Cooking in Breath of the Wild
Cooking is a game mechanic in Breath of the Wild, where Link can throw up to five pieces of material into a lit Cooking Pot to create a cooked dish. Different combinations of items result in different dishes with different effects, mostly centered around recovery and enhancing Link's capabilities.
The Basics
There are three types of cooking items: food, insects/lizards/frogs, and monster parts. Insects/lizards/frogs and monster parts must be cooked together in order to make something other than Dubious Food. There are two methods for preparing ingredients besides cooking: roasting and freezing.
Food ingredients such as meats and produce can be roasted by exposing them to an open flame (or by placing them down in the burning climate of the Eldin province). Roasted ingredients give 1.5× the healing of their raw counterparts. Meat ingredients can be frozen by exposing them to icy water or level 2 freezing climates such as in the Hebra Mountains. Freezing an ingredient does not improve its healing properties but does provide 1:00 of level 1 heat resistance. One of the advantages of roasting or freezing ingredients is that the resulting meals stack, taking up less inventory space than cooked meals. However, cooking one or more ingredients doubles the amount of hearts recovered when eaten and is the only way to obtain any special effects the ingredients provide. 116 different meals can be made, and each one can have varying stats and effects.
Some materials have special effects, which are noticeable in their name (e.g. an Electric Safflina will grant shock resistance when cooked, while a Swift Carrot grants higher movement speed). Note that Link will not gain an effect if an effect-giving food is eaten raw or roasted. Also note that if two or more foods that give different effects are cooked together, the resulting meal will give no effect. All non-clashing foods extend the duration of an effect.
Insects, lizards & frogs (such as Warm Darners, Fireproof Lizards and Hot-Footed Frogs), and monster parts (such as Bokoblin Guts and Lynel Hooves) can only be used in creating Elixirs. Insects, lizards or frogs must be combined with monster parts in order to create an elixir. A food ingredient can be added to an elixir with the same effect (e.g. adding a Sunshroom to a cold resistance elixir) to increase the potency of the elixir.
There are also a few other materials usable in meals that are not in any category, namely dragon parts, Fairies, Monster Extract, and Star Fragments, which all affect meals differently.
Effect Points
When making a meal to create an effect in Breath of the Wild, there is a threshold of "points" that Link must cross in order to get a certain effect tier. Both a table and a written explanation are provided below.
Effect | Point Threshold | Effect Tier |
---|---|---|
1 |
||
5 |
||
7 |
||
1 |
||
5 |
||
7 |
||
1 |
||
6 |
||
9 |
||
1 |
||
5 |
||
7 |
||
1 |
||
4 |
||
6 |
||
1 |
||
6 |
||
1 |
||
6 |
||
1 |
||
2 |
||
3 |
||
4 |
||
5 |
||
6 |
||
7 |
||
8 |
||
9 |
||
10 |
||
11 |
||
1 |
||
2 |
||
3 |
||
4 |
||
5 |
||
6 |
||
7 |
||
8 |
||
9 |
||
10 |
||
+1 per point. |
Effect | Points | Items |
---|---|---|
Mighty | 1 | Mighty Thistle |
2 | Mighty Bananas, Mighty Carp, Razorshroom, Razorclaw Crab | |
3 | Mighty Porgy | |
Tough | 1 | Armoranth |
2 | Armored Carp, Ironshroom, Fortified Pumpkin, Ironshell Crab | |
3 | Armored Porgy | |
Sneaky | 1 | Blue Nightshade, Sneaky River Snail |
2 | Silent Shroom, Stealthfin Trout | |
3 | Silent Princess | |
Hasty | 1 | Rushroom, Swift Carrot |
2 | Swift Violet, Fleet-Lotus Seeds | |
Electro | 1 | Electric Safflina, Voltfruit |
2 | Zapshroom | |
3 | Voltfin Trout | |
Spicy | 1 | Warm Safflina, Spicy Pepper |
2 | Sunshroom, Sizzlefin Trout | |
Chilly | 1 | Cool Safflina, Hydromelon |
2 | Chillshroom, Chillfin Trout | |
Fireproof | No food materials can be used to make Fireproof meals | |
Energizing | 1 | Stamella Shroom |
2 | Courser Bee Honey, Bright-Eyed Crab | |
4 | Staminoka Bass | |
Enduring | 0.5[1] | Endura Shroom |
2 | Endura Carrot | |
Hearty | 1 | Hearty Truffle |
2 | Hearty Bass | |
3 | Hearty Blueshell Snail, Hearty Radish | |
4 | Hearty Salmon, Hearty Durian, Big Hearty Truffle | |
5 | Big Hearty Radish |
- ↑ Rounds down (e.g. 5 Endura Shrooms would only give 2/5 of a wheel). However, if an Endura Shroom is the only enduring ingredient in the dish, it will always have a minimum of 1/5 of a wheel.
Explanation
Depending on the effect tier wanted in the dish, a certain amount of points are needed. The first table shows the threshold required to acquire different effect tiers. Different materials provide different amounts of points. The second table shows how many points each material grants for a specific effect. For example, if Link places four Armoranths into a cooking pot, the dish created will give a low-level Tough effect, because each Armoranth provides one point, and the threshold for a mid-level effect is 5 points. On the other hand, if Link makes a meal out of 3 Ironshrooms and an Armored Porgy, that meal will grant a high-level Tough effect because Ironshrooms are worth 2 points apiece and an Armored Porgy is worth 3 points. This totals to 9 points, which exceeds the 7-point threshold for a high-level Tough effect.
Notes
- Some effects in the second table only have two rows because you cannot create a level 3 effect.
Durations
Time added to effect | 0:30 | 0:40 | 0:50 | 1:00 | 1:20 | 1:30 | 2:00 | 2:30 | 3:30 | 10:30 | 30:00 | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Material | Dragon Claw[1] |
Dragon Fang[1] |
Dragon Horn[1] |
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Dragon Scale[1] |
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Wildberry[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 This material does not have an effect itself when cooked, it can be added to any recipe to increase the duration of its effect. Every additional of the same of these materials added, after the first, only adds 30 s to the duration.
Critical Effects
Every time Link cooks a meal, there is a flat 10% chance that a critical effect will affect the meal's properties (unless a modifier like Monster Extract or a Dragon Horn is used, or Dubious Food or Rock-Hard Food is cooked). There are 5 types of critical effects: +1 Temporary Heart, +1 effect tier, +5 minutes of duration, +2/5 of a Stamina Wheel, or +3 hearts. Each effect has an equal chance of happening, though only one can happen per meal. Also note that if an effect does not apply to the meal, it will be excluded as a possibility (e.g. a meal that gives a tough effect cannot have extra stamina or extra temporary hearts from a critical effect).
A critical effect can be guaranteed in two ways: cooking at certain times during the night of the Blood Moon, and using a dragon part or Star Fragment in the dish. Cooking from 11:30 PM to 12:30 AM (23:30 to 0:30) during a Blood Moon will always add a critical effect to the meal being prepared. Using a Star Fragment or any dragon part will also guarantee a critical effect to the dish.