As in every survival game, you also need to eat in Valheim—but not for the reasons you might think. Here, food plays a very different, yet equally important, role. And there’s a lot of variety that grows with each biome, giving you plenty of ways to fill your belly! Today we’ll take a closer look at Valheim’s food: what you can eat, how to prepare and even sustainably harvest it. We’ll also show you what to focus on so you always benefit from the best buffs.
Valheim food and buffs explained: Health, Stamina, and Eitr
You don’t get hungry in Valheim, but food is still crucial. The HUD already hints at this: in the bottom-left corner you’ll see three slots, each for a different food item. You eat to gain positive survival effects. These grant more health, more stamina, or—later in the game—more Eitr. Items are marked with a little fork icon.
Each food also has other properties you should keep in mind:
- Healing per second
- Duration of the effect after eating
- Weight
- Stack size
It’s important to keep a balanced diet, but also match it to your combat style. More health means you withstand hits longer and can block better with a shield. More stamina lets you dodge and move nimbly. And Eitr is for anyone who frequently uses special attacks.
All cooking stations in Valheim: Preparing recipes
You can find, grow, and process food in several ways. While some things can be eaten raw—like certain berries—others must be cooked to unlock their effects. Valheim offers multiple options you unlock as you progress.
- Cooking station: A simple structure that must be placed over an open fire. Primarily used to grill meat.
- Cauldron: Also requires a fire and lets you cook more complex soups and stews. With additional upgrades you unlock more recipes as you advance. These improvements are: Spice rack, Butcher’s table, Pots and pans, Mortar and pestle, and a Cutting board.
- Iron cooking station: An upgrade to the regular cooking station. Can grill more types of meat and more pieces at once.
- Stone oven: The final major cooking station. It can prepare larger recipes and is unlocked later in the game, after you find iron.
Valheim mead and feasts: Crafting powerful buffs
Beyond regular dishes, Valheim also lets you craft other consumables thanks to various updates. On one hand, there’s mead, a honey-wine that grants various effects. On the other hand, you can prepare feasts that provide strong, long-lasting buffs.
For mead, you first need a cauldron to brew the mead base. Mead can grant more HP or stamina, plus other helpful buffs. You can brew meads with resistance to fire, frost, or poison, protect yourself from mosquitoes in the Plains, or make battle meads. Then process the mead base in the fermenter.
Feasts are large dishes, often made from a combination of all available ingredients in a biome. Build a preparation table and make the feast there. Each biome has exactly one such dish. You’ll first need to enter the Swamp to unlock this feature. Every feast grants a considerable amount of both HP and stamina. And you can take ten servings from it. Since you can’t take feasts with you, eat them at your base, ideally right before heading out.
Best food by biome in Valheim: Recommendations
Progress in Valheim is tied to different regions. They don’t just look unique—they also contain new ingredients and foods. Let’s go through each biome and highlight the most effective three-item combinations and what you should keep an eye out for.
Meadows
- Health: Cooked deer meat
- Stamina: Honey
- Balanced: Mushrooms
Black Forest
- Health: Deer stew
- Stamina: Carrot soup
- Balanced: Boar jerky
Swamp
- Health: Serpent stew
- Stamina: Turnip stew
- Balanced: Cooked serpent meat
Mountains
- Health: Wolf skewer
- Stamina: Eyescream
- Balanced: Wolf jerky
Plains
- Health: Lox meat pie
- Stamina: Blood pudding
- Balanced: Sweet bread with frosting
Mistlands
- Health: Misthare supreme
- Stamina: Fish ’n’ bread
- Eitr: Seeker aspic
Ashlands
- Health: Spicy cake
- Stamina: Roasted crust pie
- Eitr: Marinated greens
You generally unlock the relevant ingredients only within their respective biomes. Cooking recipes use two to four ingredients you’ll need to gather and combine. Most dishes are based on meat, which you obtain from animals or monsters in that region. You’ll also use vegetables like onions, turnips, or carrots that you can grow yourself. Sometimes you must further process items, such as grinding barley into flour.
The farther you get, the more exotic the ingredients become—eventually unlocking food that grants Eitr. Later dishes also provide more healing per second, which can be very helpful. We recommend weighing the upcoming fight and deciding what to cook and bring accordingly.
Conclusion: Food and buffs in Valheim
Even without a hunger bar, food is extremely important in Valheim. Always fill your belly with three different foods to make the most of their effects. Whether HP, stamina, or Eitr, it will help you in combat. Adjust your diet in each new biome, craft new cooking stations, or try something different. Mead is a great alternative that adds more positive effects. Later, you can also prepare feasts to get the most out of a biome’s ingredients.
Rent a Valheim server and start your gameserver instantly, so you can cook together with friends and discover new foods in Valheim. Find your balanced diet and share recipes and knowledge with each other.
