History Main / HealThyself

Not to be confused with SelfSurgery, an often much more [[{{Gorn}} gruesome]] live-action trope.

** The semi-sequel ''Battlefield 2142'' also features the magic defibrillator, able to revive anyone regardless of any number of headshots by a .50 cal sniper rifle, RDX charges, or knives to the face. A lot of the meta-game behind the BF series involves finding ways to [[FinalDeath permanently kill]] your foes (consequently making the Engineer the most deadly class with his insta-kill rockets). Of course it is semi-justified with the defibrillator merely supercharging the soldier's personal nanobots which patches him up to full health.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' has a healing item, the Super Stimpak, that heals 75 points of damage instantly, but does 9 points of poison damage a little later (justified in-game by the item even stating that "this much healing at one time can be hard on the body"). This makes it possible to covertly assassinate the Enclave's President late in the game, by healing him nine times and resting for about 10 minutes, at which point he drops dead from the "healing" damage.

*** ''New Vegas'' brings back the bad effect of Super Stimpaks, but they now provide a stat debuff instead of hit point damage.

-->-- '''Creator/BenCroshaw''', [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jim-yahtzees-rhymedown-spectacular/8830-The-Field-Medic "The Field Medic"]]

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* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' has a healing item, the Super Stimpack, that heals 75 points of damage instantly, but does 9 points of poison damage a little later (justified in-game by the item even stating that "this much healing at one time can be hard on the body"). This makes it possible to covertly assassinate the Enclave's President late in the game, by healing him nine times and resting for about 10 minutes, at which point he drops dead from the "healing" damage.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' you can be healed by eating, drinking, bloodpacks stimpacks (2 kinds)and with the right perks, radiation, and sunlight.
*** ''New Vegas'' brings back the bad effect of Super Stim Packs, but they now provide a stat debuff instead of hit point damage.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', using a stimpak triggers a special animation where you inject its contents into your body. The animation doesn't trigger when you're wearing PoweredArmor, presumably because the deploying of stimpaks is done by the armor's own systems.

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* The movie ''{{Film/Wanted}}'' has the assassins healing pretty much any damage with some white healing goo.

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* The ''VideoGame/XCom'' series (Sold as ''UFO Defense'' in Europe) simulates a realistic injury system very well. Injured characters have their speed, accuracy and morale reduced, and may have bleeding wounds that deal further damage each round and can only be cured using a medkit. Doing so also recovers a handful of HP, while painkillers can reduce the morale penalties. Otherwise the wounded character is stuck until the end of the battle, at which point they become unavailable for anything from a few days to a few months depending on the degree of injury. Many players prefer to transfer the injured soldier out of X-Com and hire a new recruit rather than pay their salary while they recover.

** ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory'' has a similar system, with each player having a limited supply of "adrenaline syringes" for reviving colleagues. It's thus very tempting in bored moments to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential take your teammate out yourself]] and play chicken with the death timer...

* The healing items of choice in ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' are Herbal Medicine and Sacred Water. The former heals part of the playable protagonist's health; the latter heals it fully.

* Conversely, ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games feature more mundane healing items, like health drinks, first aid kits, ampoules and the occassional energy drinks to boost stamina. Rather than reflect the character's health through body language, the screen usually grows more distorted the more damage they take.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' notably averted this to a great extent. First aid kits contain several rolls of gauze, a spool of suture, a splint, and a few doses of antitoxin. Each must be used separately -- with associated animation -- on the appropriate body part for the appropriate injuries. For example, suture converts major wounds (which gradually bleed out your health bar) to minor wounds (which merely prevent you from recovering health). Bandages remove minor wounds, allowing your health to automatically refill over time. Broken limbs decrease movement speed or gun accuracy until repaired with splints. Additionally, movement speed and accuracy are severely impacted by having a low health bar, and when near death the character experiences a grayout as color drains from the scene. Morphine is available to counteract these effects at the cost of severe sanity loss. While not entirely realistic (applying a splint makes a broken arm good as new), it's about [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality as close as one can get]] to a realistic injury system in a FPS where you can't take months off for bones to knit nor leave the injuries in place for the game's duration.

* Similar to the ''LordOfTheRings'' topic above, in ''VideoGame/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.

* The LifeMeter-enabled ''Franchise/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.

* Gordon Freeman in ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' 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.

** Depending on your point of view, this is justified or handwaved by the mention that Nanoaug agents are equipped to metabolize med kits for quicker use.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', bandages heal everything. Ripped tendons, cracked skulls... ''everything.'' And apparently, [[YouFailYourMedicalBoardsForever silk bandages help more than linen ones.]]

