No hero can save the world without a hot meal or two along the way. Breath of the Wild played this up in particular by introducing cooking. This in turn plays off the game’s robust material system, giving every little item some kind of in-game function. While Age of Calamity is very much an action RPG in the vein of its predecessor, AoC retains many of BotW’s unique mechanics: cooking including.
Link and his allies can cook up meals before battle in Age of Calamity, offering buffs & side effects that greatly influence gameplay. Players who neglect to unlock recipes and keep a healthy stock of ingredients will likely find themselves struggling late-game. Don’t neglect the importance of cooking.
Wheat Bread
The recipe for Wheat Bread can be unlocked by completing Expert Cooking Lesson, which appears after finishing All Hyrule, United. Wheat Bread offers the following effect and requires Rock Salt and Tabantha Wheat to cook.
- Cooking Effects: + 20%
- Rock Salt x5
- Tabitha Wheat x5
Wheat Bread is especially useful for strengthening other recipes. Its + 20% cooking effect buff offers a bonus that’s hard to ignore (especially since Rock Salt and Tabantha Wheat aren’t hard to come by.)
Wildberry Crepe
The recipe for Wildberry Crepe can be unlocked by completing Extreme Foraging, which also appears after finishing All Hyrule, United. Wildberry Crepe increases the drop rate for material and requires the following ingredients to cook:
- Material Drop Rate: + 20&
- Cane Sugar x2
- Bird Egg x2
- Wildberry x2
- Tabantha Wheat x2
- Fresh Milk x2
As materials only become more important over the course of Age of Calamity, Wildberry Crepe helps cut down on grinding considerably.
Honey Crepe
The recipe for the Honey Crepe can be unlocked after completing The Great Plateau. Honey Great greatly increases the amount of Rupees players receive per mission.
- Rupees: + 30%
- Cane Sugar x1
- Bird Egg x1
- Courser Bee Honey x1
- Tabantha Wheat x1
- Fresh Milk x1
Honey Crepe is fairly generous when it comes to necessary ingredients, but this also makes it easy to forget to keep stock.
Monster Stew
Monster Stew cuts a player’s health in half, but not without buffing every other stat by a whopping + 15%. That’s nothing to scoff at, especially on higher difficulties. Monster Stew is unlocked after completing Mystery Meal for the Merchant, which appears after finishing The Future of All Hyrule.
- All Stats + 15%, but Max Health - 50%
- Razorclaw Crab x6
- Raw Gourmet Meat x6
- Monster Extract x6
Monster Stew’s ingredients aren’t the easiest to come by, but the meal itself is deadly in the mouths of seasoned Warriors.
Fruitcake
The Fruitcake is unlocked by completing Afternoon Tea at Hyrule Castle, which appears after finishing the Future of All Hyrule. Like the Wildberry Crepe, Fruitcake buffs material drop rate, but in this case specifically Rare Material.
- Rare Material Drop Rate + 30%
- Cane Sugar x4
- Hydromelon x4
- Wildberry x4
- Tabantha Wheat x4
By eating a Wildberry Crepe and Fruitcake in the same mission (along with Wheat Bread,) players will be flooded with more materials than they can count at the results screen.
Seafood Rice Balls
The recipe for Seafood Rice Balls can be unlocked by completing Fine Bites from Lurelin Village, which appears after finishing Each Step Like Thunder. Seafood Rice Balls increase the damage output of Sheikah Runes by a noticeable margin.
- Sheikah Rune Damage + 35%
- Stealthfin Trout x4
- Hylian Rice x4
Sheikah Runes are already incredibly useful in their own right, but increasing the damage output by 35% makes them even deadlier. Paired with Wheat Bread, the Sheikah Rune becomes an unstoppable killing machine.
Ceremonial Platter
The Ceremonial Platter’s recipe can be unlocked by completing The Legendary Recipe, which also appears after finishing The Future of All Hyrule. Anyone who eats the Ceremonial Platter begins their next mission with five extra Hearts, a fairly significant upgrade in health.
- Start Battle with + 5 Hearts
- Flint x5
- Hearty Salmon x5
- Big Hearty Radish x5
- Hylian Rice x5
- Raw Gourmet Meal x5
While Musou veterans might not see a need for the Ceremonial Platter, 5 extra Hearts go a long in Blood Moon missions. More importantly, they offer less skilled players some leeway as they tackle harder difficulty modes.
Pumpkin Stew
The recipe for Pumpkin Stew is unlocked by completing The Pumpkin Hunt (another mission that appears after The Future of All Hyrule,) and it might very well be the best overall meal in Age of Calamity. Pumpkin Stew simply recovers lost health upon killing any enemy.
- Recover Health per Enemy KO
- Goat Butter x4
- Fortified Pumpkin x4
- Tabantha Wheat x4
- Fresh Milk x4
On maps with hundreds of enemies, Pumpkin Stew is a must have. Being able to recover health through natural gameplay makes the hardest missions in Age of Calamity so much more manageable.
Akkala Buns
The recipe for Akkala Buns can be unlocked by completing Wedding Worry, which appears after finishing Each Step Like Thunder.
- Perfect-Dodge Timing Window + 10%
- Tierless Frogs x 4
Akkala Buns are a great meal regardless of a player’s skill level. For veterans, the buns make triggering a Perfect-Doge pretty much mandatory. For beginners who still haven’t mastered the mechanic, the extra leeway helps teach timing.
Creamy Heart Soup
Creamy Heart Soup’s recipe can be unlocked by completing Bee Very Careful. Like Pumpkin Stew, the Creamy Heart Soup is designed around healing players. This time around, however, the meal automatically recovers health.
- Recover Health Every 10 Seconds
- Voltfruit x4
- Hydromelon x4
- Hearty Radish x4
- Fresh Milk x4
10 seconds is no time at all in a Musou game and Age of Calamity’s missions are long enough where the natural healing benefits from Creamy Heart Soup go a long way. Eating Creamy Heart Soup with Pumpkin Stew might be overkill, but it’s one way of keeping your health high.