Welcome !

Within this guide you will find info about:

• Optimal cooking recipes.
  
• How to level up cooking and agriculture skills.
  
• Manage your proteins, carbs, thirst and mood using crafted food.
  
• How to easily avoid or remove dysenteria (food poisoning).
  
• How to farm or keep animals.
  
• Where to find things you need.
  
• ...and more!

Cooking and Surviving GUIDE

Farming and Husbandry GUIDE


DISCLAIMER 1: this guide is not yet complete but I will do my best to provide you with the best content. The game gets a lot of support from Devs, so every patch adds more translation, changes or improvements. I try to support my findings with screenshots but bare in mind, that everything is a subject to change!

DISCLAIMER 2: The guide was designed to fit the limitations of default settings. If you play without any loot respawn, than you have eventually learn how to become sustainable. Grow own food, generate electricity, extract oil etc. Recent updates allowed creating a server with a very fast respawn time. I agree that if you place your base next to the food store or housing area with 5 days of respawn time, you may get so much canned food, that you don't have to bother with agriculture or cooking at all. Well, how hard you make own game is up to you :) we're here for fun.

2025 - I will try to update content, so some terms will change due to new translations available in the game.

Cooking Skill

• You get xp, when you finish cooking at the fireplace (you must have the crafting window still open).
  
• You can get extra xp from reading books or exchanging reputation with the trainer (merchant at 431, 864 for lvl 5 ).
  
• Higher cooking skill allows crafting better version of certain meals (Minestrone becomes Delicious Minestrone).
  
• Higher cooking skill unlocks critical technologies f.e. smoking racks, fridge.

Agriculture Skill

• You get xp, when you harvest crops, plant crops or finish crafting fertilizers.
  
• You can get extra xp from reading books or exchanging reputation with the trainer (merchant 1817, 1487 for lvl 5 and 431, 864 for lvl 3).
  
• Higher agriculture skill unlocks technologies such as beehive.
  
• Crop yield varies depending on seeds type.
  
• You don't get seeds on harvest, you craft seeds from ripped veggies.
  
• Average grow time, using fertilizers, is 10 days.
  
• Crops die on the first day of winter unless they're growing inside the greenhouse.
  
• Best seed: wheat.

You need a campfire, pot, raw ingredients, fuel and dirty/clean water (water is optional but highly recommended).

Create a campfire: select the hammer from your quick bar, open construction options, switch to outdoor items, select and place a blueprint in the world. Find and add required mats (6 stones, 1 stick)

Start a fire: open the campfire menu with E, drag and drop fuel (branches, wood logs, boards etc.) on the fire icon. Fire will start automatically.

BBQ: if you drag and drop food inside one of the three slots at the bottom of the menu, you will start frying. You can BBQ meat, mushrooms and even canned food to improve their stats, remove the chance of food poisoning or refresh.

Add a pot: Drag and drop a pot inside the campfire to start cooking more advanced recipes. Remember to always mix three ingredients together and click the button COOK to actually start the process.



Also, try to understand your current needs and how do they affect your situation. In general, I would recommend keeping your stats high. Even if you just want to build... it won't be easy once your needs drop down so hard that you get depressed and see everything in shades of grey (when mood bar turns red). Fun fact. Don't go fighting dirty (low hygiene) and tired (low strength) or you gonna probably die. Low strength applies damage penalty while bad smell attracts more zombies... and perhaps even a scratch will give you a fatal infection.

Coffee, tea and good food boost mood and physical strength as well prevent your health from dropping down due to starvation or thirst.

Drinking dirty water or eating old food can result in food poisoning called dysentery. At the moment (2025) food poisoning doesn't cap your stats but drain your rest (in other words, makes you fatigue).

Purify water: go to the lake/ocean/well/water collector with a plastic bottle/aluminium container (but not a pot!), look at the water until you see E option to drink, F to wash and a slot. Drag and drop a container from your inventory into the 'water' slot. Go to the campfire with a pot, open the menu, drag and drop bottles of dirty water into cooking slots, add fuel, click on the cooking button. It takes around 15 second to boil water. After several seconds, yellow droplets will turn blue. Drag and drop the empty bottle to fill it up with clean water!

Dysentery can be removed either with medicine (can be looted or created at the right bench) or with tea.

To brew tea: find orange bush, press E, you will collect herbs. Go to the campfire, drag and drop herbs in one slot, fill up the other two slots with water, add fuel, click the cooking button.

After several seconds, you will create tea. Tea removes malaria, gives 5 mood and reduces thirst by 10 points.

Cooking saves a lot of time.

For example, you spot a mushroom. It gives 3 carbs. Fry it and you get 'cooked vegetables' worth 8 carbs. Boil it in a pot and you get veggie stew that recovers 15 carbs. Boil two and you get a stew worth 40 carbs. At the starting island, you can easily hunt 2 deer which are roaming the hills around the merchant. Boiling their meat will give a broth that restores 15 proteins. And... they drop a lot of meat. The meat lasts 3 days but after smoking on the rack, it turns into jerky that lasts up to 30 days. You can also fry canned food. It gives buffed meals in return! Well... except for dog food. it disappears after frying. Mixing fruits and veggies with meat may create a new, buffed version of a stew. Not everything is, however, useful. Check the big list below!

