ÜberCharge
- This article was adapted and revised from the "ÜberCharge" article of the Official Team Fortress Wiki.
ÜberCharge, commonly referred to as Über, is a game-mechanic specific to the Medic in regular gameplay. By healing other players with his secondaries, the Medic is able to fill up his ÜberCharge meter. When full, the charge can be activated, granting a powerful buff, the type of which depends on the selected Medigun.
- The Medi Gun grants invulnerability to damage (except certain hazards, such as pits).
- The Kritzkrieg grants guaranteed Critical hits, even for weapons that can't normally deal (random) critical hits.
- The Rejuvenator grants invulnerability to damage in a radius around the device deployed by the weapon.
Although only the Medic can use ÜberCharge in regular gameplay, this mechanic is specifically tied to the weapon; if a non-Medic class is given a Medigun, they could hypothetically utilize the ÜberCharge mechanic.
Charge meter
While the Medic has his secondary or melee weapon drawn, a bar showing the percentage of ÜberCharge built up appears where the ammo count usually is on the HUD. If a friendly Medic is healing the player or is under the player's crosshair, a team-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.
Accumulating charge
The ÜberCharge meter fills at different rates depending on the state of the Medic's healing target, as well as a few other factors.
ÜberCharge build rate is halved if the patient is at 142.5% health or higher. This encourages Medics to heal teammates who are not fully overhealed, rather than continuously healing a single player. While mini-crit boosted by the Civilian's Umbrella, the Medi Gun and Kritzkrieg gain 35% increased ÜberCharge rate, but the Rejuvenator does not. For maps with a pre-round setup timer (regardless of the target's health), the charge rate is tripled. If a patient is being healed by another source, such as a Dispenser, the Payload, or another Medi Gun or Kritzkrieg, the charge rate is halved for each source. The Rejuvenator gains extra ÜberCharge for landing direct hits on teammates. Hitting enemies with the Überspritze increases your ÜberCharge percentage by 25%.
Accumulated charge does not carry over if the Medic changes secondary weapons.
Healing enemy Spies who are disguised as one of your teammates also fills the ÜberCharge meter. The fill rate is determined by the disguise's health meter and not the Spy's actual health.
| Healing tool | State of target | Fill rate | Fill time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medi Gun | <142.5% Health | 2.5% | 40 seconds |
| <142.5% Health + Umbrella boost | 3.375% | 29.63 seconds | |
| >142.5% Health | 1.25% | 80 seconds | |
| >142.5% Health + Umbrella boost | 1.69% | 59.26 seconds | |
| Kritzkrieg | <142.5% Health | 3.125% | 32 seconds |
| <142.5% Health + Umbrella boost | 4.22% | 23.7 seconds | |
| >142.5% Health | 1.56% | 64 seconds | |
| >142.5% Health + Umbrella boost | 2.11% | 47.41 seconds |
Activation
When the Medic's charge reaches 100% the meter on the HUD will begin flashing and he will speak a related voice response. This announcement can warn enemy players of the Medic's full charge, but the Medic can cancel the response by activating another voice command. Medics can also use the "full charge" command at will with option 8 of Voice Menu 2, regardless of if they have a charge ready or not.
Once the meter is full, the Medic can deploy the ÜberCharge by pressing alternate fire (default key: MOUSE2). Upon deploying the charge, certain visual effects will be applied to the affected players; the deploying Medic will play an activation-related voice response, and soon after the patient's own voice response will play. Like the "fully charged" announcement, these can warn enemy players of a deployed charge, and they can be canceled if the speaker activates a properly-timed voice command.
An ÜberCharge will only affect a player for as long as the healing beam is trained on them; if the Medic dies, deactivates the healing beam, changes healing targets, draws another weapon, or is forced out of range, its benefit to the patient will end prematurely. Once activated, the ÜberCharge will continue to drain, regardless of the Medic's active weapon, though the Medic will only receive the ÜberCharge's effect if he's holding out the Medi Gun as his active weapon. In other words, Medics cannot charge into battle with their offensive weapons while being invulnerable or crit-boosting themselves. With a single patient, an activated charge lasts 8 seconds, draining the meter at a rate of 12.5 points per second. The Medic is free to move his healing beam to another player, which will give the effects of the charge to the new patient, but the total ÜberCharge duration decreases by half a second for every second that another player is being ÜberCharged.
Trivia
- Typically when the Umlaut (Ü, ü) is not available, one is supposed to substitute it with an “ue”, meaning the commonly-used spelling of “Uber” would be incorrect, and should actually be “Ueber”.
- Similar to above, the word "Über" is often mispronounced as "oo-ber" instead of the proper pronounciation of "you-ber".
- Since the ÜberCharge effect applies its texture to the playermodel and all its weapons, transparent textures like the Shock Therapy's electricity effect are fully opaque.