Cooking & food buffs
Why the cooking pot is a progression system, when to eat, and how to stop running out of food halfway down.
Cook before you leave camp. Food is not just a hunger bar — cooked meals grant buffs, and public reports put the eat/drink rhythm at roughly every 10–20 minutes. Bring ingredients home, cook in batches, and use the meal timer if you lose track.
Why food is progression
The Steam page says it directly: “food is progress.” Over time you unlock recipes with different effects on your stats. That makes cooking a progression system, not a survival chore. A player who ignores cooking is effectively playing with a lower stat ceiling.
Public reviews describe meals that increase maximum HP and SP. Those buffs are the reason a prepared group can push a room that wiped them on the previous attempt. The meal is the upgrade you consume.
When to eat and drink
Public reports put hunger and water pressure at roughly every 10 to 20 minutes depending on diet. That is a wide range because different foods and routes change the pace. The practical rule: eat before a fight or a long descent, not when the bar is already flashing.
The 10–20 minute cadence and the max HP/SP buffs come from public Steam reviews, not an official stat sheet. Your mileage will vary with recipes, route length and co-op group size.
The cooking pot
The cooking pot is an interactive camp object; the official screenshot shows the prompt “COOKING POT — [E] Interact.” Set up your camp kitchen before a long expedition, not after you are already hungry. The campfire and pot are the two objects that turn raw ingredients into a plan.
What to carry
| Carry | Why |
|---|---|
| Finished meals | They are ready when you are; no pot needed mid-run |
| Water | The bar does not care that you found a great sword |
| One or two raw ingredients | Useful if you return to camp sooner than expected |
| Empty space | You will find something you want to bring back |
Do not fill every slot with raw food. Ingredients occupy the slots you need for tools and discoveries; cooked meals are the concentrated version.
Meal timing for a real run
- Before leaving camp: eat a cooked meal and drink water.
- Before a boss or a new area: eat again if the buff has expired.
- On the way back: do not save the last meal for an emergency that never comes; a safe return is the point.
- After returning: cook the next batch before you sort loot. The next run starts now.
Recipe discovery without spoilers
We do not publish a recipe database yet because the game is four days old and we have not verified a complete, current list. Inventing recipe names or exact buff values would be worse than saying nothing. What we can say is how the system works: gather ingredients, cook at the pot, unlock recipes over time, and read the effect text before you commit a run to a new meal.
If you want to help build a verified recipe list, the correction page is open. Send a screenshot and the patch number, not a memory.
Common cooking mistakes
- Cooking only when hungry. The buff is the point; eat before the fight, not during it.
- Hoarding ingredients. A raw ingredient in your pack is a meal you have not made.
- Ignoring water. Public reports mention both hunger and water; treat them as two clocks.
- No camp kitchen. If the pot is not set up, every expedition starts under-buffed.
- Forgetting in co-op. Cook for the group; one cook can buff three players.
Use the timer
The meal timer is a deliberately simple 10/15/20-minute countdown. It does not know your recipe or your route. It exists because the dungeon is good at making you forget your character needs to eat.