Zelda: BOTW's Most Powerful Recipes (& How to Make Them) (2023)

Food and cooking are essential parts of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with some recipes having significantly more power than others. Food in both ingredient form and cooked form can help Link a great deal, as can elixirs, with each helping Link gain back health and stamina, sometimes providing other benefits like cold or heat resistance. Knowing what BOTW recipes are best is a vital survival skill with all the different enemies Link encounters and the landscapes he explores.

Breath of the Wild features 118 different food dishes that can be cooked and 12 basic elixirs with variations. Food recipes use only food ingredients, whereas elixirs require a combination of critters and monster/guardian parts - and sometimes that includes some weird cooking combinations. With so many ingredient combinations to make different recipes and elixirs, it is useful to know which BOTW recipes will benefit Link the most on his travels through Hyrule.

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Best BOTW Stamina Recipes

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has a lot of climbing, and, depending on the player's skill level and available weapons, a lot of running from enemies. Link can burn through his stamina wheel very quickly, even when the Link's stamina wheels are maxed out in BOTW. The following recipes will restore or increase Link's stamina, which definitely comes in handy for those high climbs or a mad dash to safety.

Best BOTW Recipes for Hearts

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Heart restoration items are by far some of the most important recipes in Breath of the Wild. At the start of the game, Link starts with only three hearts so every bit of health-increasing food helps if players are going to skip doing BOTW's health glitch. The following food recipes will grant Link all the hearts he could need and sometimes even extra.

Best BOTW Condition-Resisting Recipes

Given all the different climates that Link travels through in Breath of the Wild, he is bound to run into some inclement weather. Cold-resistant, heat-resistant, and electric-resistant foods are a necessity when traveling through these areas unless players attempt at making Link fireproof in BOTW. Recipes labeled as "spicy" have a cold resist effect, "chilly" have a heat resist effect, and "electro" have an electric resist.

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Best BOTW Recipes for Movement Speed

Many players learn early on in the game that sometimes running away from the enemy is the best option. Whether it is an enemy too powerful or just unexpected, sometimes Link just needs to run instead of fight. Luckily, there are recipes in Breath of the Wild that can help make Link even faster.

Best BOTW Defense and Attack Recipes

Boosting Link's defense or attack stats is beneficial when dealing with BOTW's most powerful enemies. "Tough" dishes help increase Link's defense stat while "mighty" dishes increase his attack stat. There are an abundance of recipes in BOTW for each category depending on what the player needs at the time.

Best BOTW Recipes for Stealth

While some players take on enemies in Breath of the Wild using an all-out frontal attack, others may play with more stealth and cunning. Either way, there are some moments where stealth is necessary, especially when facing the Yiga Clan. Luckily for Link, there are some BOTW recipes that increase his stealth and make him harder to detect.

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Best BOTW Elixir Ingredient Combinations

Elixirs are made from a combination of critters (e.g. frogs, insects, lizards) and monster parts, which Link can also sell for items Kilton's Monster Shop in BOTW. The type of critter used results in the type of elixir made and the monster parts affect the duration of the elixir's effects. The most powerful monster parts are Bokogoblin Guts, Moblin Guts, Lizalfos Tail (all types), Lynel Guts, Keese Eyeballs, Modulga Guts, Hynox Guts, Ancient Core, and Great Ancient Core. Link can make 11 different types of powerful elixirs using those monster parts and any of the listed critters.

The following special ingredients add even more time to BOTW's elixirs:

• Shard of Dinraal's Fang - 630 seconds
• Shard of Dinraal's Horn - 1800 seconds
• Shard of Nydra's Fang - 630 seconds
• Shard of Nydra's Horn - 1800 seconds
• Shard of Farosh's Fang - 630 seconds
• Shard of Farosh's Horn - 1800 seconds

Knowing how to cook better in BOTW by using the right ingredients can unlock many recipe combinations. The best ingredients are not always needed and what players use will depend on the situation and environment that Link is facing. It is always beneficial to have multiple elixirs on hand for any occasion.

With so much to explore in Hyrule, players are still discovering secrets in Breath of the Wild and need to be prepared to take on anything. Food recipes and elixirs are essential to boost Link's health, stamina, and stats. It is currently unknown whether these same recipes will work in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but for now this is some of the best food Link can eat.

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