Needs, health and retreat

Needs describe sustenance; energy describes the strength available for action.

Aqua resting, eating and drinking

Each species has its own primary need. Aqua require water, Magma warmth, Undead toxicity and Gloom darkness; all share a need for food. When a need that can be met falls far enough, an autonomous slime seeks a suitable source and usually stays until it has recovered a comfortable reserve.

Energy works differently. It is restored mainly by rest, not by a special resource. Movement, digging and heavy loads cost strength. Neglected primary needs hasten energy loss. Exhaustion slows a slime, but does not kill it directly.

Health

Damage reduces health. Outside combat it can recover, but that recovery depends on the energy remaining. A well-supplied resting slime therefore heals more reliably than an exhausted fugitive. Poison, sunlight and other environmental dangers follow their own paths to harm.

Why journeys end early

An autonomous task may give way to an urgent need. After a small fluctuation, however, the decision remains stable. Only real urgency, danger or a failed route demands a new choice. [H] shows the need bars, temporarily replacing the slime's usual status displays.

A forager turned back just short of a mushroom and settled by the water. Later it took the same path again.