
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.[1]
Food poisoning[]
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 or with naturalRegeneration=true
|
6.0 | per 1 ( |
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[]
Name | Icon | Food Points | Saturation restored | Effective Quality [note 1] |
Saturation ratio | Status effect(s) | Source(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Apple | 4 ( |
2.4 | 6.4 | 0.6 |
None |
| |
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 |
| |
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 |
| |
Carrot | 3 ( |
3.6 | 6.6 | 1.2 |
None |
| |
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 |
| |
Cooked Chicken | 6 ( |
7.2 | 13.2 | 1.2 |
None |
||
Cooked Fish | 5 ( |
6 | 11 | 1.2 |
None |
||
Cooked Mutton | 6 ( |
9.6 | 15.6 | 1.6 |
None |
| |
Cooked Porkchop | 8 ( |
12.8 | 20.8 | 1.6 |
None |
||
Cooked Rabbit | 5 ( |
6 | 11 | 1.2 |
None |
| |
Cooked Salmon | 6 ( |
9.6 | 15.6 | 1.6 |
None |
Cooking a raw salmon | |
Cookie | 2 ( |
0.4 | 2.4 | 0.2 |
None |
| |
Golden Apple | 4 ( |
9.6 | 13.6 | 2.4 |
|
| |
Enchanted Golden Apple | 4 ( |
9.6 | 13.6 | 2.4 |
|
| |
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 |
| |
Mushroom Stew | 6 ( |
7.2 | 13.2 | 1.2 |
None |
| |
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 |
| |
Pufferfish | 1 ( |
0.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 (−4.8) |
|
| |
Pumpkin Pie | 8 ( |
4.8 | 12.8 | 0.6 |
None |
| |
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 |
| |
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 |
| |
Rotten Flesh | 4 ( |
0.8 | 4.8 | 0.2 (-1.8) |
Hunger for 30 seconds (80% chance) |
||
Spider Eye | 2 ( |
3.2 | 5.2 | 1.6 (-2.2) |
Poison for 4 seconds |
| |
Steak | 8 ( |
12.8 | 20.8 | 1.6 |
None |
|
- ↑ Food Points + Saturation, which gives roughly how 'long' the food will last. See hunger for details. This value will be reduced if you are near your food or saturation caps, as excess points of either type will be wasted.
- ↑ a b c Average expected food quality if food poisoning isn't cured. Food poisoning lasts 30 seconds from the last food that inflicted it, and drains nearly 2 shanks of hunger over that duration. The loss comes from saturation before visible hunger.
- ↑ Food quality if poison isn't cured; healing the damage from poison quickly drains the hunger bar.
Video[]
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.