How are you guys using food?

[Kirkibost]

Do you quick slot it and use it as a emergency buff or do you use it as part of a campsite to set you up before entering a new area.

 

Just interested to know how others use it.

[sparklecat]

Mostly I am not.  Keeping ingredients to cook things in case I need stat boosts for conversations.  I really wish I could boost my resolve without dragon eggs/meat.

[Kiya]

I have it in quickslots - scout and have my party eat if necessary when I know there is a big fight round the corner.

[dreamrider]

I scout carefully (ALL the time in non-city areas - and it doesn't hurt at night in town, too). 

Then I have a good chow down outside the contact area right before walking (sneaking) into a fight.

 

REALLY, really important (undocumented) game mechanic point. 

You can feed your character by dragging foods directly from your Inventory to the central picture on the Inventory screen. 

So it is NOT necessary to ever put foods in Quick Slots, unless you anticipate needing to re-buff with some food item (Ale?) during combat.

You can even drag food items from your STASH to your character image to consume them in some environs, like Inns.   This may work anywhere although I have not satisfactorily proven to myself that it works in wilderness and dungeons. 

(If it DoES work everywhere, food items are cheap enough to stock up at every opportunity, and use them virtually all the time.)

 

If you choose your foods carefully, and keep a stock of the key dishes in Inventory, food can have some major buff effects.

 

300 sec foods last long enough for a nice buff across the critical portion of almost any combat confrontation.  (5 minutes of playtime.) 

 

150 sec foods are less useful, but certain items are occasionally worth it for the opening rounds if they give a higher buff than longer duration foods, or if they give a unique buff.

The #1 example is taking a drink of both Ale and Beer to wash down the pre-combat snack - Ale for an opening 150 sec of +2DR, and Beer to sustain a +1 DR through 300 sec.  (Note that the Ale +2 DR will suppress the Beer effect until the Ale wears off.)

 

If you are using food dishes at all, there is no need to consider the + Endurance buff in your choice of foods. 

- If you have any dragon foods, you ARE going to save them/ use them for the toughest fights, because all of the Dragon dish buffs are so excellent.  Dragon dishes are the only foods that buff Endurance for more than +10.

- If you aren't using the Dragon dishes, then there are so many dishes that provide (mutually exclusive) + 10 Endurance that you are essentially guaranteed to be gnoshing one of them for other reasons.  Don't worry about this stat. 

- The one food that everyone should always carry and always eat whenever you think of it is Cheese.  This takes care of your +10 Endurance buff for 600 sec = 10 min, and its the cheapest food there is!

 

For other ability buffs, I focus on keeping an Inventory supply of these foods:

- Farmer's Spread -                             +2 Might, and +1 Move Speed               300 sec

 (Duc's Own Beefloaf is an alternate - +2 Might, w/o the Move buff                   300 sec, and Beefloaf is more common in the early game.)

- Pearlwood Chicken -                         +2 Constitution                                       300 sec

- Rauatai Sweet Pie -                          +2 Dexterity                                            300 sec

- Casita Casserole -                             +2 Intellect                                             300 sec

- Mead or Beer -                                  +1 DR                                                     300 sec

- Ale -                                                   +2 DR                                                     150 sec

 

(I forget what Spirits do, but I know I DO use them to buff occasionally.  Sorry, don't have any on hand to check right now.  I know I don't usually buy them, but I keep and use what I find.)

 

Several of the 150 sec foods give a +1 buff to Perception.  Its about the only area where they have any advantage at all over the appropriate 300 sec foods.

Darkest Rauatai Cookies MAY be worth considering occasionally because they also give +2 Dex, and +5 Max Health; but the +2 Dex does NOT stack with the equal but longer Dex buff from R. Sweet Pie, and I haven't been able to figure out how 150 sec of extra MAX Health ever helps the character.  (If someone has an insight on this, please post.)

 

However, for most pre-combat situations, there are a couple of DRUG options that, in my opinion, beat out 150 sec foods Perception boost well enough that it is basically never worth bothering with the 150 sec food items, even after allowing for the drugs after effects:

- Blascon -                                            +2 Perception                                          600 sec     Also +20% Focus gain (Chanters); and -2 Might, +50 Fatigue for 300 sec after effect.

- Carow Colan                                      +2 Perception, +2 Dexterity, -2 Intellect   600 sec     Also +4 Focus immediately (Chanters); and +4 Fatigue, -10 Might for 300 sec after.

 

Be SURE to lie low during the after affect period, if you can.

 

Of the other drugs:

 

Goldrot Chew - occasionally useful, if you've gotten in a situation when you are desperately fatigued, and still either combat-locked preventing resting, or can't afford the time to rest due to a travel deadline.  But mostly not.  Keep a couple around.

 

Whiteleaf & Snowcaps - If faced with a known battle of Will effects, potentially very important; otherwise not worth the negatives.

 

Ripple Sponge & Svef - Honestly, I don't think these are ever worth the risks and negatives.  Sell them off.  Have a Cheese snack instead.

[Nakia]

I probably don't use it as much as I should but do keep some in at least one slot to boost endurance.  Otherwise I have it in inventory to use to boost stats.

[Fardragon]

I don't use it, it's boring.

[Starwars]

Mostly I keep around a few varios food items and eat them prior to the tougher encounters.

[Luckmann]

I keep most food around, and just eat it before tough encounters, sometimes some of the more long-lasting stuff just as a little buff in a dungeon if I feel like it.

