Useful foods with buffs - aside from Pumpkin Soup and Lucky Lunches??

Sophie

Tiller
Been looking into foods with buffs like Thom Kha Soup, Bean Hotpot etc. Not sure if anyone uses anything to buff farming/mining/foraging, but would love to know what you all are using (or not using) and why.
Thanks in advance XD
 

Person090

Planter
Been looking into foods with buffs like Thom Kha Soup, Bean Hotpot etc. Not sure if anyone uses anything to buff farming/mining/foraging, but would love to know what you all are using (or not using) and why.
Thanks in advance XD
I always go to the salloon to see if there are any spicy eels. The luck and speed buff they give is so useful
 

redbobcat

Rancher
I use Spicy Eel for Skull Cavern mining. You can buy it from Desert Trader for 1 ruby. They drop from serpents in the cavern as well. You also get it from lava eels in a fish pond. Planning to try Lucky Lunch + Triple Shot Espresso instead one of these days.

I also use any +3 fishing food when catching difficult fish. Seafoam Pudding is +4 fishing but I was disappointed to find its buff duration pretty short. Still I use that when catching legendary fish.

Never really bothered with other kinds of buffs, can’t really tell if they are helpful or not.
 

Rotan

Sodbuster
Espresso for the speed buff and some of the others all ready mentioned. Im an artesin so I rarely bother with farm buff stuff unless its year 1 of spring. Otherwise I dont really bother.

Spicy eel is kinda a mix between speed/luck where as lucky lunch gives more luck and no speed. I was considering buying the candy that gives even more luck from the dessert trader but 3 prismatic shards isnt worth it IMO.
 

goboking

Rancher
In addition to consuming vast quantities of Coffee, I use Farmer's Lunch when farming, Miner's Treat when mining, Survival Burgers when foraging, Dish o' the Sea when fishing, Roots Platters when killing monsters for the Adventurer's Guild, and Lucky Lunches when delving into the Skull Caverns. If I'm Being honest, though, half of those are of marginal benefit by the time I've upgraded my house for cooking.
 

Sophie

Tiller
If I'm Being honest, though, half of those are of marginal benefit by the time I've upgraded my house for cooking.
Yeah, was wondering about this - part of the reason for this thread was to see how much of a priority that upgrade was in my new playthrough (still in year 1 winter)
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
In addition to consuming vast quantities of Coffee, I use Farmer's Lunch when farming, Miner's Treat when mining, Survival Burgers when foraging, Dish o' the Sea when fishing, Roots Platters when killing monsters for the Adventurer's Guild, and Lucky Lunches when delving into the Skull Caverns. If I'm Being honest, though, half of those are of marginal benefit by the time I've upgraded my house for cooking.
I've done most of these when appropriate but just not consistently. When I head out, I frequently have a plan which quickly becomes derailed when I see some shiny thing and I realize I have no Food buffs at the ready for that use. So I do that thing anyway and never get th--

Look, SQUIRREL!
 

goboking

Rancher
Yeah, was wondering about this - part of the reason for this thread was to see how much of a priority that upgrade was in my new playthrough (still in year 1 winter)
The issue is that the buffs from food are most impactful in the early game, but the kitchen isn't unlocked until mid game. You could prioritize the kitchen if you really wanted to, but you're doing so at the expense of farm buildings, tool and backpack upgrades, and fruit saplings. That's a steep opportunity cost for the ability to cook. And even if you upgrade to a kitchen early, you're still looking at time-gated ingredients that can't be grown or foraged until fall and winter.
 
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Alongcamekat

Greenhorn
Been looking into foods with buffs like Thom Kha Soup, Bean Hotpot etc. Not sure if anyone uses anything to buff farming/mining/foraging, but would love to know what you all are using (or not using) and why.
Thanks in advance XD
The spicy poppers (I think that’s what they are called) are LIFE. I always take a few when I go into the mines and not only does it give you speed but last a while! So simply to make - hot peppers and cheese.
 

Sunny Farm

Greenhorn
I always eat a crab cake before leaving my farm and bring maple bars with me when I go to skull cave or the mine.
 
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The speed buff from Pepper Poppers stacks with the buff from Coffee/Espresso. They're fairly easy to craft as well. If you've got cows, you've probably got cheese, and peppers are a multi-yield crop in Summer, so you can get them pretty early.

Pancakes give +2 Foraging, which if it is available from the Saloon before Salmonberry Season can dramatically increase the number of berries you get. However, it's in the rotating stock, not the permanent stock (the recipe is, but that requires having a kitchen which means upgrading your house, that's probably less likely to happen before salmonberry season starts).
 

Sigrah

Farmer
On Spring 1 of a new year, I’ll eat crab cakes and drink coffee / espresso so I can clear the dead winter seeds with a scythe, put down Deluxe Speed-Gro, and plant all my plots with whatever seeds I’m going with. The crab cakes give a speed buff that lasts the entire day, and the coffee adds even more to it. I’ll also use crab cakes on gift giving days, running through the mines, or anything else where I’m going to be moving around a lot and can make use of the speed buff.

On Skull Cavern Days, it’s spicy eel and coffee / espresso all the way. I won’t even use lucky lunches or pumpkin soups, just because speed is more important to me, and I rarely have trouble finding stairs or shafts when using bombs right and left.

When I am going for Legend, I’ll eat Dish o the Sea for the fishing buff. Otherwise, I almost never eat fishing buff foods.

Lastly, I’ll eat pancakes when foraging for Salmonberries Starting in year 2. By then, I’m always level 10 foraging with the botanist skill, and getting 4 iridium quality berries per bush typically lasts me the entire year.

Beyond that, I don’t use food for buffs. In year 1, I’m more interested in having food to recover energy more than anything.
 
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Rhiannon

Farmer
On Spring 1 of a new year, I’ll eat crab cakes and drink coffee / espresso so I can clear the dead winter seeds with a scythe, put down Deluxe Speed-Gro, and plant all my plots with whatever seeds I’m going with. The crab cakes give a speed buff that lasts the entire day, and the coffee adds even more to it. I’ll also use crab cakes on gift giving days, running through the mines, or anything else where I’m going to be moving around a lot and can make use of the speed buff.
Having never really used food except to replace my health and energy in the mines, I didn't realized I could increase my speed in such a way. It takes me 3 and sometimes 4 days to get all my spring crops planted and half the time I have to ignore my animals to accomplish that. I'm going to use your system and see how fast I can do it in year 7!

So far, The only cooking I have been doing in year 5-6 is making foods for the town's folk that I'm still working on relationships. But it has been my goal to make at least one of each food item to show that I did. I bought a second fridge to start storing ingredients.
 

imnvs

Local Legend
Spicy Eel and Pepper Poppers, two of my faves. Survival Burger and Roots Platter are two other good ones.
 
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