The medic is the difference between a squad that bleeds out in the treeline and one that keeps pushing the objective. In Arma Reforger, healing is not a magic green cross you walk over — it is a layered medical system with bleeding, blood loss, unconsciousness, and distinct items that each fix a specific problem. Get the order wrong and your teammate dies while you fumble with the wrong injector. Get it right and you become the most valuable player on the server.
This guide covers the full health system on the current 1.6 build (the “Operation Omega” line, with experimental work on 1.7): how wounds and bleeding work, what each medical item actually does, the correct treatment sequence, the critical difference between self-treatment and treating others, how to revive downed teammates, and how to build and play a proper medic in Conflict. Where the community has reported numbers that the official Boot Camp does not publish, those values are flagged as approximate so you know exactly what is confirmed and what is community lore.
How the Arma Reforger Health System Works
Arma Reforger’s health model, described in Bohemia Interactive’s official Boot Camp (Health System), is built around bleeding and blood loss over time rather than a single hit-point bar. When you take damage, you start bleeding, and that bleeding steadily drains your blood. The lower your blood gets, the worse you function — and eventually you go down.
The visual feedback follows a clear progression as blood drops:
- Vision distorts — the screen begins to warp at the edges as blood loss sets in.
- Color drains — the world loses saturation and turns increasingly grey, a deliberate warning that you are running low.
- Unconsciousness — when blood falls far enough the player passes out: vision is severely limited and movement is disabled entirely.
- Death — if the bleeding is never stopped and blood is never restored, an untreated player eventually dies.
The key mental model for any medic: bleeding is the cause, blood loss is the symptom, unconsciousness is the warning, and death is the deadline. Almost every mistake new players make comes from treating the symptom (low blood) before they have stopped the cause (the bleed). The exact total body blood capacity and the precise blood threshold at which a player dies are not published in the official documentation, so don’t trust any single hard number you see quoted around the community — treat those as unconfirmed and play to the visual cues instead.
The Medical Items: What Each One Actually Does
There are four core items in the medical kit, and the most common rookie error is using the wrong one for the situation. Here is exactly what each does, where it can be applied, and whether it is reusable.
| Item | What it does | Where it applies | Single-use? | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandage | Stops bleeding | All body areas, including torso and head | Single-use | 0.1 kg |
| Tourniquet | Dramatically slows bleeding to a near-stop | Extremities only (arms/legs) — NOT torso, neck or head | Reusable / removable | 0.02 kg |
| Saline bag | Replenishes blood levels over time | Restores blood volume (not a bleed-stopper) | Single-use | 0.5 kg |
| Morphine injector | Pain relief, reduces sway, can wake the unconscious | Whole-body effect | Single-use | 0.02 kg |
Bandage (Field Dressing)
The bandage is your fundamental tool: it stops bleeding, full stop. Unlike the tourniquet, it can be applied to every body area, including the torso and head — which is exactly why torso, neck, and head wounds must be bandaged, since a tourniquet physically cannot go there. The trade-off is speed: bandaging is relatively slow, so if you are taking fire you often want to slap on a tourniquet first to buy time, then bandage once you have a moment of cover. Each bandage is single-use and weighs 0.1 kg.
Tourniquet
The tourniquet dramatically slows bleeding to a near-stop, but it only works on the extremities — arms and legs. You cannot apply it to the torso, neck, or head. Its big advantages are speed and reusability: it goes on fast and it is removable and reusable, so you can pull it off after bandaging and keep it for the next casualty. The catch is side effects while it is applied — a leg tourniquet restricts leg movement and an arm tourniquet reduces weapon accuracy. Think of it as a stopgap: it buys you time under pressure, but the proper fix on a limb is still a bandage. At 0.02 kg it is essentially free to carry several.
