A Medical Guide for All Barotrauma Players/Jobs

This guide covers the basics of Barotrauma medicine and is designed to give a general overview for all players, regardless of job and game experience level, from the rookie medic to the experienced engineer.

While experienced medics may not learn much from this guide, the goal is to improve the average player's understanding of the medical system so they can learn to play as a medic and/or help (or stop hindering) experienced medics save their fellow crewmembers!

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to familiarize players, regardless of preferred job, with the Barotrauma medical system in order to improve the gameplay experience for both themselves and their fellow crew (including experienced medics), whether they're a rookie medic looking to learn the ropes or an experienced engineer who still isn't sure if the person they see on the floor is dead or just unconscious and still able to be saved.

This guide is not exhaustive and players are encouraged to consult the official wiki[barotraumagame.com] for more information and to familiarize themselves with afflictions[barotraumagame.com] and medical items[barotraumagame.com], their effects, components, and skill check requirements. Please note that the wiki is volunteer (not developer) updated and will not always be current, especially immediately after updates are released.

If you have doubts as to whether information on the wiki is up-to-date you can cross reference the game's local XML files[barotraumagame.com] as well as the source code on Github[github.com]. If you find any errors / are interested in contributing to the wiki please see the #baro-wiki-editing channel on the official Discord server[discord.gg] for more information.

The information in this guide is generalized and should apply to most situations but there may always be exceptions. For example, managing the sub's medical resources is far more important when playing a campaign than it is in mission mode.

You may also notice that some information is repeated across sections. This is both to help reinforce important points as well as to help ensure the information is seen by players who might only read specific sections of the guide and not review it in its entirety.

As you continue to learn and gain experience you will become more comfortable with when to follow the advice in this guide and when circumstances warrant making a different decision.

Vitality / Consciousness

In Barotrauma, a character's health or hit points is represented by vitality[barotraumagame.com]. A character with full vitality (for most jobs it defaults to 100) is at full health. Injuries sustained by a character will lower their vitality.

When a character's vitality reaches 0 or below they will fall unconscious. Players lose the ability to control their character as well as speak by voice or text. Do not be fooled by the fact that you can see chat bubbles appearing over your head or that you can see your text in the chat window: if you are unconscious your fellow crewmates can NOT hear/see anything you say so if you require urgent help/medical assistance it is important to communicate that to your crewmates BEFORE you fall unconscious.

Once unconscious, a character will stop breathing on their own (even if they are wearing a suit/mask with oxygen or are in an oxygen-filled room) and without intervention the oxygen low affliction[barotraumagame.com] will continue to grow until they are dead, so if you see an unconscious crewmate let the medic(s) know ASAP as time is of the essence!

When a character reaches negative max vitality (-100 by default for most jobs) they die.

The only way to get a player back on their feet (restore consciousness) is to bring their vitality back above 0 by treating their negative afflictions[barotraumagame.com].

Once a player regains consciousness they will resume breathing on their own (and any remaining oxygen low affliction will quickly fade away) as long as they have an oxygen source (mask/suit with non-empty O2 source, oxygen-filled room).

Here are examples of characters in various states of vitality/consciousness:
(click to enlarge - this applies to all images in this guide)



Note that if a character's vitality bar is visible, but empty, it means they are unconscious but ALIVE. When the outline of the vitality bar disappears, the character has died.

Also unconscious characters wearing a diving suit will have a light coming out of their helmets while corpses in diving suits will not.

Health Scanner HUD, Health GUI, Health Bar

There are three basic interfaces that provide health information on a character:

• the Health Scanner HUD[barotraumagame.com] (HUD appears while scanner is worn/equipped in the head slot),
  
  
• the Health GUI (default key "H" to open or by clicking on your character's portrait on the bottom right of the screen below the health bar), and
  
  
• the Health Bar (always visible at bottom right of screen).

The HUD and GUI show more detailed information (HUD on other characters, GUI on your own or another character) while the Health Bar shows basic health information for your character only. Everyone can access the GUI and Bar whereas only characters wearing the HUD will see the information appear on their screen.

Health Scanner HUDs are essential for medical doctors (who spawn with them, although they can also be easily fabricated) who should wear them at all times unless the head slot is otherwise required (such as to prevent suffocation by using a diving mask[barotraumagame.com]).

