MVM : How to use Health Regeneration

I have seen a lot of players in MVM that buys Health Regeneration without truly knowing when to buy, or that don't even knows why they bought it. In this guide, I will teach you what is the Health Regeneration upgrade, when to use it, and why you should or shouldn't buy it.

What is the Health Regeneration upgrade ?

The Health Regeneration upgrade is an upgrade available in the Mann Vs. Machine gamemode. This upgrade can be found in the body upgrade section and is available for every classes. For 200$, you recover 2 health per seconds. You can buy a maximum of 5 Health Regeneration upgrades, which is +10 health per seconds for 1000$. As opposed to the Medic's health regen, the health you receive from this upgrade will always be the same.

General : Health regen for classes that kills a lot of robots

Soldier, Pyro, Demoman and Heavy. These four classes, not only have a big amount of health, but also kills a lot of robots, thanks to their weapons with AOE and/or a big damage output. You are going to ask : what does this have to with Health regeneration ? Let's speak about an other upgrade for a moment : Health on Kill.


The Health on kill upgrade allows to recover health for each robot killed. Each point allows you to recover 25 health per robot killed, this means if you have 3 points in this upgrade, you will recover 75 health per robot killed. If you kill a robot at full health, you will receive a temporary overheal. You can have up to 4 point in this upgrades, for 200$ each, which means 800$ for 100 health recovered per robot killed.

25 health per kill and a possible overheal, compared to 2 health per second recovered, is a LOT ! Especially for these classes which tends to kill robots per groups of five ! Heck, even 10 health per seconds is nothing (and cost 1000$, compared to 25 health for 200$, it's pretty simple to know which one is better).

And, even without the health on kill upgrade, the big health pool these classes have makes the Health Regeneration upgrade barely worth it : fully upgraded, it takes 18 seconds for a Pyro or a Demoman to completly recover their health, 20 seconds for a Soldier, and 30 seconds for a Heavy. This doesn't seems a lot, but in TF2, this is an eternity. Better go look for a health kit or a Dispenser at this point.

Sniper and Health regen

I wanted to put the Sniper in the category above, since, thanks to Explosive Headshots, he kills a lot of robots too. However, he's a special case. Compared to the 4 classes above, the Sniper have a pretty small health pool (125hp) but isn't facing the robots face to face, which means he doesn't take a lot of damages.

So 200$ to not run for a health kit every time a random bullet does 3 damages to the Sniper isn't a bad idea, right ? Wrong. A smart Sniper will be in a position where he have access to an ammo pack. And who say ammo pack, say health pack next to it. And even without a health kit next to him, a Sniper better just grab a Health on kill upgrade in the mid-to-late waves so he don't have to worry about health anymore. And it would also helps more in a case where the Sniper is at low health.

Scout and Health regen

Now let's get serious. This is the main reason why I made this guide : misuse of the Health regen upgrade on a Scout.

A Scout only have 125 health, and is always at the front grabbing the money, which means he regularly takes damages. A good candidate for Health regen upgrades no ? Well, he's the catch, the Scout have a better way to recover health, which is the same reason a team have a Scout : money.

When a Scout grab a pile of cash (which isn't a problem as he grab all the cash in a radius around him), he recover health. This can easily goes up to 50 health per pile of cash ! And, if that wasn't enough, he can get overhealed by this cash, and the overheal decay really, really, really slowly. This is not unusual to see a Scout with above 500 health running around grabbing the cash his team leave behind for him to even get more health.

This makes the Health regen rather useless no ? Heck, this can even makes resistances useless ! (Excepted the crit one, this, you will always need it when facing crit robots)

Engineer and Health regen

The Engineer kills a lot of robots, thanks to his sentry. But he can't buy a Health on kill upgrade to allow his sentry to make him recover health ! He have to find an other way to get health, mostly with only 125 health and robots that keeps shooting at his sentry, shots that can damage him by the same occasion. Health regen could do the trick no ? Well, no, it can't.

Similar to the Sniper, and Engineer needs metal. He can get it or from his Dispenser, or from ammo packs. In the case he's close to his Dispenser, he will get health from it, so Health regen isn't needed. But if he's close to an ammo pack (because his Dispenser would be close to his teammates, the ones that needs it), he will generally be close to a health kit too, so Health regen isn't needed here either.

However, as opposed to the Sniper, he don't have a solutions against these occasional 3 damages from far away robot Scouts : using a health kit there would be a waste. Consider having a point in Health regen in the latter waves if this happens to you, since you need to get other upgrades first.

Medic and Health regen

Now this is getting pretty interesting. The Medic, a class that barely kills any robots, with only 150 health, AND which is a primary target for the robots. Looks like we got a good candidate for Health regeneration ! Oh wait no, we don't...

