Cooking is one of the most essential aspects of Tears of the Kingdom. Learning how to use the cooking system allows for players to become more suitable for the plights of Hyrule! This system was carried over from its previous title, Breath of the Wild, and expanded upon. Collecting as many ingredients as possible will help you survive the meant dangers of Hyrule! There is a way to subvert all those status effects and hazards if you use the right food or elixir. When you prepare properly, you will be able to overcome any obstacle that comes your way. A well-crafted item can make all the difference between failure and success in a project.
Various environments will require the proper clothing and items in order to traverse through them. Unfortunately, starting out, there’s often no way to acquire these items before the area strikes leading the player to struggle. Through exploring and finding the items typically in these areas, you are slowly able to master them. Until this point though, cooking food and elixirs will provide the most sustainable method of long-term survival. Similarly, tough opponents can be beaten with a defense or attack boost or even resistance to an element. Every aspect of effects in Tears of the Kingdom can be replicated through cooking, making it one of the most valuable abilities!
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Cooking Advantages
The importance of cooking comes from the need to constantly deal with the nature of Hyrule. From gloom to freezing cold, heat, and lightning; there are some trifling events following the rise of the demon king. By making a wide variety of food and elixirs whenever possible, you can remain prepared against difficult foes. Finally, if using the food is not your favorite premise, selling high-quality food can make a player rich very quickly. Tears of the Kingdom grants the player a wide variety of bonuses and advantages with this cooking mechanic!
The Basics
When dealing with the cooking system in Tears of the Kingdom, there are a few essential components required. Firstly you will need a cooking pot, secondly a heat source, and thirdly ingredients. By placing the ingredients into the pot with various combinations you can yield different foods. The higher quality of ingredients used, the better the food produced becomes. It’s important to note that the more you cook a certain recipe, the more chances you’ll have to upgrade that recipe with added effects!
Cooking Pots
Perhaps the most important part of cooking, these pots come in two distinct varieties. There are stationary cooking pots that can be found in camps and towns. As long as you have a heat source, these pots can be used forever. Sometimes, however, they require a heat source. It is possible to get an instant cooking pot as one of the devices you can get! An easy-to-transport, single-use pot with a flame source that can be used anywhere. Cooking pots are a great means of producing food and elixirs, acting as the more refined method of the system. It’s always a good idea to keep a large supply of instant cooking pots on your person, in case of emergencies.
Cookpot
Heat Source
There are multiple methods of providing a heat source to a dormant cook pot. One of the most effective is to place a piece of flint near it and strike it with an arrow. The second, and perhaps more fun method is to use a ruby weapon on it. Lastly, any form of fire-bearing item like fire fruit makes a perfect fire starter when shot under the cooking pot. One of the most important aspects of fire is that you can do rudimentary cooking without a cooking pot by placing items in the fire. This will create a baked item that is slightly more effective than its raw state. It’s important to note that instant cooking pots come with their own heat source, and don’t require Link to provide a means. Lastly, most cities and camps with inhabitants will have an active cooking pot as it’s a means of survival for everyone.
Ingredients
Lastly, the cooking system will require ingredients for you to cook. Tears of the Kingdom offers a wide variety of ingredients that have been expanded upon since Breath of the Wild. One of the most important things that they’ve added is the creation of some modern dishes that are not only powerful but comical at best. From french fries to pizza, Link has the power to create an entire menu of useful foods. Each ingredient has a special effect or purpose that can be explored in hundreds of combinations. Just keep in mind that as you mix ingredients, some will go together and some will not. Generally speaking, keep an air of common sense when mixing flavors and you’ll create some good choices!
Elixirs
While food is a great way to build back health and add a status effect it’s not good to eat every effect needed. The creation of elixirs through mixing enemy components and food will create potions that have a singular effect. These elixirs are great at conserving your higher-quality food while also granting Link a necessary effect. These are included in the cookbook, but act differently from basic food, being a watered-down version of cooking. Making elixirs is done in a similar fashion to cooking food, but uses monster components.
Cookbook
Recipes and Cookbook
If players are having a difficult time remembering which foods go together they have access to a cookbook in the map menu! Recipes are a great way of mixing your goods for the maximum effects from your ingredients. The cookbook is filled with useful recipes you can unlock over time to resist the creation of dubious food. Obviously, the higher quality and rarer the ingredients, the more potent recipes you can unlock. For this reason, it’s important to spend as much time foraging for resources as possible. From gathering rice and milk to keeping a firm amount of meat and spices everything can lead to a new recipe!
Cooking Mastery
The more of a recipe you craft, the more mastery towards it you’ll receive. Tears of the Kingdom allows a player to maximize their favorite cooking recipes. After a couple dozen times creating the desired recipe, it will typically have an extended status effects time, or more health. This is an important aspect to increase the later in the game you are. As Link gains more health, and has more complex situations these masteries can keep cooking fresh and effective! Fortunately, with how effective some of the basic recipes are, this can be subverted for more high-quality cooking.
Ingredient Types
When it comes to the ingredient types in Tears of the Kingdom, there are three basic categories. The first major category is those that affect basic health stats. The second type is direct boosts to certain aspects of the game. Finally, there are elemental resistance types that come in the form of various status types. Typically these ingredient types are straightforward, and assist your cooking by adding short-term or long-duration abilities. Finally, there are basic crafting ingredients that purely heal health without attempting to add anything neat to Links gameplay.
