Cooking

This article is about the main mechanic in The Legend of Zelda series. For other uses, see Cooking (Disambiguation)

Cooking
Link Cooking with a Cooking Pot in Breath of the Wild
Main appearance(s)	Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom
Other appearance(s)	Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Purpose(s)	Making Food

Cooking is a recurring mechanic in The Legend of Zelda series.^{[name references needed]}

Overview

Breath of the Wild

Cooking in Breath of the Wild is the process of using a variety of Materials to create Food that Link can eat to replenish his Life Gauge and gain certain effects. Cooking can be achieved either by roasting edible Materials with direct Fire, such as with a Campfire or a flaming Weapons, by freezing edible Materials by placing them in a location with a cold temperature, or by Cooking up to five Materials with a lit Cooking Pot. Roasted Food causes the former Materials to lose their potential effects in exchange for a 50% increase in their health restorative properties. Certain Materials can also be frozen by exposing it to cold temperatures, such as shooting it with an Ice Arrow and leaving it outside in places such as the Hebra Mountains. Doing this will add on a Heat Resistance effect to the meal, and in some cases, even an increase in health restoration. Properly Cooking with a Cooking Pot doubles the heart recovery of the used Materials; depending on the properties of the Materials, the resulting Food product may also have a certain effect attached to it. Food and Elixirs cooked in Cooking Pots occupy one Inventory slot each in the Food tab, while roasted and frozen Food of the same type stack on each other. Different individuals, posters, and books will share recipes with Link and some characters may request a recipe for a Side Quest, therefore showing Link the prerequisites for Materials.

Food is made of basic Materials that is known for its tendency to regenerate large amounts of hearts as well as having special effects. Alongside regular Food, Elixirs are another Item that can be made in a Cooking Pot. Elixirs can be made by Cooking together critters and Monster Parts. Cooking with Monster Parts or critters will fail and result in Dubious Food unless the other required Material is provided. Critters control the effect's potency while Monster Parts control the duration of the effect. Having all but one critter will produce much longer-lasting Elixirs while having all but one Monster Part will generally create high-strength Elixirs. On top of the two required Materials, basic Food Materials can be optionally added for additional health regeneration or effect potency and duration. The difference between Elixirs and dishes is purely cosmetic, since the effects obtained and Hearts restored by the recipe are defined only by the Materials used.

If a recipe has critter but doesn't have a monster part, has Monster Parts but doesn't have a critter, or has Materials that are not valid in creating Food (i.e. Flint), the result will be either Dubious Food or Rock-Hard Food. Some specific Materials can also create Dubious Food or Rock-Hard Food if used alone (i.e. Rock Salt).

Food Effects

The amount of Hearts in Link's Life Gauge a recipe can regenerate is double the amount of Hearts the Materials would restore if consumed raw. If the Material is just roasted, it'll be able to restore just 50% more Hearts than the raw Material.

