Characteristics
Overview
A geiger counter used by scientists
Pull it out at the edge of a radiation zone when you want to know how hot the next room is before you walk in. Held in your hand, it clicks faster as the dose climbs, which is a friendlier warning than watching your health bar. You cannot craft or research it, so every counter comes from loot or a trade, and a spare one goes into the recycler for metal fragments.
Do not mistake it for protection, though. It measures, nothing more. The screen already tells you when you are taking radiation, so many players never bother to carry one. What keeps you alive in a hot monument is a hazmat suit or other clothing with radiation protection.
Watch out
Anti-radiation pills lower your radiation, but their own text warns about extreme dehydration. Swallow them with no water in your inventory and you only trade one slow death for another.
A typical moment: you reach a monument without a suit, counter in hand. If it goes wild in the first corridor, turn back for a hazmat instead of gambling on the pills.
Recycling
At power grid stage 2 a green recycler works at 60% instead of 50%. Yields depend on the recycler.
