Cooking in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is much more than a way to refill Link’s hearts. With the right ingredients, you can get additional yellow hearts, fully regenerate stamina or increase it beyond its maximum, increase Link’s attack and defense, run and climb faster, sneak up on animals and enemies almost silently, or survive extreme cold, desert heat, electricity, and even the volcanic heat of Death Mountain without special armor. If you understand the cooking system, you can significantly simplify many of the most difficult sections of the game and, especially at the beginning, compensate for missing armor or Heart Container with dishes and medicine.
On this page we explain all the cooking effects in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the best recipes for hearts, stamina, attack, defense, speed and elemental protection as well as the most important rules for dishes and medicine. We also show why maxi ingredients are so powerful, how to get effects to level 3, why dragon parts are ideal for 30-minute dishes, what happens during the blood moon, how monster essence works and which ingredients you should never combine with each other. You can find a complete overview of individual raw materials and their Locations in our guide to ingredients and materials in Breath of the Wild.
This is how cooking works in Breath of the Wild
You need a burning one to cook cooking pot. Such pots can be found at almost all stables, in villages and at numerous camps in Hyrule. Open the inventory, select an ingredient, take it into your hand and add up to four additional ingredients if desired. Link can maximum five ingredients at the same time hold. As soon as the “Cooking” action appears, exit the inventory and place the ingredients in the cooking pot.
Normal foods such as Meat, fish, fruits, mushrooms, vegetables and herbs make dishes. Insects, lizards and frogs, on the other hand, are processed together with monster parts into medicine or elixirs. Both variants can provide the same basic stat improvements; the most important difference is the type of ingredients. For example, if you cook a Emberling together with a Monster Horn, you will not receive a dish, but rather a medicine with cold protection.
The most important basic principle is: Never mix ingredients with different special effects if you want to get a specific bonus. For example, if you cook a sword banana for attack together with a weapon for defense, the two effects cancel each other out. The court then continues to restore hearts, but has no attack or defense bonus.
All cooking effects at a glance
| Effect | Effect | Maximum level | Examples of ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maxi | Fills all hearts and gives additional yellow hearts | No classic level | Maxi Durian, Maxi Beet, Maxi Truffle, Maxi Salmon |
| Endurance | Instantly restores spent stamina | Until complete regeneration | Endurance Ling, Endurance Honey, Endurance Bass |
| Extra endurance | Regenerates stamina and adds yellow extra stamina | Several additional segments | Endurance Carrot, Endurance Mushroom |
| Attack ↑ | Increases damage dealt | Level 3 | sword banana, swordling, sword carp, sword snapper |
| Defense ↑ | Reduces incoming damage | Level 3 | Sparrow, Armor Pumpkin, Armor Carp, Armor Snapper |
| Tempo ↑ | Increases running, climbing and swimming speed | Level 3 | Spurtlotus, Spurtviolet, Spurtcarrot, Spurtling |
| Sneak ↑ | Reduces left noise | Level 3 | Princess gentian, creeper, creeper trout |
| Cold protection | Protects against low temperatures | Level 2 | Chili, Glutling, Emberkraut |
| Heat protection | Protects against hot desert climates | Level 2 | Frost Melon, Frostling, Frost Herb |
| Electrical protection | Reduces Electro Damage and Shock Effects | Level 3 | trembling fruit, trembling trout |
| Fire protection | Protects from the volcanic heat of Eldin | Level 2 | fire lizard or fire wing + monster part |
The Attack, Defense, Speed, Stealth and Electric Protection effects have three levels. Cold, heat and fire protection require a maximum of two levels because there are only two relevant intensities of the corresponding environmental danger in Hyrule. A higher level effect is not automatically active for longer: Strength and duration are calculated separately. This is why a dish can have a level 3 attack but only be effective for a few minutes – or with a dragon part it can provide the same power for up to 30 minutes.
