Dangers in game 'Motherload'

This article is about the environmental and player-caused dangers in the game Motherload.

There are several ways of getting damages.

Fall Damage
Fall damage occurs when your machine falls from a high height, causing your pod to fall fast.

The maximum height where you don't get fall damage is 24 ft.(just under two levels).

There are six levels of fall damage, with the least being 3 HP(25~36 ft) and the maximum being 8 HP(above  580 ft). The Emendation Station will repair damage, including fall damage, at the rate of $35 per HP. However, there is no 9 HP fall damage, since this is actually based on speed, and the speed does not increase once past the 600 ft mark. Fall damage is lethal early on, but later it is hardly much danger, more of an annoyance of the Hull.

Quantum Teleporters can be a source of fall damage, since it often flings you to the ground, resulting in medium to strong fall damage.(average: -6 HP)


 * Fall Damage will never kill you when you have a full Hull meter, since even the weakest Stock Hull has 10 HP.

Lava Damage
Lava Damage is not important until about -3100~-3200 ft, where lava pockets start to appear. Drilling into lava does damage which can only be lessened by purchasing various strengths of Radiators.

Lava damage can be lethal, fatal without the necessary equipment. There are two possible lava pocket damages, with each being approximately 58 and 41.

Damages from Lava pockets can be reduced with an upgraded radiator, since it 'dissipates' the heat. To survive a lava pocket, you should have AT LEAST a Steel Hull(50 HP) and a Single Turbine Radiator(-25% DMG).

The following Table represents Lava damage with the corresponding radiators(Two possible damages, +- 1~2HP) Lava Pockets are certainly dangerous, but since they are clearly visible and can be avoided, it is less of a threat than the Methane Gas Pockets.

* With the strongest hull, strongest radiator, relatively little damage is done, making it possible to drill valuable ores by deliberately going through lava, rather than by blasting, and using Repair Nanobots when damage requires them.
 * Lava Pockets deal damage TWO times, which means they do something like -29 damage, then -29 again, to total 58 damage. This might make Bronzium Hull with a Hull Repair a possible bet. This is not cost-effective however, since Hull Repair Nanobots costs more than a Steel Hull, which is the first 'legitimate' Hull to survive lava.

Gas Pockets (methane)
The holy terror of Mars. This will result in death unless equipped with an Einsteinium Hull(120 HP) and Dual Turbine Radiators(-40% DMG) AT LEAST.

Gas Pockets vary in damage, influenced by the depth of the gas pocket. Luckily they do not turn up until -4,750ft at least, and very rare until -4,950 ft, where gas pockets increase suddenly. The deeper you go, the more common it becomes, and by the time you hit -6,500~-7,000, it is guaranteed. Like lava, gas pockets do award the same score points (multiples of 5 points) as plain dirt.

Gas Pockets explode like dynamite except that the explosion is green, not reddish, and the hull takes damage.

The formula for gas damage is {(Depth in feet+3000)/15} x 1-(Radiator's Effectiveness)

Depth in feet must have the minus value(e.g. -4950), and the result should be a minus, which is the HP damage. Radiator's Effectiveness should be in decimals, since it is based on %(e.g. 40% -> 0.4)


 * Damage may vary by +- 1 HP


 * Bold letters represents instant death(-180 HP), italics represent: death at $100,000 Hull(-120 HP), which is widely used for survival from a gas pocket.

The following table represents maximum depth a pod could go without instant death from a gas pocket. /: instant death

italics: possible but impractical(radiator cost > Hull cost)

NOTICE: 120HP/ 80% can be argued as impractical, but it can be used quite oftenly, so it is excluded from the list.

*Bold:No depth available(deeper than the core-7300ft)