Sanity

Sanity is a regenerating pool of points possessed by all non-ALTER characters which represents their current mental condition in the face of the myriad adversities they will face in the paranomalous underworld of Cascade City.

Sanity is displayed as a percentage on the purple bar beneath your character's green health bar and above their yellow energy bar. Additionally, a text descriptor will appear beside the current percentage describing the character's current state (e.g: “Sane”, “Anxious”, “Very Stressed”).

Sanity is depleted when performing stressful acts such as using the kill command on a fallen human or when witnessing paranormal horrors such as an ALTER or a Shadow. At low sanity levels, characters are more vulnerable to being ambushed by ALTERs and may receive hallucinations of what other characters are saying and doing.

Sanity can be regained via consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs; roleplaying with others; interacting with certain furniture items; and sleeping in a bed.

The installation of non-prosthetic tier cyberware will reduce a character's maximum sanity level due to the cognitive load the usage of such appendages places upon the user's mind. The sanity loss is dependent upon the tier of cyberware and the amount installed. Removing the cyberware in question will return the lost sanity value.

Maximum sanity can be increased via a number of nodes on the Crime Analysis skill tree, and via the Built Different background trait.

Owing to the unstable and spontaneously formed nature of their sentience, replicants possess a lower starting max sanity than other races. Keepers possess a dramatically lower max sanity due to their hypersensitivity to the paranomalous which clouds their perception of reality.

For ALTERs, the sanity gauge instead represents their current hunger satiation, requiring them to consume a fallen human to replenish it should it fall low.