Genshin Impact has a plethora of mechanics for you to utilize, not least of which being the ability to combine and cook ingredients from throughout the world. This mechanic can be daunting at first glance though, which is why we’re here to help you along with a guide explaining everything you need to know about cooking in Genshin Impact.
Genshin Impact’s Cooking Explained
To start, cooking in Genshin Impact works about how you would expect if you’ve played other action RPGs or Breath of the Wild-esque titles.
Scattered throughout the world are fires with cooking pots that you can interact with to cook foods which act as useful items. This is done by going up to them and pressing the Square Button, which will open up a cooking menu where you can select ingredients to use for dishes based on recipes.
Once you’ve selected a recipe, you’ll then need to play a quick mini-game to create the dish. It functions like a quick-time event, requiring you to press a button when an indicator is within a certain range, marked by a dark orange block. Successfully stopping the indicator in this area will increase the potency of the dish you make, while stopping it outside of the area will decrease the dish’s quality.
It’s worth noting, though, that you’ll be able to skip this mini-game after you’ve maxed out your proficiency with a given dish. There’s no limit to how much you can cook aside from how many ingredients you have either, so it’s a mechanic you can readily use for however long you play the game.
Where to Find Ingredients
Which brings us to our next point: You’ll need ingredients to cook in Genshin Impact, and to that end you’ll want to pick up and scavenge any ingredients you can find.
Fortunately, there’s no shortage of ingredients to be found throughout the world. Some, like fruits and grains, are harvested by interacting with trees and bushes scattered throughout the landscape. Others are harvested from fallen foes and animals, and yet more are created by mixing base ingredients together at cooking pots.
Once found, all you need to do is walk up to them and press the Square Button. Doing so will add them to your inventory and make them available to you the next time you interact with a cooking pot.
They’ll respawn after you leave an area too, so you won’t have to worry about permanently running out of an ingredient needed to create your favorite dishes.
What the Best Recipes Are in Genshin Impact
This brings us to our final point in regards to cooking in Genshin Impact: There are a number of recipes in the game, and some are definitely better than others depending on the situation.
Each dish you can create offers different benefits to your characters. Some, like Chicken-Mushroom Skewers, heal large sums of health in a single use, while others can revive fallen party members or increase their chances of dealing critical damage with each hit.
As such, the best recipes will change based on what situation you find yourself preparing for. If you’re looking to tank damage from an enemy and heal repeatedly to counteract constant damage, then recipes for super-restorative foods will be your go-to.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to buff your characters into invincibility, then recipes for foods that raise your stats exponentially will be the most useful.
Likewise, the more complex and demanding the recipe is, the more effective it’ll be in granting your characters with powerful stat buffs, so don’t be afraid to splurge ingredients on fancier dishes when the need arises.
That’s all there is to it really. Cooking is easy enough to learn how to do in Genshin Impact, and when used properly, it can help you tear through the game with little to no effort.
Hopefully this explained everything you need to know about cooking in Genshin Impact. For more on the game, check out our guide wiki. It has plenty of other guides related to topics like what the max level cap is and how to increase your stamina.
