KF2 Field Medic Playstyles: Skills, Weapons and Tips

A common idea says the Field Medic's left skill tree is for multiplayer and the right tree is for solo. This guide, written by an experienced medic main, argues that both can work in a team and offers general tips. The author does not tell you how to play, warns that the role is often thankless, and skips detailed damage math.

Skills by level

Level 5: Symbiotic Health or Resilience. Symbiotic Health adds 25 percent total health and heals you 10 percent every time you heal someone else; it is also the only way Airborne Agent can heal you, and it applies your chosen dart buffs to you. Resilience gives 1 percent damage resistance per HP lost, up to 50 percent, applied before armor takes damage, so benefits are largest at 50 percent health or less; the resistance is based on health before the hit. With Resilience, healing others does not heal you or apply dart effects to you.

Level 10: Adrenaline Shot or Combatant Doctor. Adrenaline Shot makes darts add 10 percent movement speed for 5 seconds, up to 30 percent, great for helping teammates escape or reach the trader. Combatant Doctor gives 50 percent more ammo per clip and 10 percent more speed. The author usually takes Combatant Doctor with Battle Surgeon to kill Scrakes alone, draw attention from zeds and save players while healing them. Remember you will often have the max dart buffs yourself. You can change skills between waves.

Level 15: Focus Injection or Acidic Rounds. Focus Injection: darts add 5 percent damage for 5 seconds, up to 20 percent. Acidic Rounds poison zeds with perk weapons including the scalpel. The author used to run only Acidic Rounds and says it is bad: zeds rarely die from poison, headshots become near impossible because poisoned zeds panic and behave unpredictably. Occasionally it buys time by moving zeds or dropping them off ledges.

Level 20: Coagulant Booster or Battle Surgeon. Coagulant Booster: darts add 10 percent damage resistance for 5 seconds, up to 30 percent, very useful while teammates are being healed. Battle Surgeon: +20 percent damage with perk weapons, including the scalpel. The author usually picks the right side but switches left if teammates take a lot of damage.

Level 25: Airborne Agent or Zedative. Airborne Agent releases a healing gas during zed time that works like a medic grenade; it will not heal you without Symbiotic Health and is great at ripping through hordes of small zeds to reach teammates. Zedative slows and poisons zeds with perk weapons during zed time only. The author has never met anyone using Zedative and calls Airborne Agent far better.

Weapons

The author does not recommend off-perk weapons because their alt fire is not healing darts. A pistol, shotgun and assault rifle loadout is the go-to. Every weapon, even melee, has a bash that staggers zeds and can kill many if it hits the face. Follow it with headshots.

HMTech-101 Pistol: the starter gun.

• HMTech-101 Pistol. Packs a punch; keep it. Takes 1 weight block, so it is easy to push other classes to carry one for healing. Needs 50 secondary ammo per dart and regenerates slowly.

HMTech-201 SMG.

• HMTech-201 SMG. Same healing as the pistol; good early if you cannot afford more. Strong stumble power in bursts on small and medium zeds.

HMTech-301 Shotgun.

• HMTech-301 Shotgun. 40 secondary ammo per dart, regenerates a bit faster. Great vs groups and surprisingly good against Scrakes.

Hemogoblin.

• Hemogoblin. Zeds bleed out, take more damage and move slower. Heals like the shotgun, but longer reloads make it less reliable as a healer. Mainly for large zeds, applied before everyone else shoots.

HMTech-401 Assault Rifle.

• HMTech-401 Assault Rifle. A must-have: 30 secondary ammo per dart and fastest regeneration. Held back by recoil, so fire very short bursts. Great against small zeds and far better than the SMG.

The Medic Grenade.

• Medic Grenade. Sirens destroy it like other grenades. Great for clearing crowds that cornered you or someone else (not large zeds). Do not panic-throw several; save them for healing, though they are also strong offensively in doorways. Account for fleeing teammates' movement.

The Scalpel.

• Scalpel. Hotkey it for quick parrying (every class should). Many zeds cannot hit you while you knife them in the face or neck. It benefits from Battle Surgeon.

The Syringe.

• Syringe. Powerful but often forgotten. Hotkey it. It recharges twice as fast when used to heal a teammate. Use it when everyone is close and panicking, since darts are hard to aim at close range.

Tips

For all classes: go for headshots all the time and learn to do it without iron sights; hotkey the syringe and use it; hotkey melee and learn to parry; hotkey Request Help and use it when large zeds appear; buy medic weapons if you can since a medic cannot keep a team alive that cannot defend itself.

Darts: the assault rifle can rapid-fire them and is usually enough alone. Without it, carry more guns to switch between. Rapid-firing darts will not heal faster but heals the full amount over time and applies more buffs. Darts need a moment to lock on (green circle on the sights, with a sound) and will not lock while you sprint. Zeds block darts, so move for a better angle. Darts apply buffs even to people who do not need healing. Keep watching teammates.

Grenades: Sirens obliterate them before they explode. Use one grenade with darts rather than two grenades together, as there is a max healing rate. Grenades apply and maintain max buffs on players staying in the gas (and on you via Symbiotic Health). Throw at the feet of players holding the line, but well ahead of fleeing players, or you waste it.

Tanking and kiting: you have more armor and health (Symbiotic Health) or damage resistance (Resilience) than most, so do not fear the fray, but a dead medic is a huge disservice. Combat skills let you dodge Scrakes while shooting; for Fleshpounds sprint only when they get close, though you will eventually be hit. Draw attention to save teammates while healing them.

Shooting: you are not here to top the scoreboard. Shoot more bullets with combat skills and more darts with dart-buff skills. Always look for players to heal before shooting zeds. The assault rifle kills most zeds in few shots regardless of the hit location. Help with big zeds when the situation allows, and do not enrage large zeds if you will not deal with them.

At the end of the day: focus on healing, give your hoarded Dosh to teammates, play according to your chosen skills, prioritize targets, and think of it like driving where every other driver is drunk: keep checking on your teammates. It is a game, so have fun.

More on this role: Field Medic perk guide and medic weapon stats.