History Main / HealThyself

*** Parodied in ''VideoGame/FarCry3:BloodDragon'': one of the self-healing animations involve the use of a blowtorch to fix your robotic arm, while another involves ''rapidly squeezing a pair of hand grips''.

* ''FarCry 2'' mixes this trope with elements of its direct opposite, WalkItOff. Your health meter is divided into five blocks. If you take damage, then get away for a bit, your health will refill, but only to the top of the block you're currently down in, except the last critical block (more on that later). To actually get back to full health, you have to inject yourself with little healing syrettes that you find in traditional medical cabinets and boxes around the game world. Perhaps most interestingly, if you're knocked to your last health block, it starts ''draining'' slowly instead of regenerating. To escape this, you have to trigger a longer emergency healing sequence (some of the animations for which are disturbing enough to be nightmarish), which brings you back to 2 full health blocks.

* Generally speaking, in the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series, healing is primarily achieved through a HyperactiveMetabolism - namely, eating rations or other food.

* The LifeMeter-enabled ''SlyCooper'' games had not normal white boxes with the red plus sign, but actual red crosses that scattered around, spinning on the lower leg. Not sure if that'd run afoul of the Red Cross trademark or not.

* The game ''JaggedAlliance 2'' features a fairly realistic injury system. Characters will take hits first to their armor, reducing its effectiveness in future battles. They will then take the hit to their health. This will show up on the health bar as a yellow area. When they are healed in the field, this will be covered up in pink, to show that it is bandaged, but will be lost more quickly next time they are hit, potentially causing them to start bleeding. Characters must be healed on the world map to remove the pink and turn it to the default red, a process which takes time. In addition, characters have a stamina bar, making it possible for characters to faint or collapse in the field, requiring immediate medical attention and stamina-recovering water. Furthermore, being hit drains not only health but also stamina, so even if a character survives with only minor injuries, the stamina drain will give them an action point penalty, significantly reducing their combat effectiveness, if not knock them out outright.

* ''{{VideoGame/Penumbra}}'' has painkillers. FlavorText suggests that they just make it so that Philip doesn't notice his injuries, but in practice they work like this.

As a side note, the International Red Cross Society has been raising some legal issues over the repeated use of their trademarked Red Cross logo on health items in video games. See this [[http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=016637&tid=001 article from the Canadian Red Cross.]] The generic logo for commercially available "First Aid" products in reality is a white cross on a green field for businesses not directly affiliated with the Red Cross Society, to conform with the Geneva Convention (the Red Cross logo is protected). It's a [[SeriousBusiness serious issue]].

* Similar to the ''LordOfTheRings'' topic above, in ''SuperRobotWars'' there are various skills that only kick in when a character's health hits the red. The most common is "Prevail", which raises a character's hit and dodge rates.

** [[http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-09-07 Spoofed]] in the ''HalfLife 2'' webcomic ''{{Concerned}}'', where medkits are capable of not only healing everything and anything, but also instantly removing any blood stains from clothing. They are also Eco-Friendly and will instantly biodegrade upon use.

* Gordon Freeman in ''{{Half-Life}}'' gains back lost health by plugging his hazard suit into health and energy recharging stations scattered around the levels. The suit has a strongly implied but never fully explained ability to protect him by sacrificing some of its energy in response to almost any hazard from extreme temperatures to submachine gun rounds. Sometimes, its mechanical voice mentions that it's dispensing morphine or detecting a major blood loss, but it's all just a {{Handwave}} in the end. Freeman, like most video game and TV heroes, is MadeOfIron.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pariah}}'' has a health meter in the form of a series of blocks; a block automatically regenerates after a while if there's even the smallest bit left, but any completely blanked blocks can only be recovered with a health injection. The healing item is in the form of a separate tool, used like a weapon and using dropped medkits as "ammo".

* ''{{Pariah}}'' has an series of health blocks while automatically restore if their is even the smallest bit left but needs a health injection if it blips out.

