Not all games involve physical battles to win; some involve mental strategies instead. Pathologic 3 is a story of a doctor, Daniil Dankovsky, who is our character in the game trying to figure out immortality. Your main quest is to find an immortal man, Simon kain in a quarantine town, so the twist is you have to find him in 12 days. For your mind’s survival, there is an Apathy and Mania meter that is unlocked right from the moment you step out of the train.
It took me quite some time to understand the working mechanics behind Apathy and Mania in Pathologic 3. So to make things easy for you, here’s a breakdown of all the management related to Apathy and Mania.
Apathy Vs Mania In Pathologic 3
The Apathy/Mania meter is at the top of the screen. It’s a sliding bar where apathy is to the left, and the mania bar is towards the right.
- Apathy: It represents emotional burnout
- Mania: Frantic hyper-focus state.
As you progress in the game, your choice of events will shift the slider towards either side. The main goal is to create a balance between Apathy and Mania. Both have their effects on you; here are the details of all the effects of Apathy and Mania in Pathologic 3.
Apathy Effects in Pathologic 3
| Low | Slow movement, emotional numbness, skip important details |
| Middle | Crawling speed, can’t talk to NPCs, and time drains. |
| High(Max) | Suicide attempt QTE (choose thoughts in 5s; fail = respawn + damage, succeed = partial reset + damage). |
Apathy is not always bad, you can cause a light increase in apathy to avoid long talks.
How to Increase/Decrease Apathy?
You really don’t want to increase apathy to its max value, but rather you want it to decrease, so to manage it in the first place, avoid these things to avoid any increase in apathy
- Staying idle/waiting, especially in plague zones
- Avioid Shooting/Killing instead, just scare them by aiming a gun at them
- Avoid focusing on Blue/Green objects
- Dont using numbing drugs repeatedly like morphine/sedatives.
- Avoid playground spins and select red flash dialogues.
Mania Effects in Pathologic 3
| Low | Slightly faster walking |
| Middle | Sprint across the map, and you can’t talk to NPCs (they ghost/ignore). |
| High(Max) | No interactions+Heavy screen warp |
Interaction with these red items causes mania to increase and apathy to decrease.
