Food and Healing Items Guide

**All of this information is courtesy of Reddit user u/DarkSword\_X. This information was originally found on reddit.com/r/GrimSoulSurvival**

As video game logic dictates, eating something heals any kind of wound. A wolf bit you? Just eat something and you'll be fine. That damned cracked one of your ribs? Eat up, you'll feel better. A templar just slashed a gaping hole in your chest with its monstrous sword ? Nothing a good meal can't cure – even poison! Yes, yes, there *are* bandages and potions too – those can heal you too, I guess.

When going on an adventure, a wise exile always bring healing items along.

The game gives you lots of healing items options – and some are indeed better than others; either from a situational standpoint, or on an economic standpoint. Let's have a look.

*For the purpose of this guide, we will address cooking time at base level. But keep in mind that the amount of wood needed to cook something varies depending on you castle level and on whether you're using pine logs or pine planks for the fire (pine blanks burn longer).*

*Also, seasonal items (pumpkins, candy canes, etc.) are not analyzed in this guide, being of a limited nature, they cannot be relied upon for grand-scale systematic planning.*

*Finally, any item with a **"BAD FOOD"** mention will add a stack of food poisoning on your character. At 10 stacks, you will feel sick and vomit – it doesn't cost any health or food/drink penalty, but it does immobilize you for 3 seconds (and if enemies get to you during that time, you are a sitting duck)*

## **RAW ITEMS**

*The following are healing items in their “natural state”, before any kind of preparation (when available). With the sole exception of leek and mandrake roots (that you need to plant and grow – but that only takes time), they are basically free of cost.*

**Hawberries**

#### *Effect*

Healing: 7

Comes in packs of 3 per bush (possibly 4 if you have the berry harvesting passive skill)

#### *Comment*

These berries are the adventurer's best friend during farming missions. They are abundant, cause no side effect, and are always a nice little pick me up for 21 HP healing when you come across a bush. You can eat them on the go as you find them, or you can bring them back home to brew them for ulterior preparations.

However, these berries are *helpers* and should not be considered your *main* source of healing. Use them to recover minor damages from skirmishes, not as life-saver during important engagements; when facing dangerous enemies that can inflict huge amounts of damage at once (damned knights, templars, etc.), healing from berries will turn out insufficient.

#### *Verdict*

A very nice accessory to your healing tactics, but should not be used as a main healing source.

**Hollyberries**

*Effect*

Healing: 7

Comes in packs of 3 per bush (possibly 4 if you have the berry harvesting passive skill)

**\*BAD FOOD\***

*Comment*

Works exactly the same as hawberries, except that, being bad food, they can induce food poisoning. Be careful not to consume them during a fight or a chase. This alone hampers their usefulness, but they're still a nice accessory healing item on the go – just make sure you are not under any threat before you eat some. Can also be used in bitter tincture preparation.

*Verdict*

Not as nice as hawberries because of the food poisoning effect, but hey, it's free and it's available everywhere in outside missions, so no one's complaining. Again, should only be considered as an accessory on the go, not as a main healing source.

**Leek**

*Effect*

Healing: 15

Grown from leek seeds at your garden (themselves mostly found on damned and leper corpses, as well as in chests) – can occasionally be found in chest and from enemy AI loot.

*Comment*

Leek is quite a likable food as is – but unless you stumble upon some during a mission and don't want to waste an inventory slot to bring them home (i.e.: always!), you would be better to cook them into something better before considering eating them raw.

*Verdict*

If you stumble upon some already grown leek in the pockets of a dead enemy or in a chest, they are a great “on the go” healing source – but those you grow at home will better serve you if you take the time to cook them.

**Raw Meat**

*Effect*

Healing: 4

Can be found on the corpses of slain animals

\*BAD FOOD\*

*Comment*

A very low healing power *and* food poisoning ? Raw meat is the worst healing item ever and you should \*never\* eat raw meat – even in a pinch, the food poisoning effect can very well work against you. Raw meat is to be considered as a resource, to be harvested and brought back home for preparation, where you can turn it into oh so much better healing items

*Verdict*

Collect it for cooking later at home, but don't eat as is.

**Gypsy Mushrooms**

*\*Northern Lands only\**

*Effect*

Healing: 9

Can be found in amounts of 1 or 2 per mushroom patch.

*Comment*

Individually, gypsy mushrooms are slightly more effective than berries for healing on the go, but they are less overall abundant on the map.

However, they can be much, much more useful if you bring them home and stew them into a delicious mushroom soup… BUT, keep in mind that Northern Land adventuring is very, very expensive – those are only interesting to bring back if you have harvested all the iron and birch you can find and still find yourself with available inventory slots (always remember to prioritize what you bring back).