They show consolidated afflictions across all limbs (so 10% burns on two different limbs will show as 20% burns) which allows medics to make treatment decisions considerably quicker than having to open the Health GUI and examine limbs independently, especially when there are multiple characters requiring immediate medical attention.

The Health GUI allows you to click on various limbs to see afflictions applied to them as well as the strength of those afflictions. It is most useful when using limb-specific medical items (items that only affect limbs they are applied to with any extra healing power being discarded even if there are other limbs that could use that healing) as the HUD only shows consolidated values across all limbs.

The Health Bar is far more basic, displaying only your vitality bar and icons for any current afflictions but not the strength of those afflictions.

Some afflictions (such as husk infection[barotraumagame.com]) have a strength threshold, below which they will not appear on the Health GUI or Health Bar but will appear on the Health Scanner HUD which is another reason it is important for medics to wear whenever possible.

UPDATE: Many afflictions now have a threshold, below which they will not appear on the Health Scanner HUD. For example, husk infection will not appear until strength >= 20% and poisons >= 5%. However these thresholds are lower than the ones for the icon to appear on a character's Health Bar / Health GUI and the Health Scanner HUD remains an important tool for medical staff to use when diagnosing/treating patients.

Applying Medical Items

There are several ways to apply medical items[barotraumagame.com] to patients:

• Opening the Health GUI (for yourself or another character - default 'H', or for yourself - clicking on your character portrait at the bottom right of the screen below the Health Bar) and:
  
  • 1) pressing the hotkey corresponding to the inventory slot you wish to use, or
    
    
  • 2) dragging the item from your inventory to any limb on the GUI, or
    
    
  • 3) clicking on one of the "suitable treatment" buttons for an item you have in your inventory.
  
  
• Holding/equipping an item from your inventory, holding the aim button (default RMB) and clicking use (default LMB) to swing the item and apply it to the character/limb it contacts, and
  
  
• Inserting the item into a syringe gun[barotraumagame.com] (only certain items will fit), aiming the syringe gun (default RMB) and firing it (default LMB).

I find GUI #1 (or #2 for limb-specific items) to be the quickest/easiest method but use whatever works best for you.

The syringe gun should be avoided for healing purposes as it counts as a failed skill check (explained in the next section of this guide) or worse and is generally a waste of medicine. Outside of some specific cases (like raptor bane extract[barotraumagame.com]) the syringe gun is mostly used in PvP mode and by griefers. As of the Rising Tide update, syringe gun effects for items should be the same as other application methods.

Most medical items will apply their healing power across all limbs but some items (like bandages[barotraumagame.com]/plastiseal[barotraumagame.com]/antibiotic glue[barotraumagame.com]) are limb-specific. This means they only apply their healing power against afflictions on the limb to which they were applied with any remaining healing power being discarded even if there are other limbs with afflictions it could heal.

For example, a player with 30% burns can be healed by one bandage (-30 to burns) as long as those burns are entirely on one limb. If the player has 30% burns across multiple limbs (such as 15% on left arm, 15% on right arm) a bandage applied to the right arm will heal all 15% but the remaining 9% healing power will disappear and the left arm will remain with 15% burns.

Skill Checks

Every medical item[barotraumagame.com] has a medical skill[barotraumagame.com] requirement that is checked against your character's medical skill when you apply it (to your character or another).

If you pass the skill check you will get the maximum benefit from the item. Most items have different effects if the skill check is failed (usually a reduced positive effect and/or increased negative effect).

Medical items applied via syringe gun[barotraumagame.com] have their own set of effects which are often the same as a failed skill check but sometimes even worse, which is why syringe guns are generally only used to cause damage (as in PvP mode or by griefers) and not to heal it. As of the Rising Tide update, syringe gun effects for items should be the same as other application methods.

It is important to note that the skill check is a soft check and not a hard check. This means that instead of instantly failing a check if your character's skill is below the requirement, there's a roll to decide whether or not the check is passed. The smaller the delta between your skill and the required skill the more likely you are to pass the check (and vice versa).

Some items (like fentanyl[barotraumagame.com]) have very high skill checks well past the starting medical skill even for a medic. Other items (like opium[barotraumagame.com]) have far lower skill checks meaning non-medical crew are more likely to have success applying them. It is strongly suggested that you review the wiki's medical items page[barotraumagame.com] and familiarize yourself with the various skill requirements as well as pass/fail/syringe effects.

