Wound Management
Guide to wound management in Nakwon: Last Paradise. Covers the HP and damage threshold, the transition into Last Stand at HP 0, the rising infection percentage, the permadeath loot rule, and the survival systems (armor, melee, audio discipline, skill traits) that keep wounds from compounding.
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Wound management in Nakwon: Last Paradise covers the player's HP, the consequences of taking damage, and the systems that close the gap between full health and the Last Stand near-death state. The closed alpha confirms survival mechanics as a core pillar of the game without exhaustively documenting every wound interaction, so this article describes what is publicly disclosed and is explicit about what is not. For wider context, see the overview.
HP and the Damage Threshold
The player has an HP value that can be reduced by hits from infected, from other survivors, and from environmental hazards in the city expedition map. When HP reaches 0, the player does not die outright; instead, the Last Stand state begins. While in Last Stand, the player cannot attack or use offensive skills, and any further damage taken raises an infection percentage. Reaching 100% infection kills the character. This is the official, dossier-confirmed shape of the damage curve from full health through near-death.
State | Description | What the Player Can Do |
|---|---|---|
Healthy | HP above 0; no Last Stand engaged | Move, sneak, fight, scavenge, extract normally |
HP at 0; offensive actions disabled; infection percentage tracks | Move toward an exit; attempt extraction; cannot attack | |
Killed | Infection reaches 100%, or run otherwise ends in death | Items carried into the expedition are lost permanently |
Permadeath Loot Rule
Items carried into an expedition are lost if the player dies and fails to extract. This is the most important framing for wound management: the cost of taking damage is not just the immediate HP loss but the compounding risk that any further hit pushes the run toward Last Stand and, eventually, toward losing everything in the loadout.
Reducing Damage Before it Lands
Wound management starts before the wound. The player's first defence is not taking the hit at all, which is why every special infected type confirmed in the closed alpha is described as highly sensitive to noise: the audio-driven AI rewards stealth-based avoidance over direct fights. The second defence is armor, which absorbs damage that does land. Light armor trades raw protection for a quieter movement profile; heavy armor accepts more noise in exchange for taking more punishment per hit.
The third defence is the loadout itself. Quiet melee weapons keep encounters local: a kill that does not pull every nearby infected into the fight is a kill that does not generate a long string of follow-up hits. Firearms solve immediate threats but seed the surrounding area with new aggro, which usually means more incoming damage on the way out.
Skill Traits That Touch Wounds
The 110 Skill Traits confirmed in the closed alpha feed into 35 active and passive skills, and the trait sheet is where many wound-related decisions actually live. Specific named traits have not been publicly disclosed, but the broader system supports build directions around damage mitigation, faster recovery, more efficient combat (so the player takes fewer hits per kill), and stealth (so the player avoids fights entirely). Any of these threads fits under wound management as a build philosophy rather than a single mechanic.
Crafting and the Workbench
Workbenches in the player's shelter, in the day phase of the day-night cycle, are central to recovering from a hard run. They allow crafting and modification of items to boost durability and performance. A scrap bench dismantles unwanted items into materials that feed the next build. The full list of consumables, healing items, and recovery mechanics has not been individually disclosed, but the survival framing of the game and the existence of a shelter loop with workbenches and refrigerators implies that food, supplies, and crafted items play a role in returning the player to full health between expeditions.
The Environment and Detection
Detection cuts both ways for wound management. Heavy rain, the third confirmed environmental state in the day-night cycle, muffles ambient sound. That makes it easier for a wounded player to retreat without drawing follow-up attacks, but harder for that same player to hear an approaching threat. Daytime makes a wounded player easier to spot on sight; night reduces visual range but tilts encounters toward sound, which a wounded player is generally less able to manage cleanly.
Wound Management as Survival Philosophy
The clearest summary of wound management in this game is that the best wound is one the player never takes. The whole stack of systems (armor, melee weapons, firearms, skill traits, day-night cycle, Last Stand) supports a survival philosophy where stealth, audio discipline, and route planning are worth more than raw firepower. Pulling the trigger is sometimes the right call, but every loud action is a future wound problem.
What Has Not Been Confirmed
Specific HP values, specific damage numbers, specific named wound types (bleeding, infection, fracture, etc.), specific consumables (bandages, medkits, antibiotics, food items), the exact mechanics of out-of-combat regeneration, and the rules around revival or assistance from another player in Last Stand have not been publicly disclosed. The closed-alpha press materials confirm survival mechanics as a pillar without itemising those mechanics. The HP-zero-into-Last-Stand transition, the infection percentage rising on damage, the 100% kill threshold, and the permadeath loot rule are confirmed; specifics beyond those are for future builds to document.
Current to the 11 to 16 March 2026 closed alpha; subject to change in later builds.