Food – ICARUS

Crafting your way from the stone age to rifles and carbon-composite armor is hungry work, and you’ll need to make sure you keep your belly full while prospecting. In this guide, we’ll go over the basics of finding and processing food, and list all of the foods currently available in ICARUS.


icarus your first meal berries food guide

When you first land on ICARUS, you’ll be able to harvest Berries from bushes in the Forest biome. These fill your food as well as your Water meter, and are a great way to tide yourself over until you can do some hunting. There are other edible plants, though many need to be cooked over a fire in order to unlock their full benefits (see food list).

Note that depending on your draw-distance settings and your graphics card, Berry Bushes may be indistinguishable from other bushes until you get fairly close to them. Plants like Watermelon and Pumpkin lie flat on the ground, so you’ll need to pay close attention in order to find them if they’re in amongst bushes.

Once you’ve crafted yourself a Bow and some Arrows, you’ll be able to take down Icarus’ animals instead of subsisting on berries. Smaller animals like rabbits and racoons go down in only one arrow, as do baby deer. Larger creatures require a headshot, a stealth attack, or both — land a headshot while crouched to ensure you take down medium deer and other larger herbivores in one arrow, otherwise they’ll run away. Lakes are another good source of food, since fish are easy targets. You can also try to take on wolves, assuming they’re alone. Have a knife crafted and ready to go as well, since it’s much easier to deal the finishing blow in melee (the wolf will attack you once you start rudely shooting arrows at it).

You can eat raw meat and raw fish, but cooking it provides additional benefits and makes it significantly more filling.

Until there’s a Prospector perk that allows you to eat raw meat and raw vegetables, you’ll have to cook what you hunt and gather to make it edible. This can be done at a Campfire, or in a Fireplace once you’ve reached Planetary Tech Tier 2. Open the Campfire/Fireplace’s inventory, and place your raw meat in one of the available slots. Then put fuel in the fuel slot (this can be wood, fiber, sticks, or coal), and click the “Activate” button to begin cooking.

Once you reach Tier 2 (the Crafting Bench) you’ll be able to craft a Cooking Station. The cooking station will allow you to craft simple meals, like the Fruit Salad and Wild Salad — these meals offer significantly bigger bonuses than foods cooked at a campfire. It’s also where you create Animal Fat, which is a component in some advanced recipes. The Potbelly Stove allows for even more complex and beneficial meals than the Cooking Station, but these meals require harder-to-collect ingredients.

Once you’ve teched up to Tier 3 (the Machining Bench) you’ll be able to craft the Kitchen Bench and its attachment, the Biofuel Stove. The Kitchen Bench allows you to craft Pastry and Bread Dough, while the Biofuel Stove has recipes for a number of advanced meals. These meals give big boosts to your stats, and even offer significant bonuses to XP gain while you digest them.

Bread is significantly more involved than cooking meat: You’ll need a Mortar and Pestle to create Flour from Wheat, and then a Kitchen Bench to combine your Flour with Yeast to create Bread Dough. Bread Dough can then be cooked in a Biofuel Stove to create Bread. You can also make Flatbread Dough instead if you don’t have any Yeast.

While it’s in your inventory, you can stop food from spoiling by eating one item from the stack. This resets the spoilage meter of the entire stack. Note that when food is in a stack, only the top item spoils, not the whole stack. Once one item spoils, that item turns to spoiled food and the spoilage meter of the stack resets.

For food you want to store at your shelter, you’ll need to tech up to an Ice Box or Refrigerator to prevent food from spoiling.

The following foods are currently available in Icarus. You’ll need specific crafting tables or materials to create many of them — foods have therefore been organized by where they can be crafted.

A Campfire or Fireplace is used to cook any hunted/foraged foods that are cookable.

Food
Effects
Duration
(sec)
Misc
+4 Food
+2 Water

+50 Max Health
+75 Max Stamina
600
Ingredient in Fruit Pie
+50 Food
+30 Water

+50 Max Stamina
-10% O2 Consumed
600
Ingredient in Fruit Pie
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
Cook to create Roast Squash. Ingredient in Roast Vegetables
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
Cook to create Charred Corn. Ingredient in Vegetable Pie.
+10 Food
+2 Water

+50 Max Health
-10% Food Consumption
600
Ripens from Ripe Coconut
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
Ingredient in Mushroom Soup, Stew, Meat Pie
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
Cook to create Cooked Fish.
Ingredient in Fish Curry, Crumbed Fish Fillet
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
Cook to create Cooked Meat. Ingredient in Stew, Meat Pie.
+20 Food

+10% Max Health
60
Cook to create Cooked Prime Meat.
+2 Food
+10 Water

+25 Max Health
-10% Food Consumption
600
Ripens into Ripe Coconut
Food
Effects
Duration
(sec)
Required Elements
+50 Food

+75 Max Stamina
+5% Projectile Damage
600
Carrot (1)
+50 Food

+75 Max Stamina
-10% Stamina Consumed by Actions
600
Corn (1)
+80 Food
+30 Health

+100 Max Health
+75 Max Stamina
600
+80 Food
+20 Health

+100 Max Health
+75 Max Stamina
+15 Health regen per min
600
+150 Food
+30 Health

+10 Max Stamina
+150 Max Health
+20 Health regen per min
+5% XP Gain
600
+50 Food
+10 Health

+10% Health Regen
+100% Stamina Regen
1200
+50 Food

+75 Max Stamina
600
+50 Food

+75 Max Health
+5% Stamina Regen
600
+50 Food

+75 Max Stamina
+5% Melee Damage
600
Squash (1)

Note that the Cooking Station is also where Animal Fat can be crafted.

