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Condition

Rashes

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Patient with skin rashes — Ointment treats them, and also handles burn wounds. Skin Remedies category per Fandom.

Overview

Rashes is the standard patient-side use of the Ointment item. Per Fandom's Treatment Item Table, Rashes is categorised under Skin Remedies alongside Bleeding — both share the skin-application treatment theme (Ointment vs Bandages).

The Ointment item has a documented secondary use: per Fandom and /wiki/items/ointment, Ointment is the manual fallback for the Patient on Fire emergency event when no Fire Extinguisher is available. The chain is stop-patient → apply Ointment, which consumes most of the 60-second event window. Useful to know if you're planning inventory loadout — a single Ointment can handle both routine Rashes patients AND emergency fire fallback.

Video Guide

Diagnosis demo video coming soon.

Visual Symptoms & Cues

  • Visible red rash patches on patient skin
  • Patient may scratch at affected areas (scratching animation)
  • Dialogue references skin irritation or itching
  • Distinct from Bleeding (which has active fluid texture) and Bruises (which has purple/blue discolouration)

Easy vs Tricky Diagnoses

Pros

  • ✓ Red rash patches are distinctive — easy to spot
  • ✓ Scratching animation confirms the diagnosis quickly
  • ✓ No fluid present (discriminates from Bleeding)

Cons

  • ✗ Easy to confuse with Bleeding if you only see red marks — check for fluid presence
  • ✗ Easy to confuse with Bruises if rash colour is darker — check for raised/textured marks vs flat discolouration
  • ✗ Wrong items fail without progressing the cure

At a Glance

At a Glance

Cure
Ointment
Difficulty
easy
First appears
Shift 1

How to Diagnose and Treat

Diagnose first via the visual cue — red rash patches on skin, possibly with scratching animation. Compare against the trauma-treatment triangle:

- Bleeding (active fluid) → Bandages

- Bruises (purple/blue discolouration, no raised marks) → Medkit

- Rashes (red raised marks, possible blistering) → Ointment

Once confirmed, pull Ointment from the standard treatment cabinet (free, available from shift start) and apply to the affected area. The condition resolves on application.

Do not substitute. Per Fandom, wrong-treatment kills the patient and costs 1 of 3 lives. The trauma-treatment triangle has the highest misdiagnosis risk in the game because all three conditions (Bleeding/Bruises/Rashes) present in the 'skin' category — diagnostic discipline is non-optional.

Dual-use note per /wiki/items/ointment: Ointment is also the manual fallback for Patient on Fire emergency events when no Fire Extinguisher is available. The workflow for emergency use: stop the patient (prevent running), then apply Ointment. Consumes most of the 60-second event window. Useful inventory-management insight — a single Ointment can serve both Rashes treatment AND fire fallback if needed.

AH JSON note: existing wrongConsequences says 'no fatal-misuse risk for rashes specifically' — this predates Fandom's wider documentation that wrong-treatment on any patient costs a life. Treat wrong-treatment as life-costing across all conditions to be safe.

Patch History

No documented balance changes to the Rashes condition or to the Ointment treatment item. Stable across all updates documented through 2026-06-28. The dual-use as Patient on Fire manual fallback has been consistent in documentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What treats Rashes?
Ointment — Skin Remedies category per Fandom. See /wiki/items/ointment for the item-side details including the Patient on Fire fallback use.
How do I tell Rashes from Bleeding?
Rashes shows red raised marks without fluid. Bleeding shows active blood fluid texture. The fluid presence is the discriminator.
How do I tell Rashes from Bruises?
Rashes shows red raised marks (possibly with blistering or scratching). Bruises shows purple/blue flat discolouration without raised texture. Colour + raised vs flat distinguishes them.
Can Ointment do anything besides Rashes?
Yes — manual fallback for Patient on Fire emergency when no Fire Extinguisher is available. Stop the patient first, then apply Ointment. Much slower than Fire Extinguisher but works in a pinch.
What happens if I use Bandages on a Rashes patient?
Wrong-treatment penalty per Fandom — patient dies, costs 1 of 3 lives. Bandages are bleeding-specific.
When do Rashes patients first appear?
Shift 1 onwards. Rashes is in the default condition pool from the opening shift.
What category does Fandom put Rashes in?
Skin Remedies category, alongside Bleeding (treated by Bandages). The category groups conditions by treatment-mechanism (skin-application items).

A treatment that doubles for fire emergencies

Rashes is the standard use for Ointment. What makes the item — and by extension this condition — worth tracking is the dual application: the same Ointment is the manual fallback for the Patient on Fire event when no Fire Extinguisher is available.

That means a single Ointment in inventory covers both:

  • Rashes patients (standard treatment).
  • Burning patients (event response, when extinguisher is unavailable).

For carry decisions, this puts Ointment in the "worth keeping a slot for" category rather than the situational-fetch category.

Symptoms

Visible red rash patches on patient skin; patient may scratch at affected areas. Apply Ointment to the affected area. Wrong-item applications fail without progressing the cure, no fatal misuse risk.

Sources: Sportskeeda items guide, Techwiser events guide.