Hunger and Body in Polylithic

1.0 did not just add a hunger bar. It added a body. Official patch notes are blunt: there is a hunger system, metabolism was quadrupled, food restore values were rebalanced, and new freezing and overheating buffs can sit on you while you pretend the Stone Age is a fashion show. The store joke is “eat mammoth, become mammoth.” The play reality is that stuffing, sprinting, and sleeping now write themselves onto the character you customized before the dream even started.

If you are still dying to a missing fire, this page is later. Light something with getting started and cooking. Then come back when berries are not enough and your hunter looks different than the one who woke up.

Hunger is a clock, not a flavor icon

You can starve down to a large chunk of health without instantly dropping dead. Older studio tips already said starvation can shave a huge slice of health rather than serving a cartoon game-over. That is not permission to ignore food. A wobbling hunter fails rolls, fails kites, and fails the shout that costs stamina. Eat for the next ten minutes. Berries are speed. Roots help stamina recover. Nuts raise the stamina ceiling. Roasted meat is the fight. Generated recipes are experiments you run after the stockpile can spare a dare.

1.0 quadrupled metabolism. You burn fuel faster than Early Access muscle memory expects. Long sprints, shouts, and club combos all drink the same tank. If you empty it kiting a bison, you do not get a heroic second wind. You get a body that cannot raise a javelin. Pair this page with combat and controls so shout and sprint are choices, not panic holds.

Starvation sounds have been wrong before; 1.0 listed a fix. If the audio lies, trust the HUD and the way your character moves.

Fat, lean, and the sliders you already dragged

The character creator is not only hats. 1.0 shipped a new creator, more heads, improved random generation, and clothes that actually save. Community notes from the run-up to launch already described weight, stamina, and health sliders. In play, eating heavy and sitting still pushes a heavier silhouette. Sprinting and going hungry lean you out. Neither extreme is a free stat stick. Heavy moves like heavy. Lean looks ready until the next empty stomach.

Clothes now contribute damage reduction and can be damaged. A shaman helmet exists as a reward, not as day-one drip. Enemy tribes wear random outfits so you cannot identify a raid by a single hat. Customize for readability in co-op: if four friends wear the same ochre wrap, you will shout at the wrong mammoth. Then go hunt. The creator is a door, not a destination.

Freezing, overheating, and weather that is not decoration

New freezing and overheating buffs shipped with 1.0. Overheating has an icon on purpose. Snow hills, rapids spray, night, and migration weather are not postcards. Wrap before you scout biomes. A fire still matters when the buff is already ticking. Campfires can be placed anywhere after 1.0, which is how you stop a freeze without walking home to the only legal fireplace. Feed that fire from the stockpile so you are not dropping logs out of a panicked hotbar.

Sleeping resets more than boredom. 1.0 fixed respawn so buffs and stats reinitialize instead of haunting a dead model. If you die fat, cold, and empty, do not assume the next body is a clean template until you have eaten and warmed it. Respawn at the Totem exists for a reason. Use it, then eat.

Tribe mouths share the same physics

Villagers starve even when food exists if the AI cannot path to it; several 1.0 notes targeted that. Companions now eat and heal. You can have two assistants plus a pet that does not count toward the assistant cap. Every extra mouth is a metabolism you chose. Cook surplus before you recruit, tame, or host. The taming page and villagers page are diet guides as much as AI guides.

Treat the body as part of the save. A handsome custom hunter with an empty stomach is just a well-dressed corpse the plains will not remember. Eat, warm up, then take the risk you actually planned.