10 Best Recipes In Core Keeper, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Hearty Pepper Wraps offer a speed boost and health regeneration and is easy to assemble.
• Hearty Oat Cereal provides bulk, stamina boost, and health regeneration.
• Spicy Tulip Salad grants movement speed and glow, ideal for exploration in the early game.

Food is a massive deal in Core Keeper, and if you hope to survive, you can’t do it by munching plants you find on the ground.

You need to fill your belly with cooked food, but as there are hundreds of combinations, what should you make? As the game recently passed a huge player milestone, there are lots of mouths to feed. Here are our picks for 10 of the best recipes in Core Keeper.

For simplicity, I’ve included values for recipes using regular ingredients. The buffs will be much stronger if you find Gold variants of the crops on your travels.

10 Hearty Pepper Wrap

Like Bread And Butter

The Hearty Pepper Wrap is a staple recipe in Core Keeper for beginners and veterans alike.

You gain a 21% increase in movement speed for one minute and health regeneration. The wrap also increases your maximum health by +25 for ten minutes, making you pretty tanky in the early game.

The best thing about the Hearty Pepper Wrap is how easy the ingredients are to obtain. You can find Bomb Peppers and Heart Berries in the starting biome before battling your first boss.

If you’re struggling as a new player, chests can provide items far stronger than anything you can build as long as you have the keys.

9 Hearty Oat Cereal

The Most Important Meal Of The Day

It’s essential to start the day the right way, and that’s also true in Core Keeper. The Hearty Oat Cereal is one of the bulkiest foods in the game and replenishes your Food Meter by +43. Your Max Health is also increased by +25 for 10 minutes.

Most other foods don’t even provide half of that, so it’s perfect for a stamina boost. You also gain 9.1 Health per second for 20 seconds, which rivals Health Potions.

Hearty Oat Cereal doesn’t provide offensive buffs, but it’s easy to make and perfect for long excursions into the unknown.

8 Filling Pepper Wrap

Another Subterranean Staple

Bloat Oats are an incredible ingredient, so we’re using them again for our following recipe. We swap Heart Berries for Bomb Peppers this time, giving us a +21% Movement speed bonus for 1 minute.

We lose the Max Health bonus from the Hearty Oat Cereal but retain the superb +43 Food buff.

We’ve all wasted top-tier food to keep our stamina up. If you keep a healthy supply of Filling Pepper Wraps in your inventory, you’ll never need to do it again.

7 Spicy Tulip Salad

Who Needs Torches?

Spicy Tulip Salad is a superb dish for exploring during the early game. You get a +21% movement speed boost for 1 minute, which is perfect for outpacing enemies.

The best part about the dish is you get +5 Glow for 10 minutes. This buff is strong enough to dig into the dark abyss without needing to place torches every few steps.

You should add torches to any path you use frequently as it prevents mob spawns, but the Spicy Tulip Salad is an explorer’s best friend.

6 Juicy Sun Curry

For Keen-Eyed Marksmen

Melee weapons are fun, but ranged options are usually the way to go, as they are much safer. To that end, sharpshooters will adore the Juicy Sun Curry.

The Curry increases Physical Ranged damage by 22.4% and Magic damage by 30%. These bonuses last 10 minutes, which is plenty of time to punch holes in bosses.

You also gain +4 Glow, which will be helpful in those dark, claustrophobic caves.

If you’re venturing into the Sunken Sea and beyond, keep an eye out for some well-known crossover bosses you may recognize.

5 Iridescent Mold Cheese

A Witchdoctors Best Friend

One of the most fun ways to fight in Core Keeper is to let your minions do all the hard work.

Iridescent Mold Cheese is perfect for this playstyle as it buffs Minion damage by a whopping 30% for 10 minutes. You also gain +4 Glow and 6% reduced damage from bosses for the same duration.

Minions are sometimes a little temperamental, but the Iridescent Mold Cheese makes them much more reliable.

4 Spicy King Sushi

Maximum Damage

Spicy King Sushi offers an immense damage boost of 50.4% for 10 minutes. The bonus applies regardless of your weapon, and you enjoy a 21% movement speed increase for 1 minute upon consumption.

The only downside to the recipe is how rare the Tornis Kingfish is. Fish cannot be farmed like Crops, so you’ll need to go fishing to find them.

The damage bonus is incredible, but the Spicy King Sushi is a dish you’ll only eat on special occasions.

If you’re at the point where you can visit the Desert of Beginnings, check your Achievement/Trophy progress, as you might be close to 100% completion.

3 Crunchy Dragon Fillet

Flames? No Problem!

The Crunchy Dragon Fillet gives a plethora of awesome buffs and makes you completely immune to flames for 10 minutes!

Fire immunity is nice, but we’re just getting started. You also gain +23 Armor and a ridiculous +41% Critical Hit damage for the same period. This dish makes you a walking death machine and ensures your Critical Hits bring the pain.

Sadly, fishing in the Molten Quarry is a miserable endeavor, but the results are worth it.

2 Juicy Tropics Smoothie

Something For Everyone

If you’re the designated chef for the group, you can keep everyone happy with the Juicy Tropics Smoothie.

The beverage gives 6.3 health per second for 20 seconds, which is decent in a pinch. You also gain a 22.4% damage bonus to physical melee and physical ranged damage for 10 minutes.

The Juicy Tropics Smoothie is a decent meal for anyone besides magic users. Sure, you can get more impactful niche buffs, but your buddies can make their own food at that point.

Core Keeper is a superb co-op indie game, and there are plenty of other fantastic titles you can enjoy with your friends.

1 Rare Coral Red Mold Cheese

For The Cuisine Connoisseur

To finish off this list, let me give you a taste of the finest delicacies in Core Keeper. The Rare Coral Red Mold Cheese is a pain to assemble. You must fish for the Pink Coralotl while constantly being harassed by mobs, and Golden Puffungi is exceptionally rare.

If you manage to get both ingredients, you can combine them to get a shopping list of buffs. You get 9.9 health every second for 20 seconds and +45 Magic Barrier for 10 minutes.

Large enemies will cower in fear as you gulp down the cheese. You take -11% damage from bosses for 10 minutes and briefly deal +18% boosted damage against them.

If you’re still not impressed, you gain a hefty +45 Magic Barrier, and your Mana Pool is increased. The Rare Coral Red Mold Cheese is an exceptional dish and suitable for boss battles across the entire game.