Tutorials/Hunger management

Hunger is a feature in Minecraft that requires the player to eat in order to survive. It does not affect the player in spectator or creative modes, or on Peaceful difficulty on any gamemode, and is represented by a bar next to the health bar. As this bar drains away, various unpleasant things happen:


 * 1) You stop healing naturally at
 * 2) You cannot sprint at
 * 3) You start taking starvation damage at . The rate at which you take this damage is dependent on difficulty. However, reaching zero health this way is only possible on Hard and Hardcore difficulties.

There is also a hidden, secondary form of hunger called "saturation", which is always exhausted before hunger. Eating food will replenish various amounts of both hunger and saturation.

Conserving energy
Several techniques can reduce your need for food:


 * Avoid fighting when you can. For example, any neutral mob won't attack unprovoked. Also, all monsters have a limit on how far they'll travel to reach you (e.g. they won't usually cross a ravine if they're far enough from the ends).
 * Craft a as soon as possible, and use it whenever you find yourself above ground at night.
 * Place plenty of es to prevent mob spawning.
 * Reduce jumping. While mining, carry some, s or s and, whenever possible, place a stair block instead of jumping.
 * Craft a or  when you can, then follow with  and an . Healing depletes your hunger bar quickly, and full iron armor reduces the damage you take by 60%. Dealing melee blows also depletes your hunger, and swords or axes usually do the job with fewer attacks than any other tool.
 * Avoid sprinting, as it rapidly depletes your hunger bar.

Effects of hunger
There are three hunger variables you need to worry about: The visible hunger bar, and two hidden values which are called "saturation" and "exhaustion". Hunger and saturation range from 0 to 20 (hunger is shown as ), but saturation cannot exceed your hunger. Exhaustion ranges from 0 to 4. As you move about, fight, mine, etc, exhaustion accumulates. In order, common activities that will exhaust you the most are: Healing damage (most of a food point per health point), a "sprint jump", sprinting any distance, attacking monsters or receiving damage (from any source), and jumping. More specific values can be found in the table. When exhaustion reaches 4, it resets itself and decreases saturation. When saturation reaches 0, the hunger bar will start to ripple, and hunger starts to drain away in place of saturation. When your hunger drops below, you stop healing automatically. When it is at or below, you will be unable to sprint. Also, when your hunger drops to, you start to take starvation damage. On Easy mode, starvation damage will not lower you below, while on Normal mode, it can reduce you to. On Hard mode, starvation can kill you.

While eating is essential to keep your health up, it is not always needed. On Easy and Normal modes, the health bar will stop decreasing before death, so if the player takes care not to take any further damage, they can continue playing normally. In fact, many players drain their hunger to 0 while building. Obviously, this is much riskier in multiplayer servers with PvP (player vs player), as well as adventuring.

With the exception of s, s, s and, you cannot eat when your hunger is at max; when you do eat, each food item restores a specific amount of hunger and saturation. The following section will elaborate on the strategies on effective management of both hunger and saturation.

Food
Food are a specific type of items that can be eaten by pressing the "use" button, when your hunger bar is not at maximum. Food restores both the hunger bar and saturation, with different foods filling different amounts of each. You can obtain food through crafting, trading, find in structure chests, farming, and killing mobs. Many foods need to be cooked (smelted) for full effect. Burning mobs is a easier method to obtain meat without the need of cooking.

Foods can be divided into five tiers, according to how much saturation they restore per hunger unit. They are known as nourishment values, and the saturation one gets from any food is defined as nourishment times hunger. Knowing this, there are roughly two ways to approach the issue of hunger and saturation. Players can either try to eat efficiently, meaning using as little food items as possible, or try to eat expediently, meaning to stave off hunger as fast as they can.

The efficiency approach requires the player to avoid wasting hunger or saturation. Meaning, never eat any food that would "overfill" the hunger bar, avoiding to waste saturation points by going over the limit (the hunger value after consuming the food). By doing this, one will use every piece of food to its maximum potential. However, one needs to use more time to tend to their hunger bar, and remember the current saturation value. Therefore, this is ill-suited for healing in emergencies, and should probably be done when safe and/or low on foodstuff.

The expediency approach, on the other hand, doesn't mind wasting a bit of the food here and there: Eat the most filling and nourishing food until full, and be done with it. If food supply is not an issue, if the player requires imminent healing, or if the player simply wants to save time, this is an appealing option.

Few foods also have special effects, mostly bad. While the can heal you, other foods can poison you (losing hit points), or give you food poisoning (draining your hunger bar). For these, there is, obtained by using a on a. While milk doesn't restore hunger or saturation, it does wipe away any status effects that the player currently has, so use it carefully. Another option are s, which only remove.

