How hunger works, and how to turn it off, in Minecraft: Pocket Edition (0.12 tutorial)

A new feature added in the 0.12 update to Minecraft: Pocket Edition will cause your character to get hungry if you don't eat food. Here's what you need to know about hunger.

Reading the hunger bar

The hunger bar is found in the top right corner of the screen, and looks like 10 chicken legs. As you get hungry, the chicken legs will go black. When you eat food to replenish your hunger, the chicken will fill back in.

Exerting yourself drains your hunger bar



Just standing still won't drain your hunger bar. But moving around, breaking bricks, fighting monsters, jumping, and sprinting certainly will.

Sprinting is one of the quickest ways to drain your hunger bar. And jumping while sprinting will make it fall even faster. So, it might be a good idea to build a mine cart track if you find yourself traveling across a large distance over and over.

Starvation leads to death

When the hunger bar hits zero, it's not an instant game over. Instead, your health will start to deplete every few seconds. Quickly munch on some food to bring the bar back up.

Being hungry locks out some abilities

When your tummy is full, you'll be able to automatically regenerate lost health. But once your hunger bar dips below about seven chickens, this will stop happening. You'll need to eat up to restore health.

Similarly, your ability to sprint goes away if you're malnourished. When the hunger bar drops below around four chickens, you will only be able to walk. Hope a good meal is within walking distance!

Cooked food restores more hunger



Plucking an apple off the tree, eating a raw slice of beef, or munching on a fish fresh out of the ocean will only restore a tiny bit of your hunger bar.

You'll need to cook your food, or prepare a meal, to really satisfy your cravings. Cooked meat and fish is yummy, as are prepared meals like cake, pumpkin pie, rabbit stew, and bread.

Food can be cooked in a furnace, as long as you add some fuel like wood or coal. Meals can be crafted, but require various ingredients.

Food poisoning drains your hunger bar fast

Food poisoning (which is different from run of the mill poisoning) will cause your hunger bar - not your health - to drain. Three foods can cause this affliction: raw chicken, rotten flesh, and pufferfish.

This causes the hunger bar to turn green and your hunger to drain quickly for a few seconds.

The effect can be negated with milk. So, because the foods that cause food poisoning also satisfy your hunger, you can eat without fear by chowing down on toxic food and following up with a swig of milk.

Hunger is affected, or disabled, by difficulty



Open the game options to find a difficulty slider. You can move the slider between four different notches - peaceful, easy, normal, and hard. Each one affects how fast your hunger bar drains.

At the lowest level, which is peaceful mode, your hunger bar will never drain - though, it will still show up.