Medic
Crew Member
A crew member role. Provides healing to their captain, either on their ship or in active combat with their captain.
Medics are a crew member role for player ships. Their uniform color is white.
Medics can be recruited the same way all other crew roles (except Outlaw) can by completing procedurally-generated NPC quests, which will give the quest giver a chance to turn into a recruit-able crew member with a 1/7 base chance to choose the Medic class. However, there are a few ways to increase the chance for an NPC to become a medic:
If a friendly NPC is an Apex Rebel, they will have a slightly higher chance to become a Medic (25%) compared to other NPCs (14.3%).
Medics provide buffs to players both on the ship and when traveling together. When on the ship, medics give players the Regeneration buff continuously until they leave the ship. As a travel companion a medic will occasionally give their captain 30 seconds of the Regeneration buff while both are in active combat.
Healing from the Regeneration buff is percentage-based, meaning the higher the player's maximum health is, the stronger the effect will be. Because of this, medics will perform better when their captain is wearing armor crafted from a Separator's Table.
Unlike Chemists who turn their permanent buffs into temporary buffs whenever their captain beams down to a planet, the permanent Regeneration buff is removed immediately when the player leaves their ship.
Medics fight using either a Shortsword or a Pistol, but they cannot use both at the same time. If a medic chooses to use a shortsword during combat, they will never use a pistol, even when beaming back up to their ship; the only way to swap weapons is to fire the current medic and look for a new one. However, the inability to use multiple weapons can serve as an advantage in that it helps medics focus on a particular fighting style. Medics using shortswords can hunt down enemies in melee combat, while medics with pistols will always stay at a safe distance and will never approach enemies to a close distance unless they are forced to do so.
While a medics choice of weapons can prove beneficial in many situations, it also opens up noticeable weaknesses. One-handed weapons in Starbound are weaker than their two-handed counterparts to compensate for the ability to use a second item in the offhand. Unfortunately, crew members cannot take advantage of this. This results in Medics dealing less overall damage compared to combat oriented roles like Soldier. Additionally, the inability to use multiple weapons opens up vulnerabilities: Melee medics cannot attack enemies outside of melee (or lunging) distance. Meanwhile, NPCs cannot attack with firearms as quickly as they can with melee weapons, meaning if a monster or an enemy NPC is close enough to melee a ranged medic, the medic will struggle to fight off their attacker and will likely get killed in the process if backup cannot be provided.
To conclude, Medics are better at healing than at combat, and are designed to be this way. While they can prevent anyone from dying by keeping their health topped off, medics perform best if their captain uses a melee-oriented build, as armor designed around melee weapons focuses on maximizing the players health in exchange for bonus energy and damage. The best weapon for medics should match their captain's playstyle: Shortswords for melee captains, or Pistols for ranged/magic captains. Matching playstyles will allow the medic to stay close to their captain and heal them whenever necessary.
| Ship Status Effect | Traveling Status Effect |
|---|---|
 Regeneration (persistent)
|
Regeneration (temporary)
|
