Overview[1]
$35; Doctor (Class); Towns Snake Oil is a healing item in Dead Rails.
Snake Oil provides players with efficient passive healing along with a temporary speed boost. Snake Oil can be bought in the Doctor's Office for $35 and sold for $15. It can also spawn in Abandoned Buildings, although uncommon. The Doctor class also spawns with 2 Snake Oils. Players can raise their chances of finding Snake Oils in more relevant Buildings, such as Abandoned Doctor's Offices. Snake Oils can also be purchased in the Lobby for 2 Bonds.
Stats
- Cost
- *2 Bonds *$35
- Deposit
- 2 Metal
- Hpamount
- ~110 HP
- Price
- 2 Bonds $35
- Sold Price
- $15
- Desc
- A healing item, which provides healing over time and a speed boost.
- Sources
- Doctor’s Office ($35) Doctor (Class) Towns
Usage
When used, it will apply a temporary buff to the player that heals approximately 11 health per second. It will also increase the player's movement speed up to a maximum limit of 3 stacks, with the first one providing an increase of 8 and the second and third ones each providing an increase of 12. The effects of each individual use will last for 10 seconds, after which its healing over time and speed boost will disappear. The speed boosts are affected by class movement speed modifiers, becoming more effective on fast classes and vice versa. Snake Oil can be sold for $15 at the Trading Post, but unsellable anymore if obtained through the Doctor's starting items.
Strategies
It is recommended to use Snake Oils when you are on low health and need to get away from immediate danger. Using one at the right time can mean the difference between life and death.
Patch history
Snake Oil appears to be made by "Dr. Ricco" judging by its cover. Dr. Ricco appears to be based off of RiccoMiller, the owner of Dead Rails. The cork has a slightly different texture for each bottle. Snake Oil's bottle says it "Cures All!", similar to advertising methods for Snake Oil from the time period this game takes place. Snake Oil originally came from China, where a certain snake had oil to be extracted which had actual medicinal properties. This quickly became popular and was copied using American snakes which had no medicinal properties. This is how it's reputation as a scam became widely known and is also the origin for slang terms like "Snake Oil" and "Snake Oil Salesman" which is used to describe scams and scammers. Unlike the real life version, Snake Oil in the game is actually useful. There is a bug with the Item where if you drank it before dying, it would continue healing you after you die. Despite being dead, Entities would see you as an alive player, meaning they would attack your body. The slang used for this is "Dead-Alive," which is just like the bug where a zombie or other entity dies, but isn't counted as "dead" hence, keeping it in a weird state, between dead and alive. Although Snake Oil is technically a Glass Bottle contains the liquid inside, drinking it will also make the bottle disappear into thin air. Not only that, while a Glass Bottle (empty or not) always sells for $30, the Snake Oil bottle always sells for $15, despite being a whole bottle containing a useful substance. However, Bottles being sellable for 30 is likely an oversight.
