How healing works
Because there is no hunger bar, eating restores hearts directly without delay. Keeping cooked food in your hotbar allows you to recover health quickly after taking damage.
Food tiers
| Tier | Food | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Best | Cooked porkchop, mushroom stew, golden apple | Boss fights and dangerous cave runs. |
| Good | Bread, cooked meat | Everyday healing: cheap and renewable. |
| Weak | Raw meat, apples, cookies | Emergency only; small heal per item. |
Beta 1.7.3 has no potions. Cooked food is your primary way to heal in both exploration and combat.
Cook before you eat
Cooking raw porkchops in a furnace increases their healing output from 3 health points to 8. One piece of coal cooks eight items.
Cooked Porkchop
Cooking raises the heal from 3 health to 8.
One coal smelts eight items; a single wooden plank smelts one and a half. Cook in batches so you never waste a plank on a single porkchop.
Every food recipe
Farming and smelting provide several food sources. Bread is fully renewable from wheat, cake can be placed and shared, and the golden apple provides the strongest single heal in the game.
Bread
Cookies
Cake
Mushroom Stew Changed
Requires a vertical column in the crafting grid.
Golden Apple Changed
Requires eight full blocks of gold rather than ingots.
Farming
- Craft a hoe and till grass or dirt to make farmland (tilling grass can drop seeds).
- Plant wheat seeds, keep the farmland within range of water, and harvest when golden.
- Three wheat crafts bread, your most reliable early food.
- Breed animals with wheat to build a renewable meat supply.
In Beta, walking on farmland breaks the crops on it. Walk in the water channels, sneak while crossing farmland, or place fences one block under the farmland so you can walk and jump freely.
Eating mid-fight
Eating restores health instantly, allowing you to heal during an encounter. Step back from enemies while eating to avoid taking additional hits.