Probably a stupid question, but how do I heal in this game? I went into a fight I barely survived (3hp) and went up to Lord British only to find he can't actually heal me... Now eating doesn't heal me (And can only be eaten in low quantities, so it wouldn't help much), Lord British can't heal me and I still don't have the runes needed for a healing spell, so how do I heal? Sleeping only gives me a little HP, am I really supposed to just sleep for 38 hours to heal back up or is there something I'm missing? And will sleeping too long have any ill effects?

Not a stupid question at all.

Sleeping will heal you more if you eat/drink before you sleep. You can fill up on food by eating food in the storage areas of the kitchen.

Sleeping too much doesn't seem to have any ill effects that I know of. There are some areas of the game where, after you sleep, a monster might spawn near you when you wake up, but you can always run away after you wake up and attack the monster from a strategic location.

There are also potions that can heal you. I believe yellow potions are the healing ones?

I believe the runes for healing can be found in the Castle. In Bet Mani should all be near where you find your Runestone bag.

Sleeping is the primary method and won’t hurt you unless you get careless with food and start starving.

Thanks, butt it seems Mani only spawns in the tutorial room if my casting ability is higher than anything else. I chose a Paladin, so I guess my only choice is sleeping.
Incidentally, do you know why my life is draining so fast? it seems to stop lowering at 3 HP, but I'm not poisoned.

try clicking the compass and the flasks, do they tell you anything interesting?

if its draining out of combat maybe starvation since you said you are not poisoned

if in combat then i am guessing your defence and armor are too weak compared to the enemies attack
then again if it stops at 3 then this probably isn't the issue


at least these are my thoughts on your hp drain problem

As others have said, check your hunger level. Hunger should kill you though, as would poison. I can't think of anything that would drain you to 3 hp and then stop draining you (unless you were poisoned and the poison ended).

Maybe a cursed item is hurting you? I assume you're still in the very early stages of the game, which means a cursed item is unlikely. Also, I thought cursed items would also kill you eventually.

Make sure you have a bedroll in your inventory before going to sleep to aid in life replenishment. I seem to recall that not having a bedroll means you don't sleep as well, which translates to "less hp regained from sleeping". If need be, just store one somewhere and pick it up before going to sleep; it doesn't help you unless/until you actually go to sleep.

Dehydration is not an issue. Maybe click your compass, then click your HP bottle, then take and post a screenshot? Maybe someone will spot a clue.

I feel like an absolute idiot, turns out I was wearing a "magical crown", which seems to have been draining me of life over time and whenever I ate... Threw it on the floor and won't look back.

that's amusing. i don't remember having any problems with cursed items when i played through.

and kinda shitty game design. i wonder what would be a good way to communicate to the player that their character was being harmed by a cursed item.

UW1 had occasional flashes of yellow when you took damage from a cursed item. Flashes of blue were used for drowning damage, while red flashes were from simple damage like when attacked by a monster.

do you think a yellow flash now and then is enough (if the player doesn't know to suspect a cursed item)? would something like a log message or a note in the compass or flask text be appropriate?

again i've been thinking of modding log messages of each instance of damage (in combat) into the game.. maybe this would naturally fit into such a mechanism.

Eh, I don't know. Cursed items already have very little impact if the player watches for them, so making it more obvious reduces them further.

UW2 has a flash of red when you put on the cursed crown, and occasional flashes of red.

I do admit, it's not intuitive, but a lot about the game isn't that intuitive.