Best Food Guide

Overview

In Crimson Desert, food is the only reliable way to restore health during combat. There are no healing potions in the traditional RPG sense. Instead, Kliff relies entirely on cooked meals, grilled ingredients, and purchased food items to stay alive. Stocking up before every boss encounter is not optional; it is a survival requirement. This guide covers every food item in the game, ranks the best options for different situations, and explains how to build a stockpile that keeps you fighting through even the toughest battles.

Patch 1.00.03 increased the health restored by all food and ingredients across the board, making every meal more effective than at launch. The values listed below reflect the post-patch numbers. The same patch also reduced the price of restorative items sold by Carl at Howling Hill Camp from 10 Silver to 1 Silver, and added new food items to the Hernand Tavern.

How Healing with Food Works

Food is consumed through the quick slot system. When you pick up or cook a food item for the first time, it automatically registers to an available quick slot. During combat, press Left on the D-Pad to eat a food item instantly. There is virtually no cooldown between eating, so you can consume food roughly every two seconds while dodging and fighting. This makes it possible to out-heal incoming damage during boss fights by keeping a large stock of food on hand.

There are three ways to recover health in Crimson Desert:

• Eating food: The primary and fastest method. Works during combat with minimal delay between uses.

• Passive regeneration: Health slowly regenerates while free-roaming outside of combat. Too slow to be useful during fights.

• Resting at camp: Sleeping or waiting at your Greymane Camp fully restores health. Only useful between encounters.

If your quick slot bar loses your food items (this can happen after cutscenes or fast travel), hold Right on the D-Pad and use the Left Stick to re-assign food to a quick slot.

Food Quality Tiers

Every food recipe in Crimson Desert has four quality tiers. Higher tiers restore more health and provide longer-lasting buffs, but require more ingredients per batch. The four tiers are:

To upgrade a recipe's tier, simply add more of the base ingredients when cooking. For example, base Grilled Meat uses 1 Meat, while Hearty Grilled Meat requires 10 Meat. In terms of raw healing-per-ingredient, cooking multiple base-tier portions is almost always more efficient than crafting a single Hearty version. Ten Grilled Meats restore 800 HP total for 10 Meat, while one Hearty Grilled Meat restores only 220 HP for the same 10 Meat. The higher-tier versions save inventory space but are far less resource-efficient.

Cooking Basics

There are multiple ways to cook food in Crimson Desert, and the method you use determines which recipes are available:

• Bonfires: Found throughout the world. Used for simple grilled food (Grilled Meat, Grilled Fish, etc.) and field grill recipes.

• Cooking stations (field grill): Available at your camp and in towns. Used for field grill recipes that require multiple ingredients.

• Cooking stations (field pot): Pot cooking stations are required for soups, porridges, and stews. Found at your camp and select town locations.

• Special pot: Unlocked at Greymane Camp. Required for Steamed Fish and the three feast recipes.

• Cauldrons: Used for beverages like Wine and for crafting Palmar Pills via alchemy.

Unlocking Recipes

You start the game with every simple grilled recipe already known. Field grill and field pot recipes must be discovered in one of three ways:

• Finding recipe books: Recipe books are scattered throughout the world in houses, castles, and quest locations. Interact with them to permanently learn the recipe. See All Recipe Locations for a complete guide.

• Improvising: Select the Improvise option at any cooking station and combine ingredients. If you use the correct ingredients in the right quantities, the dish will succeed and you will learn the recipe. Wrong combinations produce a mysterious dish with reduced healing.

• Repeating improvised recipes: Cook the same improvised recipe three times successfully, and it permanently unlocks in your recipe book.

Recipe Locations

Key recipes are found in the following locations:

Ingredient Sources

Meat

Meat is the most important cooking ingredient in the game. There are two reliable sources:

• Hunting: Ride through wooded areas like The Witchwoods and attack deer packs. Groups of 5+ deer are common, and each drops 3-4 pieces of meat. This is the most efficient free source.

• Meat vendor in Hernand: A green goblin woman on the southwest edge of Hernand sells Tough Meat (12 units), Lean Meat (10 units), and Fine Meat (9 units). Stock refreshes daily at midnight in-game or after resting 12 hours at a cooking pot.

