ÜberCharge

Run!

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Is good time to run, cowards! Click to listen — The Heavy on suggesting the enemy team to flee.

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I AM BULLETPROOF! Click to listen — The Heavy on how the ÜberCharge works.

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ÜberCharge (which is German for Supercharge, or Overcharge) is an ability of the Medic class. The ÜberCharge is built up by focusing the beam of the Medic's healing gun onto a teammate (or a Disguised Spy).

A bar on the HUD, where the ammo icon usually appears, shows how much ÜberCharge is available. Once the bar is 100% full and begins flashing, the Medic has the ability to activate the ÜberCharge, granting the Medic and his target either invincibility for 8 seconds (with the Medigun) or 100% critical hits for 8 seconds (with the Kritzkrieg). With a Medigun ÜberCharge activated, the two players will glow their respective team colors. With a Kritzkrieg ÜberCharge activated, both players will appear normal but their weapons will glow and crackle with electricity of their team color for the duration. When looking at a friendly Medic, a colored box shows up on the HUD displaying the username of the Medic, whether or not he is wielding the Kritzkrieg, along with the percent of his ÜberCharge.

It should also be noted that a player can receive an ÜberCharge from a Medic wielding a Medigun and another Medic with a Kritzkrieg at the same time, giving the player the effects of both ÜberCharges and allowing them to cut a devastating swathe through the enemy.

A skilled Spy can trick an enemy Medic into ÜberCharging them while they are Disguised, wasting the charge and allowing him to wreak havoc on the enemy team for its duration. When this happens, to the team the spy is on, he'll appear Übered in his team's color with the enemy medic trailing behind in their own color. To the team of the medic, it'll be the same as their own team color.

Switching weapons from the Medigun to another will stop the ÜberCharge but continue to drain the ÜberCharge meter.

Charging the ÜberCharge

The ÜberCharge meter fills at two different rates, depending on the health of the Medic's heal target.

• The Medigun meter fills at 2.50% / second when the Medic...
  • Heals a player with less than 150% health (full Overheal).
  • Heals a teammate during Setup time (even when fully overhealed).
    • This was added in a December 2007 patch to replace the strategy of one player constantly self-damaging during setup to keep the Medic healing damage and filling the meter at this rate.
• The Medigun meter fills at 1.25% / second when the Medic heals a player who is already 150% health, outside of Setup time.
  • This was designed to encourage Medics to heal more than one target.
• The Kritzkrieg meter charges at +25% the rate of a medigun.
• With the faster charge rate, it takes a total of 40 seconds to fully charge the Medigun ÜberCharge meter. When charging at the slow rate, this takes 80 seconds.
  • With the Kritzkrieg, filling the ÜberCharge meter takes 30 seconds (25% faster) at the faster rate. With the slower rate, this takes 60 seconds (twice as long).
• Healing enemy spies (disguised as one of your teammates) also charges the Ubercharge meter.
• Also, a Medic who wields the Übersaw charges his ÜberCharge by 25% with each successful hit on an enemy (excluding enemy disguised Spies).
  • He can also gain a 50% charge by using his Übersaw to successfully taunt kill an enemy.

Using the ÜberCharge

Note that while the players are immune to damage with a regular ÜberCharge, they are still affected from the concussive force of weapons such as the Sentry gun and Rocket launcher. This can be useful for breaking an ÜberCharge, because if the Medic is separated from his team-mate, the team-mate's ÜberCharge will be deactivated.

After a medic deploys his ÜberCharge onto his target, if he releases his focus on the target, the target will remain Übered for one second while the Medic heals another target. A Medic can use this to keep multiple patients ÜberCharged at once (it is required to unlock the Second Opinion achievement). However, since the April 1, 2008 Patch, each player ÜberCharged in addition to the current heal target will cause the ÜberCharge to dissipate at an additional 50% of the base speed [1].

ÜberCharged players cannot capture control points or hold intelligence or flags (but can still defend control points from capture). ÜberCharging while healing an intelligence (flag) holder only ÜberCharges the Medic.

Related Achievements

	Autoclave Assist in burning 5 enemies with a single ÜberCharge on a Pyro.		Autopsy Report Provide an enemy with a freezecam shot of you taunting above their ragdoll.
	Blast Assist Assist in exploding 5 enemies with a single ÜberCharge on a Soldier.		Blunt Trauma Assist in punching 2 enemies with a single ÜberCharge on a Heavy.
	Double Blind Trial Deploy an ÜberCharge within 8 seconds of a nearby enemy Medic deploying his.		Family Practice ÜberCharge 10 of your steam community friends.
	Group Health Work with 2 other Medics to deploy 3 simultaneous ÜberCharges.		House Call Join a game that one of your friends is in and then deploy an ÜberCharge on him.
	Medical Breakthrough Assist in destroying 5 enemy Engineer buildings with a single ÜberCharge on a Demoman.		Placebo Effect Kill 5 enemies in a single life, while having your ÜberCharge ready but undeployed.
	Preventative Medicine Block the enemy from capturing a control point with an ÜberCharged teammate.		Second Opinion ÜberCharge 2 teammates at once.
	Surgical Prep Have an ÜberCharge ready before the set up phase ends.		Trauma Queen Deploy 3 ÜberCharges in less than 5 minutes and assist in 5 kills during that time.
	Triage Deploy an ÜberCharge on a teammate less than a second before they are hit by a Critical explosive.		You'll Feel a Little Prick Assist in killing 3 enemies with a single ÜberCharge on a Scout.

Trivia

• Most environmental hazards ignore invulnerable players, and will kill them regardless. However, using an invulnerability ÜberCharge can save the Medic and his healing target(s) from drowning.
• ÜberCharges extinguish Fire on both the Medic and his target.
• While having an ÜberCharge active, the Medic may switch to another weapon such as the Übersaw and use it against enemies to counter the ÜberCharge drain. However, the Medic is vulnerable while he is not holding the Medigun.

See also

• ÜberCharge strategy
• Kritzkrieg