Healing items

Healing items are those used to restore lost Health, be it a temporary health boost or a permanent restoration.



Healing items can be found in ambulances or randomly throughout the level, but they are most often found inside of first aid stations. First aid stations can contain up to 4 bottles of pain pills, but there is also a chance they can contain first aid kits instead, depending on how the Survivors are doing and the difficulty level. First aid stations found in safe rooms always contain first aid kits.

Note: Sprays of the First aid Station have become widely available online and can look fairly convincing at a distance.

First aid kit
The first aid kit, also sometimes known as a med kit or health pack, is used to heal any damage the Survivors might take during a campaign.



First aid kits can always be found inside of safe rooms, and also during the finale of a campaign (except if the game is being played on expert difficulty, in which case they will be replaced by pain pills). They can also be found in first aid stations and anywhere else throughout the campaign, though this is very rare.

Usage
It takes 5 seconds to use the first aid kit to heal yourself or another Survivor, during which time you cannot defend yourself in any way. Instead of restoring a set amount of health, first aid kits will only restore 80% of the damage the Survivor has taken. For example, if a Survivor has taken 70% damage, using a first aid kit will add 56% (80% of 70) to the Survivor's health, bringing the Survivor to 86% health. This healing is not based on any temporary health a Survivor might have after taking pain pills, and will remove any extra health gained by them. Please note that first aid kits can never bring a Survivor back to 100% health, and using more to try do so is a waste of a first aid kit.

If a Survivor has been incapacitated and then revived, they will "bleed", causing their health to drop every second until they have 1% left. Using a first aid kit will stop the bleeding and restore the Survivor to 80% health. In addition, this will also prevent the Survivor from dying if they were to become incapacitated too many times.

As a weapon
A Survivor can use their melee attack while they are holding the first aid kit, though it isn't exactly something to use in heated combat. Needless to say, it doesn't do any more damage than a regular melee, and it's easy to get caught up on trying to heal another Survivor. Pistols would generally serve better in a (serious) fight.

Pain pills
Pain pills, unlike the First aid kit, will only give the user 50 temporary points of health when taken. Pills can be given to teammates by pressing the melee button (right click on PC or left trigger on 360 version). When not facing a teammate, pressing the melee button will allow you to use your melee attack against enemies.



Since the health from Pain Pills is only temporary, it will slowly decrease over time, dropping one point every second until all the temporary health is gone. While you are under the effects of Pain Pills, you will still take normal damage, but your temporary health will be depleted first. The health the pills give you will also stop you from limping, restoring your movement speed while the health lasts.

Trivia

 * An interesting note is that in Team Fortress 2, another Valve game, pain pills make an appearance on an upgraded dispenser.
 * A poster in The Terminal advertises these specific pain pills.
 * Ibuprofen was apparently the most often used pain reliever during the development of Left 4 Dead, which may be why it is used as the label in-game. This is probably a reason why they appear in the Team Fortress 2 upgraded dispensers as well.
 * The design of the bottle is based off of Target brand Ibuprofen, with the only difference being the removal of the Target logo.