I have barely used power armor so far in the game, but last night I found a set down in a tunnel in the middle of a quest, so I hopped in to finish out the quest so that I could then take it back to my base afterwards.

I was in a pretty irradiated area for a portion of the time I was wearing the suit, but I couldn't figure out how to tell what my current radiation level was at any given moment. Where can you see that in the HUD? I see the HP dial, and the Rad dial that turns and clicks to indicate you are taking radiation, but couldn't figure out how to tell what my actual radiation status was. I popped a Rad-X and hoped that between that and the armor's rad resistance I would be fine. Later when I got to base, it turned out I was almost 50% irradiated (HP reduced by nearly 50% by the end), and I never usually let my radiation get that high. I would have taken a RadAway earlier in the gameplay, if I could have figured out how to tell that I needed it.

It is probably just some obvious indicator I am missing, can anyone tell me how to read this in the power armor HUD? And does the HP meter % max out at the difference between your total HP and radation %? I could have sworn I healed myself past that 50% mark (and possibly wasted some HP healing items, since I didn't remove rads first), but then again I was pretty distracted during the combat so I may have misread the dial.

Current radiation status for the character shows up as a red section in the HP display, starting at 100 and counting backwards.

That fails to answer the OP's questions.

Anyways, if you hold down the VATS button (even if no enemies are around) you'll go into VATS, and you can see your HP/rad status in the bottom left hand corner.

Unforutunately, rad/HP status combined are difficult to see in the PA hud.

The only way you'll be able to see it is if you use stimpacks to heal to full HP, and your HP meter stops a little short (then you can quickly estimate how many rads you have).

Power armor helps as it displays your health as a percentage with the faint red background indicating your Rad level, and 10 Rads=1% of your health. Using this knowledge one radaway (without medic) removes 300 Rads, which equals 30% of your health gauge.

I hope this helps. Let me know if I need to clarify further.

Thanks both of you. So lordrichter, are you saying that the tickmarks on the HP dial turn red for the percentage of your HP that is irradiated? I have a really hard time distinguishing colors in the power armor HUD, and a hard time reading the dials well (I think my eyes are getting too old, or I need a bigger TV), so I didn't really notice that. So in that case, if you were healing yourself, the HP needle would max out at the point in the dial where the colors change to red? Am I describing this correctly?

And Tychusfindlay919, thanks for the tip about using VATS. I'm a pretty heavy VATS user anyway, so this could be a convenient way for me to check on hp/rad status, especially given that I have a hard time reading the power armor dials anyway.

On a somewhat related note, I wish that in the aid section of the Pipboy display (whether in power armor or not), your HP bar also showed your current rad status, in addition to your current HP status, all in the same bar like it does in the regular HUD. And that it showed your HP in terms of numbers/fraction, like it does in the Stat tab. And that somewhere it also showed your rad status as a fraction of the total HP points (I don't think that shows up anywhere). I like the numbers, it helps me figure out which aid item is the best to use (without wasting HP points).

Isn't it inaccurate that 10 Rads always = 1% of your health? I always assumed that 1 Rad = 1 HP point equivalent, so in that case if my current total HP max is 200 (for example), then wouldn't 10 Rads be .5% of my total possible health? In other words, isn't the percent of health dependent upon your total health (value of 1 Rad is consistent, but a smaller percentage of my overall HP as I level up and my HP maximum increases)? Math isn't my strongest subject, and I may also be making assumptions about the value of a rad that aren't true, so I could be confused about this, could someone clarify?

Edit: King was right, 10 rads is 1% of HP, regardless of what your HP happens to be (according to the Fallout Wikia site). This is interesting, because it means that as you level up, the value of a rad also increases (So if your total HP is 100, then 1 Rad = 1 HP, but if your total HP is 200, then 1 Rad = 2 HP). Weird.

Yes the background red part of the the heath guage in the power armor indicates Rad level (refer to above post). The heath bar in the aid screen only shows available health (max minus Rad poisoning percent). The numbers display total possible and the amount you have, but does not tell you the Rad adjusted max. If you are at your effective maximum you should be able to calculate your Rads by figuring what percent of your health is unavailable.

((Hp-_RAHp))*100?/Hp=Rad% Radaway (-300)=30% Rads

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the explanation. This all makes sense. But in the middle of the game, I will never take the time to calculate this (nor am I quick enough to do it in my head). I wish the HUD would just do the calculation for me and give me the numbers at any given moment (forget percentages, since mostly the aid items are worth a set number of points, not a percentage, right?). I am probably just overthinking it Thanks for your help.

This is radition damage is highly effective on humans enemies (who are subject to thd same rules) regardless of difficulty (as difficulty modifiers do not affect radiation), as they are subject to the same rules with radiation. No matter how much they, or you, have it takes that percent. It id also wh it usually takes a few rads to notice a change in health.

Your welcome.

Rads do effectively work in percentages.

30% Rads=300 rads

How about an example, with a small clarifcation step. If you have 200 Hp, but you can only heal to150 Hp. The 150 Hp is your Rads Adjusted Hp (_RAHP).

((200-150)/200)*100=Rad%

(50/200)*100=Rad%

.25*100=Rad%

25=Rads%

In this example you are missing 25% of your health, and 1 Rad%=1% Hp=10 Rads, therefore you have accumulated 250 Rads.

Hopefully this clears things up for everyone. Have a nice day.