Diet & Nutrients

Every species fills the same three nutrient bars — but the foods that fill each bar differ by species. A Rex's β comes from large mammal meat; a Stego's β comes from specific protein-rich plants.

You can only hold one bar of each nutrient. A nutrient sits at 0% (giving no buff) until you eat the right species-specific food for it. Once it's above 0%, the buff scales with the percentage you have — more % = stronger buff up to the listed cap.

The real reason to stack diets isn't the individual regen buffs — it's growth speed. One nutrient = 100% growth. Two = 200%. All three = 300%. That's your tripling factor; pair it with a Frail dino and you grow visibly fast.

β + α (Proteins + Carbs)

200% growth

Bleed Resistance (max 10%), β & α buffs +10% to max

β + γ (Proteins + Lipids)

200% growth

Fracture Resistance (max 10%), β & γ buffs +10% to max

α + γ (Carbs + Lipids)

200% growth

Locked Health Regen (max 10%), α & γ buffs +10% to max

β + α + γ (all three)

300% growth

Stamina Regen (max 15%), 3 combo bonuses (3 × 10%), all macro buffs +20% to max

The 3-combo (β + α + γ) is the holy grail — full stamina regen, every macro buff maxed, and triple growth rate. Most species can pull it off if you actively look for the right foods instead of eating whatever's in front of you.

Filled the wrong bar? Need to clear a macro to free up room for a better food source? Use a salt lick.

1. Find a Salt Lick on the map — small crystalline / rock chunk. You can sniff to home in on the nearest one.
2. Press Tab to open your status panel. The nutrient bars are on the right side.
3. Select the nutrient you want to drain. Then walk up to the salt lick and lick it (use the prompt the game gives you).
4. Keep licking until that bar is at the level you want — partial reduction or all the way to 0%.
5. Now eat the food you actually want for that slot. The bar refills with the new macro.

Salt licks are how you migrate from a low-tier diet to the 3-combo. They're unforgiving once you've fully filled the wrong bar without one nearby — plan your route around them.

Gastroliths are gravel-sized stones your dinosaur swallows. They drain your stomach temporarily while eating, which lets you cram more food in short-order — useful when you need to stack a fresh nutrient quickly without waiting for natural digestion.

• Where: gravel terrain — rocky shorelines, non-sandy lakes, river edges, mountain sides.
• How: use your sniff/forage ability to locate, then pick up the stone like any other foraged item.
• Why: emergency stomach-clear when you need to build diet bars fast (e.g. after a salt-lick clear, mid-migration).

The icons that flash near the edge of your HUD point at the closest non-diet food and water — things that’ll keep you from starving or dying of thirst but won’t fill your nutrient bars.

The PRIMARY diet icons (β / γ / α directly above your nutrient bars) point at your actual macro foods — those are what you want to hunt down, not the secondary survival icons.

Diet macros aren't just for the adult eating them. When you feed a juvenile from your nest (or a hatchling that joined your group), your diet transfers to them. A well-fed parent who's sitting on the 3-combo passes a 300% growth rate down to their kids — which is most of the reason high-end nests grow children to subadult fast.

See our Courting & Nesting guide for the rest of the nest system.