Buffout, Jet, Psycho, and More: What Are Chems in Fallout?

This article covers the topic of fictional chemical drugs, or “chems,” present in the Fallout television series and video games.

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D.A.R.E. to say no, not Okey-dokey!, to drugs, folks.

Fallout season 2 episode 4, titled “The Demon in the Snow,” isn’t the first in the series to show the effects of drugs in the wasteland, but it is the most notable by far. These substances, referred to collectively as chems, serve a gameplay purpose to offer players temporarily enhanced attributes and combat abilities.

But like any drug, after the high, you’re likely to crash. And many of these chems are highly addictive, as Lucy MacLean learns firsthand when she enjoys her first drug rush. Using them in the short term still has side effects and dangers, though many dedicated Fallout players feel the benefits outweigh the navigable negatives.

Open up that chem cooler as we scavenge for some of the well-known psychoactive substances in the wasteland. While not a comprehensive list, we’ll discuss the effects of the most common chems your Sole Survivor may encounter in the Commonwealth, Mojave, and beyond, such as:

• Buffout
• Jet
• Psycho
• Mentats
• Cateye
• Med-X
• RadAway
• Addictol

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Lucy accidentally got addicted to Buffout

After being tied up on a cross by Caesar’s Legion, Lucy was left in pretty rough shape. The Ghoul brought her to the meager NCR Ranger encampment, knowing that they’d been displaced from Shady Sands by her father’s actions. While Cooper was hoping for Lucy to get a taste of scorn for the blood on her family’s hands, instead, they walked away with a hilarious and worrisome new predicament — Lucy’s become addicted to the drug Buffout that she was given for recovery.

The Ghoul offers her two options for getting over an addiction. One, you quit cold turkey and sweat out the withdrawal for about four or five days. Two, you take more drugs. Lucy’s logic is laugh-out-loud ridiculous as she decides that taking more drugs is the selfless thing to do, since they’re so close to finding her father and saving the wasteland from more harm. Cue Roy Hogsed singing “Cocaine Blues.”

Besides her ultra-chipper (more so than usual) high, what are the effects of Buffout for any Fallout character? Let’s dig into that below.

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Many different chems exist in the Wasteland

Throughout the protagonist’s travels, players are likely to scavenge numerous chems just sitting out in the open or stocked in coolers throughout small raider encampments and other settlements. They’re a lucrative source of caps with traders if you don’t want to take them yourself, but each comes with tantalizing benefits at the cost of eventual withdrawal and potential addiction.

Buffout

Often seen in tablet form, Buffout is a highly addictive steroid that was introduced pre-war in the Fallout universe. It was popular among athletes for its strength-enhancing properties. In the game, its benefits vary, but it typically boosts the strength and endurance stats while adding temporarily to the player’s hit point maximum. Addiction causes a negative penalty to those same stats once the drug has worn off. It also increases a character’s thirst in Survival mode.

Its popularity among the populace led to several hybrid drugs including Bufftats (mixed with Mentats), Psychobuff (mixed with Psycho), and Buffjet (mixed with Jet).

In the television series, Lucy first acquired her addiction through an intravenous Buffout drip, but was then given the pill form of the chem by the Ghoul. The drug seems to provide her with a physical and mental high along with enhanced reaction time and lowered inhibition.

Jet

Administered via its signature red-capped inhaler, Jet is another highly addictive chem that comes from a rather … disgusting source. It is a vaporous substance derived from brahmin dung fumes (those two-headed cows you see often as caravan beasts in the wasteland). It’s easily available and quickly produced, making it one of the more common chems to find strewn about in any location you visit.

Jet is hallucinogenic and stimulates the user’s central nervous system by flooding it with endorphins for a short time. The high hits fast, but it seems longer to the user than its actual physiological effects. In the games, Jet boosts the user’s speed and slows down time around them for more accurate, calculated strikes. It has many mixed variants, including Ultrajet, Jet Fuel, Rocket, and more.

Psycho

A military-grade performance enhancer, Psycho is colloquially known in the wasteland as “angry juice.” Its mysterious chemical composition is largely of military origin, and it was deployed in combat while U.S. forces protected the Alaskan front. Psycho dulls higher brain function and makes the user more resistant to pain. However, this also made soldiers harder to control overall, leading to unpredictable results in battle.

Despite the description, its practical use in-game varies by Fallout title. In earlier games, it raises the user’s damage resistance in combat. In Fallout: New Vegas, it increases the damage output by the player. Fallout 4 combines both of these attributes, though in all cases it is also addictive and dangerous over longterm use.

Mentats

As the name suggests, Mentats are brain-enhancing tablet drugs (not those smart guys from Dune) that come in quite a few flavors, each with different benefits in gameplay. Typically, they boost the intelligence and perception stats, though addiction includes a loss of charisma. Designed to be addictive, their effects only last a short time before leaving the user irritable, unfocused, and prone to migraines.

These drugs existed before the Great War and were highly popular but controversial, as students found great success in using them during studies. Med-Tek Laboratories even targeted sales of the various fruit flavors towards adolescents. Mentats come in a flavorless standard tablet as well as Grape, Berry, Orange, and “Party Time” varieties — the last of which can be crafted with an infusion of whiskey and provides a temporary boost to charisma as well.