* The healing ability every battleship and high tier cruisers get in [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarships.]] Technically its called "damage repair" but everyone, even the developers, calls it healing for sort and to distinguish it from the DamageControl ability, which gets rid of status effects. The Captain Bad Advice videos (pictured above) have fun with this, treating it like literal healing, complete with band aid and splints.

* The healing ability every battleship and high tier cruisers get in world of warships. Technically its called "damage repair" but everyone, even the developers, calls it healing for sort and to distinguish it from the DamageControl ability, which gets rid of status effects. The Captain Bad Advice videos (pictured above) have fun with this, treating it like literal healing, complete with band aid and splints.

[[quoteright:500:[[VideoGame/WorldOfWarsips https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wows_45.png]]]]

* Generally speaking, in the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series, healing is primarily achieved through a HyperactiveMetabolism - namely, eating rations or other food. For ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', it adds a touch of realism by having your rations freeze if you stay in cold areas for too long, rendering them inedible until they thaw out; the only way to prevent frozen rations or to thaw them out requires you to equip the rations, which is implied that you're holding them to your body so your body heat would melt the ice.

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* In ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'', Sonic has an ability called "Sonic Heal" that works by applying his own SuperSpeed to his body to rapidly heal his wounds.
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* In ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'', both Gunvolt and Copen can use healing skills on themselves. With Copen, it's just the tech in his suit working to repair his injuries. For Gunvolt, it's explained as his [[ShockAndAwe lightning powers]] stimulating his body's natural healing processes.

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* In ''VideoGame/EnterTheMatrix'' just like in ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' you can either walk/run over a green health-pack, or just stand around until the health-meter fills itself back up.[[/folder]]

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* Like the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' example above, in the later ''VideoGame/MegaMan'', ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX X]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero Zero]]'' series, when your character is low on health, he will grab an arm and pant heavily (wait, [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots pant?]]) when standing still, though he'll still play the same. One game even has an item that ''increases'' your power when you're in this "desperate" state.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' the titular character would begin breathing heavily whenever he stood still and had his health in the red. Given that ''Ocarina'' was created on a heavily-modified version of the ''Mario 64'' engine, it's not surprising that there is a similarity.

* In ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'', you healed by eating fish, or by finding a healing clam. (You just had to watch that you didn't accidentally hit an evil clam that'd drain you more)[[/folder]]

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* Similar to the ''LordOfTheRings'' topic above, in ''VideoGame/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.[[/folder]]

* {{Roguelike}} games like ''VideoGame/NetHack'' have potions of varying degrees of potency which can be carried around by the player and used when needed. Of course, if a monster finds them first then ''it'' will pick them up and use them in the middle of a fight to stay alive longer.[[/folder]]

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* In ''VideoGame/{{Vietcong}}'', the player is usually equipped with a medikit (otherwise he can find one himself). And for some bizarre reason, you can't use it on any of your teammate. The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 version of ''Purple Haze'' advises the player to only use it when his health is less than 50%.[[/folder]]

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** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' healing is mostly a matter of [[HyperactiveMetabolism eating and drinking]] or having a high psyche meter, which will allow you to slowly heal automatically. There are also some tunes on your [[ProductPlacement iPod]] that allow you to heal more quickly using the latter method.[[/folder]]

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* The game ''VideoGame/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 ''and'' a consumable "medical kit" item that RandomlyDrops rather rarely and has to be bought. 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.[[/folder]]

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* In the ''{{Dragonball}}'' series, the magic Senzu Beans can cure any injury instantly, with the side-effect of making you full for three days straight from the energy it infuses into you. However, the beans cannot cure diseases and such, which ends up being a plot point in ''{{Dragonball}} Z''.

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* The modern-day ''PrinceOfPersia'' games allow you to fully heal by drinking water. The original games featured health potions.

* ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'' has the syringe that can be used on both yourself and teammates. Interestingly, in the first game it's more effective when used on teammates than on yourself; while they are infinite-use with a gradually-recharging percentage, it takes the full 100% to heal yourself, while using it on a teammate only uses up 50%.

