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Cooking in Undawn plays a key role in character development. Both the food consumed and even the level of the Chef profession directly affects the character’s attributes. In this small guide, I’ll teach you how to cook properly in Undawn.
Cooking Equipment
The simplest cooking station is a Grill, which can be created using a Construction Workbench.
In the future, you’ll also be able to cook food using Kitchens, which can also be crafted.
Another way to prepare food is through a Bonfire.
A Bonfire is created via the character’s crafting menu “O“, after which you must place it on the ground from your inventory.
How Recipes and Cooking Work
In the cooking station interface (whether it’s a kitchen or a grill), press the “View Recipes” button.
This section contains all recipes, including locked ones. Some recipes you can discover on your own by combining ingredients, some you’ll receive as rewards at certain stages of the game, and some can be bought from merchants.
In the main menu (Esc on PC), open the “Market“, and go to “Raven Shop” in the “Cooking Recipes” tab. As you can see, the recipes available here unlock as the character’s level increases.
To cook food from a recipe, you must press “Prepare Ingredients” in the recipe book in the grill or kitchen interface. If instead of this button the inscription “Lacking ingredients” is displayed, it means you lack the ingredients to prepare this dish.
Note that you do not need to carry the ingredients in your inventory. You can store them in your home’s storage (for example, in the refrigerator) and they will still be accessible to your kitchens and grills.
At the top of the recipe, you can see a list of the actual ingredients it requires. If the recipe requires something specific (like an Egg), it will be explicitly stated. If a general type of product is indicated (for example, “Fruits / Fungus“), it means that any Fungus and any Fruits will work for preparing the dish.
It is very important to remember that proportions of ingredients when cooking dishes in Undawn don’t matter unless they are explicitly specified. This means that the characteristics of the “Mushroom and Fruit Stir-Fry” dish made from 3 Fruits + 1 Fungus and 1 Fruits + 3 Fungus will be identical. This is significant since most dishes give the character a special effect for 10 minutes, and this effect is only available when the dish is made from 4 ingredients.
Thus, you can prepare more dishes by combining 1 hard-to-get (or limited) ingredient with 3 common ones (for example, using 1 Wild Berries + 3 Meat).
At the bottom of the recipe card, your current cooking mastery level (for example, “Rookie“) for the dish is indicated. The gauge represents the amount of the dish you need to prepare to increase your mastery level.
As your mastery level increases, you enhance the chances of cooking bonus dishes without expending resources. For instance, if you plan to cook 10 portions of a dish, you might end up with 11 or 12 portions. This effect is the result of advancing your mastery in preparing a specific dish.
Special Food Effects and Their Types
Most dishes in Undawn have special effects that begin to act on the character after consuming these specific dishes. Effects are displayed under the health bar in the main game interface, and you can read about them in more detail if you click on their icons.
To find out what bonus a particular dish gives, you need to click on its picture in the recipe book in the kitchen or grill interface. For example, Tomato and Egg Noodles increase the critical hit chance by 4.8%.
Several food effects can act on a character at the same time (I have not yet determined the exact number, but there are more than 5). These effects are grouped by interchangeability into several groups: “damage“, “survivability“, “gathering bonus“, and others. For instance, you can’t have “Armor Piercing“, “Damage“, and “Damage Against Zombies” bonuses at the same time because they will replace each other when consuming food. The same applies to defensive bonuses.
However, you can simultaneously have 1 bonus from different groups: for example, “Damage“, “Max HP“, “Acid Rain Resistance“, “Gathering Speed“, and “HP Restoration” (this effect, unlike the others, lasts only a few seconds).
That’s why it’s important to have a stock of ingredients and various food in Undawn for all occasions. I’ll try to help you with that.
Effects of food (table)
Before leaving the game, my friend Dejo created and handed me a convenient table of all the food effects available in the game. With its help, you can easily find the best food for boosting a particular character attribute (e.g., Armor Piercing).
Use the tabs as shown in the screenshot above to find the required type of food.
Grilled Fish Feast
After studying the perk associated with the “Chef” role, you will be able to prepare a Grilled Fish Feast. To do this, you will need to create and place it in your Homestead Oven (Construction Workbench → Furniture → Feature).
