Healing and Health

Health is a statistic which determines player's condition and ability to continue the mission being played.

Summary
Players start a mission with a full bar of health. As the mission proceeds, they will encounter events that will decrease their health when affected. Once all health has been depleted, characters will become incapacitated and be unable to move by their own will. If unable to receive aid and continuing to suffer health-decreasing events while incapacitated, characters will eventually die. The mission ends in failure should all player-controlled characters die or be incapacitated by health depletion or other means.

Health
At the start of every mission, all characters deploy with a full health bar of 150 points when playing at difficulties Easy, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare or 100 points when playing at difficulty Cataclysm. Along with their point values, the health bar itself is divided into 11 segments, which give the player a general idea of what extent of wellness the character is presently at.

Throughout the mission, encounters with skaven will offer various opportunities for characters to take damage and lose health points, affecting their overall wellness. These events include but are not limited to: Along with events that deal damage, there are methods available to restore health lost and ensure better survivability. These methods include but are not limited to: Aside from taking damage from attacks and etc., the possession of skaven grimoires deliver a negative impact on a character's maximum health. Rather than deal damage, grimoire possession takes the character's existing health:max health ratio and redistributes it to a lower max health.
 * Receiving attacks both direct and indirect from skaven of all forms (aside from the Sack Rat which does not attack).
 * Falling from an unsafe elevation and receiving damage via the fall.
 * Venting overcharge beyond safe levels (All of Sienna's staves and Bardin's drakefire pistols)
 * Receiving friendly fire via ranged attacks from fellow teammates (Only applicable during Nightmare and Cataclysm difficulties)
 * Self-applying or having a teammate apply Medical Supplies - Restores roughly 80% of health points lost.
 * Consuming a Healing Draught - Restores 75 points of health (cannot exceed max health).
 * Weapon traits which restore health when used in a specific fashion:
 * Regrowth (Ranged) - Chance to recover 5 points of health when hitting an enemy with the ranged weapon.
 * Regrowth (Normal Attack) - Chance to recover 5 points of health when hitting an enemy with a normal attack (tap the attack button).
 * Regrowth (Charged Attack) - Chance to recover 10 points of health when hitting an enemy with a charged attack (hold the attack button).
 * Bloodlust - Chance to recover 10 points of health when killing an enemy with the weapon.

For example, if a character was at 135 health points of 150 health max, grabbing a grimoire (-33% max health) would reduce health max to 100 while retaining a 9:10 health ratio, reducing health points to 90. Obtaining a second grimoire would drop it further to 45/50.

Pre-Death States
Depending on the situation, characters may enter a number of states that disable player control and if left unresolved by teammates, ultimately lead to the character dying. If all characters (both player-controlled and bot-controlled) encounter a pre-death state, the mission will end in defeat, as there is no longer a way to resolve the situation.

Knocked Down
Characters whom have lost all the points remaining in their health bars will fall to their knees and enter the knocked down state. During this state, the player loses control of their incapacitated character, and the HUD displays a new red bar of Knocked Down Health (referred to in this guide as "Lifeblood"), that slowly depletes over time. Skaven in the vicinity may draw their attention to the character and attack, further hastening the depletion.

Once the character's Lifeblood has depleted, the character will die (see Death below for details).

To resolve this state and restore player control, another teammate must approach and interact with the knocked down character before death occurs. Successfully reviving the character will restore player control and replenish the character's health points to half of the health bar but in an injured status (see Injured below for details).

Special Down
There are two types of skaven, the Gutter Runner and the Packmaster, whose attacks disable player control and will constantly deal damage to the character until resolved via a teammate. The attacks initially will damage the character's health points until depleted, whereupon it will continue attacking the character's Lifeblood, and eventually resulting in death once Lifeblood is depleted as well.

Resolving a special down state is fairly straightforward: Resolving the special down state before the character's health points deplete will restore player control without requiring further action. Resolving the state after the character's health is depleted (but some Lifeblood remains) will leave the affected character in a knocked down state, requiring revival via interaction from a teammate.
 * Gutter Runner: Attack the Gutter Runner attacking the character with sufficient force or damage to either kill it or knock it away.
 * Packmaster (pre-hanging): Kill the Packmaster.
 * Packmaster (post-hanging): Interact with the hung character to release him/her.

Environment Down
Some maps feature pitfalls that deliver instant death to Skaven and player alike when traversed, such as the abyssal depths of The Enemy Below and the river rapids of Black Powder. Characters unfortunate enough to end up over a ledge leading to these environmental hazards, whether by accident or by light force, are left hanging on said ledge, requiring assistance to climb back up.

Environment down alone isn't particularly harmful. The character's health does not deplete over time and provided the character remains untouched by the Skaven, he/she can remain hanging from the ledge indefinitely without consequence. However, if the character takes damage from Skaven attacks and loses all his/her health, he/she will fall from the ledge (and die instantly) without knocked down status occurring. Furthermore, due to the situation, all consumables/loot equipped will fall along with that player, and be irretrievable.

Resolve an environment down status by approaching and interacting with the Environment Downed character (pulling the character back up). Player control will be restored without requiring further assistance.

Injury
When revived from a knocked down state, the character will regain health equivalent to half of his/her health bar. However, the health restored is only temporary, and as time passes will deteriorate on its own. The deteriorating health bar will eventually fall to 1 point and remain, resulting in the character entering knocked down state once again should he/she receive damage.

