Outside the protection of the hive walls, life is sparse and survival hard. Even the hardiest shanty town dwellers or experienced nomad gangs can find themselves caught out by the rapidly changing conditions that are the result of Necromunda's ruined ecosystem. Massive ash dunes are interspersed with areas of completely flat ash plain miles wide. These are but the least of a gang's worries. Even the air is toxic outside the hive, any man caught without a respirator will surely die. However, it is the land and climate of the planet itself that kills many unwary outhiver. Windstorms blow up great clouds of corrosive ash that can strip a man to the bone in minutes. The temperature fluctuates wildly, freezing one minute, only to be boiling hot the next. Toxic or acid rain can pour from the skies and floods of sludge or chemicals sweep across the land. Finally, it is the darkness of night that is singly the most teffirying thing to many gangers, for who knows what will have happened when the skies become light once more!