In Escape from Tarkov, Vaseline balm is a versatile and essential medical item primarily used to quickly treat and mitigate multiple negative health effects simultaneously, restoring your character's combat effectiveness and mobility.
Primary Uses and Effects
The Vaseline balm is highly valued for its ability to clear various status ailments that can severely impede a player's performance during a raid. Upon use, it effectively addresses a range of debilitating injuries, allowing players to regain control over their character and continue fighting or escape danger.
Specifically, using Vaseline balm can cure or reduce the severity of the following conditions:
- Pain: Eliminates the visual distortion and reduced accuracy caused by pain.
- Contusion: Removes the blurred vision and disorienting effects.
- Tremor: Stops the involuntary shaking of hands, which negatively impacts aiming.
- Pain Shock: Counters the severe and disabling effects of critical injuries.
- Heavy Bleeding: Temporarily stops severe blood loss (though a separate bandaging item is often needed for a permanent fix).
- Light Bleeding: Stops minor blood loss.
- Fractures: Provides pain relief and allows for movement despite a broken limb, though a splint is typically required for full repair.
Important Considerations
While incredibly useful for its multi-purpose healing capabilities, using Vaseline balm does come with minor side effects. Players should be mindful of their character's vitals when applying it:
Using Vaseline balm reduces your character's Energy by 9 points and Hydration by 9 points. These small debuffs mean that frequent use without proper food and water management can lead to dehydration and starvation, which will eventually incur their own negative effects.
Vaseline Balm Stats Overview
| Effect Cured | Other Effects | Usage | Slot Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pain, Contusion, Tremor, Pain Shock, Heavy Bleeding, Light Bleeding, Fractures | Energy (-9), Hydration (-9) | 1 use | 1x1 |
How to Utilize Vaseline Effectively
Due to its broad utility, Vaseline balm is a staple in many players' raid loadouts. Here are some practical ways to use it:
- Hotkey for Quick Application: Assign Vaseline to a quick slot (1-9) for immediate use during or after engagements. This allows for rapid recovery from pain or blurred vision, which are critical in firefights.
- Emergency Multi-Cure: It's ideal for situations where you've sustained multiple injuries (e.g., hit by shrapnel, falling) and need to stabilize quickly without cycling through multiple single-purpose medical items.
- Post-Combat Recovery: After a skirmish, if you're limping, shaking, or seeing blurry, a quick application of Vaseline can get you moving and clear-headed again, allowing you to reposition, loot, or escape.
- Before Risky Maneuvers: If you know you're about to jump from a height or engage in an aggressive push where you might take limb damage, having Vaseline ready can mitigate immediate penalties.
Accessibility
Vaseline balm is a relatively common and affordable medical item found throughout Tarkov. It can be looted from various containers, found on Scavs, or purchased from in-game traders like Therapist, making it an accessible and cost-effective choice for both new and experienced players.
