Defibrillator

Defibrillator: Use from the health panel on a limb; a successful shock restarts the heart and clears fibrillation. The Coil is not a defibrillator.

Use, trade-offs and mechanics

Defibrillation in Casualties: Unknown covers two different tools: the manual defibrillator and the automated external defibrillator. Their interfaces differ, so a generic instruction to use a defibrillator should not be mistaken for a complete description of both devices. Consult the linked tool entry for its interaction and battery requirements.

The Heart reference distinguishes fibrillation from cardiac arrest. Fibrillation is a progressing rhythm problem; when its value reaches one hundred, the heart stops. A successful defibrillator shock resets fibrillation and can restart the stopped heart, setting the rate to two hundred. Restarting circulation is the important result, rather than the shock animation alone.

The recorded arrest treatment has an eighty-percent failure chance per shock. A failed attempt spends time and battery without guaranteeing the next attempt will work. The same reference says a manual shock does not need a precisely selected strength for that arrest roll. It does not follow that every electrical source is a substitute: the wiki's Defibrillation page explicitly excludes a Coil from restarting cardiac arrest, even though it can reset fibrillation.

Epinephrine offers a different mechanism: repeated timed restart checks and residual fibrillation after success. A defibrillator's successful shock clears the rhythm problem, but its individual restart chance is lower. The useful comparison therefore includes the current heart state, remaining consciousness, tool availability and battery. A restarted heart does not automatically repair blood loss, hypoxia or existing brain damage.

Documented properties