Supernatural
Crafted with gold, these have a nourishment of 2.4.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Restores a lot of health and gives you an extra 16 health.
 * Cause temporary constant health regeneration that is not dependent on the player's hunger.
 * Restore 9.6 saturation, considering their low hunger restoration
 * Give 2 minutes of IV,  II/V,  and.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Very rare and not renewable.
 * Take time to eat, and some seconds to heal health points. s or s are a good alternative, if you have brewing capability.
 * Found only on structures (s, s, s, s, s, or s) chests.


 * Restore 
 * Restore 


 * Advantages:
 * Cause temporary constant health regeneration that is not dependent on the player's hunger.
 * Compared with potions of regeneration, their effects are available before the player is able to brew or even go to in singleplayer.
 * Tree farming can produce a good supply of apples. Trading with s can also get them in quantity.
 * Can be used to create a village by curing s. If Generated Structures are turned off, this is the only way to have villagers and trade with them.
 * Although they restore few hunger points, they grant 5 seconds of regeneration II and 2 minutes of absorption, giving the player an extra 2 hearts.
 * Restore 9.6 saturation, a large amount considering their low hunger restoration.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Require 8 s to be crafted, meaning that they are too expensive to be an efficient food source in survival mode, unless a gold or emerald farm can be made or you mine in the nether for gold.
 * Take time to eat, and some seconds to heal health points. s or s are a good alternative, if you have brewing capability.
 * Finding them on structures chests is rare.


 * Restore 
 * Restore 


 * Advantages:
 * Restore 14.4 saturation, the highest of any food currently in the game (only beaten by suspicious stew with saturation effect).
 * Can also be used to make potions of night vision.
 * Are cheaper than golden apples.
 * Can be crafted or bought from a farmer villager, and restore more than they do.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Finding Carrots can be difficult, as they can be found in structure ( and ) chests or dropped (with 1/120 chance) from zombies.
 * Finding the Golden Carrot itself is also difficult, as they can be found in structure ( and ) chests.
 * Although they are cheaper, they still need s to be crafted.

Good
These have a nourishment of 1.6 — the most nourishing of the ordinary foods.


 * and
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Steak and cooked porkchop restore the highest amount of hunger and saturation (12.8 points) of any food in the game except supernatural foods.
 * Can be found relatively early on, provided there are s, s and/or s nearby.
 * Cows, mooshrooms and pigs can be bred to supply the player with raw beef and  raw porkchops.
 * Breeding cows and mooshrooms also supply the player with.
 * s are a source of raw porkchops on, allowing players to get it.
 * Raw beef and porkchops can be cooked quickly using a or  when away from a reliable source of food.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Their availability is dependent on the presence of animals within sight, which can be random and require extensive traveling depending on the biome the player spawns in.
 * Only once at least two animals have been found, a reliable supply of food can be established.
 * Breeding pigs requires carrots, potatoes or beetroots, which can be difficult to obtain, if there are no villages with carrot or potato farms nearby, as they only very rarely drop from s.
 * Hoglins are hostile mobs that can cause a big damage, and they can only be bred on the Nether, because on other dimensions they zombify.


 * and
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Can be found relatively early on, provided there are, and/or nearby.
 * Restore 9.6 saturation.
 * Breeding sheep also supplies the player with wool.
 * Salmon generate commonly on rivers.
 * Fishing can be in a 3x5x3 body of water.
 * Salmon is safer than some other food sources, as water can be brought to a shelter with a bucket.
 * Raw mutton and raw salmon can be cooked quickly using a or  when away from a reliable source of food.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Their availability is dependent on the presence of animals within sight, which can be random and require extensive traveling depending on the biome the player spawns in.
 * Only once at least two animals have been found, a reliable supply of food can be established.
 * Salmon cannot be bred.

Normal
These have a nourishment of 1.2 — the staple foods, cheap and fairly nourishing.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Restore 6 saturation.
 * Baked potatoes restore a good amount of hunger and saturation.
 * Potatoes can be farmed quickly and in large quantities, as each potato plant can drop up to 4 potatoes.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Meats restore more hunger and saturation than baked potatoes.
 * Finding the first potato can be difficult, found only on structure chests, s or dropped from s.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Beetroots can be used to breed pigs and can be crafted into red dye.
 * No other actual advantages.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Beetroot can only be found in villager farms and snowy tundra village house chests.
 * Beetroot crops grow somewhat slower than other crops, and they only yield one beetroot for each harvest.
 * Finding takes some exploration, found only on structure chests.
 * Eating one beetroot is only marginally more useful than not eating at all.
 * Restores 1.2 saturation.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Restores 7.2 saturation.
 * It restores the same amount of hunger as six beetroots while taking only one-sixth as much time to eat.
 * Uncrafted beetroot soup takes up less inventory space than uncrafted mushroom stew (up to 10 servings).


