Cooking In 7 Days To Die
Unless you want to constantly loot for food and water, cooking will eventually be a central part of your 7 Days to Die game. A campfire alone will not allow you to cook, there are several utensils that can be used, each having their own recipes available. Knowing how to cook will allow players to create foods, beverages, and medicines that can not be found by simply looting.
In This Article:
- Building a Campfire
- Elements Needed For Cooking
- Cooking Utensils
- Ingredients
- Fuel Source
- Cooking Recipes
- What You Need To Know
Note: 7 Days to Die is currently available for Early Access during their Alpha Testing. This is not a finished product, and will change as elements are added and altered. This article was written using information from version 9.3, but will be updated as new versions are released.
Building a Campfire
The recipe for crafting a campfire is available at the start of a new game, in the Food/Cooking group. It consists of 8 small stones, which can be picked up from the ground, crafted from stones, or mined from large rocks.
You will want to place your Campfire in an area that you can access easily, but is also safe from zombies and other players. You will likely start with a single Campfire, but may have several cooking at one time later in the game. This becomes necessary when cooking items that take extended periods of time, such as Grain Alcohol and Antibiotics.
Elements Needed For Cooking
The Campfire is only the first step towards cooking, and often the easiest. You will need to collect or craft the other items that are needed.
Elements Needed to Cook:
- Campfire
- Cooking Utensil
- Ingredients
- Fuel Source
Cookware
There are four cookware items that can be used with your campfire. Each will be placed on the left hand side of your cooking interface, in the column labeled Cookware. Only actual cookware can be placed in this space. If you are unable to drop an item in this space, then it is likely that have selected the wrong item. The following cookware can be used on the campfire, and will have their own list of available recipes:
- Stick
- Cooking Grill
- Cooking Pot
- Beaker
Stick
A stick is a common resource in 7 Days to Die that is also used in making the crossbow, crafting a splint, and making various tools and melee weapons. This is the most basic cookware that will allow the player to cook charred pork, venison, or rabbit. Cooking meat in this fashion will give the same Health and Fullness as using a cooking grill, but will cause the meat to have a higher smell range and strength.
Cooking Grill
The cooking grill can be crafted using six short iron pipes. These pipes can be looted, crafted from Forged Iron, or mined from toilets. The grill not only allows the crafting of the three meats listed above, but also has the ability to cook Bacon and Eggs.
Cooking Pot
The Cooking Pot can be looted from kitchens and near Campfires, or crafted using five Forged Iron. Forged Iron can be crafted from Iron Ingot, which requires the use of a Forge. The Cooking Pot has the most available recipes, ranging from boiled meat to useful beverages. It is also needed to turn murky water into drinkable water.
Beaker
This is the only cookware that can not be crafted. It is an uncommon resource that can be looted from medicine cabinets and the bodies of Plagued Nurses. The recipe list for this cookware is short, but vital for eventually creating the First Aid Kit and fuel for the Auger and Chainsaw. It is also used to make Antibiotics.
Ingredients Needed For Cooking
The ingredients needed depend on the item that is going to be cooked. The basic ingredients include raw meat, water, and vegetables. However, some advanced recipes require ingredients that might not be as obvious to players. Below is a list of some of the more uncommon ingredients.
- Coffee Beans
- Cornmeal
- Goldenrod Flower
- Potassium Nitrate Powder
Fuel Source
A fuel source is simply an item that can be burned. All fuel sources list the items burn time in their description, which can be found by hovering over the item in your inventory interface. Often, the most obvious fuel sources are the best, able to burn for longer periods of time.
The fuel source is placed on the left hand side of the Cooking Interface. There are three slots available, each able to hold a different source of fuel.
Common Fuel Sources:
- Coal Ore
- Lump of coal
- Wood Log
- Aged Wood
- Wood Plank
Cooking Recipes
Cooking Recipes are displayed on the right hand side of your Cooking Interface. Unlike crafting recipes, they will not appear unless you have the needed ingredients in your inventory and the correct cookware attached to the campfire. Recipes that have not yet been used will appear in white text, this will turn to green as soon as you place the correct ingredients in the cooking interface.
After a recipe has been discovered, selecting the text will result in the needed ingredients being displayed on the cooking interface as transparent pictures. These pictures and the recipe name will not appear if all the ingredients are not available in your inventory.
What you Need To Know
- Choosing the right food to carry can be as important as picking the right clothing to wear, certain foods have more smell than others and some special beverages allow the player to sprint for longer a duration.
- Grain Alcohol takes a long time to cook, but can be used to craft a First Aid Kit or Fuel for power tools.
- Campfires are often found at campsites (along with a Cooking Pot), finding these can allow you to quickly cook a needed item without making a trip back to your base.
