Guides · The world

Effects, food and Wards

An effect is something on you for a while: four golden hearts from a Sunapple, the dark lifting at night, a Crawler's web slowing you down. Each one shows as an icon in a row just above the hotbar. Good effects sit in a gold rim, bad ones in a red rim with clipped corners; the rim drains as the time runs out, the seconds sit under it, and it blinks for the last five.

Effects

The same effect again never stacks: the longer one wins. Dying clears every effect, and so does a Milk Bucket: use an empty bucket on a cow, then drink it (any time, hungry or not) to clear every effect, good and bad, the Sun Shield included. Good effects are the same on every difficulty and in player fights; on Easy the bad ones last half as long and some are softer. Times are for Medium.

Good effects

• 
  Sun ShieldFour golden hearts in their own row over your health. Every kind of damage but the void takes them firstA Sunapple: 2 minutes
• 
  MendingHeals a heart every 2 secondsMushroom Broth: 6 seconds
• 
  NightsightThe darkest places lift to a violet half-light; the sky stays nightSun Carrot (3 minutes), Crawler Eye (30 seconds), Glowfin Soup (2 minutes), a Night Ward
• 
  SwiftstepWalk and sprint a quarter fasterA Cookie (8 seconds), a Swift Ward
• 
  WindleapJump about two blocks highA Leap Ward
• 
  HearthwarmChill and Frozen last half as long; Frostbite builds half as fastBaked Potato (30 seconds), Mushroom Broth (90 seconds)
• 
  SatedHunger drains half as fastRoast Pork, Roast Beef (60 seconds), Pumpkin Pie (90 seconds)

Bad effects

• 
  BlightHalf a heart a second; it never takes your last half heartThe Poison Sword, the Thorn Guardian's thorns and spores, a Crawler Eye
• 
  BurningHalf a heart a second; water or rain puts it out, fireproof armour keeps it offBlazing tools and arrows, the Magma Colossus, lightning
• 
  ChillMove at half speedThe Frost Wraith's icicles, Tidal arrows, glacite blades in player fights
• 
  FrozenYou cannot move or jump, but you can still swingThe Frost Wraith's nova and icicle rain
• 
  FrostbiteBuilds while you stand in Drift Snow; when full, half a heartDrift Snow, a Frostbitten's hit
• 
  RootedRoots hold you in place; you can still swingThe Thorn Guardian's roots, Quaking arrows
• 
  WindboundCaught in the wind; you cannot moveThe Tempest's hold, the Crowned Wyrm's wind breath
• 
  HollowingYour hits deal a quarter less damageOne Hollow hit in four
• 
  WebbedMove a third slower and cannot sprintEvery Crawler bite
• 
  RotHunger drains three times as fastSpoiled Meat, Raw Chicken

A Frost Heart, held or in the offhand, keeps Chill, Frozen and Frostbite off. Hunger effects (Sated, Rot) never come on Easy, where there is no hunger.

The Sun Shield

Eat a Sunapple (an apple ringed by eight gold ingots at a Maker's Bench, or found in temple chests) and four golden hearts appear in a row above your red ones for two minutes. Hits take the gold first. Another Sunapple fills the shield back to four, never above. When the last golden heart goes, it breaks into falling shards. On Medium and Hard a Sunapple also heals two hearts at once.

Food

Eleven of the twenty-one foods give an effect. Foods with a good effect can be eaten even when you are full (on Easy, at full health); the others only when you are hungry.

Food	Effect
Sunapple	Sun Shield, 2 minutes
Sun Carrot	Nightsight, 3 minutes
Mushroom Broth	Mending for 6 seconds and Hearthwarm for 90; you keep the bowl
Baked Potato	Hearthwarm, 30 seconds
Roast Pork, Roast Beef	Sated, 60 seconds
Pumpkin Pie	Sated, 90 seconds
Cookie	Swiftstep, 8 seconds; another cookie starts the 8 seconds again
Crawler Eye	Nightsight for 30 seconds, and Blight for 4
Spoiled Meat	Rot for 20 seconds, four bites in five
Raw Chicken	Rot for 20 seconds, one bite in three
Hearth Pot dishes	Sated, Hearthwarm, Mending, Swiftstep or Nightsight, eaten only when hungry: see the dishes

How much each food fills is in the crafting guide.

Nightsight

The darkest light lifts to about two fifths with a cool violet tint, so caves and moonless nights stay readable. The sky stays night and the stars stay out. A Sun Carrot gives three minutes of it; a Night Ward gives it while you are in reach.

Wards

A Ward is a carved pillar of Dressed Greystone set with a gem. Placed, it gives its effect to everyone within 5 blocks, other teams in a team fight included; in your offhand it gives it to you alone. While you are in reach its icon keeps a full rim and no number; step out and it fades after about a second and a half.

Every Ward is made the same way at a Maker's Bench: its crown on top, a gold ingot between two Dressed Greystone in the middle, Dressed Greystone below. Wards stack to sixteen; a stack in the offhand gives no more than one. Placed Wards glow faintly, like a torch. A Leap Ward at the foot of a Keeper's tower, or Swift Wards along a long road, serve a whole party.

Auras

An aura is a look, not an effect: motes that drift round you and change nothing in a fight. Each Keeper gives its own the first time you beat it (Rime motes for the Frost Wraith, Ember motes for the Magma Colossus, Bloom motes for the Thorn Guardian, Gale motes for the Tempest), and finding all sixteen Torn Pages gives the Whole Tale. Wear one from Looks (Body › Aura). Earned auras are never sold.

Next: Weapons. All sections: the guides.