Health, Medicine & Healing

It’s dangerous to go alone! take this. Sorry, wrong game.

But the sentiment remains the same – if you want to enjoy your time playing Starfield, you’ll need to know how to keep yourself alive and thriving. While I prefer the tried and tested method of toggling to ‘very easy’ difficulty, apparently some of you like a challenge and want to play the game as intended (could never be me).

To help you more talented players, we’ve compiled a guide of everything you need to know about health, medicine and healing in Starfield, so you can take on the whole galaxy.

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The Basics of Healing in Starfield

Two Ways to Patch Up: You’ve got choices when it comes to healing up. First off, there’s the classic method: dive into your inventory, grab that healing item and hit ‘A’ on your controller or ‘E’ on your keyboard. But if you’re all about efficiency (and with the amount of menus in Starfield, who isn’t?), the quickslot is your best friend. Mark those crucial healing items as ‘Favourite’ in your inventory and they’re just a quick button away when things get dicey.

Your Healing Toolkit: From high-tech Med Packs to good ol’ snacks, Starfield’s got your back. Keep an eye out for Emergency Kits, Med Packs, and Trauma Packs – these can be found on your adventures or grabbed at space shops. Need a nibble? Food’s not just for the taste – it’ll patch you up too. And for those with culinary skills, those special outpost dishes offer extra healing goodness. Dive into some Pharmacology research if crafting your own healing goodies sounds like your jam.

Trauma Pack: 8% Health/s for 4 seconds. Quick and efficient.
Med Pack: 4% Health/s for 10 seconds. Slow, steady, reliable.
Emergency Kit: 15% Health/s for 4 seconds. Like Trauma Pack but better.
Heart+: Boost of +20% Health for 2 minutes.

Make the most of your healing items

If you want to make the items above more effective, invest in your Medicine skill. Like all skills in Starfield, it spans 4 ranks, starting from rank 1 and culminating at rank 4.

This is what each level gives you:

Rank 1: Med Packs, Trauma Packs and Emergency Kits restore 10% additional Health 10% faster.
Rank 2: Med Packs, Trauma Packs and Emergency Kits restore 20% additional Health 20% faster.
Rank 3: Med Packs, Trauma Packs and Emergency Kits restore 30% additional Health 30% faster.
Rank 4: Med Packs, Trauma Packs and Emergency Kits restore 50% additional Health 50% faster, and have a chance to cure an affliction.

Considering the number of cosmic scrapes and space bruises you might accumulate, leaning into the Medicine skill seems like a smart call.

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Level Up Your Healing Game

Medicine isn’t the only skill worth looking at to harden yourself from cosmic dangers.

Here’s the full list of skills we recommend checking out for optimised healing in Starfield:

Rejuvenation

Rank One: Enables a gradual health regeneration when outside of combat situations.
Rank Two: Increases the speed of health regeneration outside of combat scenarios.
Rank Three: Provides a significant boost to out-of-combat health regeneration and introduces a slow regeneration during combat.
Rank Four: Maximises the rate of health regeneration outside of combat and augments in-combat regeneration.

Cellular Regeneration

Rank One: Offers a slight improvement in the natural recovery from injuries.
Rank Two: Increases the probability of recovering from injuries without external aid.
Rank Three: Further boosts the natural healing rate, reducing the reliance on medical items.
Rank Four: Grants a 20% chance to avoid injuries that would otherwise occur.

Nutrition

Rank One: Increases the effectiveness of food and drink by 10%.
Rank Two: Boosts the benefits of consumables, with food and drink now being 20% more effective.
Rank Three: Consumed items are 30% more potent in their effects.
Rank Four: Achieves peak nutritional efficiency, with food and drink being 50% more effective.

Pain Tolerance

Rank One: Decreases incoming physical damage by 5%.
Rank Two: Further mitigates physical damage, offering a 10% reduction.
Rank Three: Continues to enhance damage resilience with a 15% reduction.
Rank Four: Gives you a 5% chance to completely ignore physical damage when health is critically low.

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Boosting Your Health Bar

Wellness Skill: Want more health to play with? Levelling up your Wellness skill is the answer. At its max, you’re looking at a 40% increase.

Alien DNA Trait: One to consider right at the start of your adventure – extra health in exchange for a slight dip in healing from food and meds.

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Understanding Status Effects in Starfield

Venturing into uncharted alien terrains isn’t just about dodging otherworldly creatures and rugged (somewhat attractive) space pirates. Starfield has an array of status effects that can throw a wrench in your spacefaring adventures. From nasty infections to the woes of a broken bone, these setbacks can hinder your journey, reduce your health, and limit your movement.

There’s currently 18 status effects in Starfield, with each having its own antidote. To suss out which ones are currently causing you grief, just pop open the Character Menu and click the “Status” button. There you’ll find any issues highlighted on the screen’s right. If it’s all clear, congrats! You’re sailing smooth without any status hiccups.

While you’re engrossed in gameplay, keep an eye on the compass HUD element in the bottom-left of the screen. Any icons popping up? They’re giving you a heads up about a brewing status effect. Unsure what those little symbols mean? Head back to the “Status Effects” screen with the steps above for clarity.

How to resolve Status Effects

Got an ailment? Starfield’s got two remedies. One’s a trip to a doctor, and the other involves gulping down the right Aid item. Doctor visits come with a 1000 credits price tag, so is really only a last resort when you’re missing the specific Aid item for your malaise.

Here’s a handy list of Starfield’s status effects and their respective cures:

• Brain Injury – Injector or Snake Oil
• Burn – Heal Paste
• Concussion – Injector or Snake Oil
• Contusion – Bandages or Zipper Bandages
• Dislocated Limb – Immobilizer
• Fractured Limb – Immobilizer
• Fractured Skull – Immobilizer
• Frostbite – Heal Paste
• Heatstroke – Injector or Snake Oil
• Hernia – Injector or Snake Oil
• Hypothermia – Injector or Snake Oil
• Infection – Antibiotics
• Laceration – Bandages or Zipper Bandages
• Lung Damage – Injector or Snake Oil
• Poisoned – Injector or Snake Oil
• Puncture Wound – Bandages or Zipper Bandages
• Radiation Poisoning – Injector or Snake Oil
• Torn Muscle – Immobilizer

So, there you have it! A brief run-through to help you stay healthy while forging out your story in Starfield.

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