Food is your avatar's daily sustenance. At a lower level you need to consume two hunger points per day to survive, and this increases to three a day at level 6. All food and stat food offer either 1 or 2 hunger points. Stat food also gives bonuses to your avatar's stats depending on the type. Food can be purchased at a Town Market, County Fair or in a tavern.
Food benefit chart[]
This chart outlines the benefits of each type of food.
| Food | HP | Intelligence | Strength | Charisma |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bread | +2 | - | - | - |
| Corn | +1 | - | - | - |
| Vegetables | +1 | - | - | +1 |
| Meat | +2 | - | +2 | - |
| Fish | +2 | +2 | - | - |
| Milk | +1 | +1 | - | - |
| Fruit | +1 | - | - | +1 |
Eating Strategies[]
Over time, there have been two strategies for eating which vary from the standard of eating 2 HP per day. They are known as alternating and turbo statting.
Q - What about Food? What's the difference between Health and Hunger?
Eating may seem a bit odd in RK, but isn't really. There are 2 measures:
- your Health, which reflects how you've eaten over the long term, and
- your Hunger, which reflects how you've eaten "today".
(When you see the "Home" page, you see your Health and Hunger in the upper right corner.)
Food is measured in HP (Hunger Points*), and the "stats" that they improve (Int, Str, or Cha). Corn and bread are cheaper, but improve no stats.
(* sometimes seen as "PH", which is a French-ish mistranslation: "Points of Hunger")
And, no, there is no difference between a vegetable and a fruit, except where they come from, fields for vegetables and Orchards in Orchard towns for fruit. Nor is there a difference between Fish and Milk accept you have to drink two milk or eat 2 cheese to get the same Stat points.
Each day you need to eat (at least) 2 HP (Hunger Points), and this will keep you at "Fit", the highest health level. If you do not eat 2 HP, you drop to the next Health level down and will probably lose some stats - usually -1 in each - try never to do this! (Go in to "Retreat", in the Church, if you are going on vacation!). If you do drop from "Fit", the next highest health level is "Exhausted", then "Weak" - and it gets worse from there, until you die. (You can resurrect but there is a limited time for this).
(Note that you can eat 1 HP and then be "still hungry", and then eat something else. If you eat 1 HP and then 2 HP (1+2), you get the full stat increase from both foods, but are no more "full" than if you ate just the 2 (1+1).)
Q - How do you increase your Stats?
"Stat food" is much more expensive than corn or bread, so do not eat stat food before making 1st level! There is no need - when you are Level 0, your only goal is to save the money (90 pds) you need to get that field! Wink And plan ahead - you need only 20 in each stat for 2nd Level, no need to rush there either.
Now, if you want to get tricky, you can save some money...
If you have no stats (0 level, new character), you can just starve. Nothing to brag about, but no stats to lose - nothing to lose but your pride. Try not to starve "to death", and don't eat stat food until you eat enough bread to become at least "exhausted" - then it's safe to eat stat foods and not lose what you just worked to build up.
If you have any stats, you do not want to lose them, and you lose them if you starve - usually... that's where the trick comes in.
If you are at Fit and eat only 1 Health Point of Food (1 corn, 1 milk, or 1 fruit/vegie), you drop to the next lower level, Exhausted, but do not lose any stats! This only happens if you were Fit, and you still must have eaten 1 HP of food.
Then, if you eat 2 HP the next day, you return to Fit, and lose no points.
So, so long as you start at "Fit", you can eat 1 pt, then 2 pts, then 1 pt, then 2 pts, alternately and forever, with no harm. (But if you mess up, even once, you will lose stats!). With Bread/Corn/Bread/Corn, this can save you about 3 pds every 2 days - about 10 pds a week. With stat foods, this can save you more, but your stat increases will be a bit slower - it all depends on what you can afford.
If you ever fail to eat enough twice in a row, you drop to Weak. Then you lose stats no matter what, and you lose more as you try to climb your way back up, even if you do eat enough. Losing this many stats is expensive to replace (unless you have no stats to lose, like a Level 0 - see "starvation" options for Level 0, above).
Be Aware - if you are below Exhausted, you will lose stats as you recover your health levels, even if you eat a full 2 HP per day!
Q - What stats are important?
A high Str (from eating meat) allows you to get the more common better jobs that have stat requirements. With a high Int (from eating fish or milk), you can work the other high stat jobs that are seen, and have more "picks" on the resource maps (fish, wood, fruit). A high Charisma will help you win competition for jobs, and steal items on the market from other simultaneous bidders.
Once you have 20 in each stat, that is enough for 2nd level. 50+ Strength (or more - 101, 151, etc.) improves your Fighting ability, (which is desirable if you are in the Army, or a bandit, or fighting a bandit.) For Level 3, you will need at least 60 in 2 stats, and 120 in one more - see Level 3 guide for specifics.
There are endless RK legends and rumours about other bonuses - few have been proven, but the game-code changes, so you just never know.