Food
Effects
Duration
(sec)
Required Elements
+100 Food

+75 Maximum Stamina
+150 Maximum Health
-10% Stamina Consumed by Actions
900
icon recipewaterWater, Animal Fat (1), Corn (1)
+100 Food

+75 Maximum Stamina
+75 Maximum Health
-10% Oxygen Consumption
-10% Water Consumption
900
+100 Food

+150 Maximum Stamina
+10% Exposure Resistance
+10% Melee Damage
900
Pumpkin (1), Squash (1)
Food
Effects
Duration
(sec)
Required Elements
+150 Food
+30 Health

+10 Max Stamina
+150 Max Health
+20 Health regen per min
+5% XP Gain
600
+100 Food

+225 Max Health
+10% Health Regeneration
+10% Stamina Regeneration
900
Animal Fat (1), Soy Bean (5), Raw Fish (1)
+100 Food

+225 Maximum Stamina
+10% Exposure Resistance
+10% Melee Damage
900
Pumpkin (1), Squash (1), Carrot (1)
+100 Food

+150 Max Health
+75 Max Stamina
+10% Projectile Damage
+10% Stamina Regeneration
+10% Health Regeneration
900
Carrot (1), Mushroom (5), Soy Bean (5)
+100 Food

+150 Maximum Health
+75 Maximum Stamina
+10% Stamina Regeneration
+10% Health Regeneration
+10% Projectile Damage
900
Mushroom (5), Carrot (1), Raw Meat (1)
+100 Food

+75 Max Stamina
-20% Stamina Consumed by Actions
900
icon recipewaterWater, Corn (1)

The Kitchen Bench is also where Bread Dough and Pastry are crafted.

Food
Effects
Duration
(sec)
Required Elements
+40 Water

+125 Max Stamina
+100% Stamina Regen
900
Beer Bottle (1), Wheat (20), Yeast (1)
+40 Food

+125 Max Stamina
-20% Water Consumption
+10% Shared Experience
900
+150 Food

+150 Max Stamina
+20% Projectile Damage
+20% Shared Experience
1200
Glass Jar (1), Carrot (4)
+40 Water

+125 Max Stamina
+100% Stamina Regen
900

The Biofuel Stove can only be placed attached to a Kitchen Bench.

Food
Effects
Duration
(sec)
Required Elements
+80 Food
+10 Health

+100 Max Health
+125 Max Stamina
+10% XP
1200
+150 Food

+150 Maximum Health
+75 Maximum Stamina
-15% Stamina Regeneration
+10% Experience Gained
1200
+150 Food

+75 Max Health
+150 Max Stamina
-15% Oxygen Consumption
-15% Water Consumption
+10% XP Gain
1200
Pastry (1), Berries (1), Watermelon (1)
+150 Food

+225 Max Health
+15% Exposure Resistance
+15% Stamina Regen
+15% Health Regen
+10% Experience Gained
1200
Pastry (1), Mushroom (5), Pumpkin (1), Raw Meat (1)
+150 Food

+150 Max Stamina
+15% Exposure Resistance
+15% Experience Gained
1200
+150 Food

+150 Max Health
+150 Max Stamina
-15% Stamina Consumed by Actions
+15% Melee Damage
+10% Experience Gained
1200
Pastry (1), Squash (1), Soy Bean (1), Corn (1)

Orbital meals are researched and crafted via the Workshop before missions.

Meal
Effects
Duration
Research Cost
Crafting Cost
+100 Food

+10% Stamina Regeneration
+10% Health Regeneration
-10% Water Consumption
-10% Food Consumption
-10% Oxygen Consumption
1200
icon rencurrency25
icon rencurrency10
+200 Food

+10% Stamina Regeneration
+10% Health Regeneration
-10% Water Consumption
-10% Food Consumption
-10% Oxygen Consumption
3600
icon rencurrency50
icon rencurrency25
+50 Stamina
Instant
icon rencurrency25
icon rencurrency25
+150 Oxygen
Instant
icon rencurrency25
icon rencurrency10
+100 Water

+10% Health Regeneration
-10% Water Consumption
-10% Oxygen Consumption
1200
icon rencurrency25
icon rencurrency10

We hope this guide on food in ICARUS was helpful. If you have any questions, comments, or have some info we’re lacking, please let us know in the comment section below!

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DanielD
DanielD

Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.

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Jon Christensen
Jon Christensen
2 years ago

Looks like Pickeled Carrots didn’t make the list?