Medical Gameplay Guide
Star Citizen's persistent universe bolsters a comprehensive, ever-evolving medical system, designed for both self-application and administration to others. From minor injuries to complete incapacitation, with multiple levels of treatments and utilizing a variety of vehicles, clinics and hospitals, medical gameplay combines aspects of survival mechanics and altruistic service to others to provide a continuingly developing experience that touches everyone.
Join us as we explore many of these aspects new and old and ensure you're properly equipped to face the universe in Alpha 4.3.1 and beyond, and if you're looking for additional help to get started in medicine, check out the Guide System to get paired with an experienced player who can help show you the ropes.
NOTE: This post was released to coincide with Alpha 4.3.1 PTU, and will be updated with adjusted figures once it has finished testing and been released to the LIVE environment.
Injuries
Injuries are inflicted when you receive sustained, repeated damage. They can be received on your arm, legs, torso or head, and are shown to you either via the Heads-up-Display (HUD) on your helmet in the bottom left corner, or via scan.
Below are the different types of injuries and how they affect you.
On-Site Treatments
While many of the injuries you sustain throughout your exploits in the 'verse may require more robust attention and care, there are still a number of ways you can extend your time in the field. Whether off on your own or in service to another citizen, prepared adventurers and good medics alike keep an array of tools close at hand.
From single-use consumables to trusty healing tools, there's a variety of gear that allows everyone to keep you and your team upright and in the fight.
There are several pharmaceuticals used in on-site treatments to stabilize you and other players. These drugs all have unique attributes, uses, effects and even dangers.
Below are the types of drugs available, both separately in single-use pens as well as collectively included in Curelife's Medical Tool:
Incapacitation and Rescue Becons
Despite your best efforts, there will come a time when you've sustained significant damage, your health has hit 0%, and you fall to the ground unable to move or function. Congratulations, you've been incapacitated, and the clock has now started.
The good news is that all hope is not lost. If you have friends or allies nearby, they can administer a dose of Hemozal to get you back on your feet, but if you're alone with no help in sight, you can create a Rescue Beacon by holding the M key and call someone to your attention.
Triggering a Rescue Beacon (aka Medical Beacons) will create a ‘Beacon mission' ( found in the Contracts Manager ) and send out a notification to the HUDs of any nearby players. The pay-out for Rescue will automatically be set to a fifteen thousand aUEC reward, which will be paid out upon the rescue / revival of the incapacitated Player.
Others accepting these missions can apply on-site treatments, bring you to a nearby ship-based medical bed, or transport you to the Emergency Medical drop-off areas located in all hangars attached to a medical facility.
Get the help you need before the incapacitation timer runs out, or you'll regenerate wherever your next clone is imprinted, leaving a corpse behind to be looted by anyone who finds it.
Medical Beds
Medical Beds are the mostly automated doctors and surgeons of the 30th century. These are your one-stop-shop to treating and healing all ailments and injuries, setting your next Regeneration point, clearing overdosed field drugs from your system, or just scan yourself to see what's up.
On most medical beds are two terminals that house the Digital Medical Assistant; usually present at the foot of the Bed and another overhead that deploys after you've entered the bed or regenerated after death.
If you're regenerating after death, the bed will also provide you with information relating to that death.
To place another person on a medical bed, simply drag the incapacitated body in close proximity and select ‘Place In Bed' via the Inner Thought system and they’ll be revived.
MedGel is the substance at the core of medical gameplay that fuels nearly everything from the limited healing capabilities of the Multi-Tool to the medical beds that bring people back to life. It is recommended to keep smaller ones on your person and larger supplies in the storage of your medical bed-equipped vehicle at all times.
For the Multi-Tool and Curelife Medical Tool, reloading works in much the same way any other handheld weapon would.
For medical beds, inserting a full-sized cannister via port will reload the device.
- Within some vehicles, ports are found on walls nearby the medical bed, rather than on the unit itself.
- MedGel cannisters are consumed completely by the unit, and do not have to be removed before reloading.
Each tier of medical bed has a different MedGel capacity.
- T3 MedBeds can hold 200 cSCU of MedGel.
- T2 MedBeds can hold 400 cSCU of MedGel.
- T1 MedBeds can hold 600 cSCU of MedGel.
As noted above, additional quantities of MedGel can be stored in traditional cargo and storage locations aboard ships and vehicles.
Each medical bed can restore health and address bleeding without cost, but consumes MedGel to heal injuries.
The cost of healing injuries varies on the severity of the injuries. Players will only be charged once for the highest tier the player has, no matter how many injuries are healed at once.
There is no cost to temporarily stabilizing injuries above what a medical bed can heal.
Regeneration is a medical process which enables the total restoration your being after death via your DNA imprint recorded at the location you've set.
By default, your chosen regeneration location is a hospital within the primary residence location you set when you first entered the 'verse, but as you travel the spaceways you may want to transfer your imprint to a new location. This can be at another hospital, clinic or ship and vehicle that contains a medical bed and has sufficient MedGel supply.
There are three reasons your imprinted medical bed may fail to meet the conditions for successful regeneration, causing you to regenerate back at your designated home location.
- The medical bed has been destroyed.
- The medical bed's supply of MedGel has been exhausted.
- The medical bed is outside of it's effective range.
While most medical beds you encounter outside of hospitals are capable of imprinting and regenerating you into a new clone body provided they meet the listed criteria, below are the specific requirements for a successful regeneration into each bed:
Ships of the Trade
Clinics and Hospitals
In addition to ship and vehicles, medical beds can be found in hospitals and clinics located in landing zones and stations throughout the persistent universe.
They have all the same functionality listed above, but do not retain their dependence on MedGel for operation.
Today and Tomorrow
All the the design and functionality detailed above is being updated with the release of Alpha 4.3.1. If you've never participated in the brave and exciting career of a medical first responder, we hope this detailed look at much of what's involved will encourage you to do so, but our work doesn't end here. Medical beds, imprinting and regeneration options are continuing to evolve and you can continue to the next page for a glimpse at what's currently in development.
| MedBed Tier | Healing Cost | Maximum Injury |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 3 | 5 cSCU MedGel | Minor injuries. |
| Tier 2 | 10 cSCU MedGel | Minor and Moderate injuries. |
| Tier 1 | 20 cSCU MedGel | Minor, Moderate and Severe injuries. |
| MedBed Tier | Regeneration Cost | Regeneration Range |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 3 | 100 cSCU MedGel | Within 50,000 meters of bed, enough to cover most gameplay areas. |
| Tier 2 | 100 cSCU MedGel | Within 8,000,000 meters of bed, enough to cover most planetary bodies. |
| Tier 1 | 100 cSCU MedGel | Within 750,000,000,000 meters of bed, enough to cover most star systems. |