Saline Bag
A saline bag does not stop bleeding — it normalizes and replenishes blood levels over time. This is the item you use after the bleeding is stopped, to refill the tank and bring a low or unconscious teammate back. It is single-use and the heaviest item in the kit at 0.5 kg. Community medic guides commonly state that saline restores blood over roughly ~90 seconds up to around ~1,500 blood units — but these specific figures are community-reported and approximate; the official Boot Camp page does not publish exact saline numbers, so treat them as a rough guide rather than gospel. The practical takeaway holds regardless of the exact value: saline takes real time to work, so apply it early once the bleed is handled and keep the patient covered while it runs.
Morphine Injector (Painkillers)
Morphine — the same item class the game also refers to as painkillers — is the quality-of-life injector. It alleviates pain, reduces weapon sway, improves visibility, speeds healing, and can wake an unconscious player faster. It is not a substitute for bandages or saline (it does not stop bleeding or restore blood), but it is invaluable for getting a steadied, clear-eyed shooter back in the fight and for accelerating a teammate’s return to consciousness once you have stabilized them. Single-use, 0.02 kg.
The Correct Treatment Order
Because each item solves a different problem, sequence is everything. The reliable workflow, whether on yourself or a teammate, is:
- Stop the bleed first. On a limb under fire, apply a tourniquet to instantly slow the bleed, then move to cover. For torso or head wounds, you must bandage — there is no tourniquet option there.
- Bandage all wounds. Once you have a moment, bandage every bleeding area. This is the permanent fix that the tourniquet only delays.
- Restore blood with saline. If blood is low or the patient is unconscious, apply a saline bag to refill blood volume over time. Keep them protected while it works.
- Use morphine to recover capability. Inject morphine to kill pain, cut weapon sway, and — if the patient is unconscious — help wake them faster.
- Remove and reclaim the tourniquet. Since tourniquets are reusable, pull it off once the limb is bandaged so you keep it for the next casualty and lift its movement/accuracy penalties.
The single most common failure is reaching for saline while the patient is still bleeding — you are pouring blood into a leaking bucket. Always close the wound before you refill the tank.
Unconsciousness and Reviving Downed Teammates
When a player’s blood drops far enough they go unconscious: vision is severely limited and movement is fully disabled. This is the critical state — the player is not dead, but a teammate must intervene. A casualty whose blood is severely depleted generally cannot self-recover and needs another player to bring them back.
To revive a downed teammate, work the sequence in order:
- Bandage to stop any ongoing bleeding so they lose no more blood.
- Apply saline to restore blood volume — this is what brings them back toward consciousness as their levels climb.
- Use morphine to help them wake faster and come up steadier.
You can treat an unconscious teammate purely to prevent further loss and speed recovery even before they regain consciousness — stopping the bleed on a downed player is always the right first move, because it stabilizes them and stops the clock running toward death. For the full new-player picture of how Conflict, supplies and reviving fit together, see our comprehensive beginner’s guide to Arma Reforger.
Self-Treatment vs Treating Others
The medical items are identical whether you treat yourself or a teammate — there is no separate “self” and “other” item set. The decisive difference is capability:
- Conscious players can self-treat. If you are still on your feet, you can bandage your own wounds, slap on your own tourniquet, run your own saline, and inject your own morphine.
- Unconscious players generally cannot self-treat. Once you are knocked out, movement is disabled and you depend on another player to stabilize and revive you. This is the whole reason a dedicated medic exists.
The practical lesson: treat yourself before you go down. The moment your screen starts warping and losing color, stop the bleed and run saline while you still can — because once you cross into unconsciousness, your survival is entirely in someone else’s hands. Note that total body blood capacity and the exact death threshold are not officially documented, so play to the visual warnings rather than to a number.
Playing the Medic Role in Conflict
Conflict is Arma Reforger’s flagship large-scale multiplayer mode — pick a faction (US vs USSR, with FIA as a third force), capture bases within radio range, and manage supplies. In 1.6 the classic Conflict was reworked toward a Headquarters Commander (HQC) command-layer experience, but the role of the medic on the ground is unchanged: keep the squad in the fight by stopping bleeds and reviving the downed.