There are eleven extra effects that can be added to Food while Cooking: Attack Up, Defense Up, Stealth Up, Movement Speed Up, Flame Guard, Cold Resistance, Heat Resistance, Shock Resistance, Extra Stamina, Stamina Restoration, and Full Recovery + Extra Hearts. Depending on the Materials used in the Food, the effect can have a higher level or longer duration. Attack Up effects will increase the attack power of Link's Weapons and Bows, with higher levels of strength increasing the amount of power gained. Defense Up effects will increase Link's defense, making all forms of damage do less damage than normal, with higher levels of strength decreasing the amount of damage taken. Stealth Up effects will increase Link's Stealth, making him quieter and avoid the attention of Enemies and Creatures. Higher levels of Steath Up make it increasingly harder for Enemies and Creatures to detect Link. Movement Speed Up effects will increase Link's movement speed,^{[how many?]} with higher levels increasing the amount of speed gained. Flame Guard effects will make Link invulnerable to scorching temperatures and most Fire. While under this effect, Link can safely walk through areas like Death Mountain without the need of protective clothing. However, the effect will not protect Link from Lava or attacks from Enemies that use Fire to attack. Cold Resistance effects will give Link an immunity to cold temperatures with higher levels giving protection to increasingly cold temperatures. However, no levels of this effect allow Link to swim in freezing Water without taking damage, give Link protection against Enemies that use Ice in their attacks, or prevent Link from being frozen. Heat Resistance effects will give Link a resistance to Heat. Unlike the Flame Guard effect, no amount of Heat Resistance will protect Link from the scorching temperatures of Death Mountain, but both do not provide protection against direct contact to Fire. Shock Resistance effects protect Link against Electricity. The maximun level negates all damage from non-lightning sources of Electricity, while the Thunder Helm or Rubber Set bonus is required to prevent damage from lightning. Extra Stamina effects give Link a temporary boost to his Stamina Wheel's capacity. Extra Stamina will not go away until Link uses it up, meaning that the entire Stamina Wheel must be depleted before the Extra Stamina is used. Link can have up to two full Extra Stamina bars. Stamina Restoration effects restore an amount of depleted Stamina. Stamina Restoration will only take affect once Link consumes the Food or Elixir with a depleted or partially depleted Stamina Wheel (i.e. if Link was mid-flight with the Paraglider and drank an Elixir to replenish his Stamina). Finally, Extra Hearts are an effect that appear on hearty food (i.e. Hearty Radishes and Hearty Durians). Whenever Food is cooked to produce the Extra Heart effect, the Food always provides a full recovery of the Life Gauge along with the Extra Hearts. Extra Hearts are kept for an indefinite amount of time until damage is taken, in which the Extra Hearts are the first to deplete. Once any Extra Hearts are depleted, they cannot be regained unless another dish with the Extra Hearts effect is consumed.

Effect Strength

Most effects can have a low, middle, or high strength level of (some only have a low or middle level). The higher the strength level of the effect, the greater amount of effect that will be gained by Link. The sum of the Materials' potency grades defines the effect's strength level. If the potency grade of a recipe is equal or greater than the high threshold, the recipe will have a high-level effect. If the grade is equal or greater than the middle threshold but is less than the high threshold (or if the effect doesn't have high-level), the effect will be mid-level. If the grade is less than the middle threshold, the recipe will have a low-level effect. The following shows the potency grade a recipe should have to achieve mid- or high-level for each possible effect. Any points that are less than the middle threshold will have a low-level effect.

Effect Name	Middle Threshold	High Threshold
Attack Up	5	7
Defense Up	5	7
Movement Speed Up	5	7
Stealth Up	6	9
Flame Guard	7	—
Cold Resistance	6	—
Heat Resistance	6	—
Shock Resistance	4	6

Below are the potency grades for Materials' effect strength. When one of these Materials are used in a recipe, the potency grade will be added into the mix. All potency grades from every Material will be added up to determine the final strength level of the effect.

Effect and Potency Provided	Material(s)
Attack Up +1	Mighty Thistle Bladed Rhino Beetle
Attack Up +2	Mighty Bananas Mighty Carp Razorclaw Crab Razorshroom
Attack Up +3	Mighty Porgy
Defense Up +1	Armoranth Rugged Rhino Beetle
Defense Up +2	Armored Carp Fortified Pumpkin Ironshell Crab Ironshroom
Defense Up +3	Armored Porgy
Movement Speed Up +1	Rushroom Swift Carrot Hightail Lizard
Movement Speed Up +2	Fleet-Lotus Seeds Swift Violet Hot-Footed Frog
Stealth Up +1	Blue Nightshade Sneaky River Snail Sunset Firefly
Stealth Up +2	Silent Shroom Stealthfin Trout
Stealth Up +3	Silent Princess
Flame Guard +1	Fireproof Lizard
Flame Guard +2	Smotherwing Butterfly
Cold Resistance +1	Spicy Pepper Warm Safflina Summerwing Butterfly
Cold Resistance +2	Sizzlefin Trout Sunshroom Warm Darner
Heat Resistance +1	Cool Safflina Hydromelon Winterwing Butterfly
Heat Resistance +2	Chillfin Trout Chillshroom Cold Darner
Shock Resistance +1	Electric Safflina Voltfruit Thunderwing Butterfly
Shock Resistance +2	Zapshroom Electric Darner
Shock Resistance +3	Voltfin Trout

