Nerve agents have a rapid and debilitating effect on the central nervous system, quickly incapacitating and eventually killing those who are exposed. Symptoms include: running nose, tightness of the chest, pinpoint pupils, shortness of breath, excessive salivation and sweating, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, involuntary defecation and urination, muscle twitching, confusion, seizures, paralysis, coma, respiratory paralysis, and death. In game terms, nerve agents cause fatigue damage with symptoms depending on how much fatigue has been caused:
Symptoms
| 1/3 FP | Nausea, Moderate Pain, -1 DX |
| 1/2 FP | -2 DX, -1 IQ |
| 2/3 FP | -4 DX, -2 IQ |
| Full FP | Seizures |
| 1.5 × FP | Paralysis |
| 2 × FP | Suffocation |
Nerve agents can either be delivered as a blood agent, digestive agent, respiratory agent, or contact agent. The onset time anc cyclic period depend on the rout by which the agent is administered:
Onset & Cycles
| Contact | Onset (10 minutes) | Cyclic (10 minute cycles, 10 cycles) |
| Digestive | Onset (2 minutes) | Cyclic (1 minute cycles, 30 cycles) |
| Blood | Onset (2 minutes) | Cyclic (2 minute cycles, 10 cycles) |
| Injected | Onset (3 seconds) | Cyclic (1 second cycles, 30 cycles) |
| Respiratory | Onset (3 seconds) | Cyclic (3 second cycles, 10 cycles) |
The game stats of a dose of nerve agent depends on the TL - later TL drugs are more effective. The following table gives the effects per dose:
Nerve agents are LC 1 and costs $10 per dose. Some nerve agents are not very harmful to vertebrates but deadly to insects - these are LC 4 and cost $1 per dose (they are just as complicated to make, but you do not have to take such extraordinary precautions against accidental exposure, accidental release, or theft).