Hunger

This article is about the gameplay mechanic. For the status effect, see Status effect#Hunger.

The Food Bar is seen on the right, opposite the Health Bar.

Hunger is an aspect of Minecraft that governs several aspects of gameplay. Eating food fills up the food bar, which is constantly drained by the player's actions. The food bar is located on the HUD opposite to the player's health bar on the bottom of the screen and is represented by ten drumsticks (), and each are equal to 2 half-units of food.

While the player is sprinting, the food bar depletes much faster. The player is not able to sprint if their food level is 6 () or less.

The food bar does not drain when playing on Peaceful mode. If it somehow gets depleted, such as by allowing it to deplete by switching to another difficulty and back again, it will quickly regenerate. Additionally, the food bar will not drain if the player remains completely stationary.

Certain foods have a chance of inflicting hunger on the player upon consumption, which causes the player's hunger to deplete faster.

Effects

• When the food bar is at 20 ( × 10) or greater and saturation is non-empty, health regenerates at (1 () health point each ¹⁄₂-second, costing 1 food point (4 units of exhaustion) per point healed.
• When the food bar is at 18 ( × 9) points or above, the player's health will slowly regenerate at a rate of 1 () every 4 seconds, costing 1 food point (4 units of exhaustion) per point healed.
• When the food bar is at 17 ( × 8.5) points or below, the player will not naturally regenerate health unless switching to Peaceful difficulty.
• If the food bar is at 6 () points or below, then the player will not be able to sprint.
• When the food bar is at 0 (), the player's health will deplete at a rate of 1 () every 4 seconds (this makes sleeping impossible). On Easy difficulty, the player's health stops dropping at 10 (), on normal it stops at 1 (), and on hard it keeps draining until either the player eats something or starves to death.

Food poisoning

Main article: Status effect§ Hunger

Hunger, or food poisoning, is an effect induced by eating certain foods, which turns the food bar a sickly yellow-green and drains food more rapidly. The only foods, however, to inflict Hunger are rotten flesh, which can cause Hunger 80% of the time, raw Chicken, which causes Hunger only 30% of the time and Pufferfish, which will always cause Hunger (as well as Nausea and Poison). Eating a spider eye or poisonous potato actually deals the player Poison. The rest of the foods will not cause food poisoning.

Name	Icon	Chance to Hunger
Raw Chicken		30%
Rotten Flesh		80%
Pufferfish		100%

Behavior

Hunger from food poisoning adds 15.0 to the player's exhaustion level over the course of 30 seconds, draining × 1⅞. In Peaceful mode, the food bar will change color, but will not drain out. Greenish swirls will also emit from the player, indicating that the player has food poisoning. When a pufferfish is eaten, it induces level III Hunger, but only for 15 seconds. In this time, 22.5 exhaustion points are added, draining × 2 ¹³⁄₁₆.

The duration of Hunger does not stack. So, if the player eats many poisonous foods at once, they will only feel the negative effects of the most recent poisonous food, plus the consumption time of each other food. Also, drinking milk will negate the effect, allowing the player to potentially eat more poisonous food and constantly drink milk to fill the bar without being inflicted by Hunger.

Mechanics

The ten drumsticks shown at the bottom of the screen next to the health bar show the status of the player's food level. Each drumstick represents two food level points. Therefore, the maximum food level is 20.

There is another aspect of hunger that is not visible to the player. This is called the food saturation level. The player's hunger will not decrease until their food saturation level reaches zero. When the saturation level is at zero, the food bar will shake or jitter periodically. The maximum value of the food saturation level is equal to the current value of your food level. This means that if, for example, your food level is 20/20 (All your drumsticks are full) then your maximum food saturation level is also 20.

When you eat food, your food level and your food saturation level increase as long as they aren't already full. The amount that is replenished depends on the food item being consumed. The amount of food saturation replenished is not dependent on the number of food level points replenished; for instance, if the player eats a steak while missing only half a drumstick (food level 19/20), that player will still gain the full food saturation of the steak (up to saturation 20/20), despite having wasted all but one of the actual food points from the steak. It is not possible to eat food when your food level is at its maximum (except for golden apples and chorus fruit).