Injury can be cured through the use of healing consumables (Medical Supplies and Healing Draught), which will both stop the health deterioration and apply the healing effects of the consumable. Alternatively, players can use health-restoring weapon traits to add health and prolong the character's survival, but the injury status will remain and the character's health will continue to deteriorate.

The number of times a player character can be knocked down before instant death occurs upon health depletion depends on the difficulty level. This count is referred to in the game code as "Wounds". Each time the player is knocked down, the number is reduced by -1. On Easy, this is essentially infinite. On Normal and Hard, the count is "2", allowing the player to be knocked down twice and still survive, though the third depletion of health causes instant death. On Nightmare and Cataclysm, a player has a Wound count of "1", and can only be knocked down and revived only once; the second time health is depleted, the player dies instantly.

At all difficulty levels, the "Wound" count will be fully restored when the effect of healing items is applied, resetting the number of times the player can be knocked down before death occurs.

Death
A character that could not be saved from a downed state and loses all health/lifeblood dies. Upon death, all carried items are dropped (besides the skaven Grimoire, which is destroyed and unrecoverable) and the respective player is left to spectate other characters and observe their progress.

Death cannot be reversed, and if all player-controlled characters die, the mission ends in defeat, regardless if whether or not there are able-bodied and healthy bot-controlled characters remaining.

Post-Death/Rescue
Roughly 30 seconds after a character dies, a new version of him/her will appear on the map, bound and in need of assistance to return to the game. Once rescued, the character will rejoin the team at half of his/her maximum health, half the ammunition for the melee weapon (Witch Hunter Rapier only) and half the ammunition for the ranged weapon (when applicable). Player control is also restored and healing/potion/bomb slots will be empty.

Trinkets and Traits
The use of various trinkets and certain weapon traits can greatly affect a team's ability to survive the odds against the skaven onslaught.

General Damage Reduction
These traits conditionally reduce the damage you take from events.
 * Berserking (melee weapons) - While active, damage taken is reduced.
 * Channeling Rune (overcharge weapons) - Reduces damage taken from venting weapons overcharged to unsafe levels and hastens the venting process.
 * Safety in Numbers (Weapons) - Aiding teammates (attack and interrupt an enemy attacking a teammate) grants a momentary shield of protection to aided teammate that wards off further damage. The shield appears as a blue section on the recipient's health bar, has 30 hitpoints, and dissipates after 10 seconds.

Special Damage Reduction
These traits reduce damage you take from specific enemies.
 * Gorget (Trinket) - Reduces damage taken while hooked by a packmaster. Reduction includes damage dealt by other skaven while being dragged about and hung.
 * Brigandine (Trinket) - Reduces damage taken from gutter runners. Reduction may not include damage dealt from other skaven while incapacitated by the gutter runner.
 * Bullet Resistant (Trinket) - Reduces damage taken from Ratling Gunners.
 * Iron Lung (Trinket) - Reduces damage taken by globe explosion and residual poison wind damage caused by Poison Wind Globadiers.

Healing Amplification
These traits affect a character's ability to restore health points.
 * Group Treatment (Trinket) - Self-applied healing will have a partial effect on nearby allies and will also cure injury.
 * Hand of Shallya (Trinket) - Applying Medical Supplies to a teammate restores your own health.
 * Healer's Touch (Trinket) - Healing consumables may be retained upon use.
 * Sister of Shallya (Trinket) - Use of Medical Supplies (on teammate or self) cannot be interrupted and blocks incoming attacks.

Knocked Down/Revival Amplification
These traits affect your status while knocked down and/or dealing with knocked down teammates.
 * Coagulation (Trinket) - Lifeblood (Knocked down health) is increased, allowing more damage and time before death.
 * Triage (Trinket) - Expedites revival of knocked down teammates.
 * Veteran Surgeon (Trinket) - Taking damage while reviving teammates will not interrupt the process. Does not apply if you yourself are knocked down before revival is complete.
 * Distraction (Weapons) - Saving knocked down teammates (attack and interrupt an enemy attacking a knocked down teammate) heals the knocked down teammate's Knocked Down Health ("Lifeblood").

Other Notable Trinkets/Traits

 * Curse Ward (Trinket) - Partially reduces the effects of curse brought by possession of Skaven Grimoires. Will preserve some max health lost.
 * Life Bond (Trinket) - Links together the health points of all members of the party equipped with this trinket.
 * Explosive Ordnance (Trinket) - Disables Nightmare/Cataclysm difficulty friendly fire when using explosives.
 * Escape Artist (Trinket) - Reduces respawn time following character death.

Tips and Tricks

 * Use Medical Consumable Items wisely to lengthen survival.
 * Understand your traits and how to trigger them. Recovery traits increase chances of survival greatly.
 * Reviving team members is always a top priority, but make sure that you will have enough time to do so, as you are still vulnerable to damage while you're reviving your team member. Should your team member be attacked during revival, the interaction will have to start over as well, wasting valuable time and leaving you vulnerable awhile longer.
 * It is also possible to block incoming attacks with your current melee weapon while reviving your teammate, simply hold block before starting to revive someone (must equip melee first, the trick is not going to work with ranged weapons, obviously)