Health plays an important role in 3rd World Farmer. It is one of the main stats of all family members on the farm. At the beginning of the game, all family members are at full health (100). If their health ever drops to 0, they die.
You can see the health of a family member by clicking on them. Health is displayed both as a number and as a colored health bar. The bar is green when the character is at good health, but turns yellow or red at lower levels.
Losing Health
Every year, each family member will risk automatically losing a few to a dozen points of health. This reflects small illnesses or injuries suffered throughout the year. Such damages are rarely lethal on their own. But if health is ignored and allowed to deteriorate for many years in a row, it can drop dangerously low.
As family members age, they will suffer larger and larger annual health reductions. This reflects the usual decline of the immune system with natural ageing.
Above the age of 50, there’s also an annual risk of dying suddenly from old age.
In years of starvation, where the family has no money for food or basic neccessities, the health of each individual family member will suffer more than usually.
Re-gaining Health
Clicking the ‘Give Medicine’-button, gives the player three options for getting treatment and regaining the family members’ health. They can either restore one point of health for the currently active family member, restore that person’s health fully, or bring the whole family to full health at once. Only the options that the player can afford are available. The other options will have grayed-out and unclickable buttons.
Once the player completes the Clinic project, the cost of medicine and treatment drops by 50%.
Effects of Health
A family member’s health is crucial for the amount of work they can do on the farm. It’s one of the components that go into calculating the Workload Capacity stat. In order to have good results on the farm, it’s often neccessary to buy medicine to restore health. This expense has to be balanced with spendings on crops, livestock, tools and buildings.
Another effect of health is that if a family member’s health drops below 50, they cannot attend school before health has been increased. The ‘Go To School’-button appears grayed-out and unclickable for them.
Health also plays a role when marrying. The bride price or dowry that the player receives will generally be higher when they’re in good health.
Should a family member decide to leave the farm by clicking the ‘Leave Farm’-button, then the size of any advance payment they are offered for a job abroad also depends on health, as well as on their age and level og education.
Events Affecting Health
The Sickness in the Family event immediately drops one family member’s health to a dangerously low level.
External Links
Famines, Our World In Data, 2019:
“Safety And Health In Agriculture,” SafeWork, Programme on safety, health and the environment, Labour Protection Department, International Labour Office, June 2000: