Health and hunger: staying alive.

The meters

Meter	Starts at	What it does
Health	100	When it reaches zero you die. It comes back slowly while you are fed and watered.
Hunger	90	Runs down over time. At zero you starve and lose health.
Thirst	90	Runs down over time. At zero you become dehydrated and lose health.
Stamina	100	Spent on sprinting, jumping, dodging and blocking. At zero you are exhausted until it climbs back above 25.
Air	30 seconds	Used up under water (or anywhere with no air to breathe). Empty, you start to lose health.
Body temperature	37 °C	Drifts when the air is too hot or too cold for your suit.
Radiation	0	Builds up near radioactive materials and fades slowly.

Hunger and thirst

• Hunger falls slowly, about one point every 30 seconds in the survival modes. Sprinting uses it up twice as fast.
• Thirst falls a little faster, about one point every 21 seconds. It falls half as fast again when the air is above 30 °C.
• Food fills hunger. Cooked dishes fill it more than raw food, and a dish made of Silver or Golden ingredients fills it more again. Eating a plain raw food fills it a little.
• Water quenches thirst. Drink from a clean lake or sea and you gain about 22 points; salt water gives only about 8.
• Some liquids will not quench you at all: anything toxic, hot, acidic or a fuel. The game tells you it is not safe to drink.
• Medicines can heal you when eaten, and some draw out radiation.

When both hunger and thirst are above half, your health slowly mends. A plain meal mends about 0.6 points a second; a Well Fed meal mends about 1.4. A home you have built and rested in speeds this up (see the gear page for suits, and the goals page for homes and beds).

Stamina

• Sprinting costs 10 stamina a second on land and 14 a second when swimming.
• Each jump costs 4 stamina.
• Stamina comes back at 16 a second once you have stopped using it for about a second.
• At zero you are exhausted: you cannot sprint until it is back above 25.
• Dodging and blocking also cost stamina (see Melee, dodging and blocking).

Breath and water

You can hold your breath for 30 seconds. Under water the air runs down; out of the water it recovers quickly. When it is empty you lose health, quickly if you are drowning. Under the Deep Breath buff your air lasts twice as long.

Where there is no air to breathe, a Pressure Suit keeps air in for you for a while. The better the suit, the longer it lasts. Without one your breath runs out in about 30 seconds. Details are on the gear page.

Falls

Landing hard hurts. A fall is harmless up to an impact of 9.4 metres a second; past that you lose 3.3 health for each metre a second of extra speed. Falling into deep water is safe. Gravity matters: on a world with more gravity, the same drop hits harder.

Temperature and pressure

• Your body is comfortable between about 8 °C and the top of your cooling suit's rating (at least 30 °C without a suit).
• Outside that band, your body temperature drifts. Above 39.5 °C you suffer heatstroke; below 34.5 °C you freeze.
• Lava and molten metal burn you for about 30 health a second unless your cooling suit is rated for them.
• Rock and deep water press on you. Past the rating of your pressure suit (30 atmospheres without one) you are crushed, up to 25 health a second.
• Water cools your body fast, so swimming in a cold sea is a risk.

Radiation

Radioactive materials give off a dose that adds up while you stand near them. Once the dose passes 40 you take harm, and the more above 40 the faster. A Radiation Cape blocks part of the dose. Medicines can reduce it.

Food buffs

Many cooked dishes give a timed buff. Buffs do not stack, but a second helping renews them. Rare dishes, made from Golden ingredients, last longer.

Buff	What it does
Well Fed	Health comes back faster.
Swift	You move a quarter faster.
Miner's Vigor	You mine 40% faster.
Deep Breath	Your air lasts twice as long under water.
Night Eyes	You see in the dark.
Warmth	The cold bothers you 15 °C later.
Cool Head	The heat bothers you 15 °C later.
Thick Skin	You take a quarter less damage.
Mighty	Your blows land 30% harder.
Green Thumb	Your harvests come out better and give more.
Spring Step	You jump a third higher.
Cosy	Hunger and thirst fall more slowly and health mends faster, after a while at home.

Dying and your bag

When your health runs out you die and respawn at your spawn point with fresh meters. In Proper Explorer, Bring Spare Pants and Absolutely Not your bag falls at the place you died; in Relaxed and Tea and Biscuits you keep it. Go back and pick it up quickly.

Tips

• Carry food and water before you go out, and eat before a long dig.
• Sprinting is quick but costs food and stamina. Walk when you can.
• Keep a cooling suit and a pressure suit in your gear slots before you go below the crust.
• New players cannot be hunted until they hold their first tool. Hunger, cold, falls and fire still hurt.

← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.