A medic carries a stock of bandages, tourniquets, saline bags, and morphine, drawn from the arsenal at a captured base. Exact loadout counts vary by spawn and arsenal availability, so treat any specific quantity as situational — but a sensible field kit weighting reflects the role:
- Bandages — carry the most; they are your universal bleed-stopper and the only fix for torso/head wounds.
- Saline bags — carry several, accepting the 0.5 kg weight, because reviving downed teammates eats through them fast.
- Tourniquets — a couple is plenty since they are reusable; reclaim them after bandaging.
- Morphine — a handful for waking the unconscious and steadying shooters.
Watch your stamina and weight: a saline-heavy medic kit adds up, and overloading drains stamina fast in Arma Reforger. Pack deliberately, stage your supplies at the forward base, and resupply from the arsenal rather than hauling everything at once. Positioning matters as much as items — a medic who pushes too far forward becomes the next casualty, while one who hangs slightly back behind the assault element can reach the wounded and pull them into cover.
If you want a reliable place to actually practice the role, a dedicated Arma Reforger server you control lets you run Conflict on demand, set up a private squad, and drill the bandage-tourniquet-saline-morphine sequence until it’s muscle memory. Step-by-step panel walkthroughs live in our Arma Reforger documentation.
Practicing the Medic Role on Your Own Server
The fastest way to learn medical mechanics without dying on a public server is to host your own Conflict instance and run it with friends or AI. Arma Reforger ships a genuine native dedicated server for both Windows (ArmaReforgerServer.exe) and Linux (./ArmaReforgerServer, no Proton/Wine needed), and you install it anonymously via SteamCMD — you do not need to own the game on the host machine.
The stable dedicated server app ID is 1874900 (the experimental branch is 1890870; the game client, which you don’t need to host, is 1874880). Install it like this:
steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir "C:\ArmaReforger\Server" +login anonymous +app_update 1874900 validate +quitThen launch it pointing at your JSON config, capping the framerate so the server doesn’t pin your CPU at thousands of FPS:
./ArmaReforgerServer -config /path/to/config.json -maxFPS 60 -profile /path/to/profileTo run a Conflict scenario where the medic role matters, set the scenarioId in your config. Arma Reforger uses a JSON config (not a classic Arma .cfg), and the format for a scenario is {16-HEX-GUID}Missions/FileName.conf. A few of the canonical 1.6 Conflict scenario IDs:
Conflict – Everon: {ECC61978EDCC2B5A}Missions/23_Campaign.conf
Conflict – Arland: {C41618FD18E9D714}Missions/23_Campaign_Arland.conf
Conflict – Northern Everon: {C700DB41F0C546E1}Missions/23_Campaign_NorthCentral.conf
Game Master – Everon: {59AD59368755F41A}Missions/21_GM_Eden.confA minimal but realistic config skeleton — note the case-sensitive keys, the default game port 2001, the Steam/A2S query port 17777, and a default maxPlayers of 64 (range 1–128):
{
"bindAddress": "",
"bindPort": 2001,
"publicAddress": "",
"publicPort": 2001,
"a2s": {
"address": "0.0.0.0",
"port": 17777
},
"game": {
"name": "Medic Training Server",
"passwordAdmin": "SuperSecretAdminPass",
"scenarioId": "{ECC61978EDCC2B5A}Missions/23_Campaign.conf",
"maxPlayers": 64,
"crossPlatform": false,
"supportedPlatforms": ["PLATFORM_PC"],
"gameProperties": {
"battlEye": true,
"fastValidation": true
},
"mods": []
},
"operating": {
"playerSaveTime": 120,
"aiLimit": -1
}
}Open UDP 2001 (game) and UDP 17777 (Steam/A2S query); if you enable RCON, open the port you set there (default 19999). For the full breakdown of every config block and field, see our Arma Reforger server configuration guide and the end-to-end setup walkthrough. If you want squadmates on Xbox or PS5 joining your training sessions, our crossplay guide covers the platform tokens and the BattlEye requirement.
