Food

Most food is crafted by players in the Cooking and Herbalism profession, although some lower quality food is available to purchase from NPCs at inns. Food recipes can be purchased from vendors near inns, the market, Glory Vendors, or from player run stalls. Recipes can also be looted from NPCs and chests.

Food has 3 characteristics: Quality, Nourishment, and Digestibility. The effects of eating are seen in the stomach icon.

Being “fed” provides a buff based on your food quality. Being “hungry” removes the “fed” buff. And “starving” gives a debuff to health and stamina.

Most food is best eaten while hot, with bread being a notable exception.

Hot Food

Most foods are best eaten while hot. Food stays hot for 4 hours after cooking. After that, it cools and can be reheated, but it will have reduced quality and nourishment. Foods may only be reheated once, and upon cooling down from reheated will turn into fertilizer. Hot food may be sold at the market or in player stalls.

Cold Food

Cold food is food which was previously hot. It has a substantially lower quality than its hot counterpart. Cold food may be reheated with billets.

Reheated Food

Cold food can be reheated once, restoring part of its lost quality and nourishment. Reheated food stays warm for 2 hours and turns directly into fertilizer when it cools down.

Stomach

The stomach icon displays information about your nourishment and average food quality. The green stomach content represents how full you currently are. The horizontal line running across the lower third of the stomach represents the level at which you will become hungry.

Your stomach averages together the last few dozen things you’ve eaten and provides you with an average food quality. Eating a few low quality things can really affect your overall health, so eating well consistently is key to good health (and good buffs).

Hover the mouse over the stomach icon to get information on your current food quality and nourishment.

Food Quality

All foods have quality scores which range between 1.0 and 10.0. Foods consumed contribute to your stomach’s average food quality. Consuming higher quality foods leads to better overall health and stamina. Hot foods have a higher quality than cold or reheated foods.

Average Food Quality

Your stomach’s Average Food Quality is an average of the last few dozen things you have eaten.

Eating higher quality foods will result in a better Food Quality buff when at Fed status which can be seen in the upper left in the Status Bar. This buff improves health, stamina, health regeneration and stamina regeneration, so it is important to eat good food regularly to maintain a good Fed buff. Eating low quality food will significantly reduce your buff.

Nourishment

Nourishment is how full your stomach is. Each food provides a certain amount of nourishment. Higher quality foods provide more nourishment. There are three states of nourishment: Fed, Hungry, and Starving.

Fed

Fed is a buff received when total nourishment is above the hunger line. The strength of this buff depends on the overall food quality. It increases health, stamina, health regeneration and stamina regeneration. The Fed buff can range from 1.0 to 10. Eating good food consistently will increase this buff over time.

Hungry

Being hungry occurs when the nourishment level is below the hunger line, but the stomach is not totally empty. At this point the Fed buff is lost.

Starving

Starving is a debuff that reduces health and stamina by 10% when the stomach is entirely empty. Starving does not affect Average Food Quality.

Digestibility

Foods are either “easy to digest” or “hard to digest”. Eating too many hard to digest foods can result in Gout. Hard to digest foods are rich red meat meals such as Knight’s Chuck. Easy to digest foods include poultry and fish dishes such as Codfish Filet.

Gout

Gout is a debuff that occurs after the consumption of too many hard to digest meals. This debuff reduces the quality of all foods eaten by 3.0 for several hours. To avoid this debuff, eat “hard to digest” meals sparingly. There is no warning for Gout, so keep track of how many hard to digest meals are consumed in a row.

How to Cook Food

Food can be cooked at the Herbalist's Workshop within inns. Inns can be found at guild provinces, and inside the walls of major locations on the link system. Some simple foods can be prepared at campfires. See Cooking and Herbalism for more details on the profession.

Other Uses for Food

Cooked food fulfills needs in each location's Bastion which helps raise the Bastion's efficiency, and certain meals are required materials for upgrading Guardhouses. After food gets cold, it will eventually decay into Fertilizer, which is used to speed up the growth of crops. Bread can be disassembled into Bread Balls and used as a low quality fishing bait.

See also: Cooking and Herbalism | Forestry and Farming