* ''MassEffect'' has medi-gel, a nearly magical substance that can cure just about any traumatic injury. Predictably enough, it comes in little red dispenser boxes bolted to the walls of [[NoOSHACompliance zombie-filled starships, open mine shafts and other unsafe workplaces.]]
** Having emergency safety equipment in predictable, easily-accessible locations is ''part'' of OSHA compliance. And the zombies are rarely a planned workplace design feature.
** In true ''MassEffect'' fashion, the [[EncyclopediaExposita Codex]] helpfully explains that medi-gel doesn't actually ''cure'' you, it just stops the bleeding and provides enough medication to keep you going during the mission. The actual healing is stated to take place offscreen when you return to the ship's medbay.
*** It's even noted that medi-gel is technically ''illegal'' under Citadel bioengineering laws; it's just so useful that the law never cracks down on it.

* ''LegendOfDragoon'''s "[[DefendCommand Guard]]" command restores a portion of the character's HP every time it is used in battle, making it a viable healing method during the game's many {{Random Encounter}}s.

* ''LegendOfDragoon'''s "Guard" command restores a portion of the character's HP every time it is used in battle, making it a viable healing method during the game's many {{Random Encounter}}s.

* ''{{Terraria}}'' has standard healing potions in varying strengths. HyperactiveMetabolism is also at play in the forms of mushrooms and goldfish. However, all healing items (except goldfish) come with a 60 second "Potion Sickness" debuff that prevents you from using another in that time. Goldfish do not cause this debuff, but their healing is inefficient and they are difficult to obtain.

* ''AlphaPrime'', like ''Half-Life'', features both medkits and health dispensers. When you approach a medkit (or any item you can pick up), it flies toward you and instantly restores health. The health dispensers seem to pump out some sort of red fluid. On the eponymous asteroid's surface, there are also [[OxygenMeter oxygen dispensers]].

* In the ''RainbowSix'' series, as might be expected from its devotion to realism, there's no healing during a mission. If a character is wounded, but survives, it could be months of in-game time before he's back in action, if he comes back at all. This forces you to use second-stringers as your character and his team-mates.
** With the exception of the ''RainbowSix: Vegas'' games, where if you die, you die, but if your teammates die, then they must be revived with, apparently, a massive dose of arenaline in a syringe. Even if done multiple times, there's no risk of heart attack or death from blood loss.

* ''KillingFloor'' has the syringe that can be used on team mates but also yourself by pressing Q (by default).

When videogame characters get shot, slashed, burned etc., they can usually count on finding a box of medical supplies or similar, with which they can instantly restore their health. Even back up to one hundred percent, which presumably means all cuts and bruises are completely gone. They don't even seem to need to apply the medication, or even open the package -- as soon as they pick it up, their health is improved. Imagine that. In fantasy they usually have the character eat special fruits or partake of elixirs and say AWizardDidIt. In sci-fi, the character will shoot up with {{Nanomachines}} and say [[MagicFromTechnology pretty much the same thing]].

A corollary to this trope is that no matter how hurt your character gets, even if he's an inch from death, [[CriticalExistenceFailure he can still run around killing things with as much vigor as ever]]. This often applies to the enemies, as well. This can be interesting in strategy games, where a large unit is still doing 100% damage at one HP, and smaller units that collectively cost the same are losing effectiveness one by one as they die. Some titles reduce speed and damage linearly with HP, but this is equally unrealistic.

See also HeartContainer and HealingPotion, and beware of the PoisonMushroom. Compare TheMedic.

* In ''HauntingGround'', Fiona can consume camomile and lavender to replenish her health and stamina respectively, and can replenish both by drinking tap water, provided no enemies are looking. She can also heal [[CanineCompanion Hewie]] by feeding him beef and chicken jerky.

* Discussed in a ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' article: [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-bullshit-video-game-healing-methods/ 7 Video Game Healing Methods Least Likely to Actually Work]]

* The ''Prometheus'' in ''VideoGame/ProjectFirestart'' has single-use first aid kits on the walls next to certain elevators. The infirmary also has some sort of walk-in regeneration machine.

* ''FarCry 2'' mixes this trope with elements of its direct opposite, WalkItOff. Your health meter is divided into five blocks. If you take damage, then get away for a bit, your health will refill, but only to the top of the block you're currently down in, except the last critical block (more on that later). To actually get back to full health, you have to inject yourself with little healing syrettes that you find in traditional medical cabinets and boxes around the game world. Perhaps most interestingly, if you're knocked to your last health block, it starts ''draining'' slowly instead of regenerating. To escape this, you have to trigger a longer emergency healing sequence (some of the animations for which are disturbing enough to be NightmareFuel), which brings you back to 2 full health blocks.