A third component of hunger is the food exhaustion level, which effectively tracks fractions of the next hunger or saturation point that will be spent. Whenever exhaustion reaches 4.0 or above, it is reduced by 4.0 and the player loses 1 point of saturation level; if the saturation level is already at zero, then the player loses 1 ().

The last variable involved in the hunger mechanics is the foodTickTimer, which is used to time health regeneration or starvation.

Exhaustion level increase

Any action not listed here will not increase exhaustion level. For example, normal walking doesn't increase exhaustion, and therefore won't decrease saturation or the food bar.

Action	Exhaustion level increase	Units
Swimming	0.01	per meter
Breaking a block	0.005	per block broken
Sprinting	0.1	per meter
Jumping	0.05	per jump
Attacking an enemy	0.1	per attack landed
Taking damage that is normally protected by armor	0.1	per distinct instance of damage being received
Hunger status effect	0.1	per second, per Hunger status effect level
Jumping while sprinting	0.2	per jump
Regenerating health by having  × 9 or higher, or with naturalRegeneration=true	6.0	per 1 () healed
Food poisoning from raw chicken or rotten flesh	3.0	full 0:30 duration of Hunger I, at 0.1 per second
Food poisoning from pufferfish	4.5	full 0:15 duration of Hunger III, at 0.3 per second

Food level and saturation level restoration

Main article: Food

Name	Icon	Food Points	Saturation restored	Effective Quality	Saturation ratio	Status effect(s)	Source(s)
Apple		4 ()	2.4	6.4	0.6	None	Destroyed/despawned oak or dark oak leaves Stronghold, village, igloo and bonus chests Receive 5–7 for 1 emerald in a tier 3 trade with a farmer
Baked Potato		5 ()	6	11	1.2	None	Cooking a potato in a furnace
Beetroot		1 ()	1.2	2.2	1.2	None	Harvesting beetroot crops
Beetroot Soup		6 ()	7.2	13.2	1.2	None	Crafting a bowl together with beetroots
Bread		5 ()	6	11	1.2	None	Crafting from wheat Dungeon, stronghold, village, abandoned mineshaft, woodland mansion and bonus chests Receive 2–4 for 1 emerald in a tier 1 trade with a farmer Farmers who drop bread after harvesting wheat
Cake (slice)		2 ()	0.4	2.4	0.2	None	Consume one slice of cake
Cake (whole)		14 ()	2.8	16.8	0.2	None	Crafting from wheat, eggs, sugar, and milk Receive 1 for 1 emerald in a tier 4 trade with a farmer
Carrot		3 ()	3.6	6.6	1.2	None	Killing zombies Harvesting carrot crops
Chorus Fruit		4 ()	2.4	6.4	0.6	The player may be teleported randomly, as described at Enderman#Teleportation.	Breaking chorus plants
Clownfish		1 ()	0.2	1.2	0.2	None	Fishing Rare drop from guardians
Cooked Chicken		6 ()	7.2	13.2	1.2	None	Cooking a raw chicken Killing chickens with fire Receive 6–8 for 1 emerald in a tier 2 trade with a butcher
Cooked Fish		5 ()	6	11	1.2	None	Cooking a raw fish Receive 6 for 1 emerald + 6 raw fish in a tier 2 trade with a fisherman
Cooked Mutton		6 ()	9.6	15.6	1.6	None	Cooking raw mutton Killing sheep with fire
Cooked Porkchop		8 ()	12.8	20.8	1.6	None	Cooking a raw porkchop Killing pigs with fire Receive 5–7 for 1 emerald in a tier 2 trade with a butcher
Cooked Rabbit		5 ()	6	11	1.2	None	Cooking raw rabbit Killing rabbits with fire
Cooked Salmon		6 ()	9.6	15.6	1.6	None	Cooking a raw salmon
Cookie		2 ()	0.4	2.4	0.2	None	Crafting from wheat and cocoa beans Receive 6–10 for 1 emerald in a tier 4 trade with a farmer
Golden Apple		4 ()	9.6	13.6	2.4	Regeneration II for 5 seconds Absorption for 2 minutes	Crafting from an apple and gold ingots Desert temple, dungeon and abandoned mineshaft, stronghold, woodland mansion and igloo chests
Enchanted Golden Apple		4 ()	9.6	13.6	2.4	Regeneration II for 20 seconds Absorption IV for 2 minutes Resistance for 5 minutes Fire Resistance for 5 minutes	Crafting from an apple and gold blocks[Pocket and Console editions] Desert temple, dungeon, woodland mansion and abandoned mineshaft chests
Golden Carrot		6 ()	14.4	20.4	2.4	None	Crafting a carrot with gold nuggets
Melon		2 ()	1.2	3.2	0.6	None	Harvesting a melon block
Mushroom Stew		6 ()	7.2	13.2	1.2	None	Crafting with a bowl and one of each mushroom Using a bowl on a mooshroom
Poisonous Potato		2 ()	1.2	3.2	0.6	Poison for 4 seconds (60% chance)	Harvesting potato crops
Potato		1 ()	0.6	1.6	0.6	None	Killing zombies Harvesting potato crops
Pufferfish		1 ()	0.2	1.2	0.2 (−4.8)	Hunger III for 15 seconds Nausea II for 15 seconds Poison IV for 60 seconds	Fishing Rare drop from guardians
Pumpkin Pie		8 ()	4.8	12.8	0.6	None	Crafting with a pumpkin, an egg and sugar Receive 2–3 for 1 emerald in a tier 2 trade with a farmer
Rabbit Stew		10 ()	12	22	1.2	None	Crafting with a bowl, carrot, baked potato, mushroom and cooked rabbit
Raw Beef		3 ()	1.8	4.8	0.6	None	Killing cows and mooshrooms
Raw Chicken		2 ()	1.2	3.2	0.6 (-2.075)	Hunger for 30 seconds (30% chance)	Killing chickens
Raw Fish		2 ()	0.4	2.4	0.2	None	Fishing Killing guardians Killing polar bears
Raw Mutton		2 ()	1.2	3.2	0.6	None	Killing sheep
Raw Porkchop		3 ()	1.8	4.8	0.6	None	Killing pigs
Raw Rabbit		3 ()	1.8	4.8	0.6	None	Killing rabbits
Raw Salmon		2 ()	0.4	2.4	0.2	None	Fishing Rare drop from guardians Killing polar bears
Rotten Flesh		4 ()	0.8	4.8	0.2 (-1.8)	Hunger for 30 seconds (80% chance)	Killing zombies and zombie pigmen dungeon, igloo, desert and jungle temple chests Junk catch from fishing
Spider Eye		2 ()	3.2	5.2	1.6 (-2.2)	Poison for 4 seconds	Killing spiders and cave spiders Killing a witch
Steak		8 ()	12.8	20.8	1.6	None	Cooking raw beef Killing cows or mooshrooms with fire