Generally non-medics should avoid applying medical items to themselves or other characters unless it is an emergency. If you or a crewmate need medical assistance you should call for a medic as they will generally be more efficient as using available medical resources both by passing skill checks and as they should have a better idea of what medical supplies the sub has available.

If non-medical crew wish to carry a couple of medical supplies for emergencies they are best off with low-skill-check items like opium (for burns/damage), bandages[barotraumagame.com] (for burns/bleeding), and saline[barotraumagame.com] (for bloodloss).

Common Afflictions

There are many afflictions[barotraumagame.com] in Barotrauma which have positive and/or negative effects on the character they are applied to.

The most common negative afflictions characters suffer from in Barotrauma are:

• Internal Damage[barotraumagame.com] (which can appear in different forms such as lacerations, blunt force trauma, gunshot wounds, bite wounds, organ damage, etc. but are all treated by the same medical items),
  
  
• Bleeding[barotraumagame.com],
  
  
• Bloodloss[barotraumagame.com],
  
  
• Burns[barotraumagame.com] ,and
  
  
• Oxygen Low[barotraumagame.com]

Internal damage, bleeding, and bloodloss often go hand-in-hand and will often be found on characters who have been attacked by creatures or other characters.

Burns are usually found on crew members who have failed multiple electrical skill checks, who have been exposed to a fire onboard the sub, or who have been attacked by ballast flora[barotraumagame.com].

Common treatments include applying an opiate (ex: opium[barotraumagame.com], morphine[barotraumagame.com], fentanyl[barotraumagame.com], etc.) to treat damage and/or burns (in the case of burns either when they co-exist with damage or are spread amongst multiple limbs and would be a waste of multiple bandages), bandages[barotraumagame.com] or plastiseal [barotraumagame.com]to treat burns and/or bleeding, and a blood product (like saline[barotraumagame.com], or blood packs[barotraumagame.com]) to treat bloodloss.

Try to maximize the healing potential of your medical items. For example, a character with 20% damage and 20% burns will be healed with one opium. So don't apply bandages first to heal the burns and then opium for the damage as it would be a waste of bandages. Likewise, don't apply a morphine when an opium will suffice. To help you make proper treatment decisions it is highly recommended you consult the wiki's medical items page[barotraumagame.com] and familiarize yourself with which items address which afflictions and to what extent.

While it is important to treat serious afflictions, it is not necessary to fully heal a patient as bleeding, bloodloss, and burns will slowly heal themselves (and damage will slowly heal when laying in a bed). So, for example, a patient with 60% bloodloss can be given one saline (-50 to bloodloss) which will reduce it to 10% at which point it can be left alone rather than wasting a saline for a fraction of its healing power.

Oxygen Low is found in characters who have become unconscious from taking enough damage (usually from the above afflictions) that their vitality has hit or dropped below 0 as unconscious characters stop breathing and will eventually die from suffocation if other injuries do not kill them first.

Sometimes you will find characters who are unconscious with oxygen low but no other afflictions. In these cases what has likely happened is the character started to suffocate (being in a room without oxygen or wearing a diving suit or diving mask that does not have an available oxygen source) and the oxygen low affliction grew large enough that it reduced their vitality to 0 or below before they could find an oxygen source.

Common treatments for characters with oxygen low are: as a secondary affliction to treat other primary afflictions to restore vitality above 0 and allow the character to resume breathing (at which point oxygen low will quickly disappear as long as they have access to an oxygen source), as a primary affliction (such that healing other afflictions will not put the character above 0 vitality) using CPR[barotraumagame.com], or a medical item like liquid oxygenite[barotraumagame.com] or deusizine[barotraumagame.com].

While those afflictions will likely represent the majority of medical situations you encounter you will also run into the other ones, like husk infection[barotraumagame.com], paralysis[barotraumagame.com], and psychosis[barotraumagame.com].

Some afflictions are usually not a concern if medical treatment is being performed properly (like opiate overdose[barotraumagame.com]) or are rarely encountered outside of PvP mode[barotraumagame.com] or griefers (such as poisons[barotraumagame.com]).

Regardless it is helpful to familiarize yourself with the list of afflictions as well as medical items that treat them.

