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I AM BULLETPROOF!
Click to listen
— The Heavy on the finer mechanics of an ÜberCharge
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ÜberCharge (German for "supercharge" or "overcharge", actually translated as "Überladung" in the German version) is an ability of the Medic. The ÜberCharge is built up by focusing the Medic's healing beam onto a teammate (or a disguised Spy). When activated, the ÜberCharge grants an extraordinary power to the Medic and his patient for a brief period of time. The effect of an ÜberCharge depends upon which healing gun is used to deploy it.
A bar on the HUD, where the ammo icon usually appears, shows how much ÜberCharge is available. Once the bar reaches 100%, it will begin flashing, indicating to the Medic that he can unleash the ÜberCharge. An ÜberCharge grants the Medic and his target eight seconds of invincibility with the Medi Gun, accelerated healing and unimpeded movement with the Quick-Fix, or guaranteed critical hits (for the target only) with the Kritzkrieg. An ÜberCharge will only affect a player for as long as the healing beam is trained on them, and if the Medic dies, the charge will end prematurely. Additionally, during any ÜberCharge, if the deploying Medic switches to any weapon but the healing gun, the charge will continue to deplete and the benefits of the charge will vanish until the weapon is redeployed. An ÜberCharged player will continue to be healed by the Medic's healing gun during the ÜberCharge.
Charging the ÜberCharge
The ÜberCharge meter fills at two different rates, depending on the health of the Medic's heal target.
- The Medi Gun 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 Medi Gun 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 and Quick-Fix meters charge at +25% the rate of the Medi Gun.
- With the faster charge rate, it takes a total of 40 seconds to fully charge the Medi Gun 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. When charging at the slow rate, this takes 60 seconds.
- Healing enemy Spies (disguised as one of your teammates) also charges the ÜberCharge meter.
- A Medic who wields the Übersaw charges his ÜberCharge by 25% with each successful hit on an enemy.
- Enemy Scouts that are struck with the Übersaw when invulnerable (through the use of Bonk! Atomic Punch) will also reward the Medic a 25% ÜberCharge boost.
- Disguised enemy Spies will not grant the boost to the ÜberCharge meter, unless the strike was a killing blow or activated the Spy's Dead Ringer.
- The ÜberCharge meter is instantly filled upon successfully performing the Übersaw's taunt kill on an enemy.
- The Medic's Vita-Saw can be used to preserve a fraction of his ÜberCharge meter between lives.
- It should be noted that the UberCharge does not carry over when the instrument is changed. For example, a when switching from a Quick-Fix with a 75% charge, to the Medi gun at a Resupply Cabinet, the Ubercharge will be reduced to zero.
Using the ÜberCharge
While players are immune to damage with a Medi Gun ÜberCharge, they are still affected by knockback from weapons such as the Sentry Gun and the Pyro's compression blast with both the Medi Gun and Kritzkrieg Übercharges. This can be used to separate the Medic from his teammate, nullifying most ÜberCharges by breaking the healing beam. The Quick-Fix Übercharge, however, will grant immunity to knockback, compression blasts, and other forms of hindered mobility.
Medi Gun 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. This restriction only applies to the Medi Gun ÜberCharge, as players ÜberCharged by the Kritzkrieg or Quick-Fix are free to take intelligence and capture points.
During an ÜberCharge, the Medic is free to switch targets at any time. The effect of a Medi Gun ÜberCharge will linger for one second after breaking contact with the beam, allowing the Medic to grant invulnerability to multiple players simultaneously. Switching targets during this ÜberCharge, however, will cause it to deplete more quickly and shorten the overall duration. Each player ÜberCharged in addition to the first target will cause the ÜberCharge to dissipate at an additional 50% of the base speed [1].
Multiple ÜberCharges from multiple Medics deployed upon a single player at once do not override each other, meaning that a player can simultaneously be any combination of invulnerable, unstoppable and quickly regenerating, and capable of delivering critical hits on all shots. A Medic wielding a Medi Gun and another Medic with a Kritzkrieg at the same time, for example, can give their shared target the effects of both ÜberCharges; this allows the trio to cut a devastating swathe through the enemy with near-impunity (the Medic wielding the Kritzkrieg does not receive the benefits of invulnerability during his ÜberCharge, and can be killed), though in most situations it is more effective to ÜberCharge two different players or wait until one ÜberCharge expires before beginning the next one.
Identifying an ÜberCharge
There are distinct visual effects that allow players to identify the type of an active ÜberCharge at a glance.
- With a Medi Gun ÜberCharge activated, the Medic and his target will glow in their team color, with yellow or purple eyes and a metallic sheen across their bodies.
- With a Kritzkrieg ÜberCharge activated, the healing beam will pulse, and both the Medic and his target's weapons will glow and crackle with electricity in the color of their team.