The best dishes at a glance
| Purpose | Recommended recipe | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Easiest complete cure | 1x Maxi Durian | Full hearts + 4 yellow hearts |
| Lots of additional hearts | 5x Maxi Durian | Full Heal + 20 Yellow Hearts |
| Maximum additional hearts per ingredient | 5x Large Maxi Beet | Full healing + up to 25 yellow hearts |
| Extra endurance | Multiple Stamina Carrots | Full/extra yellow stamina |
| Attack Level 3 | 4x sword banana + 1x dragon horn shard | Attack ↑↑↑ for 30 minutes |
| Defense level 3 | 4x Armor Pumpkin + 1x Dragon Horn Shard | Defense ↑↑↑ for 30 minutes |
| Tempo level 3 | 4x spur lotus or spur violet + dragon horn shard | Tempo ↑↑↑ for 30 minutes |
| Sneak Level 3 | 3-4x Princess Gentian + Dragon Horn Shard | Sneak ↑↑↑ for 30 minutes |
| cold protection level 2 | 3x Glutling + neutral ingredients | cold protection level 2 |
| Heat protection level 2 | 3x Frostling + neutral ingredients | Heat protection level 2 |
| Electrical protection level 3 | Several powerful tremor ingredients | Electrical protection level 3 |
| Death Mountain | Fireproof Lizard / Fire Lizard + Monster Part | Fire protection medicine |
Maxi Dishes – the strongest healing in the game
By far the most efficient healing dishes arise from Maxi ingredients. The important thing is not even the number of additional yellow hearts: as soon as at least one maxi ingredient is cooked correctly, Links normal hearts are completely filled. This makes even a single maxi food more powerful in the late game than many elaborate meat or fish dishes.
A single maxi durian is therefore one of the best everyday recipes ever. Anyone who already has 15, 20 or more Heart Container would have to use several high-quality pieces of meat for a comparable normal healing; A single cooked maxi durian, on the other hand, regenerates all lost hearts and also places four yellow hearts on top.
| Maxi ingredient | Yellow hearts per ingredient |
|---|---|
| Maxi truffle | +1 |
| Maxi perch | +2 |
| Maxi turnip | +3 |
| Maxi shell | +3 |
| Large Maxi Truffles | +4 |
| Maxi Durian | +4 |
| Maxi salmon | +4 |
| Maxi lizard | +4 |
| Large maxi turnip | +5 |
The mathematically strongest maxi dish consists of five large maxi beets and delivers up to 25 additional hearts. However, maxi durians are more practical because they are… Faron can be collected much more easily in larger quantities. From the Faron Tower you can reach several groups of trees with maxi durians within a few minutes. After a blood moon or after sufficient playing time, the fruits appear again.
Why a single maxi durian is often better than five
Although five Maxi Durians yield a spectacular 20 yellow hearts, in normal play it is usually more efficient to cook each durian individually. Five fruits then create five complete heals with four additional hearts each instead of just a single meal with 20 extra hearts. Especially since Link already has a lot of Heart Container, you only need the huge yellow reserve for particularly difficult fights against Lynels, Ganon or the Trial of the Sword.
For normal exploration, our recommendation is therefore: cook individual maxi durians for cheap full heals and keep a few large five-dish dishes only as an emergency reserve.
Yellow hearts and the maximum of 30 hearts
Normal and yellow hearts can never add up to more than 30 hearts. For example, if Link already has 27 permanent Heart Container, 20 theoretical additional hearts only bring three actually visible yellow hearts. The further you are in the game, the less useful an extremely large maxi dish becomes.
This is especially true after completing many shrines. If you already have 25 or more real hearts, you will usually be much more efficient with several individually cooked maxi ingredients.
The best dishes for endurance
There are two different effects for stamina. Ingredients such as Endurance Ling, Endurance Honey or Endurance Bass replenish any green stamina that has already been used up. Stamina Carrots and Stamina Mushrooms, on the other hand, generate extra stamina: the normal bar is restored and yellow stamina segments appear, which are only used up after the regular green rings are empty.
