Desolation Mode

Desolation mode is a difficulty modifier that drastically reduces loot available and generally makes your life harder. It's intended to be "mainline" experience of Horizon, and most balancing is done around it.

“	while 99% of my combat changes will effect default mode too, I want to balance the game around DM. I can always add in non-DM stuff to help casual players if it is too hard... but I want the real balance focused around survival mode and DM. tbh... i really dont count default mode, because you can get ammo and shit so much easier. im not going to balance around that my focus is on "what can you do with the supplies you get in DM... and what can't you do." otherwise the player reports become so skewed, because 1 person in default will say they have 2000 rounds of .308, and its too easy. and a DM player might have 90 rounds. the real issue is trying to fix the DM players who have 1000 rounds :)	„
	—Zawinul on Discord

Desolation can be enabled during Horizon installation, and to disable you need to reinstall it and start a new game.

Food/Medical

All pre-war food (that isn't preserved) is considered garbage food and has high risk of disease (not recommended to eat)
Crops/rations and Wild plants have a moderate chance of disease (which makes cooked food much more valuable)
All pre-war food is worth very little caps
The debuff on Combat Stimpaks is increased to -150 rad resists (up from -50)
Doctors have much less supplies
Doctors have a much stricter price increase per level

Settlements

Maintenance Kits cost more
Resource production Vendor Credit Income is halved
Resource production can give 4-16 Supply Kits maximum per cycle based on your progression
Resource production can give 8-20 Purified Water bottles maximum per cycle based on your progression
Resource production can give 3-20 of each Crop maximum per cycle based on your progression
Resource production can give 100-1500 Vendor Credit Income maximum per cycle based on your progression

Crafting

Purified water can no longer be crafted by hand, and requires real purifiers to process it for you
Some medical supplies require more antiseptic or other materials
Crafting antiseptics from alcohol requires more pharmaceuticals
Pharmaceuticals require more materials
Cooked pre-war food is not available

Loot

Tools drop less from containers
Hunting Skill is -50% as effective in terms of harvesting items
Exploration Skill is -50% as effective in terms of scrounging extra items
Salvaging Skill is -25% as effective in terms of harvesting items
Ammo boxes: -90% chance
Ammo misc: -80% chance
Ammo from NPCs: -85% chance
Medical supplies: -50% chance
Tools: -70% chance
Unique junk: -40% chance
Rare junk: -40% chance
Food/drinks: -90% chance
Chems: -90% chance
Caps Bonus: -90% chance (partial coverage of rewards and loot)

Bartering

Vendors don't trust you. All sell prices are 25% of the caps value (down from 50%)
Combat Stimpaks and Blood Packs cost more caps

Survival

Weakness makes you take 40% extra damage
Lethargy reduces AP regen by -75%
Insomnia also reduces your Rad Resistance by -100
Parasites also reduce your Poison Resistance by -30
Some poisons deal more damage per tick
Infection does 10 damage per tick from level 1-4
Infection does 15 damage per tick from level 5-9
Infection does 20 damage per tick from level 10-19 (this can now kill you)
Infection does 30 damage per tick from level 20+

Armor

Power Armor repairs are more expensive