Food guide by Falzum and Falaras

== Why a Food Guide? ==
 
Too often you see people eating the wrong food for the situation. This will hopefully demystify what to eat when. 
== How does Food work? ==
Food is applied after any flat stat increases. Using RIce Dumpling (+20% atk) for example:
atk = (base atk + gear + minuet) x food
atk = (75 + 10 + 15) x 1.20% = (100 x 1.20%) = 120 atk
Typing /checkparam <me> will show your current combat stats including accuracy.
== What should I Eat as a Melee DD ==
=== Level 1-35 ===
Rice Dumplings here are the go-to best food you can use for its high attack percentage, bonus accuracy, and if applicable ranged attack. For those on a budget Sausage is almost as good and purchasable from a vendor in Bastok for only 140g each. If you're specifically using ranged attacks then Flounder Meuniere can provide a mix of Ranged Accuracy and Ranged Attack that can compete with Rice Dumplings.
==== Food Breakdown: ====
Sausage: Caps at 111 base attack and ranged attack. Sausage is bought from an NPC in Bastok for 140g each, depending on conquest results. It has very high Attack+% but a very low maximum attack of 30. This is absolutely amazing starter food for new players on a budget that still want to perform. The big differentiation between this and Meat Jerky is it gives ranged attack. 
Meat Jerky: Caps at 137 base attack. This is another very cheap NPC bought food, and every nation has access to it for around 108g. It's weaker than Sausage just straight up, but is at least pretty close in power level as long as you don't use ranged attacks. 
Rice Dumpling: Caps at 225 base Attack and 150 base Ranged Attack. This food offers a great mix of Attack, Ranged Attack, and Accuracy which pairs very well with low level play. It's relatively expensive for low level food, but is basically unbeatable in quality. Since it caps higher in attack/ratk you can use this food for longer. 
 
Flounder Meuniere: Caps at 178 base ranged attack. A good option for specifically ranged attack users, such as arrow burns or rangers in general. Given the very low attack bonus, this does heavily lose out in bonus ranged attack to Rice Dumplings, but the +7.5% hit rate with ranged weapons is pretty powerful. 
=== Level 35-75 ===
Sushi will be your go-to accuracy food once you get to this level range. General rule of thumb is if your acc is 75% or lower, you want sushi. You can get a parser and figure out your acc, or ask a party member if they're parsing. After a few mobs you'll know if you need sushi or meat for that camp and level. 
==== Food Breakdown: ====
 
Sole Sushi, Squid Sushi, Bream Sushi, Crab Sushi: All sushi products give relatively the same amount of accuracy, except Crab Sushi, and the differentiation between these are what base stat modifiers they give and how expensive they are. 
* Sole Sushi is the most expensive, and gives STR which is generally the most useful secondary stat. 
* Squid Sushi is less expensive than Sole, and gives AGI. 
* Bream Sushi is less expensive than Squid, and gives VIT. Bream also gives a very small amount more accuracy than Sole/Squid. 
* Crab Sushi is significantly less expensive than Bream, but gives less accuracy and barely any other stats. 
 
Meat Mithkabobs: Caps at 272 base attack. This is the staple attack food of FFXI, it's very affordable and still gives a respectable amount of attack. This food is very useful for fighting Colibri that steal your food, to use while farming gil, or really any event where performance doesn't matter that much but you still want to use food.
Coeurl Subs: Caps at 373 base attack/ranged attack. Couerl Sub is a step up from Mithkabobs with its higher attack total but also costs more. The main thing Couerl Subs are used for however is their ranged attack, making this one of the most popular foods for ranged attackers.
Carbonara: Caps at 361 base attack. Carbonara is a sleeper overpowered food, it still gives a good amount of attack but has two extra stats on it that make it very good. Store TP+6 allows many jobs, when properly min/maxed, to get to 1000 TP faster thus increasing their damage a ton. HP+14% gives you a huge amount of extra HP padding so you don't hit the ground as often, a dead DD does no damage and Carbonara helps keep you alive.
Hedgehog Pie: Caps at 500 attack/ranged attack. Hedgehog Pie is primarily used for the Accuracy+5 it gives, which can help you shore up your hit rate. The main issue with this food is that the Attack+% is relatively low compared to other options, at 400 attack which is pretty normal for a 75 DD, this food will be on par with a Couerl Sub in bonus attack. You usually need an external attack buff like Valor Minuet to make good use of this foods larger attack cap. 
Red Curry: Caps at 653 attack/ranged attack. This is the king of attack food, and commands a kingly price because of it. It provides the highest Attack+% of any good food, so it will generally always be the highest amount of attack possible. Given the max attack on this food is so high, you likely won't ever come close to actually capping out on the 150 attack bonus. This food scales very well if you are receiving external attack buffs like Valor Minuets. 
Hydra Kofte: Caps at 750 attack/ranged attack. This is another expensive high max attack food like Red Curry. However, since this one has a lower Attack+% it ends up being much weaker. It is entirely possible that some jobs will actually gain no bonus attack from this food over a Couerl Sub because they can't take advantage of the higher max attack. One very cool thing about this food though is it provides bonus defense, increasing survivability and allowing you to stay alive to do more damage.
== What Shouldn't I Eat as a Melee DD ==
 
Jack O Lantern. Don't do it. The Accuracy+10 on this item will always provide exactly +5% hit rate, which is just not anywhere close to as good as using the other low level foods listed. Most Meat foods will make you hit nearly 50% harder per swing at low levels, which is significantly better than hitting 5% more of the time. 
== What should I eat as a Mage ==
MP is what's going to slow down a party. Eating cookies is generally the easiest and cheapest way to increase your Healing MP while resting stat. These stack to 99 and last 3-5minutes. Often people will make a macro that looks like:
=== Food Breakdown: ===
Ginger Cookie and Wizard Cookie: +5 hmp and +7 hmp respectively
Melon Pie +1: +5 INT, +30mp, +2HMP. The nq doesn't provide any hmp at all.
Rolanberry Pie: +50mp. If you need max mp for some reason, this is it. Cheap and effective. Low level cor/whm can benefit from this. Especially Galkas
Goblin Mushpot: +10MND, cheap from an npc. Best mnd food for landing slow and paralyze
File:Cream Puff.JPG
Cream Puff: +7INT, best raw INT food
Ambrosia: +7 all stats. This stuff rules
Tavnazian Taco: +20hp, +4CHR, +25% defense. Defensive option for any mage expecting to get hurt. Especially brds
Tuna Sushi: +5CHR
== Drinks ==
Drinks are an entirely different buff and can be used alongside food. Useful for any job that has mp and doesn't have access to refresh. To make maximum use of drinks in a party you'll have to get cooking to at least 30 for Pineapple Juice. Juices don't stack, but the materials do
Pineapple Juice: 30 cooking to craft. 1mp/tick for 4 minutes (80mp total). Costs ~120g each
Melon Juice: 40 cooking. 2mp/tick for 2:15 (90 total). Costs ~600g each
Yagudo Drink: 60 cooking. 2mp/tick for 3:00 (120 total). Costs ~1000g each
== Observations ==
Food is very valuable. Aside from your weapon, food is often the single biggest contribution to the party. Always eat something, even if it's just a sausage or kabob. 
At low levels sushi's % based approach offers almost no bonus. Eat attack food for maximum output(It's cheaper too). 
Carbonara can be super powerful for jobs where the Store tp takes a swing off your attack rounds.
Red Curry gives more attack then Hedgehog Pie starting at 396 base attack. 
Meat Mithkabobs have a IRL and in game shirt because they are dope. 
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Category:Guide