** With the exception of the ''Rainbow Six: Vegas'' games, where if you die, you die, but if your teammates die, then they must be revived with, apparently, a massive dose of adrenaline in a syringe. There's a limit on how much you can do this, depending on difficulty and how often you do so - teammates downed too often in too short a period, especially on Realistic difficulty, eventually will just die and send you back to the last checkpoint - but, even if done multiple times within that limit, there's no risk of heart attack or death from blood loss from overuse of whatever's in those syringes.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} 2'', the medic class can revive critically wounded teammates by simply applying a defibrillator to any part of the body (even the limbs), which instantly restores them to full health.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'' has no medkits. Instead, it has fixed emplacements that infuse bacta to the commandos, healing them in a short time. Given the almost magical healing abilities of Bacta in the StarWars universe, this is not actually ''completely'' insane. However, should a squadmate's health reach zero, they'll just drop down and moan occasionally, whereupon all that's needed to revive them and give them half their health back is a zap from a defibrillator-like device. The player character can "die" in this way as well, and call on a squadmate to be revived. This gives rise to an interesting technique for the few areas of the game where bacta is rare: if a squadmate's health is less than half, one can shoot said squadmate until he "dies". When revived, he'll have more health than before. A player whose own character has less than half health can even toss a thermal detonator at his feet, "die", call on a squadmate to be revived and enjoy the same benefit.

** It is slightly hand waved by a single mention of a "Bacta processing implant", this doesn't explain how [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Kyle Katarn]], [[VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII Mara Jade]], [[VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy Jaden Korr]], [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Revan]] or [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords the Jedi Exile]] instantly heal with med kits (the last two even predate widespread use of bacta - and its predecessor, kolto, was rare even when it was the primary healing agent).

** In the Xbox Live rerelease, the plus signs have been changed to hearts, due to the aforementioned Red Cross trademark restrictions.

** As for ''Doom'', it's implied the pickups have small doses of SuperSerum (though that puts it in the territory of InstantSedation). [[SuperStrength Berserk Packs]] drop the "implied" part. Soulspheres and Megaspheres are more justified since they're black magic.
* ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'' has the syringe that can be used on team mates but also yourself by pressing Q (by default).

** [[http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-09-07 Spoofed]] in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' webcomic ''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.

** With the exception of the ''VideoGame/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.
* In ''VideoGame/Battlefield2'', the medic class can revive critically wounded teammates by simply applying a defibrillator to any part of the body (even the limbs), which instantly restores them to full health.
** The semi-sequel ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' also features the magic defibrillator, able to revive anyone regardless of any number of headshots by a .50 cal sniper rifle, RDX charges, or knives to the face. A lot of the meta-game behind the BF series involves finding ways to [[FinalDeath permanently kill]] your foes (consequently making the Engineer the most deadly class with his insta-kill rockets). Of course it is semi-justified with the defiberator merely supercharging the soldier's personal nanobots which patches him up to full health.

** It is slightly hand waved by a single mention of a "Bacta processing implant", this doesn't explain how [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Kyle Katarn, Mara Jade, Jaden Korr]], [[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Revan and The Jedi Exile]] instantly heal with med kits (The last 2 even predate bacta!)
*** Not entirely; Revan and the Jedi Exile had a sort of proto-bacta called Kolto; there's a mission in the first KOTOR where Revan visits the sole planet that it comes from. [[spoiler: It turns out that its created by the dominant race's distant ancestor and Revan has the choice of killing it or letting it live]]

* ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' and ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' mix 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.
** To elaborate, one of the prolonged healing sequences involves ''shoving a knife into your wound and digging out the bullets''. MadeOfIron indeed ...
** Some other ways to "heal" yourself involve twisting a dislocated wrist back into place, using a wad of matches to cauterize a wound, pulling an ''iron bar out of your stomach,'' and much, much more...

* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' has an interesting take on healing. Simply being hit will slowly lead to the charecter moving more slowly. Get incapacitated, and promptly revived however, and now you'll both move slowly and bleed health. Pain pills offer temporary health boost that slowly degrades. Using health kits has an animation of the charecter bandaging themselves or someone else and (almost) all their wounds are instantly healed. Get incapacitated too many times and the color will bleed out and the next time you get knocked down kills you.
** [[VideoGame/Left4Dead2 The sequel]] tosses in adrenaline shots, which only recovers 25 points of health (temporary) but for a short time, your survivor runs faster (even if their health is in the red), can't be slowed down by zombies, and can do many actions at a quicker rate (healing, revive, etc.). The only side effect is you get tunnel vision and the sounds become mono.

** And if you're a Heavy, you have a wide range of comestibles for that purpose as well.

* ''Franchise/DynastyWarriors'' usually has HyperactiveMetabolism for its healing, as its recovery items are food and drink. The one exception is the full-recover item called Ointment in the game--more specifically, Hua Tuo's Ointment, described in [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms the source material]] as a kind of miracle balm. Pick up some of this and your ancient Chinese hero is good to go, even from the brink of death--it grants both full health ''and'' a full ManaMeter, which also powers your LimitBreak.