*Verdict*

Pretty much on par with berries for on the go healing and immediate consumption – i.e.: a nice little accessory healing source. If inventory space permits, harvest them to cook them back home for a much better result.

**Grave Mushrooms**

*\*Northern Lands only\**

*Effect*

Healing: 9

Can be found in amounts of 1 or 2 per mushroom patch.

\* VERY BAD FOOD – INDUCE INSTANT SICKNESS\*

*Comment*

Will heal you just like a regular gypsy mushroom, but will instantaneously make you sick. NEVER eat those.

However, if you can harvest enough (if inventory permits it), you can bring them back and mix them into one of the most potent potion in the game.

*Verdict*

Consider those like raw meat. Do not eat as is – bring them back for potion making.

**Ale**

*Effect*

Healing: 50

\*BAD FOOD\*

Can only be found in chests (and the occasional enemy AI)

*Comment*

As you can only obtain ale through lucky finds, it cannot be reliably counted on for long-term planning. Ale must be considered as a “bonus on the go”.

Ale has a very good healing potential, and if you're ever thirsty (i.e.: after eating too much jerky), it raises your water level by a whole 30, which can be situationally very nice! It can make you sick though, so be careful when consuming.

But, hey, everybody loves beer!

*Verdict*

Pretty nice – but not readily available for long-term planning

**Barrel of Honey**

*Effect*

Healing: 80

\* Thirst penalty: 5

\* Once consumed, you receive an empty barrel.

*Comment*

The ultimate food! Honey heals for a GREAT deal and is invaluable during dangerous missions, especially dungeon runs (don't overconsume unless you have water or drinks to compensate for the thirst loss). Also, while you are limited to finding it only in treasure chests, you do get 2 free barrels per day from the shop, so there is an -albeit slow- steady income of honey always coming your way.

*Verdict*

Awesome! But given its scarcity, reserve it only for dangerous missions – as reconstituting your reserves takes time.

**Mandrake Root**

*Effect*

Healing: 40

\* + 15% attack speed for 15 seconds \*

Can only be grown from mandrake seeds (obtainable from witches, night caches and final dungeon chests) – can also be found fully grown in final dungeon chests (very rare).

\*BAD FOOD\*

*Comment*

An apparently nice healing item with a nice little bonus… but NEVER USE THEM AS IS.

Why ? Because mandrake roots become litteraly five times more potent if you infuse them in a mandrake potion - which is ridiculously easy once you have the root (as the root is the hardest ingredient to get for that potion). Given that mandrake seeds are very, very rare, under no circumstance whatsoever should you eat a mandrake root raw and not turn it into a potion.

*Verdict*

Invaluable for crafting the best potion in the entire game. But never -EVER- eat those as is. That is one of the most wasteful thing you can do in this game.

## PREPARED FOOD

Items in this category need to be cooked, prepared or stewed at your stronghold. They all generate better results than their “raw” counterparts.

**Roasted Meat**

*Effect*

Healing: 30

*Preparation*

Fire

1 raw meat = 1 roasted meat

Time: 8:00 minutes

Requires firewood

*Comment*

A very reliable staple food source and healing item! Raw meat is very abundant and you'll most likely never find yourself lacking meat to cook (unlike leek). However, it does costs both time and firewood to prepare – and in terms of absolute economics, several other prepared items can outclass it.

Still, all things considered, roasted meat remains a very nice food – easy to cook in big quantities, and at a very reasonable cost-efficient price, even if not the most competitive.

*Verdict*

Because of its easy availability, it can safely be considered as a staple healing item when farming and night cache runs. It's not the best ever, and it's outclassed by other foods, but it's relatively cheap and readily available.

**Jerky**

*Effect*

Healing: 40

\* Thirst penalty: 3

*Preparation*

Meat dryer

1 raw meat = 1 jerky

Time: 40:00 minutes

does \*NOT\* require firewood

*Comment*

Jerky is, hands down, the overall best healing item in the game from an economic perspective. Why ? Because it heals for a great deal and it's FREE TO PREPARE from the very abundant raw meat. All other recipes require you to burn firewood – which has a cost in and of itself, but will also inflict a situational limit on your production (when the wood runs out, your production stops until you add some more, which can pause preparation when you're away adventuring).

However, it DOES take long to dry and prepare, so replacing your jerky stocks may take time.

Also keep in mind that each jerky you eat inflicts a thirst penalty of 3 points. It's not much in itself, but it adds up.

*Verdict*

Absolutely wonderful! Don't leave home without it – especially for long adventures like dungeon runs (but remember to bring drinks along too).

