Cooking
In progressCooking in Core Keeper combines ingredients in a Cooking Pot to make dishes that keep hunger at bay and give buffs (Top Tips for New Explorers, 1 June 2022). Most plants can also be eaten on their own, and the developers suggest combining plants with proteins such as Larva meat or fish (Top Tips for New Explorers, 1 June 2022).
Make a small first batch
EditThe Chef background starts with a Cooking Pot in the inventory, along with 8 Mushrooms and +3 to the Cooking skill (Backgrounds announcement, 29 January 2022). Place the pot and open its interface. The little green book there is the recipe book: it lists the recipes you have cooked before and can be browsed by category or ingredient (5 Little Things You Might Not Know, 10 January 2024). Clicking a dish in the book cooks it automatically, as long as the ingredients are in your inventory or in a chest next to the pot (5 Little Things You Might Not Know, 10 January 2024), and a recipe is grayed out when neither you nor the adjacent chests have its ingredients (0.5.0 patch notes, 10 November 2022).
Cook one dish first and check its buffs before making more. Food items list their buffs, and the text separates permanent buffs from buffs with a duration (0.4.7 patch notes, 25 October 2022). For a larger batch, holding Ctrl while clicking a recipe moves 10 of the required materials into the pot's input slots (0.5.2 patch notes, 8 February 2023).
Discovering 100 recipes in the cook book earns the Certified Chef achievement, and gaining 100 skill points in cooking earns Cheese it! (Steam achievement list).
Choose ingredients for the trip
EditNew players start in the Dirt Biome, home to plants such as Glow Tulips, Mushrooms, Heart Berries and Bomb Peppers (Top Tips for New Explorers, 1 June 2022). A dish's buffs depend on its ingredients (Developer post on new crops, 20 October 2021). Crops such as the Glow Tulip can buff mana (5 Things to Know About PC 1.0, 14 August 2024).
Golden plants change a dish's rarity: food cooked with one always becomes rare, or epic with the Master Chef talent, and food made only of golden plants is slightly stronger than food that combines a golden plant with a regular ingredient (0.5.0 patch notes, 10 November 2022).
Choose dishes by the buffs the trip needs rather than assuming one meal is always best. Tips for Beginners covers the first camp and early crafting. Common Questions covers moving a character between worlds.
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