In this game where you will team up with at most three friends to build a new world, you must find resources and grow crops to survive. You need to construct houses and many other buildings. To survive, you will make food from the crops you grow. Below, you can find details on how to cook one of them, soup.
Cooking Soup
Start your culinary journey with a pot filled to just 20% capacity. Harmonize your soups with one meat, one herb, and one vegetable.
Normal activities in the game will trigger a tutorial to begin cooking soup. I document the steps of that tutorial below:
You will need copper to build a required crafting stations. Collect copper by crafting a beak pickaxe (kill male chickens!)
- Build a Bonfire (Stone x12, Woodx5, Flint x1, Firelick x1)
- Craft a Wooden Grill Rack (Wood x8, Straw Rope x2)
Note that as of the writing of this guide, the grill rack is created in the CRAFT menu, not the build menu.
Hold the wooden grill rack, then approach the bonfire to combine them.
- Build a Pottery Wheel (Wooden Wheel 1x, Wood 10x, Straw Rope 4x)
- Craft a Wooden Wheel at a workbench (Copper shaft 1x, Wood 2x).
The copper shaft is created at the anvil using 2 copper ingots
- At the pottery wheel, craft a Clay Pot Base (Wet Clay 5x)
- Build a grass-covered Kiln (8x Wet Clay, xxx Common Rush)
- Use the kiln to craft the Pot.
Finally, hold the Pot, then approach the bonfire to combine.
At last, you are ready to begin Souping!
Water Mechanics: Spoonfuls of Flavor
You may fill the pot with water that is stored in your quick bar, your bag, or even the surrounding area (tip: Fill a second clay pot with water, then place it next to your soup-making station).
After filling the pot with fuel and with water, the pot will heat up. Pots filled with more water will take longer to heat up. The soup will begin cooking after the pot reaches 50 degrees Celsius. The hotter the pot, the faster the soup will cook.
Soup can cook in water levels between ~20% – 100%. It is generally best to keep water levels LOW (i.e., create spoonfuls, not buckets, of flavor). Do not fill up the pot unless your character simply needs to fill their belly. This is because greater water levels increase satiety (i.e., it will make your character feel full). This is a bad thing because it can prevent you from providing your character the needed nutrition and desired Chi buffs before you become too stuffed to eat any more!
Benefit of Large Water Levels:
- More Hydration
Drawbacks of High Water Levels:
- More Satiety
- Longer Cook times (approximately 4x longer than minimum water level)
- More Water needed
In short, it’s best to keep your soup’s water level minimal. Resist the urge to max it out. After all, who wants a watery soup? Keep it simmering just right for that perfect spoonful of flavor!
Ingredients: From Raw to Remarkable
The properties of an ingredient are different when consumed raw vs. when cooked into a soup.
Here are two images of the same ingredient. Its stats when eaten raw on are the left, whereas the stats of a cooked yam are on the right. Note that a cooked yam provides much greater nutrition, less satiety (this is a good thing), more digestive power, and has additional Chi modifiers.
There are three major types of ingredients: Meat, Vegetables, and Herbs. More on these in the next section.
Each ingredient has these basic attributes:
- Satiety: How quickly the food fills up your character. While those accustomed to traditional survival games may assume “satiety” is a good thing because it reduces player hunger, this is NOT a good thing in Pathless Woods as this can prevent your character from acquiring the needed nutrition and desired Chi effects.
- Hydration: Provides some water/hydration to your character.
- Nutrition: Fills up the nutrition meter, which is then absorbed by the character at a rate determined by the digestive power
- Digestive power: How quickly the nutrition is absorbed by the character (i.e., how quickly the nutrition bar depletes). Note: I assume that high digestive power is a good thing, but I’ll need to run some test in game to be sure
- Chi: Ingredients may also influence the character’s Chi meter.
- Chi Modifiers: These are the effects on the righthand pane of the ingredient. These effects include modifiers such as “Chi of Vegetables” and “Astringent”. The modifier affects the soup, which then might affect the player when that soup is consumed.
Crafting the Best Soups
Craft top-tier soups by following these basic principles:
- Choose ingredients with high nutrition, digestive power, and without any deleterious Chi Modifiers
- If you can, add one ingredient of each: Meat, Vegetable, and Herb
Soups generally inherit the nutrition, digestive power, satiety (+ water level) and Chi of their ingredients. To predict the outcome of the soup, simply add the stats/attributes of the ingredients together.
Chi Modifiers, however, work a little differently. Chi Modifiers are the result of the interactions between the Chi Modifiers of their ingredients. For instance, 3 ingredients with the “Cold herbs” modifier will indeed result in a soup with the same attribute. But soups may have unique modifiers not possessed by any of their individual ingredients (e.g., “Appetizing” or “Chi – Lungs”). Experiment with different ingredients to find modifiers that you like!
(I am developing a “Chi Modifier” section to publish at a later date)
Harmony in Flavor:
As noted above, the three basic types of ingredients are meat, vegetables, and herbs. The most nutritious soups are those that have one of each ingredient. In my limited testing (note: I will conduct more tests and update early April ’24), a soup balanced by each type of ingredient will have approximately 35% more nutrition than the sum of its ingredients. In other words– balanced soups are better!
Note that balanced soups might also have benefits in terms of the Chi modifiers. But I am still conducting tests to determine whether that’s the case.
*3x Ripe Yams result in the the “Whatever Soup” (I suspect the name of the soup is a bug/glitch that will later be renamed to “Vegetable Soup”). Note that the soup’s attributes and its “Chi of Vegetables” modifier are the sum of its ingredients. But also note that the soup has two unique Chi Modifiers not possessed by the ripe yams.
Note
Crafting exceptional soups in our culinary journey boils down to a few simple guidelines:
- Start with a pot filled to 20% capacity for optimal simmering.
- Ensure a harmonious blend of ingredients by selecting one meat, one herb, and one vegetable.
- Place emphasis on nutrition while staying mindful of any potential Chi Modifiers that may disrupt your culinary harmony.
- Don’t hesitate to experiment with different ingredient combinations, as they may unveil valuable Chi Modifiers.
Revisit this guide later this month for the addition of a comprehensive soup catalog, enabling you to tailor your culinary creations to suit your character’s needs. Until then, happy simmering and bon appétit!
Soup and Ingredient Catalogue
Soon…
Chi Modifiers
Soon…