**Fried Leek**

*Effect*

Healing: 30

*Preparation*

Fire

1 leek = 1 fried leek

Time: 3:00 minutes

Requires firewood

*Comment*

One word: CHEAP TO COOK! Frying leek takes almost 3 TIMES LESS FIREWOOD than roasting meat – for the same healing potential. From a purely economic standpoint, it is the most cost-efficient healing item in the game (if you factor in time to produce; which eclipses jerky – if you don't consider time, then jerky beats it).

HOWEVER, leek is much, much less abundant than meat, so there is a soft limit to your fried leek production. If you can consume and replace your meat reserves easily, you can't do so with leek.

*Verdict*

*When you have leek to fry*, the fried leek is the best healing item for regular farming missions in terms of economics – but you may find yourself without leek for some periods of time, and this may hamper its global reliability.

**Berry Drink**

*Effect*

Healing: 30

*Preparation*

Campfire

3 hawberries = 1 berry drink

Time: 6:00 minutes

Requires firewood

*Comment*

In and of itself, berry drinks are kinda more expensive to cook than roasted meat or fried leek – and the 3:1 ratio means that you can ever only produce a maximum of 6 drinks at a time (from a 20 berries stack: 18 will stew, 2 will remain) – so that does induces a soft limit on your production.

However, berry drink absolutely shines as the best complement ever for jerky and honey during long adventures – because you will need a water source to compensate for the thirst those item induce, and berry drinks fill that role perfectly. You can easily mass-produce berry drinks in that perspective and it works wonders.

*Verdict*

Absolutely essential when doing dungeon runs, as a secondary healing source to manage your thirst levels. For regular farming and night cache runs, then it's not cost-efficient enough to warrant using it as a main healing source.

**Leek Soup**

*Effect*

Healing: 35

*Preparation*

Campfire

2 leek = 1 onion soup

Time: 6:00 minutes

Requires firewood

*Comment*

Leek soup heals marginally better than fried leek - but it's economically *very* inefficient: it takes twice as more firewood to stew an onion soup than to fry some leek AND you need 2 leeks instead of 1 for that. Also, while it's also an interesting water source, it's eclipsed by the cost-efficiency of berry drinks in that role, because berries are much, much more readily available than leek.

*Verdict*

Meh. Unless you're drowning in leek and just don't know what to do with your crops, then you are much, much better off to fry your leek than to stew it.

**Mushroom Soup**

*Effect*

Healing: 50

*Preparation*

Campfire

5 gypsy mushrooms = 1 mushroom soup

Time: 14:00 minutes

Requires firewood

*Comment*

A healing item to both love and hate. It has the highest healing potential of any food you can prepare, and both fills and sates you, with no side effect. Nobody can disagree, the end-effect of mushroom soup is pretty great!

However, there are economic downsides. First: it costs a whole 5 mushroom per soup and it requires a LOT of firewood and time to cook. Every single other healing item in the game, even onion soup, is more economic to produce than mushroom soup, even when factoring relative HP regeneration. Also: gypsy mushrooms can only ever be obtained from the Northern Lands – therefore even acquiring them is costly, and you may often want to bring back better items from your adventures than mushrooms.

*Verdict*

On paper (well… on screen), mushroom soup seems great, but it's economically inefficient. If you ever bring mushrooms back from your adventures, you might just go ahead and stew them, but don't consider mushroom soup a staple food to be mass-produced.

## BANDAGES & POTIONS

**Bandage**

*Effect*

Healing: 40

\*Instant healing\*

*Preparation*

3 flax fibers

5 cloth

Instantaneous

*Comment*

Bandages are a convenience. While they do not cost any food items to craft, they have a very high cost in textile material (which you will most of the time want to use to craft clothing and armor) – making them extremely cost-inefficient when compared to other healing items.

However, when you happen to find bandages in a chest or on the corpse of a defeated enemy, then they are a very nice little bonus! Also, in a pinch, you can always craft a few in-mission out of the textile loot harvested from defeated enemies (which is generally abundant). That can make a difference if you're at the very end of a mission and just need a small extra healing boost for the final battles.

*Verdict*

Do not mass-produce bandages, they are cost-inefficient. However, those you will find during your adventure will bring nice healing on the go.

**Bitter Tincture**

*Effect*

Healing: 100

\*Instant healing\*

*Preparation*

1 Spirit (which, itself, costs 5 hawberries, 1 empty vial and 5 minutes to ferment)

1 Cloth

5 Hollyberries

Instantaneous

*Comment*

Bitter tincture gives you instant full health\* - and nobody can disagree on this: it's awesome. As a full-heal item, bitter tincture is always better used when low on HP for maximum potency and should be reserved for those really dangerous fights that will inflict you lots of damage. But be careful though, if you let your HP get too low, that next hit you *think* you can handle before drinking the potion may be the one that kills you!

