How Food, Health, Stamina, and Eitr Work (Valheim)

Some of the mechanics in Valheim are fairly opaque, and the way food interacts with your Health, Stamina, and Eitr is definitely one of them. In this guide, we’ll give you a brief overview of how these systems work together, and provide a handy food chart that lists all the known foods and their effects. If you’re looking for the actual foods you can find in the game, we also have a complete list of Valheim foods.

Health

Staying alive is pretty important, and therefore your health bar is something you should become intimately familiar with. You have 25 health by default, and you increase your maximum health by eating foods. You can only eat (or really, digest) 3 types of food at a time, so the higher quality foods you choose, the higher your maximum health will be. See the list below to find which foods give you the most health.

Stamina

Your most important resource in combat (besides your life) is your stamina. The yellow bar at the bottom of your screen displays your stamina. The bar will only appear when your stamina isn’t full, and running, jumping, blocking, attacking, swimming, or drawing back your bowstring will all deplete your stamina. Your maximum stamina is tied to the foods you’ve eaten just like your health is.

Eitr

Eitr is essentially Valheim’s version of Mana. It’s a well-guarded secret and you’ll be playing for a while before you even learn it exists. You get your first taste of Eitr when you eat some of the foods found in the Mistlands biome. By default, Eitr is set at 0. You only get access to it by eating Eitr-boosting foods. The Eitr bar is hidden by default. You will only see it after you’ve cast some spells or when you’ve just eaten an Eitr-infused meal.

Food Effects

The positive effects of food are temporary. Before the full duration of the food runs out, you’ll see the food icon begin to flash next to your health bar, and the max health and stamina you gained from the food will slowly tick down. Foods are labeled with a colored fork that indicate the benefits it gives: Red for food that mostly grants an HP increase, Yellow for Stamina focused foods, Silver for a balanced food, and Blue for a food rich in Eitr.

Got questions? Found other ways to impact your health and stamina in Valheim? Let us know in the comments!