Consumables

Consumables are the items V uses up to heal, to gain a buff or to change a stat for a while. They cover medication, street drugs, food and drinks. Health Items keep V alive in a fight. Food and drinks give a small buff between fights. Long-lasting boosters change one stat for half an hour. Alcohol makes V drunk and harder to aim with. In Phantom Liberty, the vendors of Dogtown add rare dishes with a bonus and a penalty, and Iconic supplements that raise a stat for good.

Healing and Buffs

Health Items are the core of healing. MaxDoc and Bounce Back are the two Health Items. MaxDoc is an inhaler that restores a burst of Health at once. Bounce Back is an injector that heals a little at once and then keeps healing for a few seconds. Over its full duration, Bounce Back can restore more than a MaxDoc.

V equips one Health Item at a time. It holds charges instead of running out. Without perks, V has two charges. Each use spends a charge and starts a cooldown. Spent charges refill over time. V only needs to obtain a higher tier once, and the equipped item then upgrades for good. Medpoints and meds vendors sell the higher tiers and their crafting specs.

Food gives V the Nourishment status. Nourishment raises max Health by a small share. It also restores Health little by little while V is out of combat. The status lasts about seven and a half minutes. Every ordinary food gives the same buff, so the choice of dish does not change the result.

Soft drinks, water, tea and coffee give V the Hydration status. Hydration makes Stamina refill faster. It lasts as long as Nourishment. A meal and a drink together cover both bars before a job.

Long-lasting medication works for half an hour after one dose. The Health Booster raises max Health. The Stamina Booster speeds up Stamina regeneration. RAM Jolt adds RAM for quickhacks. The Capacity Booster lets V carry more loot. The stronger boosters, such as AssKick, Jellytricity, RAM Nugs and Ol' Donkey, add a larger bonus with a penalty to another stat. The Oxy Booster lets V breathe underwater.

Phantom Liberty brings special dishes to Dogtown. Each one works for ten minutes and pairs a bonus with a penalty. Comrade Kolya's Premium Black Caviar makes Health Items stronger but lowers max Health. The Militech MRE (expired) raises max Health but weakens Health Items. Phish & Chips speeds up RAM recovery but halves Health Item effectiveness.

Iconic consumables are the rarest kind. The game consumes them the moment V buys one, and the bonus never wears off. Each vendor sells a given supplement only once. Copies bought from different vendors stack.

Consumable Categories

Best Consumables

The strongest consumables of every class, taken from the Best table of each class page.

Name	Image	Class	Why
MaxDoc		Medication	Instant burst of Health in a fight
Bounce Back		Medication	Most total healing over time
Prototype Pseudoembryonic Cell Builder		Food	Permanent max Health for any build
Dendritic Protoplasma Supplier		Food	Permanent RAM recovery for netrunners
The Jackie Welles		Drinks	Jackie's own recipe at the Afterlife
The Johnny Silverhand		Drinks	The rockerboy's cocktail

Alcohol and Drugs

Every alcoholic drink applies the Drunk status. Drunk blurs V's vision. It lowers movement speed and halves weapon accuracy. The status lasts about half a minute. Several drinks in a row stack the effect. Alcohol gives no bonus in combat, so it belongs in a bar scene and not before a firefight.

The Afterlife serves cocktails named after legends of Night City. Claire, the bartender there, mixes The Johnny Silverhand, The Jackie Welles and The David Martinez. They make V drunk like any other alcohol.

Black Lace is the street drug of the main story. It is a combat drug in an inhaler. It raises V's Armor for a while, so each hit does less damage. Dum Dum of the Maelstrom gang offers it during the main job The Pickup. Its street name is s-keef.

The boosters work like legal drugs. AssKick raises max Health but halves Stamina regeneration. Jellytricity speeds up Stamina regeneration but lowers max Health. RAM Nugs add more RAM than RAM Jolt, and Ol' Donkey adds more carrying capacity than the Capacity Booster. Both bring a penalty to another stat while they last.

Vendors

Most consumables come from shops across Night City and the Badlands. The kind of vendor decides what is on the shelf.

Meds vendors carry different boosters from district to district, so a missing booster is often on the shelf of the next shop. Enemies also drop MaxDoc. Any character can craft a Health Item tier with its crafting spec and the matching crafting components.

In Dogtown, the food vendor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium sells the trade-off dishes. The Iconic consumables are spread across Dogtown. The bartender at the Heavy Hearts club sells the Military-Grade Lactic Acid Recyclers. The Medpoint at the Longshore Stacks sells the Prototype Pseudoembryonic Cell Builder. Each Iconic consumable costs €$ 12,000.

Character Builds

• Health Item tank. A Technical Ability build. Health Freak adds a charge and speeds up recharge. Glutton For War, First Aid and Borrowed Time refill charges in a fight. Transfusion makes the final charge heal more, and Field Medic makes each use faster. The Biomonitor uses the Health Item on its own when Health drops below half.
• Adrenaline bruiser. A Body build. Dorph-Head gives a burst of damage mitigation with each Health Item. Adrenaline Rush lets Health Items grant Adrenaline, a yellow bar that absorbs damage. Pain To Gain speeds up recharge after a kill. The Universal Booster adds Armor and lowers Stamina costs each time V uses a Health Item.
• Netrunner. RAM Jolt or RAM Nugs before a job, plus the Dendritic Protoplasma Supplier for faster RAM recovery. Phish & Chips adds more RAM recovery for a fight fought from cover.
• Gunner or blade fighter. The Stamina Booster or Jellytricity keeps Stamina flowing. The Military-Grade Lactic Acid Recyclers raise Stamina regeneration for good.
• Blood Pump user. The Blood Pump is a Circulatory System implant that works as a Health Item of its own. It gives V a second source of healing next to MaxDoc or Bounce Back.

Any build gains from food and a drink before a hard job. The Prototype Pseudoembryonic Cell Builder raises max Health for every build. Comrade Kolya's Premium Black Caviar suits a build that already leans on Health Items.