Food

In Niche, food is a gameplay element required for survival. Every night, the amount of food consumed is equal to the amount of nichelings you have currently in your tribe, including offspring born during the night. Nichelings that die during the night will not consume food. If you run out of food or do not have enough food for every creature, the nichelings without food will starve, resulting in three days of damage.

## Ranking

Each creature in your tribe is assigned a rank: Alpha (α), Beta (β), or Omega (Ω), with Beta being the default. These ranks determine the order in which your nichelings eat. Alphas eat first, then Betas, and finally Omegas. These ranks can be changed on the creature's info page by clicking on the symbol.

The purpose of this feature is to prevent specific nichelings from starving when there's not enough food. Nichelings you designate as Alphas will be the last to starve, while Omegas will be the first to go hungry, which protects the creatures you favor most. For example, if you have five creatures (all Betas) and three pieces of food, two creatures at random will starve. If you promote three to Alpha, only the Betas will starve.

Note that babies are always born in the Beta rank. Therefore, if you would like to avoid newborn babies taking hunger damage as they are born, it is advisable to *demote* those you want to starve to Omega, rather than *promote* those to Alpha whom you want to not take damage.

## Food Sources

There are various ways to obtain food in the game, most of which require different abilities. The abilities relevant to food collection are Strength, Collecting, Cracking, Fishing, Digging, Insect Collecting, and Feeding from the Bottom. Additionally, the Flying ability is required to reach a few food sources.

Food sources will vary across biomes, and the different methods of obtaining food must be factored into survival strategy.

### Berries

*Main article: Berry Bush*
   Berries can be obtained from Berry Bushes and Bare Berry Bushes. To gather berries, the player needs a nicheling with the Collecting ability. The amount of berries harvested is dependent on the creature's Collecting level and the amount of berries remaining on the plant. Each non-rainy day, the berry bush generates two berries. On a rainy day, the berry bush is completely refilled. Creatures with 4+ Strength can destroy a berry bush for five berries, no matter how much food was on it when it was destroyed, and also get one nesting material. Destroyed berry bushes will regrow over a course of five days, while Bare Berry Bushes will not regrow.

Another source of berries are Cacti, which yield the same amount of food but cause damage each time a nicheling collects from it unless the creature has 2+ Defense.

### Coconuts

Coconuts drop from Palm Trees. Coconuts require the Cracking ability to collect, and provide 2 food points per coconut gathered. Palm Trees drop one coconut per day and can be shaken to produce more, but it can be dangerous to leave your nichelings within one tile of a coconut tree; if a coconut falls onto an occupied tile, it will stun the creature underneath it, whether it be one of the player's nichelings or another entity.

### Fish

*Main article: Fish*

There are three different types of fish that randomly spawn in water. Creatures with the Fishing ability can catch them for food, though any nicheling can attempt a Fishing action with a low chance of success.

* Clownkoi provide five pieces of food and need at least two points of Fishing to catch. They do have a lifespan, and if they die of old age, any creature on an adjacent tile can pick them up for food.
* Fish swarms require at least 1 point of Fishing ability, and the ability level corresponds to the number of fish caught. They provide one piece of food per fish caught.
* Razoranha provide three pieces of food, needing a Fishing ability of four, and are currently the only carnivorous fish.

### Goldleeches

*Main article: Goldleeches*
Goldleeches are small parasitic creatures that will provide one food point when attacked or removed. All non-baby nichelings can attack a Goldleech in the water or remove a goldleech attached on a tribemate.

### Insect Swarms

*Main article: Insect Swarms*
Insect swarms can be consumed by creatures with the insect iollecting ability. Insect Swarms always provide 2 food, regardless of the value of the nicheling's insect collecting ability. Nichelings without the insect collecting ability will only get 1 food instead of the usual 2 food if they successfully eat an insect swarm.

### Meat

Creatures can obtain food from killing other animals, with the exception of your own species. After killing the selected entity, the creature must gather the pile of meat they leave behind, or else Arctic Ramfoxes, Bluebirds, Tamed bearyenas, and wandering nichelings will steal it. If it is not collected after a certain amount of time, meat will despawn.

The appearance of meat is like a red chicken leg with a bone sticking out of the end. The only exception is meat collected from a Crabbit, which replaces the normal chicken leg with an upside-down Crabbit model.

### Nuts

    Nuts can be acquired from Oak Trees, Acacia Trees, and Ape Trees. Nuts appear on the tiles around a tree, and the trees generally drop one nut per day. The player can direct their creatures to shake the tree, causing it to drop more nuts, up to six at once. Less nuts will drop if the tree is shaken every day. Nuts can only be collected with the Cracking ability, and provide 2 food points per nut collected.

### Roots

By using the Smelling perception mode, you can find roots scattered below the ground. Roots are randomly generated across the island and new ones will be generated over time. If a nicheling has the Digging ability, they can dig up these roots. The amount of food gained is equal to the level of Digging (maximum is seven food per root).

### Shells

Shells, which appear to be clam or oyster shells, spawn in the water around islands. To harvest them, creatures need the Cracking ability. Shells give two pieces of food and new shells will randomly spawn.

### Smelly Fruit

Fruits can be gathered from Smelly Fruit Trees, which are found in jungle biomes. The amount of fruit gathered at once depends on the nicheling's Collection ability and the number of fruits remaining on the tree. Collecting smelly fruit will give the nicheling the 'Stinky' status affliction, which negates all Scentless stats for three turns unless a tribemate uses two actions to remove the stench from the affected creature.

### Snails

Snails spawn in Mangrove Trees after it rains. They can only be collected by nichelings with the Flying. Between 1-3 snails can normally be found on a single tree, and each snail provides two food points.

### Termite Hills

Termite hills spawn often in hot biomes like Burning Savanna. They spawn either as Termite Hills or Harmless Termite Hills. The two hills are visually identical, however the Smelling and Hearing modes will display normal hills as red and harmless ones as green. A single hill holds six food points.

A Nicheling requires at least two Strength in order to successfully break open a termite hill. If they have the Insect Collecting skill, they can collect the termites inside. The amount of food they obtain at once depends on how many skill points they have.

Harmless Termite Hills pose no threat to Nichelings, but normal Termite Hills will afflict a Nicheling with the Swarmed by Termites status effect if they break it open or collect any termites. This can be licked off by any adjacent creatures.

Termites will rebuild their hills three days after they are destroyed; the rebuilt hill will randomly be normal or harmless. This will also refresh the amount of food in the hill.

### Worms

If a creature has the Feeding From The Bottom ability, they can dig up designated water tiles for three pieces of food each.