Cooking is an essential mechanic that involves combining two ingredients in a Cooking Pot to create cooked food items with combined, improved and exclusive buffs.
Each ingredient has hidden effects used to determine the final result. These effects are different from the ingredient's effects when eaten individually, and are not shown in-game. A technical explanation on how the game calculates the final effects can be found below.
The resulting food item will be of a given type (such as a wrap, salad or soup) and will have a prefix attached to it (such as "Mushy", "Giant" or "Spicy") based on its ingredients. The type of food item is based on which ingredient is considered the primary one; golden or legendary ingredients will always be primary. If both ingredients are golden or legendary (or neither are), then it is randomized based on the combination.
The game also alters how the food items are displayed through a shader; the food item will be a mix between the colors of its ingredients.
There are a total of 74 cooking ingredients in the game (Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[". including unobtainable ingredients). This means that there are Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[". possible food combinations (Expression error: Unexpected < operator. including unobtainable ingredients).
+21 food +17.7 health every sec for 20 sec +7% critical hit chance for 10 min +8.5% melee and range attack speed for 10 min +100 max health (only once)
The game uses the following steps to calculate the final effects:
If the player has the Utilizing every nutrient talent, increase the food value of the food item and both ingredients by 5-25%, plus an additional 5-25% (additive) for plant ingredients if the player has the Eat your vegetables! talent, and round.[1]
If the resulting food item is rare or epic, increase the values of all non-permanent effects by 25% or 50%, respectively, plus an additional 15% (multiplicative) if both ingredients are golden or legendary, and round.[1]
Note that the Shiny Larva Meat is not considered a golden ingredient.
Combine the effects of the food item and both ingredients. For duplicate effects, only the one with the highest value is used, except for permanent max health boosts, which are additive.
If either ingredient is a fish, and the player has the Power of Omega-3! talent, add 3-15% damage against bosses for 60 seconds.
If the player has the Fast food talent, add 1-5% melee attack speed for 30 seconds.
If the player has the Long-lasting food talent, increase the durations of all effects by 6-30%, and round.[1]
Note that this is applied retroactively, meaning the player can change their talents (or give the food item to another player) and its effects will adjust accordingly.
Examples
Cooking a Heart Berry and Rock Jaw will produce the following food item. Used effects are highlighted in green.
+60 food +38.7% movement speed for 1 min +17.4 health every sec for 20 sec +12.8% melee attack speed for 10 min +14% less food drained when running for 10 min
Extremely overpowered, healing a player from 1 to over 350 health within 20 seconds. With the Expert gardener skill at maximum, this is the best option for a full stat restore.
+ 79 (94) food + 15.1 (18.2) health every sec for 20 sec + 12% (15%) less food drained when running for 10 min + 31% (38%) more healing from health over time regeneration
Very good health food, fills up hunger and health quickly and also buffs both its own health regeneration and every next health food/health potion you consume
+ 91 (109) food + 25.4 (30.5) health every sec for 20 sec + 14% (17%) less food drained when running + 10% (12%) critical hit chance + 12.2% (14.7%) melee and ranged attack speed
The ultimate health food! If you have enough Starlight Nautilus at hand, there is no alternative to this one.
Watch out to not overwrite your other buff food effects with the extra effects this foods comes with or use it as the only food for melee and ranged builds
(gives medium strength buffs to all relevant stats).
+43 (52) food +9 (10) blue glow for 10 min +6 (7) glow for 10 min +36 (43) max mana for 10 min +62.2% (74.4%) magic damage for 10 min +70 (85) magic barrier for 10 min +3.3 (4.0) mana every sec for 10 min
+40 (48) food +8.2 (9.9) health every sec for 40 sec +5 (6) blue glow for 10 min +49.4% (59.2%) minion damage for 10 min +69.0% (82.8%) minion attack speed for 10 min +15% (18%) minion critical hit chance for 10 min
One of the best Buff Foods for Summoner builds (eat this first)
+30 (36) food +9 (10) blue glow for 10 min +56.8% (68.1%) minion damage for 10 min +79.4% (95.2%) minion attack speed for 10 min +36 (43) max mana for 10 min +3.3 (4.0) mana every sec for 10 min
One of the best Buff Foods for Summoner builds (eat this second)
Selling
(This addition is from someone who is not good at editing these pages, but here's the info for whoever wants to put it in correctly)
Trivia
Unused adjectives/nouns for golden ingredients can be found in the game's files: