This article is about the gameplay mechanic. For the effect, see Hunger (status effect)

The hunger indicator is shown above the hotbar, to the other side of the health bar.

Hunger is a player-specific feature of Minecraft that regulates player's certain abilities (health regeneration and the ability to sprint) the value of which is managed by the player's activity.

Description [ edit ]

The player's hunger value is shown on the heads-up display in the form of a hunger bar (also called food bar), which is similar to health bar (located above the hotbar), located opposite to it and represented by ten drumsticks ( × 10). One half of a drumstick ( ) represents one hunger point or half-unit of hunger, thus the full bar consists of twenty hunger points. It is replenished by eating food, and decreased by player's actions such as sprinting, digging or attacking.

Various levels of player's hunger control health regeneration (or depletion) and the ability to sprint. When hunger is at a high enough value, the player's health regenerates. If it falls below a specific threshold, the player loses the ability to sprint. If the hunger bar is at zero, the player's health depletes. The specific effects are described in the Effects of hunger section. The hunger value does not drain on Peaceful difficulty and regenerates if it is not at the maximum value.

An important aspect of hunger not shown on the hunger bar is called food saturation and controls the decreasing of the hunger value. It depends on what the player has eaten last. There is also a food exhaustion value that controls the decreasing of the food saturation level. How exactly they control the overall hunger value is described in more depth in the Mechanics section.

Certain foods have a chance of inflicting Hunger effect on the player upon consumption, causing the player's food bar to deplete faster and turn a yellow-green color ( ). These foods are pufferfish (along with nausea and posion), raw chicken (chance), and rotten flesh (dropped upon a dying zombie). A husk can also give you hunger upon being attacked by one.

Mechanics [ edit ]

The hunger system utilizes four variables to control players' abilities, the values of which are stored in the player.dat format:

foodLevel : The player's current hunger level, shown on the hunger bar. Its initial value on world creation is 20 (full bar).

: The player's current hunger level, shown on the hunger bar. Its initial value on world creation is 20 (full bar). foodSaturationLevel : The player's current saturation level, which determines how fast the hunger level depletes and is controlled by the kinds of food the player has eaten. Its maximum value always equals foodLevel ' s value and decreases with the hunger level. Its initial value on world creation is 5.

: The player's current saturation level, which determines how fast the hunger level depletes and is controlled by the kinds of food the player has eaten. Its maximum value always equals s value and decreases with the hunger level. Its initial value on world creation is 5. foodTickTimer : This variable is used when the hunger value either exceeds 17 ( tick, and whenever it reaches 80 (4 seconds), it resets to zero and 1 20 (× 10) 1 ⁄ 6 of 1 foodTickTimer reaches 10 ( 1 ⁄ 2 second), and foodTickTimer is reset to zero.

: This variable is used when the hunger value either exceeds 17 ( tick, and whenever it reaches 80 (4 seconds), it resets to zero and 1 ⁄ of 1 reaches 10 ( ⁄ second), and is reset to zero. foodExhaustionLevel: The player's current exhaustion level, which determines how fast the saturation level depletes. Its value is increased by the player's actions (see Exhaustion level increase for specific values). The initial value is zero. When it reaches the maximum value of 4, it resets to zero and one point is subtracted from foodSaturationLevel.

As a visible sign that the saturation is used up, the hunger bar starts to shake or jitter periodically. When the saturation level is at zero, once the exhaustion value reaches 4, the total hunger value is decreased by one hunger point. Eating food replenishes both hunger and saturation levels (see Food level and saturation level restoration for specific values), with the hunger level being replenished first, which also increases the maximum allowed saturation level. For example, if a golden carrot (giving 6 ( ) and 14.4 saturation points) is eaten by a player whose hunger bar is at 9 ( ) and saturation is below 1, its value increases to 15 ( ), and the golden carrot's saturation potential is fully used. However, if the hunger level is lower than 9 ( ), the specific foodstuff's saturation points are wasted.

Effects of hunger [ edit ]

Various hunger levels lead to various effects on the player:

When the hunger bar is at 20 ( 1 ⁄ 2 second.‌ [ Java Edition only ]

⁄ second.‌ When the hunger bar is at 18 ( When the player is damaged with 18 (× 9) [ Bedrock Edition only ]

When the hunger bar is at 17 ( Peaceful.

Peaceful. If the hunger bar is at 6 (

When the hunger bar is at 0 ( sleeping impossible). On Easy difficulty, the player's health stops dropping at 10 Resistance and armor do not reduce starvation damage.[1]

Exhaustion level increase [ edit ]

Any action not listed here does not increase exhaustion level. For example, normal walking doesn't increase exhaustion, and therefore does not 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 (food poisoning) 0.1 per second, per Hunger status effect level Jumping while sprinting 0.2 per jump Regenerating health by having × 9

having /gamerule naturalRegeneration set to true 6.0 per 1 Food poisoning from raw chicken or rotten flesh, or taking damage from husks. 3.0 full 0:30 duration of Hunger I, at 0.1 per second Hunger (food poisoning) from pufferfish 4.5 full 0:15 duration of Hunger III, at 0.3 per second

Food level and saturation level restoration [ edit ]

↑ Food Points + Saturation, which gives roughly how 'long' the food can last. See hunger for details. This value is reduced if the player is near the food or saturation cap, as excess points of either type are 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.

Food poisoning [ edit ]

Achievements [ edit ]

Icon Achievement In-game description Actual requirements (if different) Gamerscore earned Trophy type (PS) Iron Belly Stop starvation using Rotten Flesh. Eat a piece of rotten flesh while starving (zero hunger points). 20G Bronze

Video [ edit ]

History [ edit ]

Issues [ edit ]

Issues relating to "Hunger" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.