Vigor and Food are the two budgets that limit a run, and both of them grow with how much of the dungeon map you have explored. UNDERDEEP vigor is your movement budget, Food is how many times you may enter the dungeon, and at 100% coverage of a dungeon you are holding 80 vigor and 8 food.

Underdeep vigor and food: what each budget pays for

  • Vigor is the movement budget for the run: each step you take costs vigor, and a full-coverage dungeon gives you 80 vigor, roughly 80 steps of movement.
  • Food is the number of runs you can make: each entry into the dungeon uses food, so food is what lets you come back and run the same route again.

A well-chosen 72-tile route fits inside 80 vigor with room to spare, which is why route design in this game is about reaching the good tiles in the fewest steps.

Coverage raises both budgets

Both budgets grow with the map you have uncovered:

  • At 100% coverage of a dungeon you hold 80 vigor and 8 food.
  • The ninth food arrives at 78% coverage, which extends the reachable range to 80 tiles and adds roughly an hour and a half to the maximum idle time.

The character panel shows the current Vigor and Food readouts, and the summary window at the bottom of the return screen tells you the coverage percentage at which the next increase comes - so the game always shows you the next goal. How coverage itself is measured is covered in the cartography guide.

Skills that add vigor and food

Skills can add to both budgets: +10 vigor and +1 food each. They are worth taking once your route is short enough that you are stopping on the budget rather than on the map, and the skills and Orbs guide has the full priority list for spending Orbs.

Why retracing tiles wastes a run

A run spent retracing tiles you have already seen is a wasted run, because it burns vigor without raising coverage. That is the main reason players ask for already-explored tiles to cost less vigor, and for the ability to cancel a directional move before it is charged. The intended loop is simply to keep revealing new tiles until the budget no longer improves.