Untreatable / Other Afflictions

While most afflictions are treatable by in-game medical items, some are not, such as:

• Space Herpes[barotraumagame.com]
  
  
• Reaper's Tax[barotraumagame.com]
  
  
• Stun[barotraumagame.com] (via disconnect)

Space Herpes is part of the karma[barotraumagame.com] system designed to reduce griefing. The only two ways it can be addressed are by the afflicted character behaving / completing "good" actions or by the server administrator with a console command[barotraumagame.com] like "resetkarma [afflicted player]"

Reaper's Tax (given to characters who die and respawn) can be treated in-game by paying 1,000 marks to an outpost NPC who will provide the opportunity when spoken to or, as of the Among the Ancients[barotraumagame.com] update, by using a cigar[barotraumagame.com] which is unavailable to medics but can be crafted by a captain with the Sailor With No Name talent[barotraumagame.com].

Stun is applied to a character when the player controlling them is disconnected from the server, regardless of whether the character has any other afflictions or is conscious or not. While stun caused by in-game weapons/items can be treated by medical items like meth[barotraumagame.com] and hyperzine[barotraumagame.com] (but is generally short enough in duration that it's not worth addressing), stun caused by a client disconnect is untreatable.

However the character can still die while the player is disconnected so efforts should be made to keep the character alive when reasonably practicable, as if/when the player reconnects they will regain control of their character if it is still alive and conscious. After a certain amount of time (set by the server settings) a character belonging to a disconnected player will die (even if otherwise healthy). In these cases the cause of death will be listed as "brain dead".

If you notice a crew member who is listed as "stunned" it is worth checking the chat box to see if there's a message from the server indicating that the controlling player was disconnected for some reason.

Stabilizing Patients

While most afflictions[barotraumagame.com] are stable (meaning that they will not cause further damage / loss of vitality over and above the current amount) some are unstable and should be prioritized for treatment in order to stabilize a patient.

When treating patients it is advisable to stabilize them first to provide time to assess any other afflictions and decide on the best course of treatment.

In cases where multiple patients have unstable afflictions it is best to only treat each patient, in order of priority from most to least severe, until they have been stabilized before moving on to the next patient in order to maximize the chances of keeping them all alive. Once all patients have been stabilized their remaining afflictions can then be assessed for further treatment.

The two unstable afflictions that you will encounter most frequently are:

• Bleeding[barotraumagame.com]
  
  
• Oxygen Low[barotraumagame.com]

While the damage caused by bleeding itself will not increase (and actually decrease as bleeding will heal by itself slowly over time) it will continue to apply bloodloss[barotraumagame.com] which will cause further damage (although, like bleeding, bloodloss will also heal itself slowly over time).

In minor cases bleeding (and bloodloss) can usually be ignored but in severe cases (high bleeding/blood loss or moderate bleeding/bloodloss coupled with other afflictions which threaten to drop a character's vitality enough to render them unconscious) it should be addressed swiftly, most commonly with bandages[barotraumagame.com] or plastiseal[barotraumagame.com].

Oxygen Low is not unstable in and of itself but depends on the patient and their environment. When a character falls unconscious (vitality reaches 0 or below) they will stop breathing, even if they have access to oxygen. When unconscious (or without access to oxygen) the affliction will continue to grow until it reaches max strength (which will almost certainly result in the character's death).

It is generally only treated when it is a patient's primary affliction, such that treating the other afflictions will not sufficiently reduce damage to put the character's vitality above 0 and restore them to a conscious state (which will allow them to resume breathing on their own at which point, if they have access to oxygen, the oxygen low affliction will take care of itself).

Common courses of treatment include CPR[barotraumagame.com] or the application of a medical item such as liquid oxygenite[barotraumagame.com] or deusizine[barotraumagame.com].

Less frequently you will also encounter husk infection[barotraumagame.com] (treated with antibiotics[barotraumagame.com] or calyxanide[barotraumagame.com]) and paralysis[barotraumagame.com] (treated with anaparalyzant[barotraumagame.com] or buffotoxin[barotraumagame.com]), usually around alien ruins[barotraumagame.com] / wrecks[barotraumagame.com] or thalamus wrecks[barotraumagame.com], respectively.

There are other unstable afflictions (such as poisons[barotraumagame.com]) which are more rare in general gameplay but may be found in PvP[barotraumagame.com]/traitor[barotraumagame.com] modes or when griefers are present.

CPR - What it Does and When to Do It

CPR[barotraumagame.com] is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the medical system.

Many people believe it is the go-to treatment for unconscious crewmembers and that it will restore them to health when in reality it is only really useful in a limited number of circumstances.