• Pailune vendor: A second meat vendor becomes available in Pailune starting from Chapter 7.

Remember that meat quality does not matter for cooking. Tough Meat is the cheapest option and produces identical results to Marbled or Tender Meat.

Fish and Seafood

Fish can be caught through fishing at rivers, lakes, and the coast. Fish Fillet can substitute for whole fish in recipes at a 2:1 ratio. Northern Pike, needed for Steamed Fish, is found in specific freshwater locations.

Vegetables and Grains

• Lentils, Beans, Barley, Wheat, Peas: Interchangeable in recipes. Purchased from general merchants or gathered from farm fields.

• Onion (and substitutes): Onion, Flax, Cucumber, Turnip, and Beet are interchangeable. Found in farms and sold by vegetable merchants.

• Berries and Fruits: Gathered from bushes and trees throughout the world. Fruit trees can be chopped down to drop collectibles.

• Salt: Purchased from merchants. Used in several grill and pot recipes.

• Eggs: Found in bird nests or purchased from merchants. Required for battered recipes.

• Cooking Oil: Purchased from merchants. Required for all battered and pan-fried recipes.

Best Food Tier List

Not all food is created equal. Below is a ranking of the best food items based on their healing efficiency, ingredient accessibility, and bonus effects. All HP values shown are for the base tier unless noted otherwise.

S-Tier: Best Overall

A-Tier: Strong Choices

B-Tier: Reliable Mid-Game Options

C-Tier: Early Game and Emergency Food

Feasts: Special Meals

Feasts are the most powerful food items in the game. They do not restore HP directly but instead grant massive Spirit recovery and powerful temporary buffs. They are cooked in the special pot at Greymane Camp and require Boiled Meat as a component ingredient, which itself must be cooked first. Feasts are expensive to prepare but invaluable before the hardest boss fights.

The Tart Special Meal is generally the best feast choice for boss fights because the 3-minute Stamina Cost reduction lets you dodge and attack more aggressively during the no-Spirit-cost window and beyond.

Complete Field Pot Recipe List

Field pot recipes produce soups, porridges, and stews. They provide the highest HP restoration values along with Ice Resistance buffs. These require a cooking tool with a pot, which is available at your camp and at certain cooking stations in towns.

Lentils in any field pot recipe can be substituted with Beans, Barley, Wheat, or Peas. Onion can be replaced with Flax, Cucumber, Turnip, or Beet. Fish can be replaced with 2 Fish Fillet.

Special Pot Recipe

The special pot is unlocked at Greymane Camp and produces the highest-quality cooked meals in the game.

Steamed Fish is one of the strongest all-around food items because it restores both HP and Spirit while granting the highest Ice Resistance buff available from a single food item.

Complete Field Grill Recipe List

Field grill recipes are cooked at bonfires or cooking stations. They are generally faster to prepare than pot dishes and provide Fire Resistance buffs instead of Ice Resistance. Some field grill recipes require Cooking Oil.

Simple Grilled Food (Bonfire Cooking)

These items require no recipe and can be cooked at any bonfire or open flame from the start of the game. They use a single ingredient and have no special effects, but they form the backbone of your healing supply throughout the entire playthrough.

Meat quality (Tough, Lean, Fine, Tender, or Marbled) does not affect the outcome. All meat types produce the same Grilled Meat with the same HP restoration.

Best Food for Boss Fights

Boss fights in Crimson Desert are wars of attrition. You will take damage; the question is whether you have enough food to outlast the boss. Here is a recommended loadout for challenging encounters like world bosses and late-game story bosses:

• 30-50 Fishball Soup or Meat Soup for primary healing. These are your highest-HP food items and should be your first pick.

• 50-100 Grilled Meat as backup. Cheap to make and individually less valuable, but the sheer quantity makes up for it.

• 3-5 Palmar Pills for revival. Palmar Pills activate on death, reviving you with 30% HP. Enemies resume attacking immediately after revival, so be ready to dodge and eat.