 * Disadvantages:
 * Beetroot can only be found in villager farms and snowy tundra village house chests.
 * Beetroot crops grow somewhat slower than other crops, and they only yield one beetroot for each harvest.
 * Like stews, beetroot soup doesn't stack when crafted.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Bread takes little resources to farm.
 * Restore 6 saturation.
 * A wheat farm is easy to maintain.
 * Bread is one of the easiest foods to obtain early in the game


 * Disadvantages:
 * Wheat grows slowly, and three are required per bread loaf.
 * Lots of may be needed to grow a single stalk of wheat.
 * Farms require a light level of 9 for growth.
 * Meats restore more hunger and saturation than bread.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Carrots are easy to farm.
 * Can be used to breed s and s.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Finding a carrot is hard to find, found only on villages, structure chests, or rarely dropped by s.
 * Restore 3.6 saturation.
 * Meats and baked potatoes restore more hunger and saturation than carrots.


 * Restores ''
 * Restores ''


 * Advantages:
 * Restore 7.2 saturation.
 * s are easier to find than most other passive mobs, and also lay s and provide s.
 * Chickens only need to breed.
 * Because chickens lay eggs, cooked chicken can be farmed completely automatically, compared to farming of other animal meat which needs the player to breed the animals.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Other meats restore more hunger and saturation than cooked chicken.
 * Eggs hatch into baby chickens, which need to grow before they are farmed.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Fishing can be in a 3x5x3 body of water.
 * Restore 6 saturation.
 * Safer than some other food sources, as water can be brought to a shelter with a.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Catching fish takes some time, making it slow to gather large amounts of them.
 * Killing mobs is also quite difficult, as they can only be found in the ocean.
 * Other meats restore more hunger and saturation.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Can be obtained relatively early on depending on the presence of s.
 * Restore 7.2 saturation.
 * Cooked rabbit can be purchased from.
 * Can be used to craft rabbit stew, which is better.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Other meats restore more hunger and saturation than a cooked rabbits.
 * Rabbits are difficult to find, and to kill.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * If s and, or   can be found, mushroom stew can be a reliable food source.
 * The recipe can be made in the 2×2 crafting menu.
 * Restore 7.2 saturation.
 * If possible, pressing use on a with a  will fill the bowl with stew.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Like other stews, mushroom stew does not stack, so crafting a lot of stew at once takes up a lot of inventory space.
 * Mycelium, podzol and nylium aren't easy to find (the first two found on rare biomes and the third one found on the Nether).


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Rabbit stew can be purchased from.
 * Restore the most hunger points from any food on the game (only beaten by suspicious stew with saturation effect, or a whole cake).
 * Restore 12 saturation.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Like other stews, rabbit stew does not stack.
 * Unless a player can get them on a village, they are difficult to craft.
 * Rabbit stew restores less hunger and saturation than all of its ingredients combined, though it's more efficient.


 * Restores *
 * Restores *


 * Advantages:
 * Flowers and mushrooms are easy to find.
 * Restore 7.2 saturation.
 * It's almost like a mushroom stew, but with the notable addition of a status effect depending on the flower used.
 * When crafted with or, suspicious stew grants the effect  for 7 ticks, meaning an additional  and 14 saturation, for a total of  and 21.2 saturation.  While some of that saturation will likely be wasted (especially if the player was too hungry to begin with) these stews will at least raise the saturation to match the hunger gauge.
 * When crafted with a it has the effect of an 8-second  instead, which heals 1.6 hearts, making it all but essential when natural regeneration is turned off.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Suspicious stew may have negative effects too (,, , or even ). Remembering the correct flower for the recipe is important.
 * Once a suspicious stew is crafted, there is no indication to the nature of its effect.
 * These two facts make it inadvisable to eat any suspicious stew that one didn't craft oneself; hence its name.

Low
These have a nourishment of 0.6, these are useful for achieving a full bar of both hunger and saturation when the current hunger bar is almost empty, if eaten with foods of higher tier of nourishment.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Apples can be obtained very early when or  are broken or decay.
 * Restore good enough hunger early in the game.
 * Can be crafted into golden apples.
 * Apprentice level can trade them.
 * Can be found on many structures chests.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Apples have only a chance of dropping only from those types of leaves.
 * Restore 2.4 saturation and few hunger points, making them worse than other foods.
 * Either breaking leaves to get them or finding a village can be difficult.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Can be eaten even when the main hunger bar is full, letting you raise your saturation above normal.
 * Once gotten from the, cheap to farm.
 * May teleport you to another place near.