In order to know when to use it we must first establish what it can and cannot do.

CPR can:

• Reduce or eliminate the oxygen low[barotraumagame.com] affliction regardless of whether or not the character has access to an oxygen source.
  
  
• Restore consciousness to unconscious characters IF oxygen low is their primary affliction (meaning that if it is removed the character's vitality, however low, will be above 0).
  
  
• Extend the life of an unconscious character (solely by virtue of reducing oxygen low) in order to buy time for a medic to arrive and provide proper treatment.
  
  
• Cause internal damage[barotraumagame.com] to the patient if your medical skill is below 20 (and the lower your medical skill the more damage you will cause).

CPR can NOT:

• Address/reduce any afflictions other than oxygen low
  
  
• Restore consciousness to characters who have any other affliction(s) which put their vitality at or below 0

It is important to note that once a character falls unconscious they will stop breathing, even if they have access to an oxygen source, and the oxygen low affliction will continue to increase in strength and almost certainly cause their death even if all their other afflictions are stable.

Thus it is not enough to simply replace an empty oxygen tank or pull a character out of water or a room without oxygen and into one with an adequate supply of it.

In most cases a character is rendered unconscious from afflictions aside from oxygen low.

The best course of treatment is usually to apply a medicine to address one or more of those afflictions and bring the character's vitality back above 0, at which point they will regain consciousness and the oxygen low affliction will quickly disappear, as long as they have access to an oxygen source.

If you are wearing a health scanner HUD (which medics should be wearing at all times unless the situation warrants otherwise) it will be relatively easy to determine whether a player is unconscious primarily due to oxygen low or a combination of one or more other afflictions.

If you are not wearing one you will have to open the affected character's health interface (default H when mouse is over them).

The first thing to check is the vitality bar (which will always be red for unconscious characters) as it will inform you how close the character is to death / how quickly you need to react. The shorter the red bar or the faster it is moving, the faster you need to act.

After that you can click on their limbs to see information about their various afflictions to determine the best course of action, which may include both CPR as well as administering one or more medical items.

When to use CPR:

• When a character's primary affliction is oxygen low (which is usually due to them either being unable to get a diving suit or diving mask on when underwater or having their suit/mask run out of oxygen and not having anything to replace it with).
  
  
• When a character is unconscious and their vitality is so low a medic is unlikely to reach them in time (and they have no primary affliction aside from oxygen low or you lack opiates/replacement blood to try and address relevant afflictions).

To start CPR on a patient, open their Health Interface (default key H while mouse is over them) and click on the CPR button at the bottom left. The icon will change to show that CPR is being performed.

If you and the patient are pulled apart for any reason (like room flooding, or the sub crashing into something at higher speeds) CPR will stop and you will have to manually restart it.

To stop CPR you can click on the CPR button again or close the health interface / move away from the patient.

Suggested Medical Loadouts

Here are suggested medical loadouts for both non-medics and medics. These are guidelines and can be adjusted based on your particular circumstances.

Non Medics:
• 2-4 opium[barotraumagame.com] (or, failing that, pomegrenade extract[barotraumagame.com])
  
  
• 4-8 bandages[barotraumagame.com]
  
  
• 1-2 saline[barotraumagame.com]

Non-Medic Notes:
• If you're looking for medical supplies, good medics will place "care packages" for crews in the medicine cabinet[barotraumagame.com] when supplies allow but it's best to confirm with medical staff BEFORE taking any medical supplies from medbay.
  
  
• You should NOT take medical supplies from the small emergency supplies cabinets[barotraumagame.com] located around the sub for your personal storage/loadout so that they remain there for anyone to grab in case of emergency (the life you save may be your own!)
  
  
• Some crewmembers will craft their opium allotment into morphine[barotraumagame.com] but this is generally discouraged as although one morphine has slightly more healing power than the two opiums that combine to make it, if the medical skill check is failed (morphine at 30, twice the skill requirement for opium) then the player will have used two opuim but only received slightly more healing than they would have from using one.

Medics:
• 8 opium (for treating minor injuries without wasting morphine)
  
  
• 8 morphine (for treating moderate/serious injuries)
  
  
• 8 bandages
  
  
• 8 plastiseal[barotraumagame.com] (or 16 bandages or 16 plastiseal depending on available supplies)
  
  
• 8 saline (or 8 blood packs[barotraumagame.com])

Medic Notes:
• This is just a general guideline. You may have to adjust it based on available supplies as you want to ensure any other medics also have some on them.
  
