Pathologic 3 follows Daniil Dankovsky, also known as The Bachelor, as he attempts to navigate the concept of immortality. Much to his surprise, Daniil Dankovsky finds himself trapped in a deadly plague, forcing him to take charge and protect the small town that once held the promise of immortality.
This job involves The Bachelor making various important decisions for the town, including the task of issuing decrees. But how does one actually begin to issue decrees in Pathologic 3? Here’s a quick guide that answers this question.
How To Unlock Decrees
To unlock decrees, you must first complete Day 5 for the first time. Pathologic 3 divides its story into 12 days, but events throughout the game are told in a non-linear fashion across these days.
Completing Day 5 for the first time is important since it unlocks time travel, which is needed to trigger a conversation with Young Olgimsky. Once you have time travel unlocked, revisit Day 2 and converse with the many families in the Town Hall.
This should then allow you to meet Young Olgimsky outside the office and persuade him to let you issue decrees for the town’s sake. After all, Young Olgimsky’s decrees haven’t done much good up to this point.
Following this conversation, simply return to your laboratory and head upstairs to the second floor. The Decree Board should now be usable. Also, you should have multiple decrees unlocked through just playing the game by this point.
The Decree Board is located in your home in Stillwater. Once it is uncovered (as above), you can always access it by going upstairs in Stillwater to your quarters.
How To Issue Decrees
Interacting with the Decree Board allows you to select specific days to issue decrees, presenting the choice to pick up to 3 decrees each day.
Issuing decrees uses resources highlighted on the Decree Board, adding an element of management to the equation. After selecting a specific day, carefully consider the number of task force members needed for the job, resources required for a particular decree, and its impacts (contagion and unrest) on the town.
Decrees act as town-wide policies that directly influence key gameplay factors. They typically allocate your limited resources (deploying patrols, distributing medicine, etc.) and shift the town’s plague contagion and civil unrest levels.
For example, some decrees you issue may reduce the infection rate but at the cost of increasing public anger, or vice versa. Balance is important because issuing too many harsh measures can spike unrest while neglecting them can let the infections spread.
Diagnosing all hospital patients correctly on each day can unlock very powerful vaccine-related decrees later, which greatly curb the plague when used properly.
But since you have the ability to time travel, you can issue or retroactively alter decrees on past days to change the outcomes in Pathologic 3.
When a decree is issued on Day 3, it will affect the state of the town when you reach Day 3 in any timeline.
Can You Remove or Edit Decrees in Pathologic 3
Yes, you can edit and delete decrees in Pathologic 3 but it is only done in the most Pathologic way. Once the Decree system is unlocked and you get access to the rewinding days feature, you can do the following:
- Go back to a previous day
- Re-open the Decree Board
- Change which decrees are issued for that day
This will remove the old Decree and replace it with the new timeline outcome. However, you can do not remove a decree mid-day.
Once a decree is issued for the day and you are currently playing that day, the decree cannot be changed or edited. Moreover, you also won’t be able to disable a decree while staying in the same timeline.
You must rewind to an earlier point and change the decree before the day began.
- Finish Day 5 to unlock time travel
- Rewind to a previous day
- Go to Stillwater → Decree Board
- Change or replace decrees for that day
- Resume the timeline
This is the only way to edit or delete decrees in Pathologic 3.
