Learning how to heal in The Last of Us 2 is essential because your health doesn’t regenerate. Instead, you’ll need to find and craft items to regain your HP. Fortunately, supplies you can use to heal are reasonably plentiful. You can also make your Health Kits more effective and speed up their use in The Last of Us 2.
How do you heal in The Last of Us 2?
Taking damage from enemies in The Last of Us 2 predictably lowers your health. If your HP is depleted, then your character dies, and your most recent save will load.
There are two ways to heal in TLOU2:
- Instant healing via food items.
- Using Health Kits.
Healing with Food
Throughout The Last of Us 2, you’ll find food scattered throughout the ruins. Most of the time, you’ll see these in stores and homes. Often, you’ll need to break into display cases or vending machines to grab the food inside. When doing this, it’s essential to make sure there are no enemies in earshot to hear the glass shatter.
Healing with Health Kits
You can also find Health Kits or craft them using supplies. To craft a Health Kit, you need:
- 1 Rag
- 1 Alcohol
Health Kits heal a higher amount of damage than food, but their use isn’t instantaneous. You have to equip them by pressing up on the D-pad and holding the R2 button. Your character will wrap a bandage around their arm, which will restore a moderate amount of health. Note that you must complete the bandage animation, or your health won’t actually be restored.
You can increase the amount of that Health Kits heal by unlocking certain skills:
- Ellie: Crafting Tree – Level 4 – Craft Improved Health Kits
- Abby: Close Quarters Tree – Level 2 – Craft Improved Health Kits
You can also increase the speed at which you heal by unlocking skills:
- Ellie: Survival Tree – Level 2 – Faster Health Kits
- Abby: Close Quarters Tree – Level 4 – Faster Health Kits