  
• Unlike opiates and blood replacement, bandages/plastiseal are limb-specific and a medic can easily use a half-stack treating one patient, which is why two stacks are recommended.
  
  
• UPDATE: As of the Rising Tide update, opiates no longer significantly address burns so bandages/plastiseal are all the more important to carry for addressing them.
  
  
• Blood packs are usually overkill as one saline is often enough (and when it isn't, you can always apply more) so it's not worth a second inventory slot to carry blood packs or the expense of fabricating them.
  
  Instead it is recommended that blood packs are deconstructed into saline as well as alien blood[barotraumagame.com] - useful if you have a pulse laser[barotraumagame.com] and/or an assistant with the psycho clown talent[barotraumagame.com] - and stabilozine[barotraumagame.com]- useful both against poisons[barotraumagame.com] as well as researching genetic material[barotraumagame.com].)
  
  Update v0.18.11.0 introduced lossy deconstruction where many items now only return a portion of the items required to craft them. For this reason it is no longer recommended to deconstruct existing blood packs.
  
  
• Depending on the situation and your playstyle/experience you may wish to carry other items - for example, naloxone[barotraumagame.com], if (un)intentional overdoses are common where you play.
  
  
• If you're in an area where husks are suspected (or have been spotted) some antibiotics[barotraumagame.com] or calyxanide[barotraumagame.com] are good to have on hand.
  
  
• Likewise, if you're near a thalamus[barotraumagame.com], it can be useful to have quick access to anaparalyzant[barotraumagame.com].

General Tips and Advice

Here are some general tips and advice for everyone:

• If you're seriously injured / about to lose consciousness, IMMEDIATELY inform your crew/medic where you are and that you need immediate medical assistance (just saying "HELP" is almost useless) in whatever ways you can (voice chat, radio/text chat, clicking on the "call medic" button located to the right of the chat box) as once you fall unconscious your crewmates will NOT be able to hear you / read your text and you'll have to hope someone just happens to find you.
  
  
  
• If you notice an unconscious crewmate (keep an eye out for downed people with visible, but empty vitality bars as well as crewmates wearing diving suits that still have a light shining out of them) IMMEDIATELY inform your crew/medic as above in order to maximize the chances of saving their life.
  
  
  
• DON'T crowd the patient. For some reason people seem to gather over/around an unconscious/seriously injured person which does nothing except make it more difficult for the medic to heal them and as time is of the essence could make the difference between the patient living and dying.
  
  
  
  
  
• If you're conscious and need treatment, STOP MOVING to make it easier for the medic to assess/treat you and stand clear of other characters (again as above to make it easier for the medic to see/treat you)
  
  
• Know who the ship medics are. While a medical uniform is an obvious clue, your medics will often be found wearing diving suits that will make it impossible to see their clothes. If you know who the medics are it will make it easier to keep out of their way when they're treating a patient (or to stop moving when you see them and need treatment) as well as stop you from worrying as much if someone in a diving suit injects you with something (unless you recognize that they AREN'T a medic in which case you'll know to call one to check and make sure you haven't been given anything bad.)
  
  
• If you want to carry some basic medical supplies as a non-medic, don't just take them, ask the medics first (if they are good and supplies allow they will have some set aside in the medicine cabinet for the crew). Do NOT take supplies from the emergency supply cabinets located around the sub UNLESS it is an emergency and you intend to use them right away.
  
  
• If a medic is down and no other medics are present (or nearby) hit G to grab them and check their inventory for medical supplies you can use to help revive them. This applies for other crewmembers as well when a medic isn't present and you have no medical supplies of your own. Don't forget to also check nearby emergency supplies cabinets.
  
  
• If you need to revive someone quickly and aren't sure what their afflictions are / don't have time to check, a saline/blood pack and/or a strong opiate (M+/F+) will often get them back on their feet or at least buy time for a medic to arrive and treat them.

Tips and Advice for Medics

Here are some tips and advice for medics:

• Always wear your health scanner HUD whenever possible.
  
  
• Lock up dangerous and important medical items in the toxin cabinet[barotraumagame.com] if available. These cabinets should be ID locked so only medics and the captain can access them which reduces the chances of griefers and other crewmembers stealing/abusing/wasting them.
  
  You can increase the available storage space by placing storage containers[barotraumagame.com] inside the cabinet.
  