Effect Duration

The effect duration given for each recipe is defined as follows:

• Each individual Material adds 30 seconds to effect's duration.
• Each Material of the same effect will give a bonus duration besides the 30 seconds. This bonus duration varies for each effect.
• Certain Materials will give a bonus duration besides the 30 seconds. (See below)
• Each Monster Part add a bonus duration besides the 30 seconds. This bonus duration depends on the Monster Part's potency. (See below)

The following equation also represents the duration of a recipe's effect, in seconds:

[(30 · n) + (effect_bonus · effect_ingredients)] + special_materials_bonus + monster_parts_bonus

where:

• n is the amount of ingredients used.
• effect_bonus is the effect-specific duration bonus provided by each ingredient with the same effect that is added to the recipe.
• effect_ingredients is the amount of ingredients with the same effect used on the recipe.
• special_materials_bonus is the total duration bonus added by certain Materials that provide bonus duration besides the 30 seconds.
• monster_parts_bonus is the total duration bonus provided by Monster Parts.

Besides adding to the effect's potency, adding more ingredients with the same effect to the recipe will provide a bonus duration time (besides the 30 seconds that counts for each ingredient used). This bonus varies for each effect, as shown in the table below.

Effect	Duration Bonus
Attack Up	0:20
Defense Up	0:20
Speed Up	0:30
Stealth Up	1:30
Fireproof	2:00
Cold Resistance	2:00
Heat Resistance	2:00
Shock Resistance	2:00

Certain Materials have a special duration bonus associated to them besides the 30 seconds that will be added to the recipe's duration. Each individual special Material will have its effect applied only once per recipe, so adding two Bird Eggs will give only 60 second as a bonus, which is the same as if only one Bird Egg had been used. Different special Materials won't affect each other's bonus duration, so using one Bird Egg and one Goron Spice will give a full bonus of 120 seconds.

Duration Bonus	Ingredients
0:10	Chickaloo Tree Nut
0:20	Acorn
0:30	Hylian Rice Rock Salt Tabantha Wheat
0:50	Cane Sugar Fresh Milk Goat Butter
1:00	Bird Egg Any Dragon Scale Goron Spice Star Fragment
3:00	Any Dragon Claw
10:00	Any Dragon Fang
Sets duration to 30:00	Any Dragon Horn

Each Monster Part added will give a bonus to the effect's duration besides the basic 30 seconds for each ingredient. This bonus duration depends purely on the Monster Part's level, and not on the Enemy from where the part comes from, so Lynel Guts will give the same bonus duration as Bokoblin Guts if added to a recipe. There are three potency grades, and each one of them will add a different bonus to the effect's duration.

Grade	Duration Factor
1	0:40
2	1:20
3	2:40

The following table shows the potency level of each monster part, organized by the monster where it comes from. Usually, higher-level Monster Parts will be dropped by higher-level Enemies (i.e. Silver Bokoblins and Silver Moblins can drop level three Monster Parts while Blue Bokoblins and Blue Moblins can only drop up to level two Monster Parts).

