Hunger
This page has the rules of hunger: how fast it comes and what it does to you. What there is to eat, how food spoils, and what each corpse gives are on Food and corpses.
You have to eat. Your stomach empties as time passes, whatever you do: walking, fighting, resting, and long journeys on the overworld all count. The game measures your food in points of nutrition. You never see the count, only how hungry you are.
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| A human burns | a point a minute: 1440 a day, resting, walking, or travelling the overworld alike |
| A run starts with | 3600 (not hungry) |
| The most there can be | 6500 |
| Exertion burns more (points, at your race’s need) | 2 melee, 1 shoot, 1 throw |
| Overeating (a meal past the most) | never chokes; a 50% chance to vomit; else what does not fit is lost |
| Vomiting leaves you with at most | 1000 (hungry); what made you vomit feeds nothing |
| Eating rotten food (corpses too) | a 50% chance to vomit; else it makes you sick (poisoned), and it feeds you |
How hungry you are
| State | Nutrition | A human eating nothing gets there after | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloated | 5500 and more | - | everything you do takes ×1.25 as long |
| Satiated | 4000 to 5499 | - | nothing |
| Not hungry | 1440 to 3999 | (you start here) | nothing (the status bar shows nothing) |
| Hungry | 720 to 1439 | 36 hours | a warning; becoming hungry stops a rest |
| Weak | 240 to 719 | 48 hours | Strength −1, Dexterity −1 |
| Fainting | 0 to 239 | 56 hours | as Weak, and a 5% chance each turn to faint, losing 5 turns |
| Starving | below 0 | 60 hours | as Fainting; no hit points come back, and you lose 1 every 10 minutes, until you starve to death |
- Hungry is a warning: eat soon. Becoming hungry stops a rest and makes you read the message before you go on (see What you see).
- Weak: your Strength and Dexterity count for less, both in a fight and in what you can carry (see Stats and Burden). The character screen shows the lowered scores. Eating gives them back.
- Fainting: now and then you faint from hunger (“You faint from hunger.”) and lose a few turns while everything around you goes on.
- Starving: your wounds stop healing, and you lose hit points as time passes until you eat or starve to death.
- Satiated does nothing. Bloated slows everything you do, as a burden does, so wait for it to pass. Eating more than your stomach can hold is overeating: you may vomit, which leaves you hungry and feeds you nothing.
You cannot choke to death on food.
Races
Some races need more food than others:
| Race | Needs | Burns a day | Hungry after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elf | ×0.8 | 1152 | 45 hours |
| Half-elf | ×0.9 | 1296 | 40 hours |
| Human | ×1 | 1440 | 36 hours |
| Dwarf | ×1.1 | 1584 | 32 hours and 43 minutes |
| Halfling | ×1.25 | 1800 | 28 hours and 48 minutes |
| Gnome | ×0.9 | 1296 | 40 hours |
| Half-orc | ×1.2 | 1728 | 30 hours |
| Goblin | ×0.8 | 1152 | 45 hours |
| Drow | ×0.8 | 1152 | 45 hours |
| Kobold | ×0.8 | 1152 | 45 hours |
| Lizardfolk | ×0.9 | 1296 | 40 hours |
| Duergar | ×0.9 | 1296 | 40 hours |
| Ratfolk | ×1.1 | 1584 | 32 hours and 43 minutes |
The Lean talent makes you hungry more slowly (see Talents). So does magic that sustains you: its percent comes off how fast your stomach empties, on top of the race’s and the talent’s (see Magic items). However much of it you wear, you still get a little hungry.
Fighting burns a little more. Each blow, shot, or throw costs a few points (see the facts above).
What you see
- The status bar shows how hungry you are unless you are not hungry
at all:
Hungry,Weak,Fainting,Starving,Satiated, orBloated. FromHungryon, the word gets more urgent as it worsens:Hungryin mild yellow,Weakin strong orange,FaintingandStarvingin alarming reds. On a narrow screen it is never dropped, andSatiatedandBloatedare among the last things to go (see The screen). - A message tells you when it changes: “You are getting hungry.”, “You feel weak from hunger. You should eat soon.”, “You feel faint from hunger. Eat now, or you will starve!”, “You are starving! Eat, or you will die!”, and when you eat, “You are no longer hungry.”, “You feel satiated.”, “You feel bloated.”
- Getting hungrier stops you. When you become
Hungry,Weak,Fainting, orStarving, the game waits at--more--until you have read it, even if the message fits on the line. A held key does not walk you past it. - A journey asks first. A step on the overworld takes much longer
than a step anywhere else. While you are
FaintingorStarving, every step there asks whether to go on. Staying takes no time, andEscstays. The question depends on how hungry you are, not on whether this step would kill you. With Long fast you are asked too.
To eat, see Food and corpses.