  
• When there is a sufficient supply of medical items (anything over what the medics need to carry plus a bit extra for them to resupply):
  
  first, ensure to stock the emergency supply cabinets[barotraumagame.com] around the sub
  
  then, put out "care packages" of medical supplies in the medicine cabinet[barotraumagame.com] for the crew to have access to.
  
  in both cases items with low medical skill check requirements should be used whenever possible. Recommended supplies per emergency supply cabinet / "care package":
  
  
  
  • 2-4 opium[barotraumagame.com] (or, failing that, pomegrenade extract[barotraumagame.com])
    
    
  • 4-8 bandages[barotraumagame.com]
    
    
  • 1-2 saline[barotraumagame.com]
  
  
  You may also want to include a few of the following in the medicine cabinet in case of emergency (but make sure you have spares in the toxin cabinet in case someone steals the public ones):
  
  
  • Stabilozine[barotraumagame.com] (for general poison treatment)
    
    
  • Antibiotics[barotraumagame.com] and/or Calyxanide[barotraumagame.com] (for husk infections[barotraumagame.com])
    
    
  • Anaparalyzant[barotraumagame.com] (for paralysis[barotraumagame.com], often from contact with leucocytes[barotraumagame.com]).
  
  
• Saline is fine in most cases (and when not, you can apply more) so it's not worth using an extra inventory slot to carry blood packs[barotraumagame.com].
  
  See Update v0.18.11.0
  It is suggested that you deconstruct blood packs into:
  
  • saline
    
    
  • alien blood[barotraumagame.com] (useful if you have a pulse laser[barotraumagame.com] and/or an assistant with the psycho clown talent[barotraumagame.com]) and
    
    
  • stabilozine (useful both against poisons for researching genetic material[barotraumagame.com].)
  
  
  
• Practice medicine on the go: don't hang out in med bay sitting around if you aren't using the medical fabricator[barotraumagame.com]. Instead, regularly patrol the ship.
  
  This will give you the opportunity to more quickly treat crewmembers (who are often busy with their own jobs and don't always make time to come to med bay) as they work. You can also check the emergency supply cabinets to see if medical supplies need restocking.
  
  Patrolling may also allow you to discover things like husk infection[barotraumagame.com] or poisonings[barotraumagame.com] more rapidly where time is of the essence as well as allow you to alert your crewmembers to other issues (damaged equipment, leaks, creatures on-board, etc.) in areas that may not be visited by another crewmember in the immediate future.
  
  
• Use medicine efficiently - some examples include:
  
  
  • If a character has burns and damage, before applying bandages for the burns consider whether an opiate is appropriate to address both instead, saving the bandages.
    
    
  • If a character has only burns, roughly what would be healed by a single bandage but they are distributed across multiple limbs, consider whether a single opium might be a better choice (especially if the patient also has damage or you have plenty of opium and are low on bandages).
    
    
  • If a character has both bleeding and burns, consider applying bandages to address both rather than an opiate to address the burns and then a bandage to address the bleeding.
    
    
  • Don't feel the need to heal everyone to 100%. Burns, bleeding, and bloodloss will all heal on their own over time (and damage can be healed over time by laying in a bed) so once you get them down to a minor level they are usually fine to be left to sort themselves out.
    
    If a crewmember has 60% bloodloss, for example, it's not worth using two saline (-50 each to bloodloss) on them as the second one will be almost entirely wasted and leaving the crewmember with 10% remaining bloodloss is acceptable as it is not life-threatening and will go away by itself in the near future.
    
    
  • While experienced crewmembers are generally fine with having their vitality in the 80-100% range, some newer crewmembers feel anxious even with very minor injuries.
    In their case rather than waste an opium on what amounts to a few scratches, consider the generally-irrelevant (very poor healing, less than 1/3 of an opium) pomegrenade extract instead to give them peace of mind (and to prevent them from stealing/wasting medical supplies trying to heal it themselves).
    
    
  • Consult the wiki to familiarize yourself with common medical items, the afflictions they address, and in what amounts, in order to treat a patient's afflictions with the most appropriate medical items.
  
  
• Use your medical fabricator at the start / when you have downtime and convert your raw materials into usable medical supplies so you have them BEFORE an emergency strikes!
  
  
• Unless you have a specific need for some of them, most poisons should not be left around (even in a locked toxin cabinet as griefers do spawn as medics/captains as well as steal ID cards from dead ones).
  
