In Silent Hill ƒ, the underlying principles of survival consist of three interrelated systems: Health, Stamina, and Sanity. Restoration of Health and Sanity should be done correctly for not only for in the moment life support but also for support of viability in fighting status. This article will demonstrate how these restoration systems work and the tools at your disposal in this fog.
Core Systems
Health & Stamina
Image via: Konami, PlayStation blog
Every time you take a hit from an enemy, your health drops. You burn stamina when dodging, sprinting, and when doing some attacks. When you have little stamina, dodging and repositioning are extremely limited. Stamina will regenerate over time, and by dodging perfectly, you will recover all of your stamina.
Sanity
Image via: Konami, PlayStation Blog
Your sanity decreases when you are in your focus mode, when you perform a focus attack, or when you take any sort of damage while in focus mode. If you reach 0 sanity, you can begin receiving negative effects of that state to your health. Sanity has a max state and that max state can be decreased when using certain abilities incorrectly, or by taking damage from certain enemies. Part of the survivability of the game is restoring sanity for survival.
Methods to Heal and Restore Sanity
Hokora Shrines (“Clear Mind” Option)
Visiting a Hokora lets you clear your mind and recover Sanity. On Story difficulty, the shrines also restore Health together with Sanity without consuming Faith.
Image via: Konami
Consumable Items for Sanity / Health
These are the most important consumable items, with their effects and indicated usage:
- Divine Water: Fully restores current maximum sanity and suppresses sanity damage for a while. Can be offered.
- Ramune: Extremely restores current maximum sanity. Also offerable.
- Kudzu Tea: Gradually restores health and current maximum sanity over time. Also offerable.
- Chocolate: A small amount of sanity restored, and also temporarily halts sanity drain while using Focus. Offerable.
- Red Capsule: A moderate amount of restoration. Restores some health and gives a slight bump to maximum sanity. Would not recommend offering.
- Bandage: Consistent mid-fight health restore.
- First Aid Kit: Restores health to a maximum amount; hold on to this for emergencies.
Upgrades, Faith, and Omamori
Image via: Konami
Faith that you gain by offering gifts to the Hokora shrines. Various consumables are also utilized as offerings.
With Faith, permanent attributes like stamina, sanity, and maximum health can be leveled up, and more Omamori slots can be unlocked.
Passive bonuses are granted by omamori charms, including improving the healing item effect, reducing sanity drain, or improving stamina efficiency.
Conclusion
The game design of Silent Hill ƒ urges you to manage your mental and physical resources all at the same time. The healing and sanity systems are well incorporated into the gameplay: not only with items but with shrine interactions, upgrade system and offering mechanism. Players who can understand offerings, resource management and when to restore sanity will find success in Ebisugaoka’s horrors. It’s not necessarily easy to do, but, in most cases, the balance you achieve between managing your resources in order to conserve versus using them is ultimately what decides whether you live or die in the fog.
