Egg Sac
Implanting this allows for you to lay xeno eggs.
Legion Soul
Implanting this will give you a one-time full-heal; if you do not use it manually it will auto-use when you enter crit.
Romerol Tumor
A latent infection in the patient's head, caused by Romerol. If the patient dies while affected by Romerol, he will eventually rise as an aggressive Zombie. This will repeat as long as the infection lasts; removing it surgically, cutting the head off, or gibbing the corpse will prevent resurrection.
Romerol is infectious, and anyone hit by a zombie while unprotected will also acquire a Romerol Tumor.
Prosthesis Organ Manipulation
Augmented limbs have special surgery steps for Organ Manipulation that are completed with mechanical tools. Unlike all other procedures, this can be performed on yourself with self-surgery.
Target: Head, chest, groin, arms
Alien Organ Manipulation
Used to remove or add organs from Xenos.
Amputation
Sever a limb from the torso. Tails are handled under Organ Manipulation (groin).
Prosthetic Replacement
Replace a severed limb with either a normal or a robotic limb.
Augmentation
Replace a limb with a robot part. The head, torso, arms, and legs can all be augmented. Augmenting torso makes you immune to appendicitis and xeno larva.
Robot limbs are tougher. They need welding to "heal" brute damage and wires for burn damage, and cannot be otherwise healed. EMP pulses will hurt augmented humans.
You cannot augment a preternis, IPC, or golem.
We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
Target: Head, chest, legs or arms
Cavity Implant
Implant/Remove an object in the chest. Items up to normal size can be implanted, but tiny and small items won't show what they are in the implanting messages. Implanting a flashlight allows the patient to toggle it on or off. Implanting grenades is also often done.
Prosthesis Cavity Implant
A self-surgery version of the Cavity Implant.
Implant Removal
Extracts mindshield, tracking, chemical, traitor, explosive implants and such. If you don't have an empty implant case in your other hand, the implant will be ruined on extraction!
Prosthesis Implant Removal
A self-surgery version of the implant removal.
Dental Implant
This allows you to insert pills/patches into a tooth cavity, allowing you to pop it any time to ingest it. This works for both stimulants and suicide pills.
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Surgical Drill: Drill a hole in a tooth | (60%) (60%) (20%) |
Step 2: Pill/Patch: Insert a pill/patch |
Brain Surgery
This procedure cures all severe and basic traumas and reduces brain damage by a large amount. Failing step 5, however, causes hefty brain damage.
Eye Surgery
This fixes all damage done to eyes (fixing blindness), except genetic. Failing step 4 will cause 70 brain damage to the patient.
Removal of Embedded Objects
Extracts objects stuck in the body such as throwing stars or spears.
Target: Head, chest, legs, or arms
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Scalpel: Make an incision | (75%) (65%) (45%) Any other sharp item (30%) |
Step 2: Remove: Hands: Remove object. |
Plastic Surgery
If the patient's face is damaged and unrecognizable it restores it, otherwise it change the face and identity of the patient.
Lipoplasty
Removes excess fat from the patient. Can only be selected if the patient is fat.
Slime Core Removal
Remove core from slime. Step 2 must be repeated for every core if slime has several. Mostly obsolete with existence of slime grinder, but still possible.
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Scalpel: Make an incision | (75%) (65%) (45%) Any other sharp item (30%) |
Step 2: Hemostat: extract core. | (100%) |
Tend Wounds (Bruises/Burn/Mixture)
Tend Wounds is a repeatable surgery that will heal the entire body of damage with Bruises healing brute, Burn healing burn, and Mixture healing both. Advanced and Expert versions can be researched to heal more damage. Can be performed while the target is clothed, but doing so will lessen the effect. Step 2 must be repeated until a desired amount of damage is healed.
Patch Wounds/Treat Burns
Patch Wounds will heal a body part of brute damage. Treat Burns will heal a body part of burn damage. Useful for allowing a body to be defibrillated.
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Scalpel: Make an incision | (75%) (65%) (45%) Any other sharp item (30%) |
Step 2: Hemostat: Patch Wounds/Treat Burns | (60%) (35%) (15%) |
Step 3: Scalpel: Make an incision | (75%) (65%) (45%) Any other sharp item (30%) |
Step 4: Gauze: Apply some dressing | File:Bandage.png (65%) File:Improv bandage.png (35%) |
Step 5: Cautery: Seal the wound | (90%) (70%) Any other hot item (30%) |
Coronary Bypass
This surgery is required when the heart has suffered over 60 damage. It will restore it to a functional state (able to be defibrillated and sustain life), and it can only be performed once on an individual heart.
Lobectomy
This surgery is required when the lungs have suffered over 60 damage. It will restore them to a function state, and it can only be performed once per individual set of lungs.
Hepatectomy
This surgery is required when the liver has suffered over 60 damage. It will restore it to a function state, and it can only be performed once per individual liver. Make sure to purge the chemicals before they kill it post-repair!
Gender Reassignment
This surgery reassigns a person's gender that of the opposite sex (Female to Male, Male to Female). Failure may result in gender ambiguity. Target: Groin
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Scalpel: Reshape genitals | (75%) (65%) (45%) Any other sharp item (30%) |
At this point, the patient's gender can be changed from male to female.
Repair Hairline Fracture
Repair Hairline Fracture will only appear in the list of surgeries if the targeted bodypart has a moderate bludgeoning wound. Will immediately fix the hairline fracture upon completion.