The Medic have by default a form of health regeneration : he recover 3 health per seconds after taking damages, 4 health per seconds after 5 seconds without taking damages, and 6 health per seconds after not taking damages for 10 seconds. Let's look at the worst and best case scenarios : 3 health per seconds is more than one Health regen upgrade, but less than 2 ; 6 health per seconds is equal to 3 Health regen upgrades. Every health regen simply add 2 health to the health regeneration (which means 5 to 8 health recovered for one Health upgrade, and 13 to 16 health recovered for 1000$ worth of Health regen upgrades)

Now let's look at the Healing Mastery upgrade, only available for the Medic's mediguns. For 250$, not only he heal and revive his teammates 25% faster, but also increase his default health regeneration by 25%, and can have up to 4 points in this upgrade. In term of numbers, this is +0.75 health per seconds after taking damages per points in Healing Mastery, and +1.5 health per seconds after not taking damages for 10 seconds. This means, when maxed out for 1000$, the medic recover 6 health after taking damages, and 12 health after not taking damages for 10 seconds.

12 health, this is more than the Health regen can give when maxed out, and health regen doesn't give more healing by the same occasion. Health regen can't compete with this.

But, if you are not the kind of player that do not buy Healing Mastery (Shield bashing medics or Battle Medics for example, which I do NOT advise to play as if you are a beginner), Health regen with resistances can do the trick for your survival.

Spy and Health Regen

A good Spy will be in the middle of the robots, looking for Giants to backstab (a bad Spy would be there too but would sap everything instead). When a Spy attack, he lose his disguise, robots attack him, and he use the Dead Ringer. However, since the Dead Ringer nerf (Gun Mettle update), a Spy will most of the time ends up with less than 75 health after taking a rocket to the face, and needs to find health and recover his Dead Ringer if he wants to go back in the fight again. A Spy can recover his Dead Ringer by waiting, grabbing ammo packs or going to a Dispenser, but what about health ?

If a Spy goes to a Dispenser, the problem is solved. If he looks for an ammo pack, he will find most of the time a health kit next to it and the problem is solved. However, if a Spy wait for his Dead Ringer to recover while doing things such as grabbing the money (because the Spy is also a good money grabber, and he WILL grab the money), he will still need health.

This is where the Health regeneration upgrade kicks in. With only 125 health, it won't take long for a Spy to be at full health with a couple of health regen upgrades. Instead of buying Health on kill (since you will be, most of the time, at full health when backstabbing AND you will be backstabbing a Giant so the chances you will kill him will be low), just buy some Health regen !

Conclusion : tl;dr

You should buy Health regen if :
- You don't kill a lot of robots (buy Health on kill instead)
- You don't have a large health pool (~125 health)
- You don't have any reliable way of healing (health kits, Dispenser...)
- You are not a Scout (grab cash to recover health and even get overheal (go up to 500 health !))
- You are not a Medic (buy Healing Mastery instead)

If you have any question or notes, just post them in the comment section below. I will be answering to you and adapt my guide to your answers and commentary

Don't forget to check my other MVM related guides, this might interest you :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=386948630
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=340356042
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=390349912

Have a good day, and give those robots hell !

[★ UP | Die Man]

also by the medic when you use the kritskrieg and taunt you get faster health and the Regeneration per second is higher after taunting

[Quenquent the babysitter]

@Heart and Soul
Because I keep on meeting mentally challenged Scouts with Health regen maxed out, and some people might not know that it can help with Spy's health problems

[Stimpski]

Why did this need a guide? The upgrade is pretty much useless in all cases, no matter what you're playing

[·exo·]

or you just ignore the upgrade at all and tell the scout to get ammo canteens and to do his full job, which is to collect money and milk a ton of robots,

[Chinese Rice Farmer]

tl;dr but it seems to be a great guide.

[Zurkov]

Regen is for anti-giant duty. Health on kill doesn't do shit if you're shooting all your bullets at a lone giant (or a tank, for that matter), and any extra health recovery means you get to shoot at him that much longer. It's not a high priority, but even 1 point in regen makes a big difference. Even with health on kill, if you take enough damage to bite into your non-overheal health it's nice to have regen to recover a little extra health without having to spend your kill overheal refilling it.

[Tesla Coil]

I think it's somewhat related. I see people pick health regen over resistances a lot. I used to do it too when I was new - my logic was "for $200, I can recover health from ALL damage types instead of paying $300 to defend against ONE damage type" or something like that.

Well anyway, it's your guide and your choice.

[Quenquent the babysitter]

I think speaking of resistances here would be out of topic, since I speak about ways to heal yourself. My guide is not to promote resistances, but to speak about the misuse of Health regen

[Tesla Coil]

Good guide. I actually normally do get a point in Health Regen on Sniper, but it's a reeeeally low-priority upgrade. It just bugs me when I have 123 HP instead of 125.

One thing I'd note, though... neither Health on Kill or Health Regen stop you from dying in one hit to a giant crit robot with +50000% damage, or dying in half a second from a horde of crit robots. You should mention that resists are important for the classes on the front lines, not just Health on Kill.

[Frau Jules]

As a amateur spy, I can vouch that there is a middle ground for Spy performance.

As far as hok vs regen on him, for the most part you'll be fighting giants, and you won't always get the last hit. Plus, at the core of spy, it's a class where you usually be taking damage AFTER you do your job, rather than before, so regen synergies better. After you get other key upgrades of course.