Hunger and food

Hunger
In Powder, you become hungry over time, and fight hunger by eating. You start with 1500 "food points". In each heartbeat phase of your turn, you lose a food point for each of the following:


 * Simply existing
 * Wearing something which grants Regeneration (the spell doesn't count).
 * Wearing something which grants Invisible (the wand doesn't count).
 * Recovering a hit point "naturally", including any form of Regeneration (healing spells and potions don't count).
 * Recovering a mana point "naturally" (potions don't count)

Hunger Levels

 * If you have the Endure Hunger skill, you will avoid all ill effects from being 'Hungry' or 'Starving'. (Watch out for Soul Suckers)
 * If you are in a form that can't eat anything (and thus doesn't need to), your hunger level is always considered "normal", and you will not lose hunger points.
 * Dressing as a wizard or fighter also increases your mana or HP recovery, respectively. Dressing as a cleric increases your pets' HP recovery.
 * Note that unlike, e.g.. 'NetHack', you cannot actually die of starvation.
 * Eating a corpse when you're not hungry (or starving) will cost you 2 points of Piety with Pax.
 * If you need to get hungrier fast (to become un-Full, or just avoid Pax's penalties), you can dig at yourself; this will excavate your stomach, costing you 500 food units.
 * Hungry monsters:
 * There is actually an another, internal, hunger level ("forage") at 500, but it only affects NPC monsters -- Apparently it's when they start looking for food.
 * Yes, (most) monsters get hungry too. The kicker is, monsters swipe corpses from traps or your own kills, or eat some of your pets... but if you're not around, they won't hunt their own food. Meaning... if you leave those fortress rooms alone for a while, most of their denizens will eventually be reduced to starvation -- cutting off their healing, mana recovery, and even the regeneration of trolls and cave trolls! (Warning: Those last will also eat stone magical items from their inventory or treasure troves.)

Food values

 * "Bones" have half the food value of the matching corpse.
 * If you polymorph into certain monsters, you can eat items which are normally inedible, including "indigestible" corpses. But beware of becoming a Gold Beetle. which can eat only gold items (and there are no gold coins in this game). Also, eating (only) rocks isn't nearly as much fun as you might think, unless you have a way to pick up boulders.
 * Conversely, a few monster forms don't need to eat at all -- in fact, they can't eat. They can, however, still drink potions.

Mounds Of Flesh
The single most nourishing food item is a Mound Of Flesh, produced by use of the Stone to Flesh spell. These grant no intrinsics, but have a number of advantages over corpses:


 * Do not decay.
 * Do not offend Pax.
 * Stack in your inventory (unlike corpses).
 * Will feed you for a long time, and let you easily become 'Full' when so desired.
 * Their major limitation is the 40 Mana cost for the spell (and Hruth's hostility).

Corpses
Many corpses have extra effects when eaten:


 * Some types of corpses can provide (or inflict) various intrinsics, mostly resistances or vulnerabilities. Getting these is uncertain: without Butchery skill, there is a separate 50% chance to get each intrinsic (including poison).
 * All intrinsics given are temporary (though some can be rapidly fatal!). They last for (foodvalue) + 1d(foodvalue) turns. Exception: As of Version 115, naturally poisonous corpses only inflict 5d5 rounds of poisoning.
 * If a creature dies while poisoned, its corpse will be tainted with the same level of poison it suffered. If that was Deadly poison, it has 100% chance of affecting the consumer, otherwise, 50% chance. The poison duration will be 3d3 turns.
 * Some corpses are "acidic", and inflict 2d3 acid damage when eaten. (100% chance)
 * Some corpses grant a permanent bonus to your maximum Mana Points (100% chance, amounts vary as noted below, ).
 * Butchery skill will eliminate both sorts of poisoning, but not acid damage, and make other grants certain (including vulnerabilities!).
 * Some corpses are inedible (at least in human form), and some other monsters never leave corpses.
 * Troll and Cave Troll corpses will revive (come back to life) if not eaten, preserved, or somehow destroyed.

Here we have the intrinsics granted, and other effects, of eating the various corpses.