Mushroom trolling

[Trex_Crazy]

So I think it would be really funny if they removed the -hp tooltip from the different mushrooms and just let you use your real world knowledge of mushrooms (or trial and error) to find out if they're poisonous. Partly because it'd be funny and partly because it would fit more into the "uncompromising" aspect of the game.

[runnybabbit]

Most can be deducted from the names themselves...

 

"Oh boy, I wonder if these Orange-Fluted Organ Liquidator Mushrooms are safe to consume"

[Trex_Crazy]

Yeah but who knows off the top of their head that a fly agaric is toxic

2 hours ago, runnybabbit said:

Most can be deducted from the names themselves...

 

"Oh boy, I wonder if these Orange-Fluted Organ Liquidator Mushrooms are safe to consume"

 

[Moa]

Fly Agaric is one of the more famously poisonous mushrooms (though I realize this may be something mostly learned by people who are already interested in wild mushrooms.) It also looks sus because it's bright red and spotted, and in nature that kind of ostentation is often (not always) a "don't eat me I'm deadly" warning, like poisonous frogs. It's also a poisonous mushroom that appears often in games, so some players may recognize it as probably hazardous because of that, even if they can't name it.

Anyway, I'm fairly sure that -hp part of the tooltip already only appears after you eat the mushroom for the first time. Either that, or I didn't realize one of my mods is adjusting this. Either way, I do really enjoy trial & error with a newly discovered mushroom, then having the tooltip available after that to help remember exactly what the hp penalty for eating it anyway is.

Especially because I have a Food Preferences mod installed, and it's really funny when my seraph likes a poisonous mushroom (and I am thus motivated to keep eating it).

Edit: ... If we wanted to be really evil, we should add poisonous berries. >:)
 

Edited May 13 by Moa
poisonous berry addendum

[Krakuntun]

Love the idea of poisonous berries. Some could have other uses like dying and such.

Some non-edible, not in anyway usable berries and mushrooms would be nice too. In real life many plants don't serve any major purposes and are just part of the environment. Representing this in-game (to a lesser degree) would make the world feel less like it merely caters the player's needs (+ more decorating options).

[williams_482]

On 5/12/2026 at 4:02 PM, Trex_Crazy said:

So I think it would be really funny if they removed the -hp tooltip from the different mushrooms and just let you use your real world knowledge of mushrooms (or trial and error) to find out if they're poisonous. Partly because it'd be funny and partly because it would fit more into the "uncompromising" aspect of the game.

That -HP tooltip is a relatively recent addition. Before it was added, we had the very thrilling "check the wiki for a list of poisonous mushrooms" gameplay loop for anyone not interested in bolete roulette. 

I'll keep the tooltip, thank you. 

[Heegrim]

Yeah, the wilderness survival world settings should remove all the helpful tooltips and let the player figure it out themselves. I had a blast accidentally eating psychedelic mushroom stew while deep in a cave.

The poisonous mushrooms probably shouldn’t deal instant damage either but I assume this will be fixed when we get the status effect update. They should make you vomit and lose satiety as well as hp, among other ill effects.

 

[Perdido Street]

Being able to make hallucinogenic blow darts/arrows could be handy for catching wild animals, or messing with your friends  

[cjameshuff]

4 hours ago, Heegrim said:

The poisonous mushrooms probably shouldn’t deal instant damage either but I assume this will be fixed when we get the status effect update. They should make you vomit and lose satiety as well as hp, among other ill effects.

The death's cap giving you a "liver destroyed" status that becomes visible after 12 hours, starts damaging you while reducing your max health, and leads to death within 1-2 weeks?

[GLaDOS_cz]

I would like if player didnt know the possible effects of a mushrom before he eats it, I know there was some mod for it. Just hidden stat if its poisonous until you eat it.

For cooked meals, there should not be tooltip info of that unless you are the one who cooked it.

[Lampookie]

I was wondering about debuffs, when I first ate a wavy cap without looking I just flopped dead, I wish the poison was slower.

[Nachie]

On 5/21/2026 at 12:04 PM, Heegrim said:

Yeah, the wilderness survival world settings should remove all the helpful tooltips and let the player figure it out themselves. I had a blast accidentally eating psychedelic mushroom stew while deep in a cave.

I recently started a new world for 1.22 and I was running low on food. Ah, a mushroom, Liberty Cap? Seems like they added more food to the game. And hey, it's not a poisonous mushroom! :3

Oh.

[Facethief]

On 5/12/2026 at 9:57 PM, runnybabbit said:

Most can be deducted from the names themselves...

“Man, gold-drop milkcaps? Those sound great, and I’m super hungry!”

“…”

“Why am I taking damage.”

[cellar_whales]

22 hours ago, Nachie said:

I recently started a new world for 1.22 and I was running low on food. Ah, a mushroom, Liberty Cap? Seems like they added more food to the game. And hey, it's not a poisonous mushroom! :3

Oh.

I had a fun moment the other day where I came across one and found the name suspicious; what does it free you from? Is it the shackles of the flesh?

A few moments later: Ah. Turns out it was the shackles of reason.