History

Beta
1.8				Hunger was introduced. Food no longer restores health directly, but the player can regenerate if the hunger meter is 90% or over.
Official release
1.6.1				Health regeneration from food now increases the exhaustion level significantly, draining three points of food/saturation for every health point regenerated.
1.7.2				The exhaustion cost of sprint jumping is now 0.8 (up from 0.2), meaning that constant sprint jumping is no longer viable as a means of fast long-distance travel in most situations.
1.8				Hunger now regenerates when depleted if the difficulty is set to Peaceful.
1.9		15w40a		Health regenerates faster when saturation is non-zero.
				Health regeneration increases exhaustion more.
		15w44a		Health regenerates speed bonus from non-zero saturation only applies when the hunger bar is at 20 or greater.
		15w49a		Sneaking now increases exhaustion by 0.005/m, decreased from 0.01/m.
1.11		16w32a		Exhaustion rates decreased across the board: Swimming decreased from 0.015/m to 0.01/m, breaking a block decreased from 0.025/block to 0.005/block, jumping decreased from 0.2/jump to 0.05/jump, sprint jumping decreased from 0.8/jump to 0.2/jump, attacking and taking damage both decreased from 0.3/attack to 0.1/attack, Hunger status effect decreased from 0.5/s to 0.1/s
				Exhaustion rate from regeneration is increased from 0.4/half-heart to 0.6/half-heart.
				Sneaking and walking no longer affect exhaustion.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.12.1		build 1		Hunger was introduced. Food no longer restores health directly, but the player can regenerate if the hunger meter is 90% or over.
Console Edition
TU5	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added the food bar and hunger.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13	Food now regenerates health.

Issues

Issues relating to “Hunger” are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.

References

Gameplay

View at: Template:Gameplay/content [edit]