Space is a dangerous place to be in and in Starfield it is doubly so with the likes of the Crimson Fleet pirates and Bounty Hunters always on your back. Even exploring quiet planets puts you the target of dangerous creatures that inhabit them, often leaving you with little to no health. Starfield does not have an auto health regeneration system, so you must do it manually.
As such, after every combat encounter, you need to heal. But how are you supposed to do that? In this guide, we’ll be going over how exactly you can heal in Starfield, along with items that grant the most health and food items that heal you too. We’ll also be going over how you can increase your maximum health in Starfield.
Healing in Starfield
Healing during combat encounters can be done with the assistance of Aid items. These include med packs and other consumables that either restore your health straight away or heal and give buffs that regen health for a short while.
Healing items are automatically assigned to your favorites. When you’re in combat, simply press down on the D-Pad or the ‘0’ key if you’re on PC and your character will heal themselves. You can assign additional healing items to all other hotkeys if you wish.
Alternatively, you can open your inventory and manually select the item you want to heal with and press the A button on Xbox and the ‘E’ key If you’re playing on PC.
Outside of combat, you can heal with consumables, however, this may waste valuable med packs that may be more useful during combat.
The best way to restore health out of combat in Starfield is to find a bed, your spaceship has a bed, that is accessible to you at all times.
Alternatively, you can go to any purchased house or apartment and use the bed there. Simply sleep in the bed and you’ll wake up with a full bar of health and even a timed XP boost.
Best Healing items in Starfield
Med Pack – This is your standard, most reliable form of healing. A standard med pack heals you for 4% HP per second, for 10 seconds. In total, that’s 40% healing from one med pack. Stacking these up when you can is essential. You can do so by looting enemy bodies, some have a chance to drop it on death. Otherwise
Trauma Pack – This item restores 7% health per second for 5 seconds. Though the total health restored (35%) is less than the Med Pack, the time it takes to restore health is significantly lower, which can make all the difference in a tough altercation.
Emergency Kit – This is one of the rarest healing items in Starfield but is also the most effective out of all available items. The Emergency Kit restores 12% of your HP for 4 seconds, which surmounts 48% of your total health. It is found with only a few vendors with one being the Trade Authority vendor in the Den.
Heart+ – This isn’t a traditional healing item but rather a chem. It is extremely effective, however, as it gives you 20% HP for 2 minutes, totaling 40% health recovery. Additionally, Heart+ also gives you +200 damage resistance for 2 minutes.
While Med Packs and similar items have a chance of being looted from dead NPCs / Chests, the Green and White Emergency First Aid stations on walls have a higher chance of storing these essentials. You can add healing items to your inventory by using item IDs and the console command function.
Healing Power in Starfield
If you’re in a pinch during combat and need to heal up in an instant, you can use the Life Forced power to heal yourself. This power basically sucks the health out of a nearby enemy and gives it to you. So not only are you healed but you also end up damaging your opponent.
Foods that restore health in Starfield
Food items don’t restore as much health as Trauma Packs and Med Packs but they’re a great alternative to fall on if you have neither of those items available.
Food can be bought, looted, or even cooked and will be stored in your inventory and unlike Fallout 76, food does not spoil in Starfield. Here are some of the food items that you can use to restore health in Starfield.
| Item | Effect |
| Grapes | Restores 2 health |
| Lettuce | Restores 2 health |
| Carrot | Restores 2 health |
| Boom Pop! Cola | Restores 3 health +10% Oxygen recovery for 3 minutes |
| Cheese | Restores 3 health |
| Baguette | Restores 3 health |
| Butter | Restores 3 health |
| Drink Pack: Milk | Restores 3 health |
| Meal Pack: Cereal | Restores 3 health |
| Synthameat Steak | Restores 3 health |
| Synthameat Turkey | Restores 3 health |
| Meal Pack Sushi | Restores 5 health |
| Distilled Water | Restores 3 health Actions use -20% Oxygen for 3 minutes |
| Drink Pack: Water | Restores 3 health Actions use -20% Oxygen for 3 minutes |
| Can-Uck! Pancakes Plus | Restores 5 health |
| Chunk’s Apple | Restores 5 health |
| Chunk’s Beef | Restores 5 health |
| Chunk’s Cheesesteak | Restores 5 health |
| Instant Oatmeal | Restores 5 health |
| Oat Clusters | Restores 5 health |
| Midnight Delight | Restores 5 health |
| Melon Caviar | Restores 10 health |
| Patty Melt | Restores 15 health |
| Alien Stew | Restores 20 health +100 DMG resistance for 12 minutes |
| UC Battlemeal Multipack | Restores 20 health+8 Carry Capacity for 8 minutes |
How to increase the effectiveness of health items in Starfield
With the Medicine skill from the Science skill tree, you can improve the effectiveness of healing items. It has four tiers with each tier improving its effectiveness.
