Getting Started & Survival
Strength: Fighting Stronger Enemies
Keep Green Hearts ready as your main Strength-granting item, with cooked meat as your next option. Strength is particularly important against stronger enemies early in the game. Plan what you eat so everyday hunger does not use up the food you want for a dangerous encounter.
What Strength does
Strength lasts 10 seconds. It multiplies your attack damage by five before the target’s defences and other damage rules are applied, so the final damage dealt can vary.
It also increases movement speed by 20% and increases the force and duration of the knockback your attacks apply by 75%. Knockback is the push that moves an enemy away when an attack hits.
Strength does not increase attack speed or make you invulnerable. You can still take damage while it is active.
Check your equipped weapons and durability
Before using Strength, check which weapon you have in your hand. The left slot shows your active weapon; the right slot shows your offhand weapon, ready to swap into your hand.
Equipped weapons and durabilityView full size Press E or click the weapon-swap button to switch between them. In this example, swapping brings the torch into your hand and moves the axe to the offhand slot. Check the active slot again before attacking.
The vertical bar beside the active weapon shows its remaining durability. A fuller bar means more durability remains; it shrinks as durability is used. Swap to your other weapon to check its bar too, and prepare a usable weapon before spending your short Strength window.
Start with Green Heart
Green Heart is the main item to keep ready for Strength. It restores three hunger symbols and five health hearts, up to your current maximums, and grants Strength unless your character is immune to that effect.
Prepare your weapon and position first, then eat a Green Heart as danger approaches or near the start of the fight. Check your health and the Strength countdown, and keep a way to retreat.
Save spare Green Hearts for long-term health growth, too. Craft them into Pink Hearts, then Red Hearts, and combine a Red Heart with a Paper Envelope to make a Valentine. Eating a Valentine permanently adds one heart to your maximum health. The Health & Green Hearts guide below gives the quantities and the Heart of Gold upgrade.
Cooked meat is your next option
Cooked Chicken Drumstick and Grilled Steak also restore health and hunger and grant Strength. Keep these cooked meats as another option when you need the boost or want to save Green Hearts for crafting.
Check each food’s description for Strength before relying on it. Food items have different effects: being edible, or being cooked, does not mean every item grants Strength. Strength Potion is another source of the effect.
Match your food to the danger
When you are safe and only need to refill hunger, ordinary food such as Wheat will suffice. Wheat restores one hunger symbol and does not grant Strength or heal you. Choose something with healing as well if your health is low.
When danger is close, switch to a Green Heart or a cooked meat whose description lists Strength. Eat near the start of the encounter so the short boost is available when you need it, rather than spending its timer while travelling.
Carry both everyday food and a reserve for combat. Keep yourself fed, check what each item does, and save your Strength-granting food for the moments when the extra power matters.
Look for “Strength” and the countdown
The on-screen status text shows “Strength” followed by the remaining seconds while the effect is active. Use that countdown to judge how much time is left.
Strength in actionView full size The bonus ends when the timer runs out, and death removes it. Taking a hit does not by itself cancel Strength.
Refreshing Strength
A successful reapplication resets the countdown to 10 seconds. It does not add another fivefold boost or add 10 seconds to the time remaining.
Using another item is still subject to the game’s food-use rules. If Strength is already active and the item has no health or hunger to restore and no other usable effect, the game can show “Full”. Do not rely on consuming a second item at full meters to renew Strength.
Try this
While gathering in safety, eat Wheat when you need hunger restoration. When a stronger enemy threatens you, ready your weapon and eat a Green Heart, or a Cooked Chicken Drumstick if that is what you have prepared. Check that “Strength” appears, then use the 10-second window while keeping an escape route open.
Items in this guide
Open an item for its description and available recipes. These images show inventory items.
