Nerve

The fine art of not losing your shit.

Nerve is a Basic Need that represents how calm and collected you are. Losing Nerve will result in negative status effects. Unlike other Basic Needs, running out of Nerve is fatal by default (configurable).

Having low Nerve can also prevent you from eating, drinking, and sleeping. It doesn't matter if you're surrounded by vending machines if you're too nauseous from anxiety to eat or drink any of it.

Top (Pink): Nerve Bar

Losing Your Nerve

Nerve depletes slowly over time when other Basic Needs are not met.

Nerve depletes rapidly when exposed to stressful situations:

• Being in combat

• Being traced from Quickhacks while undetected

The penalties for low Nerve are:

Status Name	Nerve Value	Effect
On Edge	85	Increased Stamina recovery time.
Anxious	75	Increased Stamina recovery time. Reduced weapon handling and accuracy.
Distressed	50	Unable to eat or drink. Greatly increased Stamina recovery time. Greatly reduced weapon handling and accuracy. Energy recovery when sleeping limited to 50.
Desperate	25	Unable to eat or drink. Cannot recover Energy when sleeping. Significantly increased Stamina recovery time. Significantly reduced weapon handling and accuracy.
Heart Attack	0	You are dead. (Can be disabled in Mod Settings)

Restoring Nerve

Nerve is restored by engaging in relaxing activities in your apartments and hideouts. This includes:

• Taking a shower

• Dancing

• Romantic encounters and interactions

• Sleeping

  • Restores very slowly; not recommended as a primary way of restoring Nerve.

  • When Distressed or Desperate, you cannot sleep, and Nerve does not recover.

Rarely, certain interactions are available in the open world and during quests that can restore Nerve, such as dancing at a nightclub. You can discover these for yourself, or click below to see the full list.

Nerve Restoration Activities

Nerve can be restored by:

• Romantic encounters (Joytoys, Meridith Stout, etc)

• Romantic hangout interactions ("Hug", "Kiss", "Cuddle")

• Riding the rollercoaster in Pacifica

• Experiencing the Zen Master sessions

• Experiencing the Lizzy Wizzy concert braindance in V's apartment

• Burning incense in the Japantown apartment

• Playing the guitar in the Japantown apartment

• Hitting the pool ball in The Glen apartment

• Choosing to take a hit of Black Lace from Dum Dum

Nerve can also be restored by using addictive consumables.

• Smoking offers the highest amount of Nerve restored per use.

• Alcohol offers the next highest amount of Nerve restoration. It can also apply the Numbed status, which reduces the amount of Nerve lost over time.

• Narcotics may randomly restore or deplete Nerve, making them quite dangerous when Nerve is already low.

When using an interaction that would cause V to smoke, drink alcohol, or use a narcotic, you will receive the benefits (and penalties) of consuming a similar item. Examples include sitting and drinking at a bar, or using the ashtray to smoke in the Japantown apartment.

For more information on addictive substances and their use, see the Addiction page.