Grilled Fish Feast is a special type of food that will be available not only to you but also to all members of your group. When you use any type of Grilled Fish Feast, you set up a table with food. All members of your group can eat from it and receive a special buff for 30 minutes. The strength of the buff depends on the quality of the Feast itself.
The buff obtained from the Grilled Fish Feast does not replace any effects from regular food and can act alongside them.
The base ingredient for preparing the Feast is a rare fish that can be caught in the respective regions exclusively when using Unique Fish Bait (purchased at the Raven Shop → Ingredients for Silver; limit of 20 pieces per week). Before fishing, make sure your fishing rod level matches the region where you’re fishing. For example, if you plan to catch Lobsters on Aurich Island, you need a Fishing Rod of at least level 5.
An interesting feature of the Grilled Fish Feast is that you can sell this food to other players in the Trade section for Gold.
However, I must warn you that it’s not the best idea. It’s much wiser to use the Grilled Fish Feast to strengthen your team during evening PVP events. It’s best to coordinate with friends in advance and share Feasts with each other in turn.
How to Get Cooking Ingredients
Ingredients in Undawn are divided into several types: some can only be found in the open world (such as pumpkin, fish, meat, berries), some can be bought in the Raven Shop, and some must be grown yourself using farm plots at your base.
What Ingredients to Buy in the Store
At the moment, you can buy Meat, Egg, Flour, and Chili in the Raven Shop (Esc → Market → Raven Shop → Ingredients). A particularly valuable resource is Eggs, which are necessary for many useful recipes.
The store sets limits on the number of ingredients purchased per week, so I strongly recommend stocking up on Eggs. Eggs can also be found in the open world, but this is a rarity, and they are not displayed on the radar.
Ingredients from the Dining Hall (Camp)
After you join the Camp (Esc → Camp), open the “Buildings” tab and click on the “Dining Hall” building.
Next, go to the bottom tab (icon of a stall with a fork and knife) in the “Materials” section.
Here, you can purchase a limited quantity of various ingredients every day, including rare ones: Eggs, Pumpkins, Honey, Aloe Vera, and others.
How to Find Ingredients in the Open World
To find the necessary ingredient in the open world, you should open the map of any region and go to the tab with the plant icon. Resource icons will appear on the map. You will also see a list of resources that can be found in this region. However, they only indicate the approximate location of resources in the region.
The specific location of individual plants can be seen only on the mini-map in the upper right corner of the main game interface when you arrive at the location in person.
You can also use fish for cooking. To fish, you must create a Fishing Rod and bait through the character crafting menu (hotkey “O“).
Then approach the water, open the “Survive” panel (key “U“), go to the “Portable Tools” tab, and press “Fishing“.
The fishing mechanic is very simple: cast → bite → pull.
As you level up the “Angler” profession, you will have the opportunity for automatic fishing, which is very convenient.
How to Grow Food on a Farm Plot
Every player’s site has Farmland. The number of available plots increases as the Homestead level increases.
With Farmland, you can grow the ingredients you need. I, for instance, actively grow Romaine Lettuce, as this ingredient is needed for crafting Vegetable Stir-Fry (+34 to damage), the best food for damage at my current stage of the game.
Everything needed for farming can be bought in the “Supplies Shop“, which is accessible directly from the Farmland Management interface.
A more detailed farming guide is available by the link.
What Dishes Are Best for Beginners to Cook
Based on my gaming experience, I believe the following dishes are the best:
- Increase damage by a fixed value (for example, +30 to damage);
- Increase armor piercing;
- Increase damage to zombies by a certain percentage (relevant in the late game);
- Increase the chance of critical damage by a certain percentage;
- Increase maximum health;
- Rapid health regeneration (can be used as a first aid kit in battle);
- Increase gathering speed.
Some Good Spots with Key Resources
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Pumpkins can be found in the northern part of the Redwood Forest region.
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Tomatoes can be found in the western part of the Central Plains region.
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Bullfrogs. Bullfrogs can be found around the reservoir in the Central Plains region.
They are small frogs that appear on the shore in the evening and at night, and they make loud croaking sounds, so you can locate them by sound.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments. I will try to help as much as I know. Happy surviving!