DayZ’s real-world survival simulation is so on point that each item you eat has its own set of nutritional values that helps you stay healthy in these harsh environments. Another major element to eating is how you prepare your food i.e. cook it. The way you cook your food will not only determine its nutritional value but also save you from getting ill by consuming raw ingredients.
In this article, we will be going over the basics of cooking and eating in DayZ so that your survival can be made easy.
You can cook your food in DayZ by using either a Sharpened Stick, a Cooking Pot, or a Frying Pan and placing it over a fire source until the food is prepared. You can Bake, Boil or Dry your food by using these methods of cooking. Place the prepared food in your hands’ slots and press the left mouse key to consume it.
Introduction To Cooking
Cooking in DayZ is the process of turning raw food that you have collected (like meat from wild animals, fruits, and vegetables) into prepared food by using a variety of ways. Cooked food is the main source of energy when you are trying to tackle the unrelenting world of this game.
This process of cooking food has many advantages and will ultimately make food more useful for the player. In the example of meat it means killing potential diseases and making it safe for consumption; for produce, cooking prevents it from rotting and becoming unsafe to eat.
Food typically has varying nutritional value between its different states, meaning that certain ways of preparing it will have advantages over others in regards to energy, water, volume, or all of the above.
You can cook your ingredients in a variety of ways like Baking, Boiling, and Drying – all of which are accomplished with one of three tools:
- Sharpened Stick
- Cooking Pot
- Frying Pan
Choice of cooking method will depend upon available resources, tools at the player’s disposal, and their end goal for using the cooked food.
Overcooking food, regardless of what is being cooked and the method used, will result in the food becoming burned. Burned food is essentially a waste as it cannot be eaten without making the player sick.
What Can Be Cooked?
Players can cook most fruits, vegetables, and meat. Fruits and vegetables can be cooked whole except Pumpkin, which must first be cut into slices. Animals are not able to be cooked whole either, meaning players must first skin the animal to obtain meat that can be cooked.
Below is a list of cook-able items that you can find in DayZ:
- Fruits & Vegetables
- Apple
- Pear
- Plum
- Elderberries
- Green Pepper
- Potato
- Pumpkin Slices
- Rose Hips
- Tomato
- Zucchini
- Meat
- Boar Steak
- Carp Fillet
- Chicken Steak
- Cow Steak
- Venison Steak
- Goat Steak
- Human Steak
- Mackerel Fillet
- Pig Steak
- Rabbit Leg
- Mouflon Steak
- Wolf Steak
- Other
- Fat (Human and Animal)
- Guts
How To Cook?
There are 3 tools used for cooking in DayZ. Some of them can also be used to cook in different styles like boiling, baking, and drying:
1 – Sharpened Stick
- Obtain a Long Wooden Stick by using a knife to cut one from a bush or interacting with a bush with empty hands (using empty hands can cause bleeding if unlucky and damage gloves).
- Combine the long wooden stick with a knife to sharpen it.
- Put the Sharpened Stick in your empty hands and attach the food to be cooked to prepare it for cooking. Only one item at a time can be cooked using this tool.
- A fire of some sort is necessary to then cook the food. Either build your own or use one of the natural Fireplaces found inside of certain houses.
- Place the stick in hand with the food item attached, stand close to the fire, and then select the option ‘Roast’ to do the action described. Your character will sit and hold the stick in place while the cooking is being performed.
- Click and hold until the cooking action circle fills one revolution (approximately 1m30sec) and the item changes state visibly. Do not keep holding the action past the first revolution or you risk Burning your food.
- Remove the now cooked food item from the stick and enjoy consuming or you can continue cooking another piece.
Some things to know when using this tool for cooking:
- This is the simplest but slowest method of cooking in DayZ.
- This cooking method will only result in food items being Baked.
- This method leaves the player vulnerable whilst cooking as you have to sit and stay still for the item to cook.
- House fireplaces with 1 cooking slot do not allow this cooking method.
2 – Cooking Pot
There are 3 possible ways of cooking when using a Cooking Pot:
- Boiling – Before cooking, fill the pot with Water.
- Baking – Cooking with an empty pot. Additionally, you can add Fat as an attachment to avoid nutritional value loss. Do not add water.
- Drying – Cook in an empty pot (No Water, no Fat) whilst keeping items to be cooked under 100 degrees, or else your items will become Baked.
- To cook with the Cooking Pot, choose the desired cooking method (as mentioned above) and prepare the pot with the food items you want to cook accordingly.
- Up to 12 slots worth of food items at a time can be added to the pot.
- After you are done with the preparations, place the pot full of food on the fire source/fireplace and wait for it to heat up.
- After a short time (approximately 1min 30 secs) the food will be cooked.
- The changes in food cooking states are visible once the player is watching the pot in the fireplace menu and the food items can be hovered over to see their state.
- An audible sound change will also tell when something is ready by a consistent rolling, bubbling sound.
- Remove the pot from the fire and any food item within can now be consumed.
Some things to know when using this tool for cooking:
- When cooking with Water in the Cooking Pot, it purifies the water within. This water can then be drunk straight from the pot or poured into Plastic Bottles, Canteens, or Leather Bottles. This purified water prevents Cholera risks.
- This item needs to be looted from houses or other places.
- To empty a pot of Water for a cooking method, equip the pot in your hands then look at your feet and choose the ‘Empty Pot‘ option.
- Food items and pots retain heat when cooked and if stored in clothing or inventory on the Upper/Lower body, it can be used to keep the player warm.
- A Cauldron works in the exact same way as a Cooking Pot.
- The Cooking Pot is far more versatile than other cooking tools, making it worthy of your inventory space as it can store items within itself.
- The Cooking Pot can be used with a Portable Gas Stove, any kind of advanced Fireplace found in houses, player-created Stone Ovens, or alongside a Cooking Tripod.
3 – Frying Pan
There are 2 possible ways of cooking when using a Frying Pan:
- Baking – Cooking with an empty pan. Additionally, you can add Fat as an attachment to avoid nutritional value loss.
- Drying – Cooking in an empty pan (No Fat) whilst keeping items to be cooked under 100 degrees or else your items will become Baked.
- To cook with the Frying Pan, choose the desired cooking method (as seen above) and prepare the pan with the food items you want to cook accordingly.
- Up to 12 slots worth of food items at a time can be added to the pan.
- After you are done with the preparations, place the pan full of food on the fireplace and wait for it to heat up.
- After a short time (approximately 1min 30 secs), the food will be cooked.
- The changes in food cooking states are visible once the player is watching the pot in the fireplace menu and the food items can be hovered over to see their state.
- An audible sound change will also tell when something is ready by a consistent hissing and frying sound.
- Remove the pan from the fire and any food item within can now be consumed.
Some things to know when using this tool for cooking:
- This cooking tool cannot hold water so it limits your cooking methods to Baking and Drying.
- It can be used with a Portable Gas Stove – thus giving a very quick and portable cookfire system.
How To Eat Food?
Now that you are done with cooking, it is time to eat. You can place the food item from your inventory on your hands’ equipment slots and press the mouse left click to consume it. You can place items directly from the cooking tool you have used to eat too.
Fruits do not require preparation so you can eat them directly. As for canned food items, you need to first open them by using an Axe, Knife, or Can Opener. Once it is opened, you can eat from them directly or cook as you please.
The food and cooking side of DayZ is very deep. There are also nutritional values involved when preparing food and all of these combined will help you stay alive and healthy. You can very easily survive by only consuming fruits directly but the most potent form of energy you get is from properly cooked food. So take out your aprons and start cooking!