Extra stamina is particularly valuable for long climbs, taming strong horses, and early travel into regions where Link’s normal stamina is not yet sufficient. Even a single stamina carrot can save you from a situation in which Link is about to fall in the middle of a cliff.
| Situation | recommendation |
|---|---|
| Short climbing tour | 1-2 endurance creatures |
| Large climbing tour | Endurance Bass or several Endurances |
| Beyond the maximum endurance limit | Endurance carrots |
| Tame Strong Horse | Prepare several extra endurance dishes |
| Tame giant horse | Multiple stamina/extra stamina dishes in reserve |
Increase attack – the best combat judge
For strong opponents, Attack Level 3 is the most valuable offensive cooking bonus. At level 1, Link’s damage dealt increases approximately 1.2 times, at level 2 it increases to approximately 1.3 times, and at level 3 it increases to 1.5 times . This shortens the fight significantly, especially against Lynels, Hinoxe, Stone Talus or Ganon’s curses.
Mighty Bananas are particularly practical because they each provide two hidden effect points and are available in large quantities in Faron or in the Yiga Hideout. Just four Mighty Bananas certainly exceed the threshold for attack level 3. If you add a dragon horn shard, you get one of the strongest dishes in the game:
| Recipe | Effect |
|---|---|
| 4x sword banana + 1x dragon horn shard | Attack level 3 for 30 minutes |
Alternatively, three Mighty Bananas plus a weaker sword ingredient are enough, as long as you reach at least seven attack points in total. A sword snapper counts particularly strongly and can therefore save ingredients.
Attack or Barbarian Armor – which is better?
Food bonuses and armor effects have common limits. Three pieces of the Barbarian set already give attack level 3. An additional attack dish therefore does not increase this bonus to an imaginary level 6.
If you carry the complete barbarian set, a defense or speed dish usually makes more sense. Conversely, you can use a 30-minute attack dish and wear armor with high defense or another special effect instead. It’s this combination that continues to make cooking useful in the late game.
Increase defense – best dishes against strong opponents
Defensive dishes reduce incoming damage. Level 1 corresponds to approximately four additional defense points, level 2 twelve and level 3 even 24 additional defense points. Especially in the early and mid-game, this can mean the difference between a fatal hit and an attack you survive without any problem.
armor pumpkins from Kakariko Village and armor pieces are easy to obtain. Four armor gourds are certainly enough for defense level 3. Using a dragon horn shard creates:
| Recipe | Effect |
|---|---|
| 4x Armor Pumpkin + 1x Dragon Horn Shard | Defense level 3 for 30 minutes |
If you don’t already have highly improved armor or are facing off against a white or silver Lynels for the first time, this recipe is one of the safest preparations of all.
Increase speed – run, climb and swim faster
Speed dishes increase Link’s movement speed in three stages. The bonus not only works when running normally, but also speeds up various other types of movement. Level 1 corresponds approximately to a factor of 1.1, level 2 to around 1.2 and level 3 to around 1.3x movement speed.
The best normal ingredients are Spurtlotos and Spurtviolet, because both provide two effect points each. Four of them are enough for level 3. If you are specifically looking for Koroks, map locations or materials, you can save enormous time by using a long tempo court.
| Recipe | Effect |
|---|---|
| 4x Spurtlotos + Dragon Horn Shard | Tempo level 3 for 30 minutes |
| 4x Spur Violet + Dragon Horn Shard | Tempo level 3 for 30 minutes |
For our search for all 900 Koroks, a long tempo dish is particularly useful if you systematically work through open regions such as the plains of Hyrule, Akkala or Gerudo.
Increase stealth – reach animals, insects and enemies more easily
Sneak Meals reduce the noise Link makes when running and moving. At level 3 you can sneak up on horses, beetles, dragonflies, rare animals and sleeping enemies much more easily. This is very helpful for Hyrule Manual, farming rare ingredients and collecting sensitive insects, among other things.