 * Disadvantages:
 * The teletransportation is random.
 * es also teleport if they eat it.
 * Only obtainable end-game.
 * Restore 2.4 saturation.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Found easily in s and lakes.
 * Eaten 0.5 seconds faster than other foods.
 * Can be turned into s.


 * Disadvantages
 * Is only worth eating if you have large amounts, and is more useful in its block state where it can be used as fuel.
 * You have to cook regular kelp to get it.
 * Restore 0.6 saturation.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages
 * Melons are renewable and their farms are easy to automate.
 * Each drops 3-7 melon slices, so you can quickly get a lot in only one harvest.
 * Melon slices can be crafted into s, which can be used to make a
 * Melons are almost never wasted on overfilling the hunger bar.
 * Melons can be crafted back into melon seeds.
 * Melon plant stems will stay productive indefinitely so long as they are protected.


 * Disadvantages
 * Melon seeds can only be found in s in s, s, and s.
 * Melon stems grow slowly and don't instantly spawn melon blocks even when grown with.
 * Restore 1.2 saturation, so a diet of melons needs frequent stops to eat. A better use of melons is to first fill the hunger saturation with food such as meat, then use melon to fill the bar the rest of the way.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Can be found in chests or dropped when a potato plant is broken.
 * Usable as emergency food.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Poisonous potatoes have a 60% chance to inflict the poison effect.
 * Rarely found on those chests.
 * Restore 1.2 saturation and few hunger points.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Potatoes may be found in plenty in village farms.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Potatoes are far less nourishing than es.
 * Restore 0.6 saturation and few hunger points.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Pumpkin pie has a high hunger restoration value. Good choice for restoring hunger points before eating something with more saturation.
 * Its crafting recipe is shapeless, and fits within the 2×2 crafting grid of the player's inventory. This makes it possible to craft it anywhere without a or, as long as one is carrying the necessary ingredients (s,  and s).
 * Restore 4.8 saturation.
 * All ingredients required to craft pumpkin pie can be farmed completely automatically, using s and/or s.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Meats restore the same amount of hunger, and far more saturation, than pumpkin pie.
 * Pumpkins are relatively rare, so it may take some time and traveling before the player is able to establish a pumpkin farm.
 * Pumpkin plants are slow to grow a pumpkin and only yield a single one per plant at a time.


 * ,, and
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Raw beef and raw porkchops are relatively quick to get.
 * Unlike raw chicken, these meats does not carry a chance of contracting food poisoning when eaten.
 * Cooking them gives their cooked versions.
 * s and s can drop up to 3 raw beef, and s and s can drop up to 3 and 4 raw porkchops respectively.


 * Disadvantages:
 * The availability of raw meat is dependent on the presence of animal mobs.
 * Raw meat offers significantly less food value than cooked meat.
 * Restore 1.8 saturation.
 * Killing hoglins isn't the best option unless it's a Nether survival, because they are hostile.


 * and
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * s are relatively easier to find in the world than pigs or  cows, and and s are also easy to find.
 * Chickens die faster, as they have only 4 units of health, making obtaining raw chicken both time effective, and food/saturation effective.
 * Supplies of raw chicken are easier to maintain, as chickens also drop s which can be hatched into chicks for mass production of raw chicken rather than being dependent on or  for breeding.
 * Sheeps can be sheared to get.
 * Chicken farming can be automated, making for a useful way of collecting eggs, raw chicken and s, as long as the chunk is loaded.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Raw chicken has a 30% chance of giving the player food poisoning.
 * Cooked chicken or cooked mutton restores more hunger points and saturation.
 * Both restore 1.2 saturation.

Poor
With a nourishment value of 0.2, these foods will provide almost no saturation. They are basically snacks that will rarely ever overfill the saturation bar.