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Scalpel: Make an incision | (75%) (65%) (45%) Any other sharp item (30%) |
Step 2: Bonesetter: Repair hairline fracture | (100%) (30%) |
Repair Compound Fracture
Repair Compound Fracture will only appear in the list of surgeries if the targeted bodypart has a severe bludgeoning wound. Will immediately fix the compound fracture upon completion.
Repair Puncture
Repair Puncture will only appear in the list of surgeries if the targeted bodypart has a moderate or severe piercing wound. Will cauterize the body part and stem bleeding much more effectively than simply applying bandages or a cautery without surgery.
You should repeat steps 2 and 3 until the puncture is fully healed.
Debride Infected Flesh
Debride Infected Flesh will only appear in the list of surgeries if the targeted bodypart has a moderate or severe burn wound. Will clear all infection in the burn wound and regress some of the damage that has been done to the flesh. Efficient way to clear infection before moving to heal the flesh.
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Scalpel: Excise infection | (60%) (40%) |
Step 2: Gauze: Bandage burns |
Autopsy Surgery
This surgery tells you what last damaged the patient. Can only be performed on dead patients.
Procedure | Ghetto Analogues |
Step 1: Scalpel: Make an incision | (75%) (65%) (45%) Any other sharp item (30%) |
Step 2: Scalpel (75%): Inspect the damage closely. | (30%) (15%) |
Not holding a forensic scanner in your off-hand during the second step reduces your chances of success of that step by 75% multiplicatively. (Overall 18.75% chance of success if using a scalpel and no surgical modifiers)
Upon completion the body is severely mutilated.
Advanced Surgery
These surgeries require the Advanced Surgery research node. After it is researched you must sync an operating computer (click "View Surgery Procedures" and then "Sync with research database") to unlock the procedures. Advanced surgeries can only be performed on an operating table with a connected operating computer.
Lobotomy
Used to cure deep-rooted brain traumas. This can cause a random, permanent trauma, or if lucky, a random special trauma which gives you rare powers. Requires the "Advanced Surgery" technology.
Target: Head
Experimental Dissection
A surgical procedure which deeply analyzes the biology of a corpse, and automatically adds new findings to the research database. This generates research points for science. Surgery on human corpses give 2000 research points if successful, or 400 points if failed. Other races such as golems, podpeople, abductors, and xenos give more points. Does not work on living patients, and cannot be performed by cyborgs. Requires the "Advanced Surgery" technology.
Experimental Surgery
These surgeries require the Experimental Surgery research node. After it is researched you must sync an operating computer (click "View Surgery Procedures" and then "Sync with research database") to unlock the procedures. Experimental surgeries can only be performed on an operating table with a connected operating computer.
DNA recovery
A surgical procedure which involves using rezadone, amanitin, or entropic polypnium to salvage a single strand of DNA from the patient, allowing them to be cloned.
Alien DNA recovery
An experimental surgical procedure which involves the use of rezadone to fix severe burning on certain alien lifeforms.
Revival
The target is resurrected by this surgery. Unlike normal defibrillation, it works on any non-husked corpse, regardless of how much damage the body has sustained or how long the target has been dead.
If the body has sustained too much damage, it'll die immediately after the revival. You can circumvent this by applying synthflesh or performing Reconstruction beforehand. Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Pacification
The target becomes essentially becomes permanently pax-ed, and can no longer perform direct violent actions.
Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Vein Threading
The circulatory system is woven into a mesh, severely reducing the amount of blood lost from wounds. Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Vein Muscle Membrane
A surgical procedure which adds a muscled membrane to blood vessels, allowing them to pump blood without a heart. Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Nerve Splicing
Nerves are connected to each other multiple times, halving most stun times. Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Nerve Grounding
Nerves form a safe path for electricity to traverse, making the user nigh immune to all electric shocks. Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Ligament Hook
Reshapes the connections between torso and limbs, making it so limbs can manually be attached if severed. However this weakens the connection, making limbs easier to detach as well. Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Ligament Reinforcement
Adds a protective tissue and bone cage around the connections between the torso and limbs, preventing dismemberment. However, the nerve connections as a result are more easily interrupted, making it easier to disable limbs with damage. Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Viral Bonding
The target is forced into a symbiotic relationship with a virus. It makes the virus stay at stage 1 where it's usually harmless, but still infective to others .
Note: The target must already be infected before you can initiate this surgery with the drapes. The target must be dosed with at least 5 units of Virus Food, Formaldehyde, and Spaceacillin for the "Viral Bond" step to work. This surgery will not hide the virus icon from medical huds.
Requires the "Experimental Surgery" technology.
Alien Surgery
These surgeries require the Alien Surgery research node, which requires the Alien Technology node, which can only be revealed from deconstructing certain abductor items. After it is researched you must sync an operating computer (click "View Surgery Procedures" and then "Sync with research database") to unlock the procedures. Alien surgeries can only be performed on an operating table with a connected operating computer.
Necrotic Revival
Revives a corpse into an infectious zombie which will probably munch your face off. Useful for forcing a shuttle call. Note: The target must be dosed with at least 5 units of Zombie Powder or Rezadone for the "Bionecrosize" step to work. Requires the "Alien Surgery" technology.
Syndicate Surgery
These surgeries require the Syndicate Surgery research node. After it is researched you must sync an operating computer (click "View Surgery Procedures" and then "Sync with research database") to unlock the procedures. Syndicate surgeries can only be performed on an operating table with a connected operating computer.
Brainwashing
The target of this surgery, when successful, is bound to a primary goal you assign to him/her. He/she must follow these objectives, regardless of allegiance. This can be cured through brain surgery or with a mindshield implant. Requires either the brainwashing disk, acquired through the Syndicate Uplink, or researching the "Syndicate Surgery" technology.