The strongest normal ingredient is the Princess Gentian with three effect points. For stealth level 3 you need a total of nine points. Three princess gentians are therefore enough; For example, a fourth slot can be used for a neutral ingredient or a dragon horn shard.
| Recipe | Effect |
|---|---|
| 3x Princess Gentian + Dragon Horn Shard | Sneak level 3 for 30 minutes |
Since Princess Gentians are also required for several high-quality armor upgrades, you can alternatively use Creeping Trout or Creeping Trout and save the rare flowers.
cooking cold protection
Cold Protection increases Link’s body temperature and prevents damage in snowy regions. You can already get to know this effect with Chili on the Great Plateau. A chilli provides level 1 cold protection; For extremely cold regions such as high parts of Hebra or the Gerudo plateau, your needs cold protection level 2.
Stronger ingredients such as Glutling or corresponding fish provide more effect points than chili. For level 2, the court requires at least six points. Three strong cold ingredients with two points each are sufficient.
| Recipe | Result |
|---|---|
| 5x Chili | Cold protection level 1 for up to approximately 12:30 minutes |
| 3x Glutling + neutral ingredients | cold protection level 2 |
| 3x Emberling + Dragon Horn Shard | Cold protection level 2 for 30 minutes |
If you later have the complete Rito set, you will only rarely need normal cold protection dishes. However, they remain practical if you want to wear combat, climbing or stealth armor instead.
heat protection for the Gerudo Desert
Heat protection should not be confused with fire protection. Heat Protection protects against hot desert climates, especially during the day in Gerudo. For this you need cooling ingredients such as frost melons, frostlings, frost herbs or appropriate fish and insects.
As with cold protection, there are a maximum of two levels. Level 2 requires at least six effect points. Three Frostlings are therefore enough.
| Recipe | Result |
|---|---|
| 5x frost melon | Long heat protection level 1 |
| 3x Frostling + neutral ingredients | Heat protection level 2 |
| 3x Frostling + Dragon Horn Shard | Heat protection level 2 for 30 minutes |
The desert set makes such dishes partially unnecessary later. However, they are extremely useful for your first trip through the desert.
Electrical protection and thunderstorms
Electrical Protection has three levels and reduces the damage or effects of electrical attacks. Suitable ingredients are trembling fruit, trembling herb, trembling and trembling trout. Particularly strong ingredients require fewer copies to reach the higher levels.
Important: Electrical Protection does not automatically prevent Link from being struck by lightning during a thunderstorm if he is wearing metallic gear. The thunder helmet is much more reliable. A strong Electro Protection Dish, on the other hand, is ideal against Electro Ichsalfos, Thunder Pyromagi and Ganon’s Thunder Bane.
Fire protection medicine for the Death Mountain
Death Mountain’s volcanic heat is its own environmental hazard and cannot be countered with normal heat protection dishes. You need fire protection, which you can only get through appropriate armor or medicine. For a fire protection elixir, combine your fire lizards or fire wings with monster parts.
| Recipe | Effect |
|---|---|
| fire lizard + monster part | Fire protection medicine |
| Several firefighting wings + monster part | Stronger fire protection up to level 2 |
You can find fire lizards in large numbers in the south mine. You need ten of them anyway for the Side Quest “Fire Lizard Hunt”, where you get the anti-fire armor for free. Firefighters are significantly rarer, but can provide greater fire protection.
Fire Protection protects Link from the ambient heat of the volcanic area, but not automatically against any direct fire attack. The complete and improved anti-fire armor set has a stronger set bonus.
Which ingredients increase an effect particularly strongly?
Each effect ingredient has a certain number of points internally. These values are not visible in the game, but determine when a dish reaches level 2 or level 3.
| Effect | Level 2 | Level 3 | Strong Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | 5 points | 7 points | Sword Snapper 3, Sword Banana 2 |
| Defense | 5 points | 7 points | Armor Snapper 3, Armor Pumpkin 2 |
| Tempo | 5 points | 7 points | Spurtlotos 2, Spurtviolet 2 |
| Sneak | 6 points | 9 points | Princess Gentian 3, Creeper 2 |
| Electrical protection | 4 points | 6 points | Zitterrout 3, Zitterling 2 |
| cold protection | 6 points for level 2 | – | Glutling 2 |
| heat protection | 6 points for level 2 | – | Frostling 2 |
That’s why it’s not always helpful to throw five of the same ingredients into the pot. As soon as the maximum effect level is reached, further effect points only increase the duration or the healing value. You can then better use the fifth ingredient slot for a Dragon Horn Shard or another ingredient that improves the running time.