MY RECOMMENDATIONS

First winter

• animals will keep spawning, so don't worry too much about proteins
  
• water doesn't freeze, so you can still take a trip to lake/river/well
  
• it's hard to find mushrooms under the snow, so try to stack up canned food for carbs
  
• put your campfire or smoking racks under a tiny roof or inside existing buildings (e.g. sheds) to be allowed to use them despite rainfall
  
• if you still have around 10-12 days to winter and agriculture lvl 1, plant wheat. Wheat lasts for 10 days so that's enough to stay fresh during winter that also (by default) lasts 10 days.

Proteins

• you can easily chase and kill rabbits and deer with just a knife (no need to waste arrows)
  
• you can easily kill wolves, boars and bears by simply standing behind defensive spikes (you can RMB to repair them with hammer)
  
• smoked meat lasts 30 days
  
• three easy recipes are water,meat,tomato or water,water,meat or meat,meat,honey

Carbs

• remember to pick up mushrooms on the way
  
• easy recipe for carbs is water,mushroom,mushroom or water,water, mushroom or wheat, water, water

Water

• you can cook food in a pot using dirty water without getting sick
  
• cook dirty water for 15 sec to purify it (clean water)
  
• having your starting base relatively close to the water source will save some time
  
• you can build or find wells, that allows both cleaning and taking water
  
• you can build rainwater collectors to get dirty water but you cannot shower

Agriculture

• wheat is the best crop, you can make anything out of it plus it lasts 10 days
  
• you can make fertilizers from rotten food at the bench
  
• keep honeycombs for building beehives

Sickness

• old food, drinks and dirty water makes you sick.
  
• brew tea from herbs to remove sickness.
  
• stay clean to avoid getting infected by zombies, animals or even own defensive spikes.
  
• infections are treated with penicillin or passes over time, just calm down and keep applying medkits (in 2025 it isn't really a case anymore)

Mood

• tea (water, water, herb) gives 5 mood
  
• fruit stew (water, meat, fruit) gives 10 mood
  
• coffee (water, water, coffee) gives 5 mood but also wakes you up
  
• beers from wheat (or other drinks but I just find wheat as superior crop)

SECTION UNDER DEVELOPMENT.

Farming step by step

1. Scavenge barns or house until you find good seeds, fertilizers and agriculture books.
   
2. If you're unlucky, you can always go to a merchant and buy what you're missing. Check merchants location in awesome Harald's guide here.
   
3. Unlock cultivation box via technology tab.
   
4. Place cultivation box(es). Open, drag and drop seed. If it says that sunshine intensity equals zero than dismantle the box using hammer. Pick up mats, place again. Sometimes even moving by an inch can boost sunshine from 0 to 91. Experiment, game is still under development :)
   
5. If sunshine > 90 than add 1L of water (or zero if it's already raining) and 1 unit of fertilizer.
   
6. Right now... you can pretty much forget about farming for the next 10-11 days. However, when your skill is low, it's possible that you fertilize not efficiently enough. Just in case, check your crops after several days and reply fertilizer if it's getting red.
   
7. Crop yield is random, however certain crops give more (wheat, cucumber) while some are scarce (carrots).
   
8. Farming or studying will slowly unlock new techs such as agriculture working bench (you craft seeds and fertlizers here), beehives (passive source of food), greenhouse (allows growing plants in winter) etc.
   
9. Learning lowers mood so keep your stats up or eat, drink or smoke to keep your character in a good mood.

Seeds rating

1. Wheat, is perhaps my favorite. Lasts for 10 days, high yield, can be used in various recipes including beer brewing.
   
2. Cucumber, second favorite. Lasts for 3 days, high yield, can be used for a stew that boosts your mood by 10.
   
3. Tomato, Lasts for 3 days, high yield, useful for minestrone.
   
4. Corn, decent yield, 3 days, same recipes like wheat.
   
5. Potato, lasts for 4 days, average yield, used for potato salad which is worse than mushroom stew.
   
6. Carrots, lasts for 4 days, low yield, same recipes like wheat except for beer.
   
7. Cotton, you get more from dismantling random clothes
   
8. Herbs, grow anywhere anyhow.
   
9. Strawberry, only useful for wine.

Beehives

1. Sometimes, when you cut big trees (I got it from both birch and spruce trees), you get honeycomb. Keep them all.
   
2. To get honey from a honeycomb, equip a knife and right click honeycomb to dismantle it. Beware, honey lasts 10 days.
   
3. Unlock beehives technology.
   
4. Place beehives. Constructing your first beehive will require finding 5 honeycombs (two to unlock technology, 3 to place a beehive). Second beehive needs 2 units of honey (which you gonna get anyhow from the first beehive after 4 days) and 1 honeycomb (keep cutting trees...).
   
