Remnant 2: Medic Archetype Revealed as New Starting Class

The Medic is easily the archetype I’ve been anticipating most. We’ve known of its existence for a while, and it perplexed us when we saw journalists skip over trying it out at the recent summer games fest, but today we finally have all the details.

The Medic is one of five starting archetypes in Remnant 2. All 5 starting archetype items, as well as a bunch more, can be found throughout the game, even if you don’t pick them initially, and they are swappable at any time by simply changing out the archetype item. This system effectively replaces armor perks from remnant from the ashes and it’s something we go into detail on in our recent remnant 2 ultimate preview video, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t done so already.

The Medic archetype is activated by slotting the Caduceus Idol item, and it’s the ideal class to pick if you’re the type of player that likes to support their team and keep them in the fight. The class will provide the most potent form of healing across any single archetype within the game. This is the archetype for healing or support oriented players, but it also makes a fantastic sub archetype for any solo player looking to augment their DPS loadout.

In terms of initial weapons, the Medic will have access to the Bonesaw LMG, 1911 Service Pistol, and the Steel Flail and the combination already appears to be a seriously potent kit. Don’t forget, even if you don’t choose this archetype from the start, Brabus will have all these weapons, as well as all other starting archetype weapons, for sale immediately.

This is the archetype for healing or support oriented players

The unique archetype trait, Triage, massively increases healing effectiveness. For example, if one of the Medics skills healed for 30% of a player’s max health, and triage grants a 50% healing bonus, that skill would actually heal for 45%. This not only cements the Medic as the Master of Health recovery will allow any other archetype to potentially benefit from increased healing once it’s unlocked in the general trait pool.

With this trait in mind, it’s no surprise all the Medic’s perks tap into healing potency.

The damage perk, Invigorated, grants an increase to all damage and a boost to critical chance, that increases as you level up your archetype.

The team perk, Benevolence, increases the potency of a relic’s effect and heals nearby allies for a percentage of the total healing you’d receive from your relic. The amount of healing increases if your teammate is under a certain threshold.

The utility perk, Backbone, increases the amount of hits the Medic can take before losing grey health.

If you weren’t aware by now, Remnant 2 is introducing the Grey Health system that allows 50% of damage taken to be converted to grey health. This is health that can be recovered through passive regeneration or dedicated healing effects outside of relics. This effect alone means you’ll be able to take more damage while recovering it much easier.

Finally, the relic perk, Benefactor, allows you to use your relic charges faster while becoming immune to stagger effects.

The classes’ prime perk, Regenerator, allows you to recover a relic charge whenever you restore a predetermined amount of health to yourself or allies. Relic use and skill healing both contribute to this. Resting or respawning at a worldstone resets this healing accumulation and each additional player in a party increases the healing requirement before you regenerate a relic charge.

The Medic also has 3 powerful skills, all of which change the playstyle of the character.

Wellspring allows the Medic to punch a hole in the ground creating a small, static healing AOE. This is the most potent healing skill, as it heals a significant amount over time and greatly increases blight decay rate. The tradeoff here is that while it heals a lot, the well is stuck in a specific spot in the world and your team needs to adjust for that.

For those looking for a more mobility, the second skill, Healing Shield, might fit the bill. This will shield all allies within a certain AOE of the Medic for 100% of their max health. While this shield is intact, allies will generate a percentage of their max health over the duration. It’s important to understand that if a player takes enough damage to remove the shield, they’ll also lose the healing effect, so try to not get hit.

Finally, there’s Redemption, which unleashes a massive shockwave that not only revives all downed allies, but it also restores a huge portion of max health to yourself and a quarter of that to your allies. When using this skill, holding down the skill button will increase the healing potency every second. While this might not be necessary to heal yourself to full, it’s vital to fully heal your teammates after a revive. Also, teammates can’t be revived by Redemption again for another 150 seconds, and that’s important to be aware of, since the skill cools down 25 seconds before that window is over.

When all is said and done, I think it’s safe to assume the Medic archetype will be a fixture in a lot of group compositions, either as the prime archetype or the sub archetype. A healing class is a pretty new concept in the Remnant universe so it’ll be interesting to see how it fits into the overall landscape of archetypes, but keep in mind, the few archetypes that we know of are just the tip of the iceberg and the gunfire games team still has plenty to reveal in the weeks leading up to launch.