Dragon parts when cooking – this is how you extend the effects
Dragon Parts from Dinraal, Naydra and Farosh are among the most powerful cooking ingredients in the game. They do not provide any attack, defense or elemental effects themselves, but they can significantly extend an existing bonus.
| Dragon part | Influence on the duration |
|---|---|
| scale | Short additional time bonus |
| Claw | Several minutes additional duration |
| tooth | About ten minutes of additional bonus |
| Horn splitter | Sets a time-based effect to 30:00 minutes |
The Horn Shard is therefore by far the best ingredient for long-term combat and exploration dishes. Four ingredients ensure the desired level of effect, fifth place belongs to the dragon horn. This creates 30 minutes of attack, defense, speed or stealth.
Farm Dragon Horns
To get a Horn Shard you have to shoot an arrow directly at the Horn of a dragon. On the other hand, if you hit the body, you get a scale; Different materials are created in the claw and mouth. The falling splinter shines clearly on the ground.
Farosh is particularly suitable for repeated farming because the dragon regularly appears in several easily accessible locations. Build a campfire nearby, wait until the appropriate time of day, hit the horn and collect the splinter. You can find detailed routes in our kite guide.
Blood Moon bonus when cooking
During the night of the Blood Moon you can make particularly strong dishes. During the short phase immediately before the Blood Moon sequence, cooked dishes are guaranteed to receive a cooking bonus. Depending on the recipe, this can provide, among other things, additional hearts, a higher effect level or several minutes of additional duration of effect.
If you notice the red particles and the blood moon music in the evening, stand at a cooking pot in good time and process particularly valuable ingredients. Of course, an effect that has already reached its maximum cannot be increased indefinitely; in this case the bonus falls on another suitable feature of the dish.
Critical Cook Detect
Even outside of the blood moon, a particularly successful dish can emerge by chance while cooking. You can recognize such a critical cooking success by the changed melody during the cooking animation. Depending on the dish, you get, for example, three additional healing hearts, five minutes of additional duration or a higher effect level.
Certain rare ingredients such as Dragon Parts and Star Shards can also guarantee such a bonus. However, star shards are far too valuable for normal cooking recipes because they are used for numerous Armor improvements are needed. It’s better to use dragon parts for this.
Monster parts and medicine – this is how elixirs
work
For medicine you need at least a small animal with an effect and a monster part. Small animals include insects, frogs and lizards. The animal determines what effect the medicine has; Monster parts primarily affect their duration.
Any monster part generally works, but high-quality parts extend the effect more. The type of monster is less important than the material class: a high-quality part of the intestines can last much longer than a simple horn.
| Monster part class | Typical examples | influence |
|---|---|---|
| Low | Bokoblin Horn, Moblin Horn, Slime Jelly | Short additional duration |
| Medium | Bokoblin Tusk, Moblin Tusk, Octorok Eye | Average additional duration |
| High | Bokoblin Heart, Moblin Heart, Lizalfos Tail, Lynel Heart | Long additional duration |
However, it’s not worth wasting extremely rare Lynel parts on normal medicine. A Bokoblin heart can be just as useful for cooking time as a much more valuable Lynels heart of the same quality class. You often need rare monster parts for armor upgrades or you can exchange them for Mon at Kilton.
Monster Essence – powerful but unpredictable
Monster Essence you can buy it at Kilton at night. It’s needed for special recipes like Monster Cake, Monster Curry, and Monster Rice Balls, but changes up normal dishes in unusual ways. The results are partly random: the effect time can be, for example 1, 10 or 30 minutes can be set, while healing or effect strength can increase or decrease.
Monster Essence is therefore not suitable for dishes where you need a precisely predictable result. For a serious Lynel duel, we would prefer a guaranteed 30-minute Dragon Court over a Monster Essence Experiment any day. For special monster recipes, Side Quests and for experimentation, the essence is one of the most interesting ingredients in the game.
