A player’s guide for Doc
Back 4 Blood, the gory first-person shooter from Turtle Rock Studios, is a game full of guns, zombies, and guts. It’s a chaotic experience from start to finish through post-apocalyptic Pennsylvania. Its depth, story, and lore are driven entirely by the characters players take control of.
From punk rock misanthropes to traumatized veterans, the survivors of this new wasteland are called Cleaners. They’re immune to the predations of the devil worm, the purveyor of this zombie infection, and they’re proficient with weapons, even if those weapons are nothing more than baseball bats and machetes.
She’s cranky. She’s smart. And she’s got absolutely zero bedside manner. Today we’re going to talk about the professional eye-roller and all-around life-saver, Doc.
Doc’s backstory
We don’t actually know Doc’s full name for some odd reason. It wasn’t released with Back 4 Blood’s Cleaner reveal. Mom calls Doc Sue at several points throughout the campaign if they’re on the same team, and that’s backed up by the tiny name on Doc’s ID badge. But why developers decided to leave it at that, we aren’t sure.
Doc came to America for college, went to a good medical school, and moved to the rural hills of Pennsylvania. She worked at Evansburg Medical and had plans to open her own practice one day until the outbreak hit.
Doc is ever grumpy and always complaining, especially when someone gets hurt. Our favorite is how unconcerned she is when she friendly fires someone. Every character in the game apologizes when they accidentally friendly fire. Doc gives some half-assed response, showing how little she cares about most others.
Heck, some of the last lines in the game are Doc threatening to defect from Fort Hope and join the KSC. “At least they pay!”
Doc’s best friend is Mom. They knew each other before the outbreak, Mom being a patient of Doc’s. If they’re on the same team, you’ll unlock much more dialogue between the two, giving more context to the post-apocalyptic world we now find ourselves in.
“I’ve got your cure right here!”
Strategy & cards
Doc comes with some sweet perks. Check it:
- Doc can apply field dressings to each teammate once per level, healing them for 25 Health.
- She comes with +15% healing efficiency, +25% trauma resistance, and starts with a bandage.
They do not call her Doc for nothing.
So when playing Doc, there is only one thing you should be focusing on: keeping your team as healthy as possible. Not just alive, but as close to maximum health as you can. Trauma damage is a bitch. Don’t rely on finding first aid cabinets in the wild to keep your team healthy. Keep health at a maximum, and you won’t need to worry about trauma damage much.
The unfortunate thing is Doc doesn’t come with much damage output. The best healer in the game, she may be. But a soldier, she is not. Do not play her as one. She isn’t a Jim Hossler or an Elijah Walker or a Karlee. She’s… well, Doc.
This means you shouldn’t be in front of your team when a horde is triggered. You shouldn’t be at the front of your team ever. Your damage is just too weak.
As Doc, your goal should be to scour the maps for healing items, and copper and keep an eye on everyone’s health. You may end up noticing when they’re critical before they do.
With one of the latest updates for Back 4 Blood, bolstered health and overheal mechanics were introduced. Doc is much more interested in overheal mechanics. This means that even if your team is full-on health and you find a supply crate with four bandages, you can still apply all those bandages and your team now has extra health. We’re talking extra health in the 300-400s. It acts as temporary health, but it’s still more than enough to get you to the next healing item when you can top it off again.
Because Doc is so focused on healing, we never found other builds for her meaningful. She is meant to heal. While there is some wiggle room with her deck–whether you want to focus on group heal, trauma resistance, or overheal mechanics–she’s always going to be a healer.
With that in mind, this is Doc’s best deck. In our opinion.
- Mag Carrier
- Combat Medic
- Shooting Gloves
- Smelling Salts
- Ammo Pouch
- EMT Bag
- Inspiring Sacrifice
- Charitable Soul
- Group Therapy
- Amped Up
- Well Rested
- Fit As A Fiddle
- Fanny Pack
- Saferoom Recovery
- Ammo Pouch
This deck enhances overheal, trauma resistance, and revive speed for the whole team. It increases Doc’s healing efficiency significantly, heals the team should anyone go down, and heals the team anytime a medical accessory is used.
When you heal a teammate, 50% of the heal will go to you, encouraging you to keep your team topped up on health. And thanks to Saferoom Recovery, if you make it to the saferoom, you’ll get free trauma heal, health heal, and a bunch of ammo.
We only added two damage cards to the deck, increasing ammo capacity and damage. Since we use the SMG with Doc, she goes through ammo like a celebrity goes through drugs–crazy fast. Having increased ammo capacity was enough to give us the edge we needed.
Unfortunately, you’ll need to rely on your team for damage output if you’re playing as Doc. Trust is heavily involved. But your team also trusts you to keep an eye on their health and ensure everyone makes it to the saferoom alive. So it’s mutual.
Bot behavior
Don’t expect her to heal you. Yes, she gets a free heal for every Cleaner on every level, but the bot doesn’t use them. She won’t heal you any more than Mom or Evangelo or Holly Forrester. And since bots occasionally seem to crap out their healing items magically, her bot makes no difference to any others.
Final thoughts on Doc
Doc is a fantastic choice for more advanced players in Back 4 Blood. If you are tired of cutting through the hordes of zombies and carving a path to each safe room, switch it up and play as Doc. Let your teammates cut and carve. You stand in the middle and focus on healing more than hurting.
I mean, you should still hurt. But the priority should be healing. There’s safety in numbers; the more numbers Doc keeps alive, the better.