 * Restores (slice),  (whole)
 * Restores (slice),  (whole)


 * Advantages:
 * Cake can be used repeatedly and can be shared by several players as a feast item.
 * Is a renewable resource.
 * Cake can be eaten instantly without any eating animation and without switching the currently selected item.
 * Similar to a slab, you do not need to jump to walk over cake.
 * Cake restores a lot of hunger when eaten as a whole.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Cake requires several different items to craft:, , an and three s. In addition, a  is required to use the recipe.
 * Once cake is placed, it cannot be retrieved. If the block below the cake is broken, the cake will disappear.
 * Cakes need to be placed to be eaten, which means they cannot be eaten in places where one cannot build.
 * If you only eat part of a cake, you'll have to come back to that exact spot to eat the rest of it later on.
 * Is not stackable $$.
 * Restore just 0.4 saturation, or 2.8 as a whole.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages
 * Crafted from two units of wheat and one unit of.
 * The ingredients can be farmed in large quantities.
 * 8 cookies are made each time.
 * 1 batch of cookies relieves 19.2 points of hunger with only 2 units of wheat, much more efficient than bread.


 * Disadvantages
 * When fed to a parrot, a cookie will kill the parrot instantly.
 * Cookies have a very low nourishment value.
 * Restore 0.4 saturation.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Remove.
 * A player only needs to harvest it from a or.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Restore 1.2 saturation.
 * Harvesting it can be difficult without s and a or, as bees can get angered, and they can kill themselves with the campfire.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Being the only way to obtain nausea, eating pufferfish is needed to get the advancement "How did we get here?".
 * Pufferfish are a useful ingredient in brewing potions of water breathing.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Pufferfish inflict, , and effects, draining  and keeping you down to  for 48 seconds.


 * and
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Raw cod or salmon can be used to tame s, trust s, or feed s.
 * Can be obtained by fishing or killing, s, s, s, or dolphins.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Raw fish is not nearly as nourishing as cooked fish.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Rotten flesh can be a good emergency food when other sources are depleted; if many pieces are eaten at once, the Hunger effect will reduce the reward, but it will last only 30 seconds from the past piece eaten, and consume less hunger than granted by a single piece of rotten flesh. Accordingly, eating multiple pieces of rotten flesh will still leave the player less hungry and perhaps allow some healing.
 * While in combat, eating rotten flesh is a good way of keeping your hunger topped off so that your health keeps regenerating, without wasting better quality food.
 * Rotten flesh may be used to feed and breed without poisoning them.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Rotten flesh has an 80% chance to trigger food poisoning, making hunger deplete for thirty seconds.
 * Rotten flesh only restores 4 hunger points.
 * Killing s for rotten flesh may be dangerous for unskilled players as it only comes from hostile zombies and their variants.
 * Rotten flesh restores less saturation than other meats.


 * ''Restores
 * ''Restores


 * Advantages:
 * None, it is best to leave them in your brewing lab.


 * Disadvantages:
 * They give for 4 seconds.
 * Restore 3.2 saturation.


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Sweet berries can be used to trust es
 * es can be used as defenses, while can be used to get more berries.


 * Disadvantages:
 * The bush block causes damage to anything that enters it's hitbox (except foxes).


 * Restores 
 * Restores 


 * Advantages:
 * Tropical fish have no advantages over other foods.


 * Disadvantages:
 * Tropical fish is a rare catch from fishing.
 * The mob can only be found in warm ocean, or in warm, lukewarm oceans and deep variants.
 * Tropical fish restores a very little amount of hunger.

Emergency measures
If your hunger meter is dropping and you have no food in hand, there are a few emergency measures you can take, depending on available resources.


 * Milk
 * If you have a bucket and a cow, milk the cow. The milk will let you fill up on rotten flesh, raw chicken, spider eyes, or poisonous potatoes, and then cure the illness.


 * Fast crops
 * If you have any potatoes or carrots, and some bone meal (craft 3 from one skeleton bone, or get from composter), you can make a hoe and till some dirt near any water source, then plant your vegetables and use the bone meal to make them mature more quickly. It can take several pieces of bone meal to get a mature plant. Cooking the potatoes is also a good idea. If you have the bone meal but no carrots or potatoes, you can destroy some tall grass near a river or lake, make and use a hoe, then plant seeds and use the bone meal to rapidly grow your wheat. The same caveats as above apply to the use of bone meal.


 * Doing nothing
 * You won't lose hunger bars if you don't do anything (walking, mining, healing, etc.). In hardcore especially, this can be a necessary strategy while waiting for crops or baby animals to grow.


 * Death
 * A last-ditch measure: If you're close to your bed or spawn point, stuff your inventory and armor into a chest or two … then die. On hard mode, you can just wait to die of starvation, otherwise, good methods are drowning, jumping off cliffs, or dropping gravel or sand on yourself. You will respawn with full health and hunger bars, and can then reclaim your stuff. Naturally, this method doesn't apply in hardcore. Note that this isn't a totally free solution: you lose most of your experience.

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