Light the Campfire Beneath the Pot
Light the Campfire directly beneath the Cooking Pot, add matching soup ingredients, and let the cooking bar finish. Feed the fire a Stick, Wood Plank, Bone, Coal or Rotten Food; the pot needs the burning fire below it to cook.
Unlock and Build Your Cooking Setup
If the Cooking Pot recipe has not appeared, pick up Wild Corn to unlock it. Make the station by hand in the Crafting menu using 1 Iron Pot and 3 Iron Rods. For a separate Bonfire, gather 2 Sticks and 1 Rock, then arrange your pot above the fire.
Iron Pots can be found in chests and among loose dungeon items. For Iron Rods, check the prison area or use a Smelter to turn Scrap Metal and Coal into rods. An existing dungeon camp may already have a pot and fire, letting you cook there without building another setup.
Make a Batch of Mushroom Soup
- Gather 2 Mushrooms for a simple Mushroom Soup batch. Roasted Mushrooms also fit this recipe, so you can use those if you have already cooked your supply.
- Fuel the Campfire directly beneath the Cooking Pot with a Stick. Use the fire's "Burn Wood" interaction to provide the heat needed for cooking.
- Put a Mushroom in each of the first 2 ingredient slots. Each slot holds 1 item, so place the ingredients individually rather than expecting a whole stack to cook.
- Leave the third ingredient slot empty for this batch. Mushroom Soup works with 2 matching ingredients, allowing you to save your remaining supplies.
- Collect the finished Mushroom Soup when cooking completes. Each batch produces 1 dish, so gather more ingredients before starting another batch.
Use the Base Slots and Optional Third Slot
The first 2 slots establish your soup base, and the third slot is optional. The Cooking Pot accepts 2 or 3 ingredients for a batch, with each occupied slot holding a single item. Choose ingredients that work together in the same recipe, and leave the spare slot empty when you only want the basic dish.
Choose an extra ingredient with care, because it can change or prevent the result. The pot checks recipes in a fixed order and cooks the first match. For example, 2 pieces of Raw Meat make Meat Soup, while replacing the second piece with a vegetable makes Stew. Noodles paired with Raw Meat make Ramen.
When a recipe accepts any vegetable, ingredients such as Mushroom, Algae and Wild Pepper can fill that requirement. Raw and roasted vegetables count where the recipe allows any vegetable, and the any-protein category similarly includes raw and cooked protein foods. Follow the recipe's ingredient choices when adding something to the optional slot.
Prepare Meat Ingredients at a Cooking Table
For ingredient preparation, unlock the Cooking Table by picking up Leather. Its construction recipe uses 2 Wood Planks and 1 Leather. Use it to process carcasses into ingredients before choosing a soup recipe.
A Bat Carcass becomes 2 Raw Drumsticks at the Cooking Table, while a Red Bat Carcass becomes 3. Raw Drumsticks can be used for Drumstick Soup, and Cooked Drumsticks also fit that recipe. If you want to keep your first attempt simple, start with Mushroom Soup and return to meat preparation when you have the table ready.
Get a Stalled Cooking Pot Working
If the cooking bar has stopped, check the fire directly beneath the pot. A Campfire asking you to "Bring Wood to light" needs fuel, while "Burning Wood" indicates that it is burning. Add suitable fuel at the Campfire to restore the heat the pot needs.
If your ingredients are not producing the dish you expected, check the combination and the optional slot. Every ingredient in the batch must fit the recipe you want, and the pot uses the first matching recipe. Try the Mushroom Soup combination above with the spare slot empty to keep the recipe straightforward.