Single-Use Healing Ability

1. Summary

Single-Use Healing Ability is the universal self-recovery skill available to playable characters during missions. It restores lost health but has only one charge per character/mission, making recovery a limited tactical safety valve rather than a repeatable sustain loop. The HUD presents the healing item as a red first-aid/medical-kit icon with a single-use counter, while character health capacity still differs by character archetype (standard characters have 4 HP; Mugen has 6 HP).

2. Tags

3. Design Intent / Job Story

When a character has taken damage during a mission, I want to spend their one healing charge, so that I can recover from a costly mistake without turning health management into repeatable attrition.

4. Role in Gameplay Loop

• Provides a limited recovery buffer inside otherwise punishing stealth encounters
• Creates a timing decision: heal early for safety or preserve the charge for a later mistake
• Supports the broader Character Ability System by giving every playable character a shared survival utility
• Reinforces mission-level resource management because the charge does not behave like a cooldown-based ability
• Keeps health differences meaningful by restoring damaged characters without equalizing their maximum health pools

5. Preconditions

• A mission is active
• A playable character with the healing skill is selected or otherwise commanded
• The character is alive and has taken recoverable health damage
• That character's healing charge has not already been consumed in the current mission
• The game is not in a menu, cutscene, loading screen, or other state that blocks character ability execution
• The character is not in an action state that blocks ability use, such as performing another command or being incapacitated

6. Parameters

7. Core Rules

• Every playable character has access to a healing skill that restores health.
• Each character's healing skill can be used only once per mission.
• The healing charge is tracked per character, not as a shared squad-wide pool.
• Using healing consumes the charge immediately and makes the skill unavailable for that character for the rest of the mission.
• Healing restores lost health but does not raise a character above their maximum health capacity.
• Standard character maximum health is 4 HP; Mugen's maximum health is 6 HP.
• The HUD must communicate remaining healing availability with a medical-kit icon and a visible single-use counter.
• A spent healing charge must remain visibly unavailable so the player cannot mistake it for a cooldown that will refresh.
• Healing cannot be used by an incapacitated or dead character.
• Healing does not replace quicksave/reload as the main recovery loop; it mitigates one damaged-state mistake inside the current mission attempt.

8. BDD Scenarios

9. Edge Cases

• Player attempts to heal at full health; the charge should remain available because no health was restored
• Player attempts to heal after the charge has already been consumed; no restoration should occur
• Character takes lethal damage before healing input resolves; healing should not revive a dead or incapacitated character
• Character maximum health differs from the standard value; restoration must clamp to that character's maximum HP
• Reloading a save made before or after healing must restore the exact saved charge and health state
• Character is in a blocked action state when healing is requested; input should fail cleanly without consuming the charge
• Multiple characters are selected or commanded in quick succession; healing consumption must apply to the intended character only
• HUD counter, availability overlay, and underlying charge state become desynchronized after switching characters or reloading

10. QA Notes

11. Mechanic Dependencies

• Character Ability System (Healing is a shared skill inside the Character Ability System and follows the same selected-character ability availability model as other active character tools.)
• Four-Slot Ability Binding Framework (The healing action is exposed through the HUD/input binding framework as an ability-style command with visible availability and a remaining-use counter.)

12. UI Links

• Bottom Gameplay HUD Bar - The Bottom Gameplay HUD Bar houses the character and command HUD elements that make health state, selection context, and healing availability readable during active play.
• Ability Command Bar - The Ability Command Bar / gameplay HUD exposes healing as a medical-kit icon with a remaining-use counter and communicates when the one charge is available or spent.

References

1. 1.

   Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (L6-18 of 52) Source overview/search evidence for Shadow Tactics as a real-time stealth tactics game built around specialist characters and the source paragraph stating that all team members have a healing skill that restores health but can only be used once.Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a stealth-oriented real-time tactics game inspired by the Commandos and Desperados game series. The player commands a small team and...

2. 2.

   Steam Community :: Guide :: Shadow Tactics: Full Character Guides and Tricks (L65-73 of 116) Character guide evidence that Mugen has 6 health points compared to the other characters' 4, used for healing cap parameters.F: Hand Cannon Unlike the other's matchlock pistol, Mugen gains a more powerful hand cannon. This is the only long-range weapon that will kill instead of merely stunning samurai....

3. 3.

   Прохождение Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun #1 - Осада Осаки | Тракт Накасено [Профессионал] (52:48-52:52) Gameplay frame showing the bottom HUD with the red medical-kit/first-aid healing icon and a visible single-use counter during active play.

4. 4.

   Прохождение Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun #1 - Осада Осаки | Тракт Накасено [Профессионал] (1:43:48-1:43:52) Gameplay frame with Mugen selected, showing the same healing/medical-kit HUD icon and single-use counter in active mission context.