  Best practice is to use the medical fabricator to combine them with stabilozine (and other materials as required) and turn them into antidotes[barotraumagame.com] instead since, importantly, antidotes can NOT be deconstructed to retrieve the underlying poison.
  
  
• Communicate with the crew:
  
  
  • It can be helpful to let patients know what medical items you are applying to them as they may hear the syringe noise may panic and/or falsely accuse you of poisoning them.
    
    
  • Remind crewmembers when the situation warrants (ex: you're at a thalamus or alien ruins or husks are expected or have been spotted nearby) that if they even suspect they have been poisoned/infected to let the medics know immediately.
    
    
  • Remind crewmembers at the start of the round of the importance of them communicating with you (voice, text, "call medic" button) especially when they are in immediate danger / about to lose consciousness and to not just yell "HELP!" but to tell you where they are (and if possible what the issue is in case you need to retrieve appropriate medical items).
    
    
  • Remind crewmembers to be on the lookout for plants[barotraumagame.com], especially when monitoring periscopes or outside of the sub as unlike minerals[barotraumagame.com] they will not appear on when using the mineral scanner function of a sonar or handheld sonar. This is even more important when medical supplies are low.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read this guide in an effort to improve your medical skills/knowledge and become a better crewmate!

I hope that you have found it at least somewhat helpful/informative!

If you have any comments/suggestions/criticism please feel free to leave them below!

UPDATES

This section is for notes regarding patches/updates that affect the medical system / this guide.

I will attempt to update the guide itself but in cases where I have missed something and information in the guide conflicts with updates listed below, the information in this section should be considered most current.

November 30, 2022

• Update v0.18.11.0 introduced lossy deconstruction where many items now only return a portion of the items required to craft them. For this reason it is no longer recommended to deconstruct existing blood packs.

May 3, 2022

• At some point (may have been the Rising Tide update or a small patch shortly thereafter - I didn't see it noted in any changelog) many afflictions have been updated to use a threshold for the affliction to appear on the Health Scanner HUD (in addition to the existing threshold to appear on the Health Bar / Health GUI). Notably, husk infections now will not appear until strength >= 20% and poisons >= 5%.

February 24, 2022 - Rising Tide - v 0.16.6.1

• Opiates (opium, morphine, fentanyl) nerfed for burn treatment and now barely address burns at all. Pomegrenade extract retains previous burn treatment which was not much but now the highest of the group.
  
• Bandages, plastiseal, and antibiotic glue buffed for treatment of burns and bleeding but remain limb-specific.
  
• Reduced burns from using deusizine.
  
• Health Scanner HUD no longer shows talent-related afflictions (ex: melodic respite).
  
• Ability to purchase crew healing has been added to outposts.
  
• Syringe gun updated: It should no longer be an automatic fail on medical skill check and instead have the same effects as if the contained medical item was applied in any other manner.
  
• First husk infection message (ex: "your throat feels sore") no longer displayed immediately upon infection but instead when the infection advances to 25 strength.

[Thrillhouse]

Thank you. This guide helped clear up quite a few things I was wondering about.

[Squidamari]

Legalize Anabolic Steroids

[itoaster___]

Oh. And you have to make sure to sneakily shoot all the paralyzant at them from a distance with a syringe gun.

[itoaster___]

The length of this guide is needless. All you need to do as a medic is to inject your teammates with anaparalyzant to give them psychosis and then make sure to hide all the cigars, pipe tobacco, rum, haloperidol and ethanol.

[FinetalPies]

It got a mention at the end of the guide itself but I just wanna correct my comment from February aboot how bad the syringe gun is for healing.
"As of the Rising Tide update, items applied via Syringe Gun now function the same as if injected directly."

[Terragen]

Thank you Inci2137 for catching that, I have updated the guide!

[Pyrokar2137]

Very good guide! I just have to correct that currently saline is deconstructed into sodium and stabilizine instead of saline, alien blood and stabilizine. Sodium is very useful in crating UEX or saline, but nevertheless nowadays we lose chlorine and alien blood when deconstructing.

[Catfish]

Great guide! Very detailed and useful.

[FinetalPies]

If you really have more morphine than you know what to do with, selling it would still be a more effective use than shooting it to heal people badly

[I ate your pancakes]

I just got my family to get the game, thanks to this manual, I can keep the new crew alive!