# Effects, food and Wards

An **effect** is something on you for a while: a Sunapple's gold ward, the dark lifting at night, a Rivenmaw's bite stiffening your legs. Each one shows as an icon in a row beside the medallion (under it on a phone). 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 Shield** (good): A gold halo round the medallion: four wards over your life. Every kind of damage but the void takes them first. From: A Sunapple: 2 minutes
- **Mending** (good): Heals a shard every 2 seconds. From: Mushroom Broth: 6 seconds
- **Nightsight** (good): The darkest places lift to a violet half-light; the sky stays night. From: Sun Carrot (3 minutes), Seamheart (30 seconds), Glowfin Soup (2 minutes), a Night Ward
- **Swiftstep** (good): Walk and sprint a quarter faster. From: A Cookie (8 seconds), a Swift Ward
- **Windleap** (good): Jump about two blocks high. From: A Leap Ward
- **Hearthwarm** (good): Chill and Frozen last half as long; Frostbite builds half as fast. From: Baked Potato (30 seconds), Mushroom Broth (90 seconds)
- **Sated** (good): Hunger drains half as fast. From: Roast Pork, Roast Beef (60 seconds), Pumpkin Pie (90 seconds)

### Bad effects

- **Blight** (bad): Half a shard a second; it never takes your last half shard. From: The Poison Sword, the Thorn Guardian's thorns and spores, a Seamheart
- **Burning** (bad): Half a shard a second; water or rain puts it out, fireproof armour keeps it off. From: Blazing tools and arrows, the Magma Colossus, lightning
- **Chill** (bad): Move at half speed. From: The Rime Sovereign's icicles, Tidal arrows, rimeiron blades in player fights
- **Frozen** (bad): You cannot move or jump, but you can still swing. From: The Rime Sovereign's nova and icicle rain
- **Frostbite** (bad): Builds while you stand in Drift Snow; when full, half a shard. From: Drift Snow, a Rimewaned's hit
- **Rooted** (bad): Roots hold you in place; you can still swing. From: The Thorn Guardian's roots, Quaking arrows
- **Windbound** (bad): Caught in the wind; you cannot move. From: The Tempest's hold, the Crowned Wyrm's wind breath
- **Sapped** (bad): Your hits deal a quarter less damage. From: One Waned or Dustwaned hit in four
- **Stonegrip** (bad): Move a third slower and cannot sprint. From: Every Rivenmaw bite
- **Rot** (bad): Hunger drains three times as fast. From: Stale Rations, 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** (three gold ingots over an apple between two Resin at a Maker's Bench, or found in temple chests) and a gold halo rings your medallion for two minutes: four wards over your life. Hits take the wards first. Another Sunapple fills the shield back to four, never above. When the last ward goes, it breaks into falling shards. On Medium and Hard a Sunapple also heals two shards at once.

- **Sunapple:** Three gold ingots over an apple between two Resin (3 Gold Ingots, 2 Resins, 1 Apple)
- **Sun Carrot:** A carrot in a cross of three gold ingots, Hedgeberries below: three minutes of Nightsight (3 Gold Ingots, 1 Carrot, 1 Hedgeberries)

## 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 |
| Seamheart | Nightsight for 30 seconds, and Blight for 4 |
| Stale Ration | 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](https://riventale.world/guides/cooking-and-fishing/#the-dishes) |

How much each food fills is in [the crafting guide](https://riventale.world/guides/crafting/#food).

## 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 set down in a meadow, its gem glowing, with a player standing in its reach.](https://riventale.world/ui/whatsnew/wards.webp)

*A Ward gives its effect to everyone within 5 blocks.*

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.

- **Swift Ward:** Crowned with a Feather: Swiftstep (1 Feather, 3 Dressed Greystone, 1 Gold Ingot)
- **Leap Ward:** Crowned with a Gel Drop: Windleap (1 Gel Drop, 3 Dressed Greystone, 1 Gold Ingot)
- **Night Ward:** Crowned with a Glowgourd: Nightsight (1 Glowgourd, 3 Dressed Greystone, 1 Gold Ingot)

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 Rime Sovereign, Ember motes for the Magma Colossus, Bloom motes for the Thorn Guardian, Gale motes for the Tempest), and finding the first sixteen Torn Pages gives the **Whole Tale**. Wear one from Looks (Body › Aura). Earned auras are never sold.

Next: [Weapons](https://riventale.world/guides/weapons/). All sections: [the guides](https://riventale.world/guides/).

Play now: https://riventale.world/play/