A zoner's guide to food. Thread - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Hello, stalker. You can call me puenboy. I'm pretty experienced in the zone, and I know what it feels like to be a rookie, not knowing if you're gonna have food on the table tomorrow. This is a guide from me on how to obtain food in the zone at maximum effectiveness.

Don't buy imported food. They're needlessly expensive. What? You're not in New York where you can just walk to the Chinese place across the street. If you can't handle the rads or consider yourself too high and mighty to eat something that's not packed neatly from a Cambodian slave factory, you shouldn't have come to the zone. Instead, if you really need to buy food, buy bloodsucker or chimera meat. Bloodsucker meat gives 600+ satiety and Chimera gives 700+. I used to be scared of chimeras, until I realized that their meat is amazing. As a sniper, I can just eat chimera meat and go all day without eating anything else. Normally, you won't need to actively buy mutant meat/hunt until very later on in the game because of stashes/rewards/loot containing enough imported food for you to last for the majority of the game. I used to eat only 1 chocolate bar or something similar and run on a half empty stomach for most of the game (until I finished nearly all my quests in Jupiter. CS3 with ergonomic upgrade makes walking on half empty stomach not much of a hassle).

Of course, you will need to cook the mutant meat. Means you'll need a stove, and I suggest buying the highest quality one. It's a one time purchase, you won't be needing another. Now for fuel, it's either gas balloon or jerry can. They do basically the same thing, but jerry cans for some reason are a bit cheaper to I get those. I always buy the 8kg/litre ones because they are the most cost effective. Now cook that bloodsucker/chimera meat, and the satiety should mean that you'll need only 1 of these to last through the day without going hungry. If you're too poor, you could keep flesh or boar meat. They give about 400 satiety (better than most imported food) although boar gives more rad.

Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to drink/smoke after eating mutant meat. Chimera meat gives the most rad (about 450msi I think) but if you read the Geiger counter you'll realize that you don't start losing health from radiation until 1500msi and your body naturally dissipate radiation very slowly over time, so as you go about your zone activities in the day the rad will go away over time. You'll see the radiation icon and hear the geiger counter, but that's about the extent of the nuisance it gives.

Imported food are nice to come by, as they're basically free satiety. I carry one or two chocolate bars at all times myself just in case I need a snack in an extended mission, as they're only 0.02kg. I don't carry mutant meat with me, though. They're usually a bit too heavy or food, and I don't really go out long enough without coming back to base to need another +600-700 satiety again anyways.

Should you need help with something else, don't hesitate and ask. Good hunting, stalker.

On the other hand:
'Don't eat that irradiated shit, once you've got the dough, buddy. Last time a stalker in the Cordon god some serious radiation sickness from them. And oh, that foul smell of them... See this? Nice and clean cattle directly from Soviet Central Asia. Smell it, brother! Not like that boar-shit, eh? You say, that vodka gets you rid of radiation? Heh, drink that barrel-distilled rust remover if you want to. I don't want to say you big words, just wanted to advise you a bit. Stay well, stalker.

But doesn't eating any kind of food still take down your hp when you eat it? I get that the radiation isn't as high as it needs to be, but whenever I eat anything, it still ticks away a bit of my health until I take something to get rid of the rad.

TONYOO101 wrote: But doesn't eating any kind of food still take down your hp when you eat it? I get that the radiation isn't as high as it needs to be, but whenever I eat anything, it still ticks away a bit of my health until I take something to get rid of the rad.

Irradiated only. I mean, only Zone-produced foods should be irradiated.

Edited by: Orszag

If it says unhealthy it suppose to drain your health, though some classes this effect is a lot less. Recons suffer most.

When cooking for yourself, usually the tougher the mutant was, the more nutritious the cooked up version will be. That's why Tushkano (rat) meat doesn't give a good calories-to-radiation ratio, whereas Chimera meat - the masculine meal - will give you an excellent calories-to-radiation ration (when compared with Tushkano or dog). I prefer the masculine meal or bloodsucker goulash, myself.

Skewer is actually a very good food, I think nutrition 104 for like 43 or 47 radiation for an assaulter. You can for example eat like 3-4 skewer and clear it with 1 gulp of cheap water for a food rating equal to a cooked boar, without radiation. For pig or boar you more likely to need 2-2.5 gulps. Masculine meal and ghoulash have a similar trade as boar and pig but give a lot more nutrition. I honestly rarely eat them cause I don't like to drain my stamina down that much to save on food. Your stamina recovery suffers from it so I prefer to stay well fed all the time. In the end one of the cheapest foods to buy is water 3x63 for like 800-1000 depending your progress. I often get enough found from hunting hostile stalkers and plenty of stashes hold power bars. In the end the more stamina means the more you can run and the longer you can stay in the field, so trying to be cheap to be hungry till a masculine meal fills you only hurts you... As an assaulter after three hours sleep you usually need about 400 food. Sleeping longer then three hours in general is useless, 2-3 if you are a recon and a sniper can manage with 1.5

Even as an assaulter, I can manage, since I rarely use stimpacks, when I'm radiated I prefer to eat aqvatabs or smoke lucky strikes, which give nutrition. Healing I do with a medikits and only in serious moment where I bleed out I use a science stimpack, since stimpacks cause hunger and also make you quickly tired.

I play assaulter so when I eat something like boar or bloodsucker I lose health from radiation. Also here is something to think about. Bloodsucker/boar/pig/whatever is pretty cheap for the number of calories it gives....however as an assaulter you also have to factor in the cost of radiation cures. That's when dog/rat meat starts to shine. The radiation on dog/rat is low enough that you don't need to cure it. Sure it doesn't give much, but you can bring it with you as a cheap snack while your out and about. And keeping your stamina full means you stay alive.

Also, cooked bloodsucker/chimera is actually worth a fair amount.

Nyayr wrote: If it says unhealthy it suppose to drain your health, though some classes this effect is a lot less. Recons suffer most.

Could you or anyone else please expand a bit on this? Does this mean that items like the orange box of tobacco or the rolled up white piece of meat reduce your health gradually? If so, does anyone know for how long, and how severe?

This might be the reason why I sometimes seemed to slowly lose health even though I wasn't hungry or irradiated.

I know if you eat some muttie foods for a recon you lose health, usually a few bars.

That issue of losing health when not hungry has to do with this: Moddb.com

You can tweak it yourself back to original.

Assaulter class have little radiation tolerance and begin losing health if you eat a single piece of flesh or boar meat (400rads). I think you might even start slowly slowly losing health even if you eat dog meat (~200rads).

Playing as assaulter, I find myself having to always gulp water or smoke a cig after eating anything radioactive to keep my health from slowly going down.

Edited by: Intranetusa

Assaulter = garbage can when it comes too food, they eat a lot and eat anything
Recon = delicate and eats little, so I never bother eating mutty food as a recon. They can practically life on cocaine and the occasional gulps of water... Much like a supermodel!

Nyayr wrote: Assaulter = garbage can when it comes too food, they eat a lot and eat anything
Recon = delicate and eats little, so I never bother eating mutty food as a recon. They can practically life on cocaine and the occasional gulps of water... Much like a supermodel!

lol supermodel. Yeh, I feel the Recon is the small garbage can that can take anything (due to high rad resistance) and the Assaulter is the large garbage can that is the picky eater (due to low rad resistance and constantly having to smoke/drink water if you're eating mutie flesh)

Hunt