Large Ingredient Storage
Basic Health Returns
Ingredients like meat, basic mushrooms, and apples are some of the most common health ingredients. All of these are dedicated to purely returning lost hearts when damage is taken. It’s important to utilize these items in combination with status effects holding ingredients to maximize cooking effects! On their own, five pieces of meat can return fifteen hearts as a basic cooking recipe. While they aren’t the most interesting, a firm stock of these can help in a pinch, especially during a boss fight!
General Bonuses
The standard bonus effects able to be found in Tears of the Kingdom generally affect basic statuses. Adding health or temporary hearts, restoring stamina, or increasing movement speed! Hearty ingredients are incredibly potent for returning health and gaining additional hearts. They are hard to find, but definitely useful. Energizing and Enduring ingredients are potent for stamina bonuses. The first restores lost stamina while the second adds temporary stamina bonuses. Finally, hasty is good for increasing the general movement speed of Link. These general bonuses are important, however, aren’t as potent as elemental or combat bonuses.
| Ingredient Type | Health Gained | Rarity | Ingredient Quality | General Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fish and Meat | 3-4 hearts | Common | Good | Fish and Animals |
| Mushrooms | 5-8 hearts | Common | Excellent | Caves and forests |
| Apples | 2 hearts | Common | Okay | Trees |
| Rice | 3 hearts | Rare | Excellent | Grassy fields of East Necluda |
Sunny food can heal gloom damage
Combat Bonuses
There are three major combat bonuses that can be added to Link’s abilities through cooking. The most important of the three will be defense and attack bonuses. Mighty ingredients are good for adding an attack advantage, while Tough ingredients are potent for adding defense. These two are able to create easier boss fights, it gives Link a fair amount of wiggle room in otherwise tight situations. Finally, Sneaky ingredients are key to escaping your enemies through averting detection. While increasing your sneakiness, you can avoid combat easier, or engage with a good surprise attack!
| Ingredient Type | Common Variants | Effects Gained | Standard Duration | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mighty | Mushrooms, meat, truffles, insects | Attack Bonus | 4:30 minutes | Rare |
| Tough | Mushrooms, nuts, truffles, insects | Defense Bonus | 4:30 minutes | Rare |
| Sneaky | Mushrooms, insects | Stealth Bonus | 3:30 minutes | Common |
Elemental Bonuses
While elemental effects are one the most potent dangers in Tears of the Kingdom, cooking can make them super simple to deal with. Each of the main status effects generally holds at least one method of escaping their grasp. Fireproof ingredients are great for fire resistance, while chilly ingredients provide heat resistance. Spicy ingredients are an essential means of protecting Link from cold effects. From the earliest part of the game, these spicy ingredients are quintessential to the tutorial. Finally, electro ingredients are good for escaping the effects of lightning and electricity. All of these elemental Bonuses are potent for the more deadly enemies, providing key resistances.
An Elixir made in TOTK
| Ingredient Type | Common Variants | Effects Gained | Standard Duration | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fireproof | Fruit, insects | Fire Resistance | 5 minutes | common |
| Chilly | Fruit, mushrooms, insects | Heat Resistance | 5 minutes | uncommon |
| Spicy | Peppers, Fruit, insects | Cold Resistance | 5 minutes | common |
| Electro | Fruit, insects | Shock Resistance | 2:30 minutes | rare |
Unique Bonuses
There are some special bonuses for certain environments that can help with traversal. Some ingredients are great at dealing with slipperiness during a rainstorm, while others help with your swim speed. Finally, there’s the ability to add a brightness effect for traveling around the gloom. These are essential for moving around more hostile environments that could kill Link easily. There are far more abilities in Tears of the Kingdom than there are in its predecessor, making for hundreds of unique combinations!
| Ingredient Type | Common Variants | Effects Gained | Standard Duration | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Splash | Fruit, insects | Swim Speed Bonus | 3 minutes | Common |
| Bright | Mushrooms, fruit, flowers | Light Aura | 7 minutes | Common |
| Sundipped | Herbs, flowers | Cures Gloom | Instant | Rare |
-source Zeltik
Limitations
Though the crafting system for cooking has quite a few bonuses, they all have a time limit. Even the best ingredients will have a limited amount of time and the effect will be potent. This requires the player to craft as many recipes as they can due to the fact they are one-time use. In situations where you can’t find a cooking pot or fire, there’s absolutely no way for Link to cook. All of these limitations can be furthered by the fact only one status effect can be active at a time. This means that Link has to pick and choose which foods and elixirs they use at a time to maximize their effectiveness. Due to these limitations, it’s important to use a level of strategy when consuming goods in Tears of the Kingdom.
Food Quality
One of the important factors of the cooking mechanic is the quality of the ingredients used. The more of something you apply to a recipe, the higher quality it will become. This quality difference can mean more status effect time or more hearts returned from consuming it. The worst quality food will be called dubious food, this is worth very little and is generally a waste of ingredients. The importance of following a recipe is especially prevalent during food quality. The more ingredients added to the basic recipes will result in higher quality food, making it worth more. This creates a sense of mastering the patterns and exemplifying them into higher grade effects.
The Power of Cooking
While crafting and cooking is an essential parts of most open-world adventures, Tears of the Kingdom takes it to the next level. The sheer need for cooking becomes apparent as you traverse through the world at large. No matter how you play, there’s a recipe and elixir out there for you to increase your potency! The sky’s the limit when it comes to the food choices you create, so keep crafting. Your imagination and cookbook will keep you fresh and prepared no matter what you’re up against!