[runnybabbit]

On 6/16/2026 at 9:41 PM, Facethief said:

Man, gold-drop milkcaps? Those sound great, and I’m super hungry!”

Witches Hat got me for ages. I just assumed they had to be poisonous.

[Kulze]

On 5/14/2026 at 12:14 AM, williams_482 said:

for anyone not interested in bolete roulette. 

I mean... 'Devil's' and 'Bitter' kinda are quite a bit of a tell-tale naming sign  I think the damage from bitter boletes to be quite un-fun though, instead a nauseous debuff would be nice, loosing quite a lot of nutrition instead of that mild hit.

The only ones which actually are name-wise an issue are 'Elfin saddly' 'Jack-o-lantern', 'gold-drop milkcap', 'earth ball' and 'pink bonnet'. All others are quite reasonable.
Whoever eats a 'fool's', 'devil's', 'death' or 'laughing' is kinda at fault for their own mistakes. 'Sickener' and 'Death's cap' being kinda obvious ones especially, anyone even trying that one without thinking deserves it  


Generally:
A 'one time eaten' method would do the system well there. It's a compromise between the fairly useless existence of poison mushrooms now... which pose no danger since their danger is directly conveyed... and the wiki-mandate basically. So you don't need to remember things but your first experience will be interesting for sure. I would even argue a world-setting for that is a prime addition.
- Reveal mushroom effect (Default)
- Reveal effect after eaten permanently
- Reveal effect after eaten until death.
- Never reveal effect.

This way the choice is there and allows for fun situations without pushing the whole system ad-absurdum as it currently is the case.

Edited June 19 by Kulze

[Hanril]

I treated myself to a bit of a web pondering and meditation sesh, and here's my idea:

I was often told by my parents and in school that poisonous mushrooms often have gills under the cap and it's a bad sign. So how about mushrooms have just the nutrition stat shown, but apart from the name there's also a list of characteristics like color, shape, smell, etc.

I feel a mini system like that would fit in well with all the other fun&learn foraging systems of this game. As for the mystery mushroom stew given to you by your friend, well good luck with that .

[sleeves]

It would be cool if we had an alternate control to merely touch our tongue to the food, and if it deals damage, to take a small fraction of said damage a couple hours later. It's not perfectly realistic, but close enough to feel immersive, and it would still require memorizing (or recording) the results for later use.

[Demoncyborg]

On 6/20/2026 at 11:30 AM, Hanril said:

I was often told by my parents and in school that poisonous mushrooms often have gills under the cap and it's a bad sign. So how about mushrooms have just the nutrition stat shown, but apart from the name there's also a list of characteristics like color, shape, smell, etc.

I feel a mini system like that would fit in well with all the other fun&learn foraging systems of this game. As for the mystery mushroom stew given to you by your friend, well good luck with that .

there aren't a lot of traits in mushrooms that broadly cover poisonous vs non; and any claims tend to be really unsafe. That gills thing is a very strange one to hear, since a ton of very popular mushrooms have big edible gills (portabello, oyster, chantrelle). All the mushrooms in VS have real counterparts, some even have varying agreement on edibility.
 

i'm not sure how well it'd fit to remove the tooltips entirely without having to do something, i think it's kind of our accepted supernatural power as seraphs to be able to identify things by just looking at them, including their usefulness in nutrition or uh. danger. it certainly makes for some really good mods to remove or alter them though.

that being said, plenty, and i mean plenty of people still die to mushrooms because they just didn't bother to read a tooltip while they were starving on the run. you still need to open the inventory and actually have a look at your food to identify if it's dangerous, but if you already know the mushrooms by name and visuals, no need.

[Hanril]

Yeah the gills always seemed like a very loose categorisation, probably mostly as a precaution for poisonous species found in eastern european forests. I have to say I wouldn't be 100% comfortable implementing a feature like that not being an expert, especially with how many mushroom books are being reported with wrong information. It would be fun to have a small quirk for every forage type though.

As for the names, I'm pretty well aware of e.g. fly agaric and death cap being the poisonous mushrooms™, however I was not familiar with their english names before looking into the subject, even though I'm pretty fluent and I play in default language. Just in case anyone was interested in some feedback from a non native.

So basically weed need a champion like Gneiss, just for mushrooms. Hit us up, we're a loyal fanbase.

Edited Tuesday at 07:09 PM by Hanril

[Kulze]

Yeah, the 'gills' one is primarily for middle-european forests, which is a great thing for me as most people hence often only gather boletes here and leave the other tasty stuff sitting around.
As the death-cap and the parasol for example are hard to identitfy for people without knowing their markers it leads to less people having a deadly outcome from foraging.
There's a wide variety of extremely good and tasty mushrooms in the milk-cap category though growing as well, which are generally overlooked, same with other gilled mushrooms like russula, which yes... is always poison, but breaks it down upon heating it and becomes hence safe to consume.

One way to counteract the issue with people needing to have the knowledge would be to introduce a series of lore-books related to wildlife and plants. So not only journals surviving the temporal instability but also survival journals and actual learning books. I think that would make for a good option to allow taking away the information from the item itself without necessitating the usage of the wiki unless you're a real-life mushroom forager, instead getting the knowledge from a in-game source but not inherently.