Monster	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Bokoblins	Bokoblin Horn	Bokoblin Fang	Bokoblin Guts
Moblins	Moblin Horn	Moblin Fang	Moblin Guts
Lizalfos	Lizalfos Horn	Lizalfos Talon	Lizalfos Tail
Lynels	Lynel Horn	Lynel Hoof	Lynel Guts
Chuchus	Chuchu Jelly	Elemental Chuchu Jellies	—
Keese	Keese Wing	Elemental Keese Wings	Keese Eyeball
Octoroks	Octorok Tentacle, Octo Balloon	Octorok Eyeball	—
Molduga	—	Molduga Fin	Molduga Guts
Hinoxes	Hinox Toenail	Hinox Tooth	Hinox Guts
Guardians	Ancient Screw Ancient Spring	Ancient Gear Ancient Shaft	Ancient Core Giant Ancient Core

Non Time-Based Effects

Some effects do not have a duration time and are either have no timed expiration or only provide for instant benefit. These effects include Stamina Restoration, Extra Stamina, and Extra Hearts.

Extra Hearts expand the limit of Link's Life Gauge and will only expire once Link takes damage and depletes them, where they cannot be regained unless the another Extra Heart effect is used. All "hearty" Materials have their own amount of Extra Hearts that will be added to the recipe's effect. The total extra Hearts provided by a recipe is the sum of each individual ingredients' Extra Hearts value. Furthermore, every recipe that provides extra Hearts will also regenerate all of Link's Life Gauge. The table below lists the Extra Hearts provided by each hearty Material.

Effect and Potency Provided	Ingredients
1 Extra Heart	Hearty Truffle
2 Extra Hearts	Hearty Bass
3 Extra Hearts	Hearty Blueshell Snail Hearty Radish
4 Extra Hearts	Big Hearty Truffle Hearty Durian Hearty Lizard Hearty Salmon
5 Extra Hearts	Big Hearty Radish

Unlike the Extra Hearts effect, the Extra Stamina and Stamina Restoration work based on the recipe's potency, similarly to the time-based effects. The sum of the Materials' potency grade in a recipe must pass a certain threshold for the equivalent effect strength to be obtained. The table below shows the potency threshold for the Stamina Restoration effect of recipes.

Threshold	Amount of Stamina Wheels Regenerated
1	One-Fifth Stamina Wheel
2	Two-Fifths Stamina Wheel
3	Four-Fifths Stamina Wheel
4	One Stamina Wheel
5	One and Two-Fifths Stamina Wheels
6	One and Three-Fifths Stamina Wheels
7	One and Four-Fifths Stamina Wheels
8	Two and One-Fifth Stamina Wheels
9	Two and Two-Fifths Stamina Wheels
10	Two and Four-Fifths Stamina Wheels
11	Three Stamina Wheels

The table below shows the potency threshold for the extra Stamina effect of recipes.

Threshold	Amount of extra Stamina Wheels
1
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20

Ingredients Potency

Stamina Regeneration Ingredients Potency

The table below lists the potency of each stamina Regeneration ingredient.

Potency	Ingredients
1	Restless Cricket Stamella Shroom
2	Bright-Eyed Crab Courser Bee Honey
4	Staminoka Bass
6	Energetic Rhino Beetle

Extra Stamina Ingredients Potency

The table below lists the potency of each ingredient that provides extra maximum Stamina.

Potency	Ingredients
1	Endura Shroom
2	Tireless Frog
4	Endura Carrot

Examples

The mechanics on cooking can be quite complex, so some examples of dishes could help to understand it better.

A recipe with two Electric Darners, two Bokoblin Guts and one Bokoblin Horn will result in an Electric Elixir. The time duration will be 0:30*5, due to the base 30 seconds offered by each ingredient, plus 2:00*2 due to the effect-specifc bonus provided by each Electric Darner, plus 2:40*2 due to the Bokoblin Guts used (level-2 monster part) and plus 0:40 for the Bokoblin Horn used (level-1 monster part), resulting in a total duration of 12:30. The potency grade will be 2*2=4, since two Electric Darners were used, resulting in a mid-level electric resistance effect.