5. Beehive produces 1 unit of honey per two days (aprox.).
   
6. Beehive doesn't work in winter.

Husbandry

1. Study agriculture until you unlock feeding pen via technology tab.
   
2. Place a pen.
   
3. Go to animal vendor. Check merchants location in Harald's guide here. Animals are relatively cheap so for a price of a few books you can get chickens, sheep or pigs. Caged animals don't have any 'freshness' or 'duration' bar. You can keep them in the inventory forever.
   
4. Click the pen, open menu, drag and drop animal to add it to the pen. Pen can accommodate 8 animals.
   
5. Animals have two genders, keep it mind when you want to breed them.
   
6. Animals consume food. You create feed using agriculture bench and 5 fiber (cheap and easy). It's actually very easy to keep animals alive because rainfall will fill up their water container automatically. Maybe during a very hot summer you might need to give them water (dirty water is ok).
   
7. Chickens grow up after a few days. Pigs and sheep need 10 days.
   
8. Maybe it's mistranslated... but my fully grown up 'sheep' looks like a goat
   
9. Fully matured hens will start laying eggs while pigs well... they will give you some fertilizer.
   I must admit... small animals are absolutely adorable and their animation is really well done. They run around making sounds and bringing so much life to your farm.
   
   
   
   SECTION UNDER DEVELOPMENT.
   
   

Before we jump to the endless list of possible combinations... let me sum up quickly for you.

• Need carbs? Use mushroom, mushroom, water or wheat, water, water
  
• Need proteins? Use meat, meat, wheat/honey/carrot/corn or meat,water,water
  
• Found tomato? Mix it with meat and water
  
• Found fruits? Mix it with meat and water
  
• If possible, heat up canned food.

Keep in mind that your cooking level slightly affects the outcome, so for the same ingredients you can get f.e. either Minestrone or Delicious Minestrone.

BBQ means frying using lower three cooking slots in the campfire (without the use of a pot or water).
Meat > BARBEQUE(10 proteins, -5 thirst)
Vegetables > ROASTED VEGETABLES(8 carbs, -5 thirsty)
Herbs > Failure cooking (wasted)

You always need 3 ingredients in a cooking pot. Bad combinations will result with wasting precious food. The purpose of this list is to show existing combinations as certain outcomes are a bit unexpected sometimes... also remember that you can heat up canned food to get extra buff!

Underscored ingredients - perhaps the most optimal use! Highly recommended.
meat = jerky, wolf, venison, rabbit, bear

TEA (5 mood, 10 thirsty, removes malaria)
herb, water, water
herb, herb, water

COFFEE (5 mood, 20 thirsty, 20 physical strength)
coffee beans, water, water
coffee beans, coffee beans, water

VEGETABLE SOUP (15 carbs, 15 thirsty)
water, water, mushroom
water, mushroom, herb
water, water, wheat
water, egg, wheat
water, water, corn
water, water, potato

STEW (40 carbs, 5 physical str)
water, mushroom, mushroom
honey, corn, corn

FRUIT SOUP (5 carbs, 15 thirsty, 5 mood)
water, water, strawberry
water, bread, cucumber
water, corn, cucumber

BROTH (15 proteins, 5 carbs, 10 thirst)
water, water, meat
water, meat, meat
water, meat, herb
water, meat, mushroom
water, meat, potato
water, meat, wheat
water, meat, strawberry
water, meat, cucumber
water, meat, carrot
water, meat, honey
meat, honey, tomato

BREAD (20 carbs, -5 thirst, 2 mood
wheat, water, water
wheat, wheat, water

SANDWICH or GOURMET SANDWICH (15 proteins, 40 carbs, 10 mood, 30 physical strength
bread, meat, honey
fun fact, even if the icon of the sandwich clearly has tomato and cucumber on it, using those ingredients won't result in getting a sandwich. Surprise!

MINESTRONE or DELICIOUS MINESTRONE (20 proteins, 30 carbs, 15 physical strength)
water, meat, tomato
meat, corn, corn
meat, carrot, carrot
meat, wheat, wheat
meat, corn, carrot
meat, corn, wheat
meat, carrot, wheat
meat, egg, tomato
meat, bread, tomato

FRUIT STEW or SAVORY FRUIT STEW (15 proteins, 15 carbs, 10 mood, 15 physical str)
water, meat, peach
water, meat, apple
water, meat, orange
meat, apple, mushroom
meat, cucumber, cucumber
cucumber seems to be a decent crop, +10 mood is a pretty nice boost

RICH STEW or DELICIOUS RICH STEW (30 proteins, 10 carbs, 25 physical str)
meat, meat, honey
meat, meat, wheat

POTATO SALAD (25 carbs, 2 mood, -10 thirsty)
water, potato, corn
water, potato, carrot
water, potato, potato
meat, meat, potato
meat, potato, potato
personally I wouldn't even bother with cropping potatoes unless you need to lvl up agriculture

FAILURE
water, water, honey
meat, cucumber, corn
meat, strawberry, mushroom
meat, egg, mushroom
meat, bread, cucumber (not a sandwich!)





DISCLAIMER: THIS LIST IS INCOMPLETE! I need to try more combinations.

This guide wouldn't be possible without our multiplayer sessions. Thanks Harald (Tsuki)!
Don't forget to check his guide Everyone Survived

Image source: Pixabay[pixabay.com]