A Point for Poison

[spiral aurora]

As it stands, there really is no point to the varieties of poisonous mushrooms in the game's current version.

Adding the ability to take these mushrooms, boil them down and synthesize poisons/medicines from them would validate their existence in game outside of only being used for composting and multiplayer jokes.

Poisons could be used to tip/coat weapons and arrows for an added punch and much needed flare to base-game combat.

Certain poisonous mushrooms could be used to make tea/medicines for powerful healing buffs.

[twin walrus]

ghost pipes are a good medicine irl they are used in tinctures for various uses

[soft siren]

alternatively, if nutrition was harder to come by to make it worthwhile, some poisonous/inedible mushrooms can be cooked in specific ways to make them edible
like parboiling fly amanita makes them edible, morels have to be cooked thoroughly etc

[keen frost]

I know a decently common thing with certain poisonous food items is to soak them in water to leech out the poison.

I'm not sure poison darts are the move. Poisons and venoms are fundamentally different in function, and many poisonous mushrooms just wouldnt be potent as a weapon enhancement, or even useful if they were potent.

Generally, the fantasy with poisonous forage is facing the challenge of correctly identifying them. You could meet that fantasy by hiding poison values until the player has eaten at least one. Then you have some trial and error, and light game mastery.

That would weaken mushrooms as a food source, so we could add other forage options without too much impact on balance (edible flowers, nuts, fiddleheads, etc), which then makes players less reliant on mushrooms. Turns it into a useful optional side quest or last ditch gamble, and we get more plant/food diversity.

As for synthesis for herbal remedies, I am all in favor of that. Just a matter of pinpointing appropriate examples.

[analog forum]

Would love to see this

[glass mountain]

once we get medicinal teas i'm sure some of this will become real hehe

[keen frost]

has that been announced?

[hasty tulip]

I made a similar suggestion some weeks ago, lemme copy-paste it in here

Make poisonous mushrooms useful (except trolling your friends) by using them to make poisons of different strengths and durations that can be used to tip arrows and spears in.
New furniture - alchemist table that requires glas, wood boards and sulfuric acid or other non-food liquids to build, uses those liquids as fuel to work. Needed to craft the poisons.
Stronger mushrooms like funeral bells and death caps would require additional ingredients like aqua vitae, chromite, rusty gears, rot, etc. to make the poison workable, to avoid using those mushrooms exclusively for OP arrows.
Maybe also introduce venomous enemies, sicknesses (from cold/heat/wolf + bear attacks) or tetanus from high lvl rust mobs, which can only be countered by remedies made of poisonous mushrooms, also on the alchemist table

[glass mountain]

it's been mentioned in an interview https://youtu.be/l_agbJN9Fro?si=6QZA_k5XbB6ZC9ob

[keen frost]

ah, didnt remember that part, cool

[wispy ibex]

I personally would just make mushrooms poison status listed as unknown in the handbook until you eat them

then they could include a handbook page on recognizing poisonous mushrooms

which would make them an environmental threat, which i think is good enough

[spiral aurora]

I would love to see this, you could have it as a setting and would be on by default when you select Survival mode

Another problem that arises once you start farming is that you really don't have a reason to ever touch mushrooms again. They take more time to collect, could be poison and are less nutritious than every other vegetable. This is unfortunate, and of course there are things in ever game you'll only use a few a few times like crude items, but i think it's unfortunate that Mushrooms also fall into this category with how much variety there is for them.

In the grand scheme of things, better mushrooms would be a great thing, but it's pretty far down on the list of things i'd be excited to see improved in Vintage (RIVERS AND IMPROVED TERRAIN GEN)

[kindred hornet]

yes, pointless content should be either cut or given a use

[gusty obsidian]

found this thread while thinking of ghost pipes, ghost pipe tincture would be really awesome as a rare healing item

[gusty obsidian]

seconding this as well, I REALLY want alchemy and medicine, it would be fun and rewarding to mix up potions and poison
I do think it would also be fun if we could make penicillin, but thats scope creep

[hasty tulip]

it also fits the world building quite well, there are literally alchemistic vials and other stuff in story locations and ruins, if we can copy their jonas tech we can copy their alchemy