Hunger

Hunger is a mechanic in Raft. It is one of multiple threats to the player.

Summary
Hunger is one of the mechanics in Raft that can result in player death. Over time, the Hunger gauge slowly depletes, causing the player to lose health points when it reaches zero. The gauge can be refilled by consuming Sustenance items. The speed of which the player feels hungry increases with harder Game Modes. The general rule for all Game Modes is that the player loses hunger at a rate of 0.09 per second. The different Game Modes are then affected by a multiplier. Peaceful and Easy Mode has a reduced Hunger lost per second rate at 60%. Normal Mode works at 100%, and Hard Mode at 130%. Following is a table of the amount of time it takes to empty a full Hunger bar on the different Game Modes:

When the Hunger bar is almost empty, the player is penalized with a slowed movement speed until they eat enough to get out of the threshold. If they do not manage to eat before the Hunger bar is completely empty, the player loses 0.75 health per second on Normal Mode, which means it takes 2 minutes and 13 seconds to die from full health. This time is increased for easier Game Modes and decreased for Hard Mode.

After eating, it takes 20 seconds for the player to digest the food.

Craving
Raft uses a craving system, which means that the hungrier the player is the more effective a sustenance item will be when consumed. All Sustenance items are listed on the Wiki with Hunger and Thirst values. These values are the maximum potential of the specific item, however the actual amount replenished depends on the state of the player. At any given time, the player has a specific crave percentage, which is loosely indicated by the Hunger and Thirst bars on the HUD. The two bars act independently of each other. The crave percent is always a number between 0 and 1, with 0 meaning that the player is in dire need of Sustenance, whereas 1 means they feel full. If the value is close to 0 eating or drinking will be very effective, while being close to 1 will make eating or drinking less effective. However, this number acts as a curve, which effectively means that even though the player consumes an item when almost full the item will still have substantial effect.

The crave percent being a curve also means that the player cannot directly interpret the amount of craving from the Thirst or Hunger bars. A solid rule of thumb is that the closer to empty the more certain the player can be that eating or drinking an item will use the item most effectively.

Bonus Hunger
Eating dishes made from Recipes or a few select raw items adds a second value to the Hunger-meter. This value is known as Bonus Hunger and gives the player an extra buffer before needing to consume food again. The capacity of the Bonus Hunger bar is also 100, despite being visually represented to be shorter. This means that eating, for example, three dishes of Drumstick with Jam would max out the Bonus Hunger bar. The time decrease of a full Bonus Hunger bar is rated at 0.07 Bonus Hunger per second, which means it is depleted slower than the normal Hunger bar and is therefore more effective than the normal Hunger bar. Bonus Hunger is also affected by the Game Mode multipliers. See the table below for how long the Bonus Hunger bar lasts for each Game Mode:

Raw Foods
A number of food items in Raft are raw, which affects their effectiveness. The closer the player is to feeling full, the less effect a raw food item has. What is considered raw isn't always logically straightforward; Red Berries, for example, are not considered raw.

At 70% filled, raw food items lose their effect entirely. This means that to increase the survival value of a food item, a player should only eat raw food items when in a pinch, but seek to cook it for its full effect. Furthermore, raw meat and fish items often have a negative effect on Thirst, draining the bar.

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