Energy and insanity: costs, sleep and every food and drink
Every food, drink and potion with its energy and insanity values, what causes insanity, and the rules for sleep.
Mechanics
What raises and lowers energy and insanity
- What causes insanity
- These generate insanity: digging, burying and exhuming graves; autopsies; making headstones and fences, and setting them on or taking them off a grave; making zombie collars, Urns with Ashes, Tooth, Leather Scroll and the Improve organ recipes; eating or drinking Soldier's ale (+20), Baked meat (+10), Flesh (+10), Burger (+5), Sandwich (+5), Lasagna (+1) or Swamp mushroom (+1); and collecting honey from a Beehive. While the Keeper has Lack of sleep, every point of energy spent adds half a point of insanity.
- Refilling energy
- Food and drinks refill energy when used from the inventory. Sleeping in the bed restores it too.
- Reducing insanity
- Sleeping off Lack of sleep (-20 insanity once energy is full), writing or improving a Story at the Writing Desk (-1 insanity per tick), and the drinks and food under Insanity reducers below.
- Saving
- The game saves automatically after sleep.
- Elder's meal+120 energy (the tooltip lists 30)
- Fisherman's pie+80 energy (the tooltip lists 20)
- Burger+80 energy, +5 insanity
- Fried golden carp+60 energy (the tooltip lists 30)
- Grape Juice (gold)+60 energy - worth 33 bronze
- Heavenly salmon+60 energy (the tooltip lists 30)
- Kraken steak+60 energy (the tooltip lists 30)
- Grape Juice (silver)+55 energy - worth 28 bronze
Wine removes 25 (bronze), 30 (silver) and 35 (gold) by quality.
- Wine (gold)-35 insanity - worth 1 silver 5 bronze
- Wine (silver)-30 insanity - worth 90 bronze
- Wine (bronze)-25 insanity - worth 75 bronze
- Chocolate-20 insanity, +50 energy
- Beer-12 insanity - worth 36 bronze
- Blueberry Cider-10 insanity - worth 30 bronze
- Mead-10 insanity - worth 30 bronze
- Apple Cider-7 insanity - worth 21 bronze
Elder's meal, Fisherman's pie, Fried golden carp, Heavenly salmon and Kraken steak add more than their tooltips list: eating one adds its tech points once for every colour of point it lists, and its energy once more than that. Elder's meal gives 120 energy and 90 red + 90 green + 90 blue points, where its tooltip lists 30 energy and 30 red + 30 green + 30 blue. Energy never goes above the bar's maximum.
- Elder's meal+120 energy and +90 red + 90 green + 90 blue tech points (the tooltip lists 30 energy and 30 red + 30 green + 30 blue)
- Fisherman's pie+80 energy and +30 red + 30 green + 30 blue tech points (the tooltip lists 20 energy and 10 red + 10 green + 10 blue)
- Fried golden carp+60 energy and +50 green tech points (the tooltip lists 30 energy)
- Heavenly salmon+60 energy and +50 red tech points (the tooltip lists 30 energy)
- Kraken steak+60 energy and +50 blue tech points (the tooltip lists 30 energy)
- Bowl of sauerkraut (gold)+30 energy and Book writing spirit III: You temporarily have +3 Book writing.
- Bowl of sauerkraut (silver)+25 energy and Book writing spirit II: You temporarily have +2 Book writing.
- Soldier's stew+25 energy and Smithing spirit II: You temporarily have +2 Smithing.
- Vegetable salad (gold)+25 energy and Anatomy spirit III: You temporarily have +3 Anatomy.
- Bowl of sauerkraut (bronze)+20 energy and Book writing spirit I: You temporarily have +1 Book writing.
- Muffin+20 energy and Farming spirit II: You temporarily have +2 Farming.
- Pumpkin soup+20 energy and Building spirit II: You temporarily have +2 Building.
- Toast with onions+20 energy and Beer thirst: Beer takes away 24 insanity instead of 12 while it lasts.
- Vegetable salad (silver)+20 energy and Anatomy spirit II: You temporarily have +2 Anatomy.
- Vegetable salad (bronze)+15 energy and Anatomy spirit I: You temporarily have +1 Anatomy.
Steamed Up: You feel refreshed after your sauna: food gives +10% energy. A Burger goes from 80 to 88 energy. When Steamed Up ends, food gives its base energy again. Up to version 1.008 the bonus then turned into a penalty of the same size until the next sauna; update 1.009 removed that, also in existing saves. The Sauna is a pre-order building.
How it works
Crafting, gathering, digging and studying cost energy; attacks in a fight use stamina instead. Insanity is the second bar, and it lowers the first one: maximum energy is 100 minus insanity, so at 80 insanity (the cap) the bar holds 20 energy.
On screen both share one bar: energy is the blue part, next to the lightning icon, and insanity is the purple part, next to the purple brain icon. A purple brain with a number over the Keeper (+10) is insanity gained.
Lack of sleep starts after two full days without sleep. While it lasts, every point of energy spent adds half a point of insanity, and everything that lowers insanity lowers it by only half as much. Sleeping until energy is full ends it and removes 20 insanity.
All 82 foods, drinks and potions
| Kind | Health | Also | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Healing Potion II | Healing | 0 | 0 | 40 | 250 | |
 Healing Potion III | Healing | 0 | 0 | 100 | 1000 |
Energy questions
What restores the most energy?
Elder's meal (+120, the tooltip lists 30), Fisherman's pie (+80, the tooltip lists 20) and Burger (+80). Energy never goes above the bar's maximum of 100 minus insanity.
What lowers insanity?
Sleeping off Lack of sleep (-20 once energy is full), writing or improving a Story at the Writing Desk (-1 per tick), and consumables, the strongest being Wine (gold) (-35), Wine (silver) (-30), Wine (bronze) (-25), Chocolate (-20) and Beer (-12). While Lack of sleep lasts, consumables remove only half as much.
What is the insanity cap?
Insanity stops at 80. The Iron Will perk lowers that ceiling to 70, which keeps at least 30 maximum energy.
Related pages
- The six-day weekGluttony to Wrath: the event tied to each day and the quest that unlocks each day's wheel picture.
- Graveyard qualityHow skulls and wreaths score a grave, every headstone and decoration, and what the score pays.
- ZombiesHow zombies look, resurrection on Envy, collars, masteries, perks, jobs and the zombie limit.
- Money and tradingBronze, silver and gold, trader purses, town orders on Pride, Likes caps and the sources of income.
- Tech pointsRed, green and blue points: what the tree costs and where each colour comes from.
- FAQShort answers with exact numbers: days, recipes, saving, zombies and fast travel.
- Pre-order bonusWhere the Sauna and the platform outfit are, and what they do.