Cateye

A chem only found in Fallout: New Vegas, Cateye enhances vision in low-light settings for the Courier. However, it’s less effective both outdoors and in daylight hours, completely degrading the user’s ability to distinguish colors for the duration. It’s perfect for delving into abandoned Vaults, and provides colored contrast for added visibility in darkness. (Think D&D‘s Darkvision ability.)

Unlike most other chems, Cateye is not addictive, although its benefits are far less extreme than many other substances. Drinking Nuka Cola Quartz provides the same low-light vision benefit for players.

Med-X

Administered via hypodermic needle, Med-X is essentially morphine. It is a potent painkiller that dulls the user’s awareness of physical discomfort. It increases a player’s damage resistance and occasionally increases poison resistance too, making it effective against radscorpions, cazadors, and nightstalkers. Addiction to Med-X slows agility and makes a player more vulnerable to damage.

RadAway

Pre-War, RadAway was an expensive chemical designed for aiding radiation damage post-exposure. (Rad-X is the drug that provides pre-exposure resistance.) Often seen in yellowish I.V. bags, the substance bonds to radioactive particles in the body and then removes them from the user’s system, typically via urination. While it nullifies accumulated radiation poisoning, it cannot fully reverse internal damage and decay caused by exposure. It also tends to make the user feel nauseous, and it causes stomach pains and headaches. Post-War, it is a highly coveted resource for surviving on the surface.

In the original two Fallout games, RadAway was also classified as an addictive substance, but this has not been the case in Fallouts 3, 4, 76, and New Vegas, given how essential it is to gameplay. It does work immediately on the player character and removes the radiation damage accumulated in the health bar, though it does not restore additional health. In the games where RadAway addiction is present, it increases a user’s sensitivity to radiation when experiencing withdrawal.

Addictol

While Addictol is a chem itself, it’s a powerful anti-addiction drug new to the series as of Fallout 4. It looks similar to Jet, distributed in ampules attached to an inhaler. Its use removes the physical and psychological symptoms of drug abuse and cravings. However, it doesn’t have any preventative properties, and future use of addictive chems can cause relapse. In gameplay, Addictol’s effect is immediate, but in the lore, it is said to take several hours to fully kick in, and still comes with a side of nausea.

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Radaway and Jet were first seen in Fallout season 1

Though not as much attention was drawn to them from the addiction standpoint, fans did get to see a glimpse of a Jet inhaler and a Radaway infusion bag during the course of season 1. A raider uses Jet during the wedding assault on Vault 33 to enhance his reaction time killing Vaulties.

After Lucy’s first exposure to radiation sickness on the surface, she awakens attached to a RadAway I.V. drip thanks to the aid of Maximus. It was also found in the SuperDuper Mart in the episode prior.

During the Halloween Horror Night 2025 events in Hollywood, CA and Orlando, FL, fans were able to purchase their very own drinkable RadAway I.V. bags in honor of the Fallout collaboration. The drink was lemonade mixed with spiced brown sugar syrup and chipotle pineapple flavors.

Stimpaks are also considered chems

More prominent in the plot are Stimpaks, a syringe-like apparatus with a dial on top. These injectable cure-alls stabilize Lucy’s wedding night injury and Dogmeat’s critical condition in the debut season. They’ve also reappeared in season 2, as Lucy uses her last resource to help one of the escaped Legion women instead of her traveling companion.

In the games, Stimpaks are the favored source of immediate medical assistance. They can near-instantly cure crippled limbs and other critical injuries, restoring a significant amount of player health in the process. They can also be used to revive fallen companions in combat, and certain perks can make them even more effective at restoration.

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Players can clear addiction with perks and other medical aid

As seen with the addition of Addictol to the series, chems addictions don’t have to completely derail a Fallout playthrough — though curing them can be costly or time consuming. The medical item Fixer from Fallout: New Vegas predates Addictol, but does involve a gameplay side effect of nausea that alters the player’s screen visibility in small intervals while the character is recovering from addiction. Many settlements also have medics that players can have cure their addictions for a caps fee.

Player Perks

But if you’re wandering through the wasteland and don’t have time or money to spare, there are some perks that can be unlocked to help you navigate the pitfalls of drug abuse. Their inclusion varies by game, but these include:

• Party Girl/Party Boy and Professional Drinker prevent Alcohol addiction from consumables like vodka, whiskey, and wine.
• Chem Resistant reduces the chance of becoming addicted, or removes it entirely when ranked up properly.
• Old World Gourmet gives a permanent reduction to the possibility of addiction along with benefits for consuming Pre-War food items.
• Brainless also offers a percentage reduction to the chance of becoming addicted.
• Logan’s Loophole boosts the effectiveness of chems and removes the chance of addiction, but prevents a player from leveling above 30.

And if you really want to ride the high, well…

• Chem Fiend and Chemist extend the duration of chem effects in varying intervals depending on rank. The Ghoul did say one way to fight addiction is with more drugs!

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Remember, no matter how “rad” they may seem, chems are dangerous substances! But depending on how you play your protagonist in the Fallout games, they might be just what you need to become an apex predator in the wasteland.

What do you think about using chems in combat? Join the conversation with other Fallout fans over at Sideshow Social Network or in side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!