On the plus side, if you have enough vials, then it's not that complicated to craft: it only takes berries and does not cost any firewood to prepare. The many steps required (and the requirement for empty vials, which can only be found in chests) to concoct the potion will not allow you to mass-produce them on a same scale as food – but it's not super rare either.

\* Yes, we know, it won't be *full* health if you have the mighty health skill that raises your max life above 100 - but are you really going to let your life drop below 10HP and complain that 109/110 HP is not *full* health after drinking a potion ? ... You are ? Allright. Then please direct your grievance to the Plague God - his unholiness will make sure you never have any future cause to worry about your health...

*Verdict*

A VERY GOOD high-end healing item during dangerous missions – but do not use them as staple healing items during normal adventures, that's just wasteful.

**Mushroom Infusion**

*Effect*

Healing: 100

\*Cures poison\*

*Preparation*

Herbalist's Table

1 empty vial

20 Grave mushrooms

24 hours (!!!)

*Comment*

Woah… This is doubtlessly a very, VERY good healing item – and it's a life-saver when facing poisonous enemies (i.e.: bats!). And the fact that it heals over time instead than instantaneously makes it actually better than bitter tinctures on a tactical scale, as you will usually “waste” less healing potential (i.e.: you drink it and continue fighting; the additional damage you take will be healed too).

But… BUT… it comes at a very steep price: it costs a whopping 20 GRAVE MUSHROOMS to concoct a single potion! Most of the time during Northern Lands missions, there aren't even that many grave mushrooms in a single map. Plus, economically speaking, it means you have to commit a whole inventory slot (20 grave mushrooms) to bring enough components to concoct just ONE potion.

And also, while it's basically free to prepare once you have the mushrooms (it does cost an empty vial, but that should not be a problem for single-unit production), it takes a whole DAY to create just one.

*Verdict*

In theory, this potion beats bitter tincture in terms of healing and usefulness: full health over time and antidote all in one – that's awesome! But it's so -SO- complicated to craft (even mandrake tincture is easier to make!) that it cannot be considered something other than a super-rare exception. Put simply, you cannot hope to ever mass-produce those, and you will never use those recurrently in 20-stacks for adventure healing items - but that's not their role. Instead, think of a mushroom infusion as a powerful *antidote* rather than a healing item and use it to counteract dangerous poison attacks rather than for its healing properties.

Of course, make sure you actually kill the poison-inducing enemy before you drink the infusion, otherwise you risk being poisoned once again, negating the antidote effect.

**Mandrake Tincture**

*Effect*

Healing: 200

\*25% bonus attack speed for 20 seconds\*

*Preparation*

1 Spirit (which, itself, costs 5 hawberries, 1 empty vial and 5 minutes to ferment)

1 Cloth

1 Mandrake Root

Instantaneous

*Comment*

The game's cheat code. The God Potion. The Invincibility Protocol. The Orgasm in a Bottle.

This potion is by far the BEST healing item of the entire game. With 200 life regeneration over 5 seconds (40 HP per second) -AND- a 25% bonus attack speed for 20 seconds (melee weapons only), you can use it to basically become invincible and deadly. See that Desecrator over there ? Drink this potion to turn this encounter into a horror movie… FOR THE DESECRATOR!

This item is ridiculously overpowered and can turn the tide of any and all battles in your favor by turning you into an unstoppable force of destruction – and if you drink several in close succession, you can functionally consider yourself a god for their duration and even engage several armored enemies at once (note: your gear -will- suffer some heavy damage though). Side note: do not get TOO careless, if you suffer more than 100% damage in a split-second (i.e.: fanatic suicide bomb), you will still die – but if you can manage to get even a breath's moment of reprieve between hits, you're good as new.

Of course, an item this powerful is not easy to come by: apart from the chance find in high-level dungeon chests or merchant trades, you can only craft them from mandrake roots, which can only be grown from the very rare mandrake seeds that are very hard to come by. (Oh, and, to say it again: if you ever eat a mandrake root raw instead of turning it into a potion, you are utterly stupid).

*Verdict*

The game's ultimate item – extremely hard to come by and to be used very, VERY sparingly against only the most dangerous enemies or situations. But when the time comes, drink this potion and shout : “I'm not locked in here with you - *you* are locked in here with ME!” and then proceed to kill everything in sight. Maniacal laughter may or may not ensue.