Xenoblade Chronicles 3: best recipes and their effects

Ever since the days of Pac-Man and other arcade classics, food has been included in games as a method of restoring your character’s health. Whether it be fruit, meat, or a drink, it has become an unspoken rule that any food you find in a game will be a benefit to you. In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and many JRPGs that preceded it, food still has a major role to play, but it functions quite differently.

You won’t be finding food out in the world for free healing, though there are plenty of ingredients to collect. Food in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 can be obtained in two main ways: cooking it yourself via recipes, or purchasing it. Both ways will give your party different buffs depending on what meal you buy or make, but cooking for yourself is certainly the more efficient way to go about it.

And these buffs can be rather strong, too, so it’s well worth your effort in the kitchen to prep a good meal before each adventure. Don’t worry about cleaning the dishes when making these best recipes in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Further reading

How to cook

Manana and the rest of the party sit by a campfire in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Just like in real life, no one is born a master chef. In fact, your party doesn’t even bother learning this essential life skill on their own.

You will only unlock the option to start cooking once you hit chapter 2 and meet the character named Manana at the rest spot you come to in the Fornix region. They will be your team’s cook, helping you create new dishes. Once you have the option, you can start cooking right away by:

  • Reaching any rest spot
  • Selecting the Pot icon
  • Select the recipe you want to make (as long as you have the required ingredients)
  • Press A and wait for however long that meal takes to cook

Alternatively, if you don’t have the necessary ingredients, you can also spend some Nopon coins to bypass the requirement.

How to unlock new recipes

Manana talking to Riku.

You can get new recipes in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 through two methods: finding them in the open world or purchasing that meal at a canteen to learn the recipe.

Any liberated Colony will have a canteen you can visit and take a breather at to enjoy a nice meal. They will cost you some gold, and only give you a single buff, but once you learn the recipe and bring it back to Manana, they will be able to make an improved version, so it’s worth chowing down at every establishment to build up your own cookbook. Otherwise, a huge amount of recipes are waiting to be found in the various colonies, camps, and locations around Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Keep your eye out and collect as many as possible to have access to all the buffs.

Best recipes to make

Manana saying she will be careful.

Each meal you eat will give you one buff if it’s purchased from a canteen, or two if made by Manana. These buffs fall into the following categories at different strength levels and for different durations:

  • EXP boost
  • Class Point boost
  • Increased gold gain
  • Increased item drop rates
  • Increased chance of extra materials gathered

With that in mind, here are the best recipes you should aim to learn and chow down on as soon as possible.

Mild Sizzle-Fizzle Stew

You can unlock this recipe by first eating the Mild Game Stew from the Colony 11 canteen. Its effects last for 48 minutes and are:

  • CP boost of 20%
  • Increased material boost 10%

The CP boost makes this meal one of the best for grinding out Class levels, plus allows you to gather more materials while moving from fight to fight to hopefully replenish your ingredients and make it that much easier for your next meal.

Brisky-Breezy Toastie

This meal is learned from eating the Fish-Fillet Toastie at the Colony 30 canteen.

This light meal will give you the following buffs for a massive 54 minutes:

  • Increased item drop rate 15%
  • Increased material boost 15%

This is a meal for explorers. If you’re planning on doing some side activities, or just roaming around the giant world in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, start your morning off with this meal to make all that exploration time pay off with some extra loot and ingredients.

Cerise-Caprice Acqua Pazza

This steamy dish is one you will want to get fast by eating the Acqua Pazza a la City in the Michiba canteen in Swordmarch. Another filling meal, this one gives you 54 minutes with:

  • EXP boost 20%
  • Increased item drop rate 10%

This is your level-grinding meal.

Obviously the EXP boost is going to cut down on your time between levels a ton, and since you’re already going to be fighting as much as possible, the extra drop rate is just icing on the cake.

Full-Filling Crispygrill

Last up, the Crispygrill can be whipped up by first sampling the Riverbird Crispygrill from the local canteen in Colony Iota.

It may look like a small dish, but for 56 minutes this meal will give you:

  • Increased gold gain 25%
  • Increased material boost 15%

To cover all your bases, sometimes you just need to earn some cash fast.

Fighting will be the way to go for that, and you may as well grab any materials you come across while searching for fights since you’ve got nearly an hour with this buff.

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