Cooking monster cake
The monster cake is required, among other things, for the Side Quest “The Little Cake Monster” in Tarrey Town. The recipe is:
| ingredient | Required quantity |
|---|---|
| Tabanta wheat | 1 |
| cane sugar | 1 |
| Goat Butter | 1 |
| Monster Essence | 1 |
You can get monster essence from Kilton for Mon. Other variations include monster curry and monster rice balls.
Normal cooking ingredients for longer effects
It’s not just dragon parts that influence the duration of an effect. Common cooking ingredients such as eggs, milk, butter, sugar or spices also have time bonuses and are therefore suitable for more complex recipes.
| ingredient | Use |
|---|---|
| Hyrule Rice | Light additional time bonus |
| Rock Salt | Light additional time bonus |
| Tabanta wheat | Light additional time bonus |
| cane sugar | Medium additional time bonus |
| fresh milk | Medium additional time bonus |
| Goat Butter | Medium additional time bonus |
| bird egg | Longer Time Bonus |
| Goron Spice | Longer Time Bonus |
For maximum efficiency, simple effect ingredients plus dragon horn are usually better. The classic ingredients are more worthwhile if you want to make specific dishes such as cakes, curries, soups or rice dishes.
Important classic recipes
| dish | Basic recipe |
|---|---|
| Fruit dish | Multiple fruits |
| Mushroom skewer | Several mushrooms |
| meat skewer | Several pieces of meat |
| Fish skewer | Multiple fish |
| Meat and mushroom skewer | Meat + Mushroom |
| Steamed Fruit | Fruit + Vegetable/Herb/Flower |
| Steamed mushrooms | Mushroom + Vegetable/Herb/Flower |
| Steamed fish | Fish + Vegetable/Herb/Flower |
| Steamed Meat | Meat + Vegetable/Herb/Flower |
| Apple Pie | Apple + Tabanta wheat + cane sugar + goat butter |
| carrot cake | carrot + Tabanta wheat + cane sugar + goat butter |
| Egg Pudding | bird egg + fresh milk + cane sugar |
| Egg tarts | Bird egg + Tabanta wheat + cane sugar + goat butter |
| Fried Bananas | sword banana + Tabanta wheat + cane sugar |
| Monster Cake | Tabanta Wheat + Cane Sugar + Goat Butter + Monster Essence |
| Monster Curry | Hyrule Rice + Goron Spice + Monster Essence |
For the actual strength of a dish, the pretty recipe name is less important than the effective ingredients used. A complicated cake is not automatically better in combat than four Mighty Bananas and a horn shard – on the contrary, the simple combination is much stronger in this case.
Fried and frozen food
Not every food has to end up in the cooking pot. Lays Meat, fish, fruits or vegetables directly next to a fire or in extremely hot areas of Eldin, they will fried or roasted. This means they regenerate more hearts than when raw. However, such food does not receive normal cooking bonuses.
In extremely cold areas, however, certain foods can freeze . Frozen Meat and Frozen Fish restore hearts and provide temporary heat protection. This is a nice side effect, but it does not replace a proper heat protection dish for longer trips with the Gerudo Desert.
Fried food has a handy inventory advantage: multiple copies of the same roasted item can be stacked. This makes it ideal as a compact healing reserve, while you keep the limited spaces in your cooking inventory free for maxi, stamina and combat dishes.
Dubious mud – you should avoid these mistakes
If you combine completely unsuitable ingredients, you get dubious mud. Typical causes are individual monster parts without a suitable insect or a mixture of foods and ingredients that do not form a valid recipe combination. The result is edible, but does little healing and has no beneficial effect.
A similar miscreation is Rock Hard Food. It is mainly created when you throw materials such as ore or other inedible items into a cooking pot. This dish also only minimally restores life.
Effects of different dishes do not stack
A very important point: Time-based food effects do not stack with each other. If you have attack level 3 active and then eat a tempo dish, the attack bonus is immediately replaced by tempo. So it is not possible to activate Attack ↑↑↑, Defense ↑↑↑ and Speed ↑↑↑ via food at the same time.
