Cooking in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a vital mechanic for Link's survival and success across Hyrule, allowing him to restore health, replenish stamina, and gain temporary stat boosts.
Mastering the Culinary Arts of Hyrule
Understanding how to prepare meals and elixirs is crucial for Link's journey. From simple skewers to potent elixirs, cooked items provide significant advantages over raw ingredients.
Essential Steps to Cooking
The process of cooking in Breath of the Wild is straightforward, involving just a few key steps:
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Locate a Cooking Pot: Your adventure begins by finding a fire with a cooking pot positioned directly over it. These are commonly found at stables, in villages, within many shrines, and sometimes even at enemy camps after you've defeated their occupants. A cooking pot indicates a designated cooking spot.
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Gather Your Ingredients: Once at a cooking pot, open Link's inventory. From here, you can select up to five ingredients that you wish to combine. Choose carefully, as different combinations yield various results. Select an item and then choose the "Hold" option for each ingredient you want to use. You can mix fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, raw meats, fish, and even monster parts or critters.
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Initiate Cooking: After you've selected and are holding your desired ingredients (up to five), exit the inventory screen. Approach the cooking pot, and you will see a "Cook" prompt appear. Select this option to begin the cooking process.
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Reap the Rewards: A short, iconic animation will play as Link tosses the ingredients into the pot, indicating that the cooking has begun. Moments later, voila! Your newly cooked meal or elixir will appear, ready to be consumed or stored for later.
Understanding Ingredients and Their Effects
Ingredients in Breath of the Wild fall into several categories, each designed to provide specific benefits:
- Restorative Ingredients: These are primarily used to recover Link's health (e.g., apples, raw meat, mushrooms) or stamina (e.g., Stamella Shrooms, Staminoka Bass).
- Elemental Ingredients: Ingredients like Spicy Peppers (cold resistance), Warm Darners (heat resistance), or Chillshrooms (heat resistance) provide temporary elemental protections.
- Status-Boosting Ingredients: These offer temporary buffs to Link's abilities, such as Mighty Bananas (attack up), Fortified Pumpkins (defense up), or Sneaky River Snails (stealth up).
- Monster Parts & Critters: Used in conjunction with monster parts, critters like Sunset Fireflies (stealth) or Restless Crickets (stamina) create elixirs. Monster parts themselves have no inherent effects but are essential for elixir potency.
| Ingredient Type | Primary Effect(s) | Example Ingredients |
|---|---|---|
| Fruits & Veggies | Health, Stamina, Buffs | Apples, Carrots, Spicy Pepper, Mighty Bananas |
| Mushrooms | Health, Stamina, Buffs | Hylian Shroom, Stamella Shroom, Chillshroom |
| Raw Meats | Health, Stamina, Buffs | Raw Meat, Raw Prime Meat, Raw Gourmet Meat |
| Fish | Health, Stamina, Buffs | Hyrule Bass, Hearty Salmon, Armored Carp |
| Critters | Elixir Buffs (with monster parts) | Restless Cricket, Warm Darner, Sunset Firefly |
| Monster Parts | Elixir Potency (no solo effect) | Bokoblin Horn, Lizalfos Tail, Chuchu Jelly |
Tips for Effective Cooking
To maximize your cooking potential and create the best dishes for your adventures:
- Don't Mix Conflicting Effects: Avoid combining ingredients that grant different status effects (e.g., a "Mighty" ingredient with a "Sneaky" one). This will usually cancel out both effects, resulting in a basic healing dish.
- Focus on Single-Effect Buffs: For powerful temporary boosts (like attack up or defense up), use multiple ingredients that grant the same specific effect. For example, combining four Mighty Bananas with a Hylian Shroom will create a potent "Mighty" meal.
- Hearty Ingredients: Any ingredient with "Hearty" in its name (e.g., Hearty Radish, Hearty Salmon) will not only restore all of Link's health but also grant temporary bonus hearts. Only one "Hearty" ingredient is needed for this effect.
- Enduring Ingredients: Similar to "Hearty" items, "Enduring" ingredients (e.g., Endura Shroom, Endura Carrot) will fully restore Link's stamina wheel and provide temporary bonus stamina. One such ingredient is sufficient.
- Experimentation is Key: Don't be afraid to mix and match. The game encourages you to discover new recipes and effects.
- The Power of the Blood Moon: Cooking during a Blood Moon (which occurs nightly, but the effect on cooking is only during the actual Blood Moon cutscene) significantly increases the chance of a "critical success," resulting in meals with extra effects, higher potency, or longer duration.
- Add a Star Fragment: While rare, adding a Star Fragment to any meal or elixir guarantees a critical success, enhancing its properties.
Simple Recipes to Get Started
Here are a few basic recipes to help you begin your culinary journey:
- Hearty Mushroom Skewer: Combine one Hearty Radish with any mushroom (e.g., Hylian Shroom). This will fully restore your health and grant bonus hearts.
- Meat Skewer: Any combination of up to five raw meat pieces (e.g., Raw Meat, Raw Prime Meat) will yield a basic Meat Skewer, restoring health.
- Enduring Mushroom Skewer: Use an Endura Shroom with up to four other non-conflicting ingredients to fully restore stamina and provide extra stamina.
- Spicy Sautéed Peppers: Cook five Spicy Peppers together to create a dish that offers strong cold resistance, perfect for snowy regions.
Elixirs vs. Meals
It's important to distinguish between meals and elixirs:
- Meals are made primarily from food items (fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, mushrooms). They typically restore health and can provide buffs.
- Elixirs are created by combining at least one critter (e.g., frog, lizard, insect) with one or more monster parts. Elixirs do not restore health but are excellent for granting powerful and long-lasting status buffs.
Where to Find Cooking Spots
Cooking pots are vital and are scattered generously throughout Hyrule. You can typically find them at:
- Stables: Every stable across Hyrule has a cooking pot.
- Villages and Towns: Kakariko Village, Hateno Village, Zora's Domain, and other settlements often have public cooking pots.
- Shrines: Many Shrines of Trials include a cooking pot for Link to use.
- Enemy Camps: After defeating all enemies in a camp, you can often use their cooking pot.
By mastering the art of cooking, Link can transform raw ingredients into powerful tools, making his quest to save Hyrule much more manageable and enjoyable.
