Can anyone help me understand inhaler charges

[yrulikethis]

I know how to find them and craft the inhaler charges and I have several drugs to increase charge, but I keep thinking I'm automatically using them, but I am fairly certain I have everyone I have ever built or bought. Plus, sometimes it takes a full minute in combat for me to be able to use it again, even though I have 127 inhaler charges. Also not sure that the consumables are working either, but those I don't see as many of so they probably are.

 

I'm playing on Xbox one and I'm pressing the down button on the directional pad, what else would I need to do? TIA

[TheJotunn]

You are missing the Toxicity mechanic. You have inhaler charges and that's the total amount of times you can use the inhaler with the ITEMS you have (i.e. all the things you've picked up that give you inhaler charge). Think of this like your food amount. It's the total you can heal.

Then there's toxicity, the green bar that fills up when you use an inhaler. By default, you'll get 1-2 quick uses of the inhaler before the toxicity meter fills. Once it's filled, you can't use the inhaler and have to wait for toxicity to totally drain before you can use it again. Since you didn't mention toxicity, I'm guessing that's what's causing the confusion. I'm guessing you have it set up so that one hit puts you at max toxicity and you can't use the inhaler again for a bit, yeah?

You can raise your toxicity threshold through the Medical feat and you can change the amount of toxicity you're getting per-inhaler-use by changing the Primer(s) on your inhaler (in your inventory, it's one of the tabs).

[yrulikethis]

Thanks! I think I've had trouble using the inhaler even when the toxicity isn't maxed out (though I do think it causes most of them), but, you know, in the chaos of battle I might just be confused about that and it's always the reason.

[TheJotunn]

You might be using food in some cases. Food is how you heal out of combat, inhaler is in-combat (though will be used out of combat if you don't have any food).

They both use the same button (down on the d-pad for you I think?). You can see what will currently be used under your health bar. If you're out of combat and have food, you'll see a little symbol with a fork and knife indicating that it will use food to heal. If you are in combat or out of food, the symbol will be for your inhaler and it will use that.

I'm guessing that's what's happening for you but lmk if you have any more questions.