Armor effects, on the other hand, can be combined with another food effect. For example, if you carry three pieces of the Barbarian set for level 3 attack and eat a defensive dish, you will benefit from high attack and additional defense at the same time. If you wear the Ninja Set and take an attack dish, you can be quiet and strong offensively at the same time.
Which dishes should you always have in your inventory?
| quantity | Recommended supplies |
|---|---|
| 5–10 | Individual maxi dishes for complete healing |
| 3–5 | Endurance dishes for climbing and Paraglidering |
| 2–3 | Extra endurance dishes for emergencies |
| 1–2 | Attack level 3 for strong bosses |
| 1–2 | Level 3 defense for dangerous fights |
| 1 | cold level 2 |
| 1 | heat level 2 |
| 1–2 | Fire protection medicine for Eldin |
| Optional | Tempo level 3 for large collecting rounds |
This means you are prepared for practically any situation without overfilling your cooking inventory with dozens of mediocre dishes.
The best ingredients early in the game
On the Great Plateau, chili, apples, Hyrule mushrooms, Meat and endurance creatures are particularly useful. Chili allows travel up the snowy Hylia Mountain, while stamina dishes help with climbing. Once you reach Faron, the cooking system changes almost completely: Maxi-Durians give you a very easy source of full heals and Mighty Bananas allow for strong attack dishes.
With access to the Gerudo region, Hebra, Akkala and the three dragons, there are finally enough special ingredients available to reliably increase practically any bonus to its maximum level and – with horn shards – to 30 minutes.
The best recipes for Lynels
For a fight against a strong Lynels we recommend two different strategies. If you are wearing armor with high defense, take a Attack Level 3 Dish shortly before battle. If you already have the Barbarian set, use a Defense Level 3 Dish instead.
| Strategy | Recipe |
|---|---|
| Maximum damage | 4 Mighty Bananas + dragon horn |
| Maximum security | 4 armor gourds + dragon horn |
| Healing Reserve | Several individually cooked maxi durians |
This means you can keep your attack or defense at maximum cooking level for 30 minutes and have enough full heals for errors.
The best recipes for Trial of the Sword
In the Trial of the Sword, Link’s normal inventory is removed upon entering, but an already active time-based food effect remains for now. That’s why it’s worth eating a 30-minute attack or defense dish immediately before you start. Which variant is better depends on your style of play: Attack shortens fights and saves weapon durability, defense is more forgiving of mistakes.
Since a horn shard has an effect of exactly 30 minutes, dragon dishes are particularly valuable for this challenge.
The best recipes for Korok and 100% search
For searching all 900 Koroks, map locations and materials, Speed Level 3 is often more useful than any combat bonus. Four spurting lotus or spurting violets with a dragon horn shard allow for half an hour of fast movement. If you combine this effect with Revali’s Gale and the Master Cycle Zero, large areas can be searched much more quickly.
Don’t waste cooking ingredients – you should save these materials
Many rare foods are required at the same time at the Great Fairies for armor improvements. These include, among other things, princess gentians, endurance beetles, rare fish, creeping trout and dragon parts. Before you cook large quantities of it, you should check whether you have already improved your most important armor sets to the maximum.
Especially Star Shards are practically never useful for cooking. While they can guarantee critical success and extend effects, they are much more valuable for rare armor upgrades.
Cooking for Rupees – is it worth it?
Cooked dishes often sell for more Rupees than their raw ingredients individually. Meat skewers made from high-quality game in particular can therefore represent a good source of income. Hunting in Hebra regularly delivers high-quality and luxury game; cooks several pieces of meat together and sells the dish to a merchant.
However, we would not use valuable special materials for a completionist save simply because of their selling price. Gemstones, Meat and easily renewable ingredients are much better for making money than dragon parts, rare insects or materials that you will later need for armor.
Courts or armor – which is more efficient?
