By Administrator The Importance of Food in ARK: Survival Evolved
Sustaining Life and Maintaining Health
In ARK: Survival Evolved, every action, every challenge, and every success is fueled by the calories you consume. Your character’s survival depends on a steady supply of food, and the quality of that food often dictates the quality of your survival. Hunger depletes your health, drains your stamina, and makes you more vulnerable to the dangers of the island. A well-fed survivor is a resilient survivor, better equipped to face the perils of the wild. Eating provides a continuous supply of health and stamina, ensuring your character can keep moving, keep fighting, and keep building.
Taming the Wild
Perhaps the most critical aspect of food in ARK is its role in taming the game’s diverse creatures. From the docile herbivores to the fearsome carnivores, the right foods are the ultimate tools for recruitment. Some creatures have preferred food items, and using them accelerates the taming process. This means less time spent waiting and more time riding on the back of a powerful companion. Taming is a cornerstone of the game, allowing players to build armies of creatures for resource gathering, base defense, and exploration.
Enhancing Capabilities
Certain foods, often crafted recipes, provide temporary buffs that dramatically improve your character’s performance. These can range from increased resistance to the elements to enhanced stamina recovery, and even boosts to strength and speed. These buffs can be the difference between life and death in a fight, making food a vital strategic element.
Essential Food Recipes
These are the foundation of every survivor’s diet, crucial for basic survival and the foundation of advanced culinary endeavors.
Raw Meat
The most basic source of sustenance, raw meat is obtained by harvesting it from various creatures. It is easy to acquire and essential for both early game survival and taming carnivorous creatures. To obtain it, simply find any creature and harvest it with a hatchet or pickaxe. When consumed raw, raw meat will not provide too much in the way of food, and it will provide a debuff to your health.
Crafting: Raw meat can be cooked in a campfire or industrial grill to become cooked meat.
Cooked Meat
A significant upgrade from raw meat, cooked meat offers more health benefits, reduces the risk of illness, and helps satisfy hunger more effectively. Cooked meat is crafted by placing raw meat in a campfire or industrial grill.
Crafting: Place the raw meat in the cooking device and light the fire.
Raw Prime Meat
Raw prime meat is a premium ingredient, harvested from alpha creatures and larger dinosaurs. It’s the preferred food of choice for taming carnivores. The availability of this resource is usually tied to higher level content.
How to Obtain: Requires you to defeat higher level carnivores.
Crafting: Must be cooked on a campfire or industrial grill to become cooked prime meat.
Cooked Prime Meat
The cooked version of raw prime meat.
How to Obtain: By cooking Raw Prime Meat in a campfire or industrial grill.
Purpose: Is used for taming higher level creatures.
Berries
Berries are ubiquitous and relatively easy to gather. Mejoberries are your staple, while other berries like Tintoberries and Amarberries have specific uses, particularly in crafting. They also provide a good source of hydration.
How to Obtain: Simply gather the berries from bushes.
Purpose: Provides hydration and sustenance and are key to crafting certain recipes.
Vegetables
Grown in crop plots, vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and citron are vital for certain kibble recipes, providing specific buffs, and taming certain herbivorous creatures.
How to Obtain: Plant the appropriate seeds in a crop plot and tend to them.
Purpose: Used in recipes and used to tame herbivorous creatures.
Advanced Food Recipes and Their Benefits
As your survival skills evolve, so too should your culinary repertoire. These recipes unlock powerful taming options and potent buffs.
Kibble
The pinnacle of ARK’s taming system, kibble drastically accelerates the taming process and increases effectiveness, meaning you can tame creatures faster and get better stats from them. The type of kibble a creature prefers depends on its species, so you’ll want to craft different types of kibble for each creature you’re hoping to tame.
Simple Kibble:
Ingredients: 10 Mejoberries, 1 Cooked Meat Jerky, 1 Small Egg, 2 Fiber, 1 Water
Preferred by many mid-tier creatures.
Regular Kibble:
Ingredients vary depending on the egg size.
Preferred by a wider range of creatures, usually for mid-tier creatures.
Exceptional Kibble:
Ingredients are more difficult to obtain.
Best used to tame high-level creatures.
Crafting: Kibble is crafted in a cooking pot.
Benefits: Faster taming speed and higher taming effectiveness.
Custom Consumables
These recipes offer specialized buffs tailored to various scenarios.
Lazarus Chowder: Restores health and stamina rapidly, and provides resistance to the cold. Perfect for exploring icy regions or recovering from a tough battle.
Enduro Stew: Significantly increases stamina recovery and provides a small boost to movement speed. Essential for running, jumping, and surviving intense combat encounters.
Shadow Steak Saute: Increases damage and melee damage, as well as provides some resistance to cold. This is great for boss battles.
Crafting: These items require advanced resources, and are crafted in cooking pots.
Benefits: Provides specific stats that will help with certain situations.
Farming and Resource Management
Building a successful kitchen is not just about knowing the recipes; it is also about having the ingredients available.
Establishing a Farm
Constructing crop plots is a cornerstone of your ARK base, permitting you to grow a sustainable supply of vegetables, seeds, and even certain berries. The layout of the plots, which fertilizer you use, and the specific crops you are growing all play a role in your ability to obtain resources to cook.
Setting up Irrigation
Ensure your crops flourish by connecting your crop plots to a source of water, either via pipes or by placing them near a body of water. Irrigation guarantees consistent harvests.
Resource Management
Managing your resources efficiently is key to consistently crafting the best food recipes. Always monitor your supplies and plan your crafting sessions to avoid running out of key ingredients. Make sure to have a good food storage system so that your base does not suffer food spoilage.
Tips and Tricks
Here are some additional strategies to streamline your cooking and maximize your culinary efficiency.
Efficient Cooking
- Cook in large batches to conserve fuel and time.
- Use a cooking pot or industrial grill for greater capacity and speed.
- Prioritize cooking essential foods first.
The Preserving Bin and Preserving Salt
To prevent food spoilage, utilize the preserving bin and preserving salt. This will drastically increase the shelf life of your cooked meats and kibble, ensuring that the food stays fresh and does not go to waste.
Industrial Grill and Cooking Pot Efficiency
The industrial grill is your best friend for high-volume cooking. It is fueled by gasoline and cooks very quickly, making it the perfect tool for preparing large quantities of food. The cooking pot offers more flexibility in terms of recipes.
Calculating Taming Effectiveness with Food
Knowing the food preferences of a creature and the amount of food needed for taming is critical to effective taming. Always bring a surplus of food. This information is crucial for successful taming.
In ARK: Survival Evolved, food is much more than just a way to stay alive; it is the backbone of your survival. Mastering the best food recipes is not just about crafting ingredients; it is about understanding the intricate relationship between sustenance, taming, and survival. This guide has given you the knowledge to conquer the island, from the most basic raw meats to the most potent kibble. Experiment with different recipes, explore the island’s diverse resources, and adapt to the ever-changing challenges that ARK throws your way. Now go forth, and become the ultimate culinary survivor!