| Rank | Effect | Challenge |
| Rank 1 | Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 10% additional Health 10% faster | N/A |
| Rank 2 | Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 20% additional Health 20% faster | Use 20 healing items when wounded or at low health |
| Rank 3 | Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 30% additional Health 30% faster | Use 50 healing items when wounded or at low health |
| Rank 4 | Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 50% additional Health 50% faster and have a chance to cure an affliction | Use 100 healing items when wounded or at low health |
You can increase the effectiveness of food items in Starfield by unlocking the Nutrition skill from the Physical skill tree. This is a tier 2 skill, so you should be able to acquire it fairly early on. This skill has four levels.
| Rank | Effect | Challenge |
| Rank 1 | Food and drink are 10% more effective. | N/A |
| Rank 2 | Food and drink are now 20% more effective. | Consume 10 food or drink items |
| Rank 3 | Food and drink are now 30% more effective. | Consume 30 food or drink items |
| Rank 4 | Food and drink are now 50% more effective. | Consume 75 food or drink items |
Lastly, you can increase the rate at which health regenerates by unlocking the Rejuvenation Skill in the Physical skill tree. You must spend 12 skill points in the physical skill tree before you can unlock it. This skill is more passive but works greatly to increase the effectiveness of healing items in Starfield.
| Rank | Effect | Challenge |
| Rank 1 | Slowly regenerate health outside of combat | Spend 12 skill points in the Physical skill tree |
| Rank 2 | Quickly regenerate health outside of combat | fall below 25% health a total of 3 times then heal completely |
| Rank 3 | Quickly regenerate health outside of combat Slowly regenerate health during combat | fall below 25% health a total of 8 times then heal completely |
| Rank 4 | Regenerate health outside of combat even quickerQuickly regenerate health during combat | fall below 25% health a total of 15 times then heal completely |
How to increase max health in Starfield
Increasing your maximum health in Starfield becomes absolutely pivotal towards the end of the game. Healing is not the only factor you should be looking at when it comes to HP.
In Starfield, you can increase your max health by unlocking the Wellness Skill in the Physical skill tree. It has four tiers, some backgrounds already come with the Wellness Skill unlocked including the Combat Mechanic and Diplomat.
| Rank | Effect | Challenge |
| Rank 1 | Increase maximum health by 10% | NA |
| Rank 2 | Increase maximum health by 20% | Heal 200 damage by any means |
| Rank 3 | Increase maximum health by 30% | Heal 500 damage by any means |
| Rank 4 | Increase maximum health by 40% | Heal 1,000 damage by any means |
How to heal afflictions in Starfield
Sometimes you may be affected by an Affliction which are status effect that you in various ways some of which decrease your maximum health. It is important to treat them straight away. Here’s how you can treat every affliction in Starfield
| Affliction | How to heal |
| Radiation Poisoning | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Poisoned | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Lung Damage | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Hernia | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Heatstroke | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Hypothermia | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Burn | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Brain Injury | Snake Oil and/or Injector |
| Dislocated Limb | Immobilizer |
| Fractured Limb | Immobilizer |
| Fractured Skull | Immobilizer |
| Torn Muscle | Immobilizer |
| Burn | Heal Paste |
| Frostbite | Heal Paste |
| Puncture Wound | Zipper Bandages and/or standard Bandages |
| Laceration | Zipper Bandages and/or standard Bandages |
| Contusion | Zipper Bandages and/or standard Bandages |
| Infection | Antibiotics |