Initially, courts completely replace many armor functions. Cold protection takes you to snowy regions without Rito clothing, heat protection temporarily replaces the desert set and fire protection medicine enables the first ascent to Death Mountain. Later, armor for permanent effects is more convenient, while dishes supplement the missing second bonus.
| Armor | Useful additional cooking bonus |
|---|---|
| Barbarian Set | defense or speed |
| Ninja set | attack |
| Antique set | attack or defense |
| Rito set | Attack or Speed |
| Desert Set | attack or defense |
| Anti-fire set | Attack or Speed |
Our 10 best recipes in Breath of the Wild
| # | Recipe | Why so good? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1x Maxi Durian | Extremely affordable complete cure |
| 2 | 5x Maxi Durian | Full Heal + 20 Extra Hearts |
| 3 | 4x sword banana + dragon horn | Attack level 3 for 30 minutes |
| 4 | 4x Armor Pumpkin + Dragon Horn | Defense level 3 for 30 minutes |
| 5 | 4x spur lotus + dragon horn | Tempo level 3 for 30 minutes |
| 6 | 3x Princess Gentian + Dragon Horn | Sneak level 3 for 30 minutes |
| 7 | Multiple Stamina Carrots | regeneration + yellow extra stamina |
| 8 | 3x Emberling + Dragon Horn | 30 minutes cold protection level 2 |
| 9 | 3x Frostling + Dragon Horn | 30 minutes heat protection level 2 |
| 10 | firefighting wing + high-quality monster part | Strong fire protection for Eldin |
Common mistakes when cooking
| Error | Follow |
|---|---|
| Mix attack and defense ingredients | Both special effects disappear |
| Use normal heat protection food on Death Mountain | Does not protect against volcanic heat |
| Five maxi ingredients for each small healing consume | Big waste of resources |
| Star Shards Cook | Valuable upgrade materials are lost |
| Cook monster part without matching small animal | Dubious mud |
| Throw ore into the pot | Rock Hard Food |
| Eat several buff dishes in a row | The new effect replaces the old |
| Cook rare ingredients before armor is improved | Unnecessary re-farming later |
Which cooking recipes do you really need for 100%?
You don’t have to cook a certain number of recipes for the built-in map progression. Unlike later Zelda games, Breath of the Wild doesn’t have a classic cookbook that you have to fill completely. For a 100% score, recipes are primarily a tool to complete shrines, Side Quests, bosses, Koroks, materials and exploration more efficiently.
However, some specific dishes are required for Side Quests, such as the monster cake in Tarrey Town. You also need certain cooking mechanics for various shrine and Side Quests. That’s why a solid understanding of the system is still part of our complete Breath of the Wild Walkthrough.
Cooking – Collectibles
| Completed | Target |
|---|---|
| ☐ | Use cooking pot and make first dish |
| ☐ | Cooking maxi dish for complete healing |
| ☐ | Craft stamina and extra stamina dishes |
| ☐ | Attack level 3 reach |
| ☐ | Reach defense level 3 |
| ☐ | Reach speed level 3 |
| ☐ | Sneak reach level 3 |
| ☐ | Create cold protection level 2 |
| ☐ | Create heat protection level 2 |
| ☐ | Manufacture fire protection medicine |
| ☐ | Use dragon horn for a 30 minute dish |
| ☐ | Buy Monster Essence from Kilton and cook Monster Cake |
| ☐ | Try Blood Moon Cooking Bonus |
The most important cooking rules summarized
Ultimately, you only need to remember a few rules for efficient cooking: Maxi ingredients heal completely, extra stamina ingredients can overfill Link’s normal stamina, ingredients from different effects should not be mixed, strong buffs require enough effect points, and dragon horn shards extend time-based effects to 30 minutes. Monster Parts usually go together with insects, lizards or frogs in medicine, while Monster Essence deliberately produces random results.
For the normal course of the game, a few individually cooked maxi durians, endurance dishes and the appropriate environmental resistance are enough. In the endgame, 30-minute attack, defense and tempo dishes become particularly interesting. If you combine these specifically with the matching armor sets, you can make almost any challenge Hyrule’s significantly easier.