# Influence Crew Market - Medicine

This is the fourth in a series stepping through the crew market for [Influence](https://www.influenceth.io/), hoping to find some small nuggests of alpha to help you to make informed decisions when it comes to secondary purchases. For those not familiar, please reference the [Crew Member Jobs list on the official wiki here](https://wiki.influenceth.io/en/gameplay/crew-members). Check out other installments in this series [here.](https://hackmd.io/@Coldsnap)

Usual caveat: figures and ETH prices in the article were accurate only at the time of writing, but likely to be rapidly outdated as the market moves and new crew are minted.

### Numbers

This is the Medicine department. At 466 total crew, it's near to the middle of the distribution vs other departments - neither huge nor scarce.

Interesting thing about Medicine is its (rumoured!) bonuses being across ship damage/performance and food efficiency. If that holds, it's notable because it implies Medicine would have benefits for both normal usage as well as PvP, and anything related to PvP directly or indirectly is likely to be in high demand come the Conflict release.

Thematically it makes sense. Medicial staff should help your crew recover better from attacks (taking less damage and healing more quickly) and could also help with the general well-being and performance of crews, whether in space or on rocks. Seems strong.

|Tier| Job |Total | Specialists|Citizens|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |
| T1 | Physician |13 | 1 | 12
T2 | Resident Physician |34 |10 |24
T3 | Physician Assistant |117 | 25| 92
T4 | Nurse |302 | 30|272

### T1 - Physician

|Tier | Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |--|
| T1 | Miner|
T1 |Engineer | Physician |1||1
T1 |Merchant | ||||
T1 |Scientist | Physician| 11|1|10
T1 |Pilot |Physician|1||1

Physician has a fair few interesting points to note:
* Straight away at the top tier you can see that Medicine crew are likely to be Science-classed, with a smattering of the other classes thrown in. 11 Scientist / Physicians at T1 with a single Specialist. 2.5 ETH and one (non-Specialist!) can be nabbed. I think it's a fair price, albeit not cheap.
* There are no Miners at any tier within Medicine. Personal hygiene clearly a factor.
* The unique Engineer and Pilot / Physicians stand out here. In fact Physician is the only **job role** in the game where there is more than one unique 1/1 within it. Neither of these two crew members have been listed for sale to date.
* That Pilot / Physician is extra-unique given there are no T2 Medicine pilots.
* Further, the Medicine department is tied with Knowledge in being the only two **departments** where multiple unique 1/1s occur within them (I'm not differentiating Citizens/Specialists for this measure).
* Lastly, while the Physician role is not one of the 'big 3' rarest job roles (see the [Knowledge article](https://hackmd.io/efOOo4nlRPOlWMOhWhT6Jg) for a bit on Navigators, Curators, Justices), it is still the fourth-rarest, although there are just about as many Physicians as those three roles put together.

### T2 - Resident Physician

|Tier |Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens| Floor|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- | -- |--|
| T2 | Miner|
T2 |Engineer |Resident Physician|6|1|5|2|
T2 |Merchant | ||||
T2 |Scientist |Resident Physician | 28|9|19|1|
T2 |Pilot | |||||

As you can see, Resident Physicians appearing in only two classes means even at Tier 2, they are pretty hard to come by. This is reflected by the price floors for Resident Physicians. Anything 1 ETH or higher is high for T2.

Resident Physicians are significantly over-represented when it comes to Specialists. Admittedly this is a small sample size but anything over ~1:5 ratio of Specialists:Citizens is pretty high as well.

Slim pickings here, so let's move on...

### T3 - Physician Assistant

|Tier | Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens|Floor|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |--|--|
| T3 | Miner| |4|1|3|
T3 |Engineer | Physician Assistant |23|6|17|0.095
T3 |Merchant |Physician Assistant |13|1|12|0.1
T3 |Scientist |Physician Assistant|71|15|56|0.14
T3 | Pilot |Physician Assistant|10|3|7|10

First appearance of Merchants here at T3, and Pilots are back after their lone appearance at T1.

So, at a price of 10 ETH for the only Pilot / Physician Asst. on the market, somebody is taking the loz... or are they? But otherwise, like so many other departments, I believe T3 is where we are staring to see some good bargains. If Scientists floor at 0.14 ETH, then both Engineers and Merchants are relatively underpriced right now, particularly when you take their rarity into account vs Scientists.

I guess here people are assuming that Scientist / Medicine is the obvious play, but think about it... if you already have a crew of Merchants, what is more useful? A Scientist or another Merchant? I could see that being answered each way depending on goals.

Similarly, An Engineer / Physician Asst. presumably gets you access to the Engineering skill tree with the added benefit of Medicine bonuses. We'll need to see how this shakes out but I do like those potential combos.

### T4 - Nurse

|Tier |Class| Job | Total | Specialists|Citizens|Floor|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- | -- |--|--|
| T4 | Miner| |
T4 |Engineer| Nurse |39 |4|35|0.048
T4 |Merchant |Nurse|32|2|30|0.05
T4 |Scientist |Nurse |215|23|192|0.085
T4 |Pilot |Nurse|16|1|15|0.279

Second only to Farmers as the most numerous T4 role, Nurses seem to me to be fairly priced right now. Pilots are going for 3-5x the other classes, which aligns with how in-demand pilots are broadly.

### Summary

My predicition is that Medicine will turn out to be a very useful department as it has utility for almost any type of crew. Like I said in the intro, if this has wide utility then there will likely come a demand crunch at some point in the future. Best front run that, if you can.

Medicine roles are fairly scarce at high tiers but likewise accessible at lower ones, which I think is a healthy mix for the game. Nurses should be relatively accessible for the foreseeable, but I can see an opportunity to floor sweep there for those with deep pockets and not already tapped out on this game.

Edit: in the [7 Oct 2021 Q&A](https://soundcloud.com/jean-paul-faraj/adalian-chat-10-7-21?si=5ce91c99d4134069923edc4c473b952e) eetherway made a special mention of Medicine / Pilots as being particularly useful, for their bonuses related to ship speed and damage reduction. The inference being that Medicine / Pilots could end up being some of the most useful pilots in the game, alongside Navigation and Security pilots. That's authoritative advice right there...