How to Heal in Escape from Tarkov

How to Heal in Escape from Tarkov

As a seasoned survivor of the chaotic wasteland that is Escape from Tarkov, I’ve learned to value every bullet, every bandage, and every painkiller in my inventory. The art of self-healing has become as much a part of my daily routine as brewing coffee or brushing my teeth.


Healing in Escape from Tarkov is one of the most stressful things in the game. Fumbling through your inventory under heavy fire while making sure you don’t run out of health points (HP) can be quite a challenge, so we’ve compiled a little guide to help you learn the basics. 

Limb Health

Unlike many other games, Escape from Tarkov assigns your character’s health to each individual limb. These limbs can sustain damage and need to be treated separately. The severity of the injury determines the state of distress for each limb. If your head or torso hits 0 health, your character dies immediately, but if your arms or legs reach that point, they become unresponsive, or “blacked out”. A blacked-out limb becomes useless and affects your movement, running, and aiming until it’s attended to. You can restore a lost limb by using a surgical kit, but only after all its injuries have been addressed, and the restored limb will start with 1 HP.

Fix yourself up

How to Heal in Escape from Tarkov

As a gamer, I know that to mend my in-game wounds, I’ve got to have the right equipment for the task at hand. Light injuries can be handled with simple bandages and adhesive strips, but when things get tough, Esmarch’s and CALOK-B’s are what you need for heavy damage. For a broken limb in my game world, I’ll have to find or craft a splint, but there are numerous other conditions I’ll also need to address along the way. These are the most common ones I often encounter.

Players typically bring medical kits for emergency healing during gameplay, as these can stop two kinds of bleeding by depleting a portion of the kit’s health points. Salewa’s or AFAK/IFAK kits are often preferred due to their availability early in the game, and many players keep at least one of them in their inventory constantly. However, healing isn’t without cost, as it gradually drains your hydration and stamina meters. To prevent fainting, you need to consume food and drink regularly.

Besides encountering pain and shaking episodes that might influence your character’s perception and skills, it’s advisable to always have some form of pain relief like aspirin, ibuprofen, or morphine on hand. These medications can temporarily eliminate the status effect, but at the expense of hydration. Additionally, you could choose to pre-medicate yourself with painkillers prior to engaging in a firefight, allowing you to endure any incoming debilitating effects.

To use them, put your healing items in your hotbar (you can’t put items from your secure container into your hotbar), use the item via the shortcut, select a limb, and watch the animation play out. Alternatively, you can bring up your inventory and pull the healing item onto an injured limb or use right click, select use, and the game will do it for you.

How to Level Healing

How to Heal in Escape from Tarkov

In Escape from Tarkov, similar to all aspects of the game, your character’s abilities are linked to a skill system. Skills like First Aid, Field Medicine, Surgery, and so forth, can be improved by utilizing various healing items. An effortless method to elevate these skills is by healing post-raid. Instead of relying on Therapist’s healing services, opt for self-healing using items from your stash. This approach is significantly more cost-effective and also grants you experience points. You can even engage in this practice if your character has perished.

Mastering these abilities will noticeably accelerate your recovery during raids where time is crucial, and they’re essential for future enhancements to your hideout as well.

What to bring and what to do

How to Heal in Escape from Tarkov

For beginners, here are some essentials to have with you during every raid:

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2024-08-30 21:27