'Mass Effect: Andromeda' How to Heal: Guide to recovering your health in battle

One thing you'll notice right off the bat in Mass Effect: Andromeda is that its cover-based combat system is tough and pretty unforgiving. As you get low on health, things will start to look a little gray, and a red border will close in around the screen. 

When that happens, you might be scrambling for a way to restore some of your health, but the game doesn't do a great job explaining exactly how to do that. Here's how to heal in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Mass Effect: Andromeda: How to heal

In Mass Effect: Andromeda, you have two separate health bars that each behave a bit differently. Your first line of defense is the blue bar: your shields. As long as you have shields, you won't actually take any damage to your health bar, but once it's depleted, your red health bar will start taking the hits.

If you run out of shields, simply hide behind cover for a few moments. As long as you're not taking fire, your shield will regenerate quickly by itself after a second or two.

Once the red portion of your health is depleted, the only way to recover it is by finding a health pack. These are scattered around the environment and sometimes placed near ammo packs. They're marked by a red circle within a red square, according to Twinfinite. The health packs themselves have a life bar that will deplete every time you go back to them to recover your health. Once the little blips next to the health packs are depleted, you'll have to find a new one.

So, moral of the story: Make life easier for yourself by keeping an eye on your shields. That way, you won't have to bother with healing in the first place.

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