• 1 Tart Special Meal as a pre-fight feast. The Stamina Cost reduction and Spirit recovery give you an edge at the start of the fight.

The total resource cost for this loadout is significant, but it will carry you through any encounter in the game. For the final boss and New Game Plus encounters, consider doubling your soup count.

Best Food for Exploration

While exploring the open world, you do not need the same volume of high-tier food as boss fights. Passive health regeneration handles minor damage over time. For exploration, prioritize:

• Grilled Meat (bulk): Keep 20-30 on hand at all times. Cheap, fast to cook, and effective enough for overworld combat.

• Meat Skewers: When you need both HP and Spirit recovery. Only costs 1 Meat and 1 Onion per serving.

• Clear Soup: Good HP with minimal ingredients. The Ice Resistance buff is a nice bonus in cold regions.

If you find yourself running low during exploration, look for animal groups in forested areas. Deer commonly travel in packs of 5 or more, and each one drops 3-4 pieces of meat. Cook them at the nearest bonfire for a quick restock.

Palmar Pills

Palmar Pills are not food but deserve mention in any healing guide. They are crafted at a cauldron through alchemy and automatically activate when you die, reviving Kliff with 30% HP. The recipe requires 2 Water and 15 Flowers (any medicinal herbs or basic flowers from the open world).

The Palmar Pill recipe is found in Shadow's Whisper Cave, located on the west shoreline of Three Saints Falls below Hernand's bridge spawn point. The formula sits on a book-covered table inside the cave. Always carry at least 3-5 Palmar Pills into boss fights. After revival, enemies immediately resume attacking, so be prepared to dodge and eat food to top off your health bar.

For a dedicated guide on farming Palmar Pills efficiently, see How to Get Palmar Pills Fast.

Other Healing Items

Carl at Howling Hill Camp sells restorative items that were reduced in price from 10 Silver to 1 Silver in Patch 1.00.03. These are a convenient source of healing early on before you have a full cooking setup. Additionally, after unlocking Greymane Camp and completing follower missions for Lonnie, you can visit daily to receive free Chewy Rice Cakes and Porridge that refresh each day.

Wine is a special consumable crafted at a cauldron using 2 Fruits, 1 Sugar, and 2 Water. It restores Stamina and grants Ice Resistance Lv 1 for 3 minutes. While not a healing item, it is useful for long exploration sessions in cold environments.

Food Selling Prices

All cooked food can be sold to merchants. Higher-tier food sells for more, but selling food is generally not recommended since it is far more valuable as healing. The table below shows base-tier sell prices for reference:

Tips and Tricks

• Cook in bulk before boss fights. Bring at least 30 soups and 50 grilled meats to any serious encounter. For the hardest bosses, double that count.

• Grilled Meat is always worth having. Even late in the game when you have access to Fishball Soup and Steamed Fish, bulk Grilled Meat remains the most ingredient-efficient healing source.

• Eating has virtually no cooldown. You can consume food roughly every 2 seconds during combat. Spam healing between dodges to stay alive through difficult attack patterns.

• There is no penalty for overeating. Kliff cannot gain weight or suffer any negative effects from consuming food. Eat as much as you need.

• Food auto-registers to quick slots. After Patch 1.00.03, any new food item acquired automatically populates an available quick slot on first pickup.

• Harvest ingredients while traveling. Pick up berries, vegetables, and flowers whenever you pass them. These resources accumulate quickly and reduce the cost of cooking advanced recipes.

• Improvise to discover new recipes. If you have the right ingredients but lack a recipe, the Improvise option at a cooking station can teach you new dishes. After three successful cooks, the recipe permanently unlocks.

• Visit Lonnie daily for free food. After completing Lonnie's follower missions at Greymane Camp, you can collect free Chewy Rice Cakes and Porridge every day.

• Meat quality is irrelevant. Tough Meat, the cheapest available variety, produces the exact same Grilled Meat as Fine or Tender Meat. Save your money.

• Pre-fight feasts are worth the cost. Before any major boss, cook a Tart Special Meal at the special pot. The Stamina Cost reduction alone can save your life.