Healing is one of the most crucial things you should know on how to survive longer as a cleaner in the PvP mode. Things get insanely chaotic in just a span of a few seconds.
You will need to learn when is the right time to heal and if it is even worth it to push for that extra time.
There are multiple ways on how to heal in Back 4 Blood. This guide will aim to teach you all the basic ways you can heal and some advanced tips you can do as a support to heal your teammates in Swarm mode.
How to Get Healing Items
Unless you are playing versus mode, you will not spawn with a healing item but, you will still be able to get them in the shop.
Before starting any run by opening the saferoom door, prepare yourself by buying items from the shop first. You can buy Bandages, Defibrillators, Pain Meds, and First Aids. This will take your 4th inventory slot and you can only carry one at a time.
You can find healing items in random areas like shelves, cabinets, tables, and other areas. They are easily found as they are highlighted once you are near the vicinity. You can also find them inside small orange supply crates.
The larger ones always contain weapons so it is a good tip to remember when looking for these healing items. The small ones can either contain all equipment/throwable items, getting more ammo, or healing items. You will never find a box filled with all random items.
If you are using Mom, you will have an additional support inventory slot where you can carry two.
Here are all the details on each of the healing items available in the game
Bandages
Bandages heal a player for 25 health points excluding all card and character buffs. It will take 2 seconds to use which is decent. This is the most common healing item and you will find more of these as you play through the campaign.
Defibrillators
Defibrillators are niche and are mostly used in the PvP mode or high difficulty campaign stages. It is used to revive a downed or incapacitated teammate instantly and gives them 25 health upon revival.
When things get a little hectic in versus mode, it is a good item to squeeze a few extra seconds into your survival time.
For example, once your team is getting crushed by the enemy Ridden team, you can find the best-downed teammate to revive (preferably someone with a heal) and use the Defibrillator on him/her. This player will try to run out of the swarm or hug the edge and buy a few more seconds of survival by healing and kiting.
Obviously, this is just a specific scenario and, there are a lot of cases where everyone is struggling and you can just revive one player instantly to help with clearing.
Pain Meds
Pain Meds give +50 temporary health to a player. It is great for giving that extra health buffer to survive extra attacks. This is good for PvP as well when you are low and Exploder Reekers can just chip your life away by dying next to you.
Pain Meds are even better with cards like Poultice and Group Therapy, which are A to B quality cards on our Back 4 Blood Card Tier List. This is why Mom is a staple for all cleaner teams because her support is just unmatched.
First Aids
First Aids are just buffed-up bandages. It heals for 50 health points and the use time for it is 4 long seconds. It is really bad to use this when getting swarmed by common Riddens. You might end up incapacitated before getting the heal off.
It is only efficient when things are clear. Most of the card buffs do not scale with percentages so it is also not efficient. The Miraculous Recovery card turns the 50 health points into 100 health points instead but it is just a small chance.
You are better off choosing different support cards.
How to Heal Yourself
You can heal yourself by acquiring a healing item mentioned above and pressing “4” to hold it. While holding the item, you can hold left-click to heal yourself. If you are using instant healing items, they will heal instantly without the option to cancel them.
To cancel your healing, you can just swap to your weapons or any other equipment before the heal finishes.
First Aid Cabinets
You can also find First Aid Cabinets around the map to heal yourself. There are only 5 charges for each so watch out for other teammates who might need it more. You can always come back to these cabinets and utilize them more as you progress.
You only need to look and use the interact button (E) to use it.
How to Heal Others
To heal others, you just need to hold your healing item and go next to the player you want to heal and press left-click. Make sure you see the notification that targets the player to heal them. If it does not show up, you might end up healing yourself.
Support or Defense cards
As previously mentioned, certain cards support healing actions. These cards stack up when you get more than one of the same kind. This is why the Pain Meds that give a big health buffer are one of the best healing items in PvP mode.
Even if they give temporary health, it will be crucial to lasting longer and increasing your cleaner’s survival time.
Picking Mom with the Medic deck
Mom’s strongest ability is holding that extra support or healing item. Combined with all the card combinations you have, this will drastically increase your overall healing capabilities for the team as a whole.
Some cards or buffs make you receive the healing effects of the item when you use it on another player.
For example, you are using Mom and you have low health points. You also have a teammate with low health points so you can heal him/her instead and you end up healing yourself for that same item as well.
This is why Mom is crucial in team compositions when playing competitively. If you are playing with friends, make sure someone plays the support to make your team last longer.
Back 4 Blood draws a lot of comparison from the classic Left 4 Dead game and is dubbed as its “spiritual successor”. These are the same developers who worked on Left 4 Dead and added a few twists to the game.
For one, the PvP is more competitive because of the mechanics of the Swarm mode compared to Left 4 Dead’s version of running a campaign stage and having player-controlled zombies to stop the survivors.
As for the essence of gameplay, it all depends on the player’s preference as some elements are also lacking in Back 4 Blood.