Advanced Medical: ACE Anvil
If the vanilla system feels too forgiving, the realism framework ACE Anvil (Advanced Combat Environment) overhauls medical alongside ballistics and other systems — it’s the go-to for serious milsim servers and turns medic into a far deeper, more demanding role. One important caveat for server admins: ACE is a heavily scripted mod, and scripted mods are blocked on PSN by Sony policy, so an ACE-medical server will silently exclude PlayStation players even if you list PLATFORM_PSN. Plan your modpack around who you want to play with.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you revive someone in Arma Reforger?
Approach the unconscious teammate and work the sequence in order: bandage first to stop any ongoing bleeding, then apply a saline bag to restore their blood volume, then use morphine to help them wake faster. A severely bled-out player generally cannot self-recover and needs another player to bring them back, so stopping the bleed and running saline is what actually returns them to consciousness — morphine just speeds the waking up.
What does a tourniquet do in Arma Reforger, and where can you use it?
A tourniquet dramatically slows bleeding to a near-stop on the extremities only — arms and legs. It cannot be applied to the torso, neck, or head, so those wounds must be bandaged. Its advantages are that it goes on fast and is reusable/removable, making it ideal for buying time under fire before you bandage. While applied it restricts leg movement or reduces arm accuracy, so pull it off and reclaim it once you’ve bandaged the limb.
How long does a saline bag take in Arma Reforger?
A saline bag replenishes blood over time rather than instantly — community medic guides report roughly ~90 seconds to restore around ~1,500 blood units, but these specific numbers are community-reported and approximate; Bohemia’s official Boot Camp page does not publish exact saline figures. The reliable takeaway is that saline takes real time and is not a bleed-stopper, so always bandage first, then apply saline and keep the patient in cover while it runs.
What is the difference between a bandage and a tourniquet?
A bandage stops bleeding completely and works on every body area, including the torso and head, but it is single-use and relatively slow to apply. A tourniquet only slows bleeding to a near-stop and only works on arms and legs, but it’s fast and reusable. Use the tourniquet as a quick stopgap under fire on a limb, then apply the bandage as the permanent fix — and remember the bandage is your only option for torso, neck, and head wounds.
Can you heal yourself in Arma Reforger?
Yes — as long as you are conscious, you can use the exact same items on yourself: bandage your own wounds, apply your own tourniquet, run your own saline, and inject your own morphine. The catch is that an unconscious player generally cannot self-treat because movement is disabled, so you depend on a teammate to revive you. The practical rule is to treat yourself the moment your vision starts distorting and losing color, before you cross into unconsciousness.
What does morphine do in Arma Reforger?
Morphine (the same item class as painkillers) relieves pain, reduces weapon sway, improves visibility, speeds healing, and can wake an unconscious player faster. It does not stop bleeding or restore blood, so it’s never a substitute for bandages or saline — it’s the finishing touch that gets a steadied, clear-eyed shooter back into the fight and helps a revived teammate come up quicker.
What should a medic carry in Conflict?
A Conflict medic carries a stock of bandages, tourniquets, saline bags, and morphine from the base arsenal. Exact counts vary by spawn and arsenal, but weight your kit toward bandages (universal bleed-stopper and the only fix for torso/head) and several saline bags for revives, with a couple of reusable tourniquets and a handful of morphine. Watch your stamina — saline is heavy at 0.5 kg each — and resupply from the forward base rather than overloading. New to Conflict mode entirely? Our solo-mode getting-started guide is a good first stop.
Final Thoughts
The medic role rewards discipline more than reflexes. Memorize the chain — stop the bleed, bandage, restore blood, then recover capability — know that tourniquets are limbs-only and reusable while bandages cover everything, and never pour saline into a wound that’s still bleeding. Do that consistently and you’ll keep your squad alive through pushes that would have wiped a team without a real medic. Spin up a private server, drill the sequence until it’s automatic, and you’ll be the player everyone wants in their squad.
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