Recovery time
When a soldier is injured in combat, the soldier is put off duty and goes on medical leave for a certain recovery time which is calculated as a number of days. Sometimes the number can be ridiculously high, and at other times it may appear to not even exist. If injured troopers are assigned to a transport, they will be removed. Once the soldier has healed, they'll go back on duty, but must be manually reassigned to a transport. The amount of time remaining for an injured soldier to return is updated at midnight on each day.
Formula
The number of days a soldier will spend in recovery ranges randomly according to the following formulas:
Min Days = INT(Health Lost × 0.5) to
Max Days = INT(Health Lost × 1.5)
Note that any fractions in the final number will be rounded down (hence the INT). See the table below for some examples of the results of this formula.
Examples
| Health Lost | Min days | Max days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | 5 | 15 |
| 11 | 5 | 16 |
| 20 | 10 | 30 |
| 40 | 20 | 60 |
| 59 | 29 | 88 |
| 254 | 127 | 381 |
Notice how odd numbers have the fraction rounded down to the nearest integer, i.e. 11 would be 5.5 to 16.5 without rounding, but both the remainders are truncated to give the 5 to 16 shown above.
Also, for players that like to cheat, as you can see with the final example, with power comes a price and with ultimate power comes the ultimate price.
Speeding Recovery
There is no way to help a wounded soldier to heal faster after you leave the Battlescape, but before the mission ends you can help a soldier by using a Medi-Kit on him. In short, always treat all Fatal Wounds before finishing the mission, and provide treatment within 3 turns.
Strangely in this case you want the soldier to have multiple fatal wounds. Each fatal wound cured will restore 3 health points. For example a soldier down 8 health with 3 fatal wounds will be completely healed by using a Medi-Kit's HEAL on the correct body part(s). If you are forced to wait one turn, he will take 3 more damage (11 total) and healing 9 health at that point will mean he is down 2 health from max. Being down 2 health instead of 8 is a far shorter recovery time.
On average, each Fatal Wound healed reduces recovery time by 3 days.