Guides/Reliable Food Sources to Get You Through the Game

Some of you may have troubles making sure to get enough food to last you through the game, or maybe you can't seem to get the right food. My aim in this guide is to help you ensure that you have sustainable and profitable food sources.
Once you get the hang of collecting food, it isn't too hard to get it, because there is almost always more from where it came from.
Keep in mind this is most RoG (Reign of Giants DLC) content, though I will make sure to separate vanilla content from any DLC content to make sure nobody gets mixed up.
This is my third guide, and my other two are always being worked on, it may and will take a while to finalize this one.
== Early Game Food ==
Before you get a Science Machine and Alchemy Engine, you don't have as much of a steady food supply. However, there are ways to ensure your early game survival.
When you first spawn, you may want to collect as many Berries as possible. You find them on Berry Bushes, of course. There are Carrots, but only pick those when you need them badly. Unlike the Berries, they are a limited food source without farming, and do not spoil in the ground, so leaving them in the ground until they're completely needed is a good idea. They also make great food when exploring in Winter, as berries grow at a much, much slower rate if at all.
Unless you're unlucky, you probably don't need to dig into your Carrot supply. In the early game, farming Rabbits is one of the best things you can do. Traps only cost six Grass and two Twigs. It is one of the best ways to obtain food, especially early game, trust me. I've gotten over a stack of Cooked Morsels from it before. Make as many Traps as possible, but don't bait them; Place them over the Rabbit Holes, so the Rabbits will be caught when leaving or exiting. Sometimes, they won't get caught, but it's better than baiting it. When you bait them, you lose the bait, and your trap amount is restricted to the amount of food you can put in them. It's much more profitable when you just put it over the hole. Collect the Rabbits a bit after dawn and right after they go home for the Dusk and Night. Make sure not to pick them up right when day hits, as they don't come out as soon as it does. However, they do scurry back home as soon as its dusk. When you collect them at the beginning and end of the day, it makes it possible to go and collect Twigs, Grass, Berries, Rocks, Flint, Gold and anything else you may find, and it gives you more time to explore. Dusk and Dawn are the times the most get caught, and if you reset it after you collect it, you get a lot of food. It is also possible to put down a carrot or berry, and wait until a Rabbit comes over to eat it, and kill them. However, other Rabbits will rush into their holes, making this ineffective unless you are desperate. This also makes you have to stalk it, and it's slow because they're slowly walking, which can get annoying when you should be gathering resources. This also does not catch live Rabbits, which is important because you need to watch your naughtiness. When you cook them alive, it counts as the Fire doing the killing and does not effect you badly in any way. If you are playing RoG, the Rabbits will starve to death in the trap or in your inventory, so be careful. Rabbits are even useful to farm late game if you can't find other foods or you're uncomfortable with the amount you have.
When picking Berries, there is a chance for a Gobbler to spawn. It is a turkey-like creature and you'll know it when you see it. Pick up all red caps (Or red mushrooms) you see, as when they spawn you can put 3 down and it'll kill the Gobbler, resulting in two Drumsticks. Red Caps should only be eaten when starving in early game, due to their -20 health penalty. When cooked, they yield no hunger, so that is not helpful, especially compared to the wonders of Drumsticks.
So here are the best early game food sources (Keep in mind that this list will change and grow over time):
* Berries
* Rabbits
* Gobblers
Alright, here are some food sources that require a Science Machine/Alchemy Engine. Some of these can be obtained fairly early game, but they can't be used easily if at all with no prototyping. However, some of these may be possible without prototyping.
== Drying Racks ==
Once you get a Science Machine going, go and burn down some Trees as soon as possible. Drying Racks need three Twigs, two Charcoal and three Rope. Charcoal is the hardest to get, and even it's very easy. The only problems you may have is that you may have a shortage on grass, twigs or trees, but if you set up in the right area then you shouldn't have a shortage. Even then, you can move them over with a Shovel or Pine Cones.
Once you have a few of these going, dry every single meat you get. Normal Meat, Morsels, Frog Legs, everything. The jerky variants are a lot better than even the cooked versions, and it is best to dry them, unless you are desperate for food or they are about to spoil, in which case it isn't terrible to cook them. However, once you have a steady supply of any kind of Meat going, it shouldn't be too hard.
Monster Meats is better as filler in the Crock Pot than being dried.
Here are the things you can dry, along with the time they take. Each meat has a different drying time than other meat, and it produces different jerky, depending on what it is.
Type of Meat 	Drying Time and result
Meat 	2 days, resulting in Jerky.
Monster Meat 	1 day, resulting in Monster Jerky
Batilisk Wing 	2 days, resulting in Small Jerky
Morsel, Frog Legs, Fish, Drumstick and Eel	1 day, resulting in Small Jerky
thumb|220x220px|From left to right: Jerky, Monster Jerky, Small Jerky
Jerky and Small Jerky give you Health, Hunger and Sanity, making them a lot better than their cooked counterparts. Keep in mind that you can only dry raw items and not cooked items. Jerky also has a spoiling time of 20 days, 40 in an Ice Box, so if you have stale Meat or Morsels, than this works well. It is not recommended to dry Batilisk Wings, due to taking twice as long as other small meats to dry.
These are what the three types of Jerky do:
Type of Jerky	Effects
Jerky 	20 Health, 25 Hunger, 15 Sanity, 20 days spoil time
Small Jerky 	8 Health, 12.5 Hunger, 10 Sanity, 20 days spoil time
Monster Jerky	-3 Health, 18.75 Hunger, -5 Sanity, 20 days spoil time
 	
In RoG, rain prevents meat from drying and it will spoil on the rack, unlike in vanilla Don't Starve.
Category:Guides