Kritzkrieg

“

Eins, zwei, dr-ugh... I do not think we brought enough body bags. Click to listen — The Medic on the Necessity of Proper Supplies

”

The Kritzkrieg is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Medic class. It is unlocked after 16 of the Medic achievements are completed, excluding Milestone 1. Just like the Medigun, it can heal injured allies as well as disguised Spies, and will boost the total health of the target to 150% (also called overhealing). As the Medic keeps his beam focused on a team-mate, his ÜberCharge bar will gradually fill. The ÜberCharge meter will fill faster when healing injured team-mates or team-mates whose health is not at 150%. When the ÜberCharge is used, the gun of the person being healed emits team colored sparks and shoots 100% critical hits for the next 8 seconds, rather than giving invulnerability. This effect does not work in combination with the Axtinguisher, but can be used with the Sniper rifle. Additionally it causes any projectiles reflected by the Compression Blast to be critical hits. The Kritzkrieg charges 25% faster than the Medigun. While the Medigun's beam has small cross symbols floating into the recipient, the Kritzkrieg has small yellow lines floating into the recipient as well. Due to its nature the Kritzkrieg's ÜberCharge carries no benefit to the Medic if he deploys it and has no healing target, unlike the medigun's ÜberCharge which can be used for defensive purposes.

The heal rate is based on how long ago the target was damaged; if they were damaged less than 10 seconds ago, it heals at 24 health per second, if they were hit 12.5 seconds ago, you will heal them at 48 health per second, and if 15 seconds have elapsed, they will be healed at 72 health per second. source

The Kritzkrieg beam will stay locked onto its target as long as the wielding Medic keeps the attack button held down and keeps within range of the target. This allows the Medic to turn around and effectively keep an eye out for incoming enemies from behind. In Options > Multiplayer > Advanced, there is an option to have the beam stay locked on without having to hold down the fire button.

Taunting with the Kritzkrieg equipped results in the Oktoberfest taunt attack, which heals the Medic for 11 health but leaves him temporarily vulnerable.

Damage

None. Heals ally for 24-72 health per second.

Function times

• ÜberCharge Percentage Gain: 0.5
• Kritz Duration: 8.0

ÜberCharge Percentage Gain rate is doubled if target is at 142.5% health or higher. All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Trivia

• The Kritzkrieg has a Community weapon variant.
• The name "Kritzkrieg" is a pun on "Blitzkrieg [1]", which is German for "lightning war", a technique used by the Nazis in World War II.
• Before the Kritzkrieg was released, Valve stated in interviews that they were going to add an Overhealer that could permanently overheal team-mates to 200% of their standard health, but it would have a significantly worsened ÜberCharge, or be unable to ÜberCharge at all. However, this was cancelled after playtesting. The model for the Kritzkrieg attachment still bears the filename 'Overhealer'.

See also

• Kritzkrieg strategy
• Oktoberfest
• Healing
• ÜberCharge