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+# Needs Overhaul: Food, Thirst & Productivity Visibility
+
+**Date**: 2026-03-10
+**Status**: Approved
+
+## Overview
+
+Three related changes to the NPC needs system:
+1. Berry bushes as a gatherable food resource (replacing magic food POIs)
+2. Thirst as a new need consuming water items
+3. Productivity bar visible on the Status tab
+
+## Berry Bushes & Food Resource
+
+**Terrain feature:**
+- 3-5 clusters of 2-4 berry bushes placed during map generation (like stone/tree clusters)
+- Each bush is an obstacle tile with `resourceType: 'berries'` gather point
+- Placeholder visual (colored circle) until proper sprite is added
+
+**Depletion & regrowth:**
+- Each bush has `berryCount` starting at max capacity (5)
+- Gathering depletes 1 berry per gather action
+- When depleted (0), gathering fails — NPC moves to next bush
+- Regrowth: +1 berry every 200 ticks until back at max
+- Bush state persists across save/load
+
+**New seed item:** `berries` (category: `resource`)
+
+**Cleanup:** Remove food POI generation and food POI pathfinding entirely.
+
+## Thirst Need
+
+**Mechanics (mirrors hunger):**
+- Range: 0-100
+- Decay: 0.05/tick (same as hunger)
+- Constitution modifier: `1 - (CON - 10) * 0.03`
+- Half rate during sleep
+- Threshold: 30 — triggers `drink` goal
+- Stat penalties when low (same pattern as hunger in statModifierSystem)
+
+**Drinking:**
+- Consume 1 `water` item → gain +20 thirst
+- Check own inventory first, then pathfind to nearest stockpile with water
+- If no water anywhere, trigger desperate `forage` goal targeting water tiles
+
+**Wire protocol:** Add `thirst` to `Needs` interface in shared types.
+
+## Hunger Rework
+
+**Replace magic food POI recharge with item consumption:**
+- Consume 1 `berries` item → gain +20 hunger
+- Check own inventory first, then pathfind to nearest stockpile with berries
+- If no berries anywhere, trigger desperate `forage` goal targeting berry bushes
+
+**Remove:** Food POI pathfinding, free hunger recharge, `food` POI type.
+
+## Desperate Forage Goal
+
+When an NPC is hungry/thirsty but has no items and stockpiles are empty:
+- New goal: `forage` — survival-priority gathering
+- Pathfind to nearest berry bush (if hungry) or water tile (if thirsty)
+- Gather then immediately consume
+- Ignores productivity threshold — this is survival
+- If both hungry and thirsty, prioritize whichever is lower
+
+**Updated priority order:**
+1. Sleep (energy < threshold or nighttime)
+2. Eat (hunger < 30, has berries available)
+3. Drink (thirst < 30, has water available)
+4. Forage (hunger < 30 OR thirst < 30, no items available)
+5. Dropoff (at carry capacity)
+6. Gather (productivity < 40)
+7. Wander (default)
+
+## Status Tab UI
+
+**Four bars on the NPC info panel Status tab:**
+1. Hunger
+2. Thirst
+3. Energy
+4. Productivity
+
+All use same color scheme: green (>60), yellow (30-60), red (<30).
+
+## Configuration
+
+New tuning values (externalized for future admin UI):
+
+| Key | Value | Description |
+|-----|-------|-------------|
+| `berryBushMaxCount` | 5 | Berries per bush at full capacity |
+| `berryRegrowthTicks` | 200 | Ticks per berry regrown |
+| `berryBushClusters` | [3, 5] | Min/max clusters on map |
+| `berryBushClusterSize` | [2, 4] | Min/max bushes per cluster |
+| `thirstDecayPerTick` | 0.05 | Thirst decay rate |
+| `thirstThreshold` | 30 | Thirst crisis threshold |
+| `drinkRecovery` | 20 | Thirst gained per water consumed |
+| `eatRecovery` | 20 | Hunger gained per berry consumed |
+
+## Systems Touched
+
+- `shared/src/types.ts` — add `thirst` to Needs, add `drink`/`forage` goal types
+- `shared/src/constants.ts` — thirst defaults
+- `server/src/map/mapGenerator.ts` — berry bush clusters, remove food POIs
+- `server/src/systems/needsDecaySystem.ts` — thirst decay
+- `server/src/systems/npcBrainSystem.ts` — drink/forage goals, consumption logic
+- `server/src/systems/statModifierSystem.ts` — thirst stat penalties
+- `server/src/systems/gatheringSystem.ts` — berry depletion, regrowth tick
+- `server/src/industry/itemRegistry.ts` — berries seed item
+- `server/src/config/` — new tuning values
+- `server/src/persistence/` — berry bush state save/load
+- `client/src/ui/NpcInfoPanel.ts` — thirst + productivity bars
+
+## Out of Scope
+
+- Farming, fishing, hunting systems
+- Invention-to-action bridge (inventions unlocking new behavior types)
+- Berry bush sprite (placeholder for now)