 

The way my entire party binges before a big fight can't be healthy.

Edited July 12, 2015 by Luckmann

[wanderon]

At this point I am still mostly ignoring food - could change but maybe not I rarely ever used anything other than health potions in IE games - I hoarded all the others though - had a couple barrels full in front of the Elf Song at games end. 

[Killyox]

I'm not. Too annoying and I don't really need it. Playing Hard for fun but 99% of the time I don't use any food or potions. I can go for hours playing without the need to rest my party XD.

 

If they made food buffs last until next rest I would be willing to use more of it (and it would actually reward playing with limited resting too)

Edited July 12, 2015 by Killyox

[Arkh`Cthuul]

I DO.

 

Rarely, aside from the (mostly purely RP-reason) Drinking of Eder and some others, but I could do without.

They simply do not last long enough to be worth the effort (cant use them in a pinch, and rarely you know ahead of a figght that you`ll need them).

 

So yeah...not the most exciting or welld esigned "foodstuff" I must say. ^^

[Lysen]

I love cooking and eating it, and those descriptions always get me hungry. Although, since I am playing on normal, food and potions are mostly useless. I could easily do without them.

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

 

All my characters roll with Beer/Mead/Ale whatever I find. I always buy it when I see it. I always keep it on a quick slot. Every swafts it down before a battle. It's like having exceptional & superior armor on all characters, a whole tier earlier. But every bit adds up over the game and it really is useful stuff.

 

The other dishes I use are mostly crafted/cooked, I rarely buy dishes, and I focus on keeping a few that have stat buffs that I know I want (like +2 might, +intellect, etc, good for fights, and good for conversations or dialogue options on the fly).

 

Very best,

[Monkeycomandoe]

Yeah I mostly use food for larger boss battles or when encountering a large group of enemies. HOWEVER I never have supplies to cook, I probably ought to by some. Does anyone think it's worth the copper to buy ingredients? 

[Nakia]

Except for dragon meat and eggs food ingredients do not cost much and making food doesn't cost anything.    Food can be used to boost stats for dialogue options as well as for combat.  I find food useful but not mandatory.

[MalVeauX]

Yeah I mostly use food for larger boss battles or when encountering a large group of enemies. HOWEVER I never have supplies to cook, I probably ought to by some. Does anyone think it's worth the copper to buy ingredients? 

 

Heya,

 

I've yet to play the game and run out of copper. I'm always having like 80k copper mid to late game with the Stronghold and selling almost all loot.

 

Buying a few hundred copper of ingredients, total through the game, is worth it.

 

Very best,

[MunoValente]

I really only use it for the toughest fights, otherwise the game is easy enough and the effects small enough, that it's not worth the effort most of the time.

[anameforobsidian]

If you play with conversation tags on, food is really good for getting past some checks.  I did use it for hard battles frequently on my triple crown solo.

[gkathellar]

Insert obligatory "I stick it in my mouth, and then chew it" troll response here.

[Sedrefilos]

I choose the ingredients that I want my food to be consisted of. I prepare them and cook them in the way I'm most in the mood at the time. Then I put them on a plate and slowly eat them using my mouth. I sit or lay somewere afterwards. After some time, my body has absorbed what is useful for it; I go to the toilet and dump the rest.

 

Yeah, not funny. Had some time to write something in the forums so...

 

Anyway, my quickslots were mostly used up by potions and stuff so I consumed the food from my inventory before entering a place that looked dangerous.

[Luckmann]

How are you guys using food?

Mostly, I stick it in my mouth, and then I chew it.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Luckmann

[dreamrider]

Yeah I mostly use food for larger boss battles or when encountering a large group of enemies. HOWEVER I never have supplies to cook, I probably ought to by some. Does anyone think it's worth the copper to buy ingredients? 

Cooking dishes yourself generally saves 1 or 2 copper less than buying the finished meal.  Except for Cassita Casserole, which you might as well buy finished.  And except for Dragon dishes, which are considerably cheaper when home prepared.

 

dreamrider

[dreamrider]

Darkest Rauatai Cookies:

 

I've been away from the game for awhile, & there have been several updates.  Plus I have aged and learned a little.  Time to add some points.

 

First, Darkest Rauatai Cookies have been modified to give +2 CON / +1 PER / +5 HLH, instead of +2 DEX / +1 PER / +5 HLH.  Not a huge change, since you are likely to opt for the 300s food for either CON or DEX...but wait.

 

Cookies are one of the few commonly available foods that give a + to PER.

So it might just be worth it to buff with Cookies instead of Pearlwood Chicken to get the +CON AND the +PER from one source. Carry some Cookies in a Quick Slot to rebuff after 150s, and don't even bother with Pearlwood Chicken in inventory.

 

Further, there is that +5 HLH.

I've one some experimenting.

The +5 Health is added to BASE Health, before the multipliers for extra CON OR Class.  So my Level 4 Monk w/ 13 CON, and buffed to 15 CON by the Cookies, ends up entering the next combat with +86 Health points over her unfed self.  48 of those points are from the +2 CON boost; 38 of them are from the Health boost.

 

Those are 86 Health points that will be hit & reduced BEFORE she loses any of her "real" Health.

 

Not as useless a snack as I use to think.

[Quorra]

rarely using food unless need it for certain event

[LittleArmadillo0]

Usually use food whenever I need to perform a speech check. Better than fiddling around in my inventory looking for an item that will grant the bonuses I need for that particular moment.