A recipe with three Mighty Porgies, one Goron Spice and one Bird Egg will result in a Mighty Fish Skewer. The duration will be 0:30*5 since five ingredients were used, plus 0:20*3 due to the effect-specific time bonus given by each Mighty Porgy used, plus 1:00 from the dish enhancer Bird Egg and plus another 1:00 from the dish enhancer Goron Spice, resulting in 5:30 total duration. The total potency grade will be 3*3=9, since each of the three Mighty Porgies give 3 potency grade, resulting in a high-level attack up effect.

A recipe with two Hot-Footed Frogs, one Rushroom and one Lynel Guts will result in a Hasty Elixir. The duration will be 0:30*4 because four ingredients were used, plus 3*0:30 from the effect-specific bonus because 3 speed-up ingredients were used (two Hot-Footed Frogs and one Rushroom) and plus 2:40 from the Lynel Guts used, resulting in a total duration of 6:10. The total potency grade will be 2*2 from the Hot-Footed Frogs plus 1 from the Rushroom, resulting in a high-level speed-up effect.

Critical Cook

Cooking has a chance for random bonuses, otherwise known as a 'critical cook', and is a 1:10 chance or 10% chance per attempt. This becomes a 100% chance with blood moon risings, however before the cutscene so the exact time being 11:35pm-11:55pm. The window for this is actually incredibly short, as it is technically only 20 seconds.

A critical cook will have one of the following effects selected randomly on the recipe, if the recipe supports it:

• +3 Hearts restored.
• +5:00 duration bonus.
• +1 effect level.
• +1 extra maximum Heart.
• +2/5 Stamina Wheels restored.
• +2/5 extra maximum Stamina Wheels.

Monster Extract

Monster Extract may slightly or drastically improve three factors (hearts, duration, effect) but may also may incur no changes or make them worse. A meal using Monster Extract may see nothing or only duration boosted but may also have all three boost-types applied; whether positively or negatively. Cooking with it will never trigger random chances for a bonus, even if Star Fragments or Dragon parts are added.

Monster Extract Effects
Duration Modifier Chance	Effect Modifier Chance	Hearts Modifier Chance
Duration becomes 1:00 (33%) Duration becomes 10:00 (33%) Duration becomes 30:00 (33%)	No Change if low-level (80%) low-level into mid-level (20%) mid-level into high-level (20%) No Change if mid-level (60%) mid-level into high-level (20%) high-level into mid-level (40%) No Change if high-level (60%)	Heart-value into 0.25 (25%) No Change (50%) +3 Hearts (25%)

Extras

Combining certain types of ingredients in a pot can result in many different dishes. There are a ton of delicious-looking food sprites found in Breath of the Wild, and that gives an astonishing amount of diversity to Link's menu, despite the sprite does not change anything in terms of effects. When consuming a piece of food, cooked or not, there are a few different animations Link can undergo while "eating it", despite the food doesn't appear and Link looks like he is eating nothing. The types of food that have different animations are:

• Small Food items, like Apples.
• Food on plates, like Spicy Sautéed Peppers.
• Soup.
• Skewers, like Seafood Skewers.
• Bottled Food, usually Elixirs.
• Dubious Food and Rock-Hard Food.

Tears of the Kingdom

While Cooking, Link will hum various Songs, including "Saria's Song" and "Kass's Theme".

Other Appearances

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Non-Canon Information

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Nomenclature

Names in Other Regions
Language	Names
This table was generated using translation pages. To request an addition, please contact a staff member with a reference.

Trivia

• During development of Twilight Princess, Eiji Aonuma had the idea of adding Cooking into a game. However, it was never implemented prior to Breath of the Wild as he could not find a way to make it fun and exciting.

Gallery

• 

  Link successfully Cooking

• 

  A promotional image from the 2022 Summer issue of the Nintendo Magazine featuring Link Cooking

See Also

• Campfire
• Cooking Pot
• Food
• Portable Pot