Healing items

"First to aid, last to die."

- Bill

"Hope you don't mind, I'm gonna... take this First Aid kit here."

- Ellis

Healing items are those used to restore lost health, be it a temporary health boost or a permanent restoration. They can be found in ambulances, safe rooms, or randomly throughout levels, but are most often found inside of first aid stations. First aid stations may contain up to four bottles of pain pills, but they may contain first aid kits instead, depending on how well the Survivors are doing, the difficulty level, and the gameplay mode. First aid stations found in safe rooms and at finales always contain first aid kits.

First Aid Kit
"Can everyone stop a sec? I'm gonna heal!"

- Zoey

"Now don't waste this by getting pounced on or something."

- Nick

The First Aid Kit, colloquially known as a med kit or health pack, is used to heal damage the Survivors take during a campaign. When carried by Survivors, it is held on like a backpack with no visible straps holding it.

First Aid Kits are vital to survival, as they bring a player from an incredibly wounded to fully healed state. When the player is in a black-and-white situation (where they are killed if their health reaches 0), using a first aid kit will restore a player's "chances" and bring them out of that state.

First Aid Kits can always be found inside of safe rooms, and during the finale of a campaign. First aid cabinets can also possess health kits, but only if it is in the safe room or finale. Hard Rain's Burger Tank and the safe room leading to the Sugar Mill will always contain two Health Kits, even if they were opened despite the campaign and Survivors stating otherwise. Outside of The Parish in The Park (possessing random spawns in a humvee at the start of the level and in the CEDA trailer, along with two guaranteed spawns under a tent near the alley to the highway) they are spawned on a whim by The Director.

Difficulty affects the Director's mood for first aid kits. If it detects a Survivor with low health, the Director will generate Health Kits sporadically until that Survivor's health is restored. If the whole team is low on health with limited healing, the Director will spawn more first aid kits. Maximum 3 first aid kits can be spawned at same time in the first aid cabinet (excluding the safe room ones) if whole team is hurt (the 4th one will never be a First Aid Kit and will be either be Pain Pills or nothing). On Expert, Pain Pills completely replace first aid kits.

In Versus mode, if the players heal each other, the Director will spawn more health kits within the map. Keep in mind if you are the first team to play as the Survivors, whatever health kits you caused the Director to spawn will also be available to the other team when it's their turn. This could be a hazard as the Infected team could use it to their advantage for when they become the Survivors and learn the locations of the spawned health kits when dead or as a ghost in spawn mode.

In Left 4 Dead 2, the player has the choice to pick up a Defibrillator or Ammo Upgrades instead, which can be used to revive dead teammates or ignite/explode the Infected with special ammunition.

In The Passing, First Aid Kits can sometimes be recovered from a defeated Fallen Survivor.

Usage
It takes five seconds to use the First Aid Kit to heal yourself or another Survivor, during which you cannot defend yourself in any way. However, in Left 4 Dead 2, if you are under the effects of Adrenaline while healing yourself or another Survivor, it will only take three seconds. Unlike most other items recovering a set amount of health, First Aid Kits will only restore 80% of the user's missing health. For example, if a Survivor has 30 health, 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. After incapacitation, Survivors will always have only 1 permanent health (the rest will be temporary), and thus will always receive 80 health points from a First Aid Kit. Note that First Aid Kits can never bring a Survivor back to 100% health, and given their rarity, they should be used sparingly.

Defibrillator
"What the fu- aww hell I'm back here again!"

- Coach

"Come on! Work, damn it!"

- Nick

The Defibrillator (also referred by Survivors as "chest paddles") is a medical resource featured only in Left 4 Dead 2. It is a one-time use only device that will revive a dead Survivor.

For game balancing purposes, Survivors cannot carry a Defibrillator and First Aid Kit at the same time.

Official Description
Bring teammates back from the dead. Like the First Aid Kit, a Defibrillator Unit is a one-time use item. Defibs can resuscitate fallen teammates, and take three seconds to use.

Usage
To use the Defibrillator, a player must first select it from inventory. This action will reveal where the closest teammate's corpse is lying via emitting a faint red glow. The user must approach the corpse and hold either of the attack buttons. A charging meter, which takes three seconds to complete, will appear followed by a short burst of electricity whereupon the dead Survivor's body will do a sudden jump and will be resurrected, when defibrillated, the Survivor’s chest will rise for a short time and then go back down

A resurrected Survivor comes back with 50 health (which is permanent health that does not decline like the temporary health obtained after being incapacitated). This player will have no items save for their secondary weapon, and must pick up their dropped equipment from the ground. A team message will come up on the left side of the screen identifying who brought whom back to life.

Tactically, it is recommended most Survivors carry First Aid Kits and to designate just one Survivor as the team's "Defibrillator medic". The Defibrillator is especially useful when playing on Expert and Realism Modes since the risks of a player dying prematurely are extreme. In Versus and Realism Mode, rescue closets are disabled, although using Defibrillators for the former will cause a penalty.

Defibrillators don't tend to spawn often, usually one per level apart from a few exceptions. If a Survivor is on the verge of death, the Director will tend to spawn one nearby. If the group is near a first aid cabinet, one Defibrillator may be included in the cabinet.

A Defibrillator can be used on any Survivor corpse - even if they have already been saved from a rescue closet. It should be noted that in earlier versions of the game if the defibrillator was used on a player's own corpse, the player's "consciousness" would enter the body of the newly-revived teammate. Moreover, defibrillation was impossible if somebody was standing over the target corpse. These variables have been changed subsequently. Now when a Survivor is revived, the Survivor in a rescue closet will disappear and if a Survivor is rescued via rescue closet, the corpse does. This serves to maintain the number of Survivor graphic images at a maximum of four at anytime.

Depending on the situation, there may be times when it is a good strategy to intentionally kill a teammate, then revive them with the defibrillator. For example, killing a near-death teammate who is operating at the margin of health in black and white visual mode then using the defibrillator on them will reset their incapacitation count, and restore them to 50 permanent health. This tactic can be crucial on the higher difficulty settings where health packs and pills/adrenaline are at a premium. However, it's better to ask for permission from teammate before doing this, sometimes it will be mistaken as trolling or teamkilling.

If someone dies from hanging (holding onto a ledge), they cannot be revived using the Defibrillator since they fall and become a ragdoll. However, if they are killed by another Survivor whilst hanging via friendly fire (rather than losing their grip and falling to their death) their body may fall into an accessible area that allows them to be defibrillated and revived. An example of one such opportunity exists in respect to the stairs to the first floor in the finale of Dead Center, allowing players to skip an entire level.

Pain Pills
"Pills here!"

- The Survivors

"Ah, a little pick me up."

- Francis/Nick

Pain Pills, unlike the First Aid Kit, will only give the user 50 temporary points of health when taken. When carried by Survivors, it is held on the Survivor's right hip, probably on the belt.

Pain Pills can be given to teammates by pressing the melee button (right mouse button on PC by default, or left trigger on Xbox 360).

Since the health from Pain Pills is only temporary, it will slowly decrease over time, but are also capable of removing speed penalties if your total health is greater than 40. As temporary health decreases by one every 3 seconds, the effects of Pain Pills will last for 150 seconds (2.5 minutes), though practically this is much shorter due to the potential damage one might absorb on the way.

Keep in mind that if you have both permanent and temporary health, any damage taken will always reduce permanent first unless it is at 1, by which point temporary health drops instead.

Adrenaline Shot
"Grabbin' a shot!"

- The Survivors

Adrenaline Shots are included in Left 4 Dead 2, occupying the temporary healing slot.

Official Description
An Adrenaline Shot gives you a fifteen-second health and energy boost that lets you run faster, use items & revive twice as fast, and run through zombies without getting slowed down by their attacks.

Usage
Upon injection, the user gains 25 temporary health. For 15 seconds, they move faster, do not experience melee fatigue, are immune to the Horde's slowing attacks and their speed isn't affected by water.

It also increases the speed of using First Aid Kits, reviving Survivors, completing objectives (e.g. pouring gas cans into the generator in Scavenge), reloading and switching weapons or items (however, it does not speed up the activation of generators during Crash Course and the Sacrifice).

As temporary side effects, the user also experiences tunnel vision and monophonic sound, hindering their ability to determine the direction from where a sound came. This can become annoying during a split-screen campaign if one player uses Adrenaline too much, as the monophonic penalty is bugged and affects both players.

This item could become valuable at the end of a finale, where Survivors must reach a rescue vehicle while being impeded by the Horde.

Like Pain pills, the Adrenaline Shot can be passed to a teammate by using the melee button.

The Adrenaline Shot is a very precious item during a Scavenge game, as it can increase your speed and the speed of the gas pouring by roughly 50%. Generally, two shots will be spawned during a Scavenge game.

Behind the Scenes
Early screenshots show that at one time the first Aid Kit was a box made with rigid materials, complete with a handle. The final icon still reuses this legacy design.

Early videos showed it was possible to share med kits like pills instead of healing them.

The placeholder for the adrenaline shot was just a yellow tinted version of pain pills. The texture can still be found in Left 4 Dead 2 files.

Likewise, the defibrillator's world model placeholder was a re-skinned first Aid Kit model with a lightning bolt icon. Its textures can still be found in Left 4 Dead 2 files.