Residue Manifest vs Pharmacy

Not voting, but commenting, because I think they break out even.

A green medkit is inarguably better than a flashlight, but Residual Manifest imparts a relatively useful status effect on the killer so long as you can blind them, which isn't that hard to do if you're actively trying.

They both make searching chests actually worth doing, and provide roughly equal value in different areas, at least in my opinion. If pushed I'd say Pharmacy is probably slightly better, but Pharmacy is already not in the top tier for healing-build perks so it's only very slightly.

I'll vote for Pharmacy, then, for the slim lead.

Regarding your plan, though, that's not going to prove which one is better. It's going to prove which one is used more often, and doing it close to Residual Manifest's release date means it'll be overrepresented due to novelty.

So, if we're going to make this a thread, I think it's worth making a breakdown of my argument and why I think Residual Manifest is an infinitely better perk then Pharmacy. To start off: I do not think that is ever worth it to search a chest unless you are actually very desperate for something either due to injury and unable to reach your teammates, which means they are probably hooked, downed, dead, or on the other end of the map. But if we are basing it on the chest searching then yes, the medkit is usually better. Granted it's worth noting that this is a green medkit without add on's by itself, which equates to one self heal that's above average in speed and then the perk effectively deactivates unless you have other perks to support it.

In the idea scenario for Pharmacy what happens is you take a green medkit, get one self heal off(Or one faster heal on a teammate) and maybe get some value opening other chests a bit faster then usual. Though honestly, I think if you're using Pharmacy or Residual to go chest hunting then you're basically throwing the match. But if you're taking Residual Manifest with you chances are you aren't taking Manifest by itself, you're taking it with a good flashlight on your person and maybe a perk like Blast Mine to support it. You COULD take perks like Ace in the Hole and Built to Last to support Pharmacy, but at that point I think it becomes more of an investment sink and you're giving up better perks for it. If you get one blind off that keeps the killer from seeing a Nurses Calling while chasing you around you've already gotten the same value as Pharmacy imo, potentially twice as good because if they're healing someone else then you're preventing another potential injury or worse.

This also applies to other killer perks as well: Surveillance, Floods of Rage, to a lesser extent Discordance, BBQ and Chili, I'm All Ears, etc. if it reaches the low bar of preventing ONE injury by blocking aura reading for thirty seconds with a flashlight you probably brought with you, or blast mine. then in many ways it's already better then Pharmacy, way better if it stops a down.

Maybe it won't be used much, but Built to Last also isn't used much and I would think you're actively insane if you don't think that's a strong perk.

I mean yes, but also consider this: Green medkits are the best items in the game mainly because of how they combo with add ons and perks. A baseline green medkit is one self heal that's fast, but I would struggle to say one fast self heal is worth a perk slot. They become much better when you equip bandages or gels to increase the amount of charges and stack that with things like Botany Knowledge for even better efficiency or heal inside a Boon. Just the medkit on it's own is nonthreatening, especially with the new Hemorrhage because if you get hit with bleeding and are interrupted for any reason it undoes all your progress because you don't have the charges to complete the heal.

Residual Manifest is better not because searching a chest for a flashlight is good, but because you don't have to search a chest at all. You can just bring the flashlight with you and Residual Manifest will do something. Pharmacy only gets value in searching a chest, it does nothing to enhance a medkit you already have. As a consequence there's not really a good reason to bring it over Built to Last, Streetwise, or Botany Knowledge which will basically give you the same value on a good medkit without the search time.

Like ultimately that in and of itself is the chasm that divides Pharmacy and Residual Manifest. Pharmacy is JUST a looting perk, it has no other synergies outside of other loot perks. Residual Manifest synergies with looting perks, any items you bring with you, and other blinding perks.

I use to think farming green medkits was a good idea, until i run out of charges, I only use Plunderers now cause Flashlights are better in escaping a chase than a medkit.

This is something I can actually agree with. I always felt the chest perks should produce better items to make them worth using. Medkits should probably be nerfed to only apply their healing bonus when used on another survivor, but I wouldn't mind if Pharmacy guaranteed some good add ons with it in exchange and some perks like Botany Knowledge got an efficiency boost to compensate and flashlights got a buff in general. The only item i'm leery of buffing aside from that is the Toolkit as gens already go pretty fast as it is and we'd be getting Built to Last for gen jockeys every other match if there was some kind of equivalent perk for them.

It would also give me a reason to actually run Hoarders on some killers, and encourage survivors to go after side objectives.