- The Kritzkrieg emits yellow sparks that travel down the healing beam at all times.
- A Quick-Fix ÜberCharge causes the Medic's healing beam to pulse and glow with greater intensity and a team colored ring will surround the Medic and his target.
Additionally, when looking at a friendly Medic, being healed by a friendly Medic, or looking at any Medic when playing as the Spy, a colored box pops up on the HUD, displaying the username of the Medic, the name of the healing gun they have equipped, and their ÜberCharge percentage.
The appearance of the Spy during ÜberCharges is a special case. A Spy can trick an enemy Medic into ÜberCharging them while they are disguised, a tactic which can cripple pushes and give the Spy a surprise attack with the misplaced ÜberCharge. The Spy gains all the benefits of the charge. Until the Spy breaks disguise, they will appear to enemy players just as they would if they were on the enemy team (a Spy glowing in the color of the enemy team, in the case of a Medi Gun ÜberCharge, for example). To allies, and all players once the disguise is broken, the Spy and his ÜberCharge visual effects will appear in his own team colors.
Related Achievements
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Doctoring the Ball
Kill 3 enemies while under the effects of a Medic's ÜberCharge.
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Pyrotechnics
Kill 3 enemies in a single ÜberCharge.
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Soviet Block
While invulnerable and on defense, block an invulnerable enemy Heavy's movement.
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Double Blind Trial
Deploy an ÜberCharge within 8 seconds of a nearby enemy Medic deploying his.
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Group Health
Work with 2 other Medics to deploy 3 simultaneous ÜberCharges.
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Triage
Deploy an ÜberCharge on a teammate less than a second before they're hit by a critical explosive.
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Blunt Trauma
Assist in punching 2 enemies with a single ÜberCharge on a Heavy.
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Family Practice
ÜberCharge 5 of your Steam Community Friends.
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House Call
Join a game that one of your friends is in and then deploy an ÜberCharge on him.
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Placebo Effect
Kill 2 enemies in a single life, while having your ÜberCharge ready, but undeployed.
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Trauma Queen
Deploy 3 ÜberCharges in less than 5 minutes, and assist in 5 kills during that time.
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Update history
October 25, 2007 Patch
- Fixed an exploit that allowed disconnected medics to continue Übercharging their target until they timed out.
November 7, 2007 Patch
- Fixed Medic's Über-charge stats tracking.
December 20, 2007 Patch
- Fixed exploit where the Medi Gun ÜberCharge wouldn't drain if you switched weapons.
April 1, 2008 Patch
- Each extra player ÜberCharged drains the ÜberCharge an additional 50% faster.
May 5, 2008 Patch
- Fixed unlimited ÜberCharge exploit.
May 7, 2008 Patch
- Fixed another unlimited ÜberCharge exploit.
May 21, 2008 Patch
- Fixed rapid weapon switching allowing Medics to prevent deployed ÜberCharges from draining.
August 13, 2009 Patch
- Übercharged players can not be stunned.
January 10, 2011 Patch
- Fixed the Kritzkrieg charge deployed sound getting stuck on.
May 5, 2011 Patch
- Fixed removing the burning/jarated conditions on players who are being ÜberCharged by a Medic using the Kritzkrieg
- Added Mad Milk to the conditions that are cleared when players are made invulnerable by a Medic with an ÜberCharge
July 7, 2011 Patch
- [Undocumented] Added Ubercharge overlay for Quick-Fix users during the Megaheal.
Trivia
- Most environmental hazards ignore invulnerable players, and will kill them regardless. However, an 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 Medi Gun.
- ÜberCharged players can be killed by telefrags.
- The textures for ÜberCharged classes, like the gibs, are for the old models from early versions of Team Fortress 2. If you look closely, you can see that the ÜberCharge textures for the classes are misaligned in some places (such as the goggles crossing the Engineer's nose).
- When you hit a Medi Gun ÜberCharged player with a critical hit, they will take no damage. However, the critical hit sound will still play and the letters that indicate a critical hit will appear above the enemy.
- ÜberCharged players are not immune to Jarate or Mad Milk, although neither will have any effect while the ÜberCharge lasts.
- ÜberCharge can be used on an enemy spy that is disguised as a teammate, but the ÜberCharge color will be the enemy team's color.
- ÜberCharged players can be stunned (but not killed) by the Sniper's Skewer taunt, Medic's Spinal Tap taunt, and Engineer's Organ Grinder taunt.
- "Meet the Medic" reveals that the ÜberCharge is activated via a Medi Gun-powered device surgically attached to a patient's heart. It also reveals that the average human heart is prone to exploding when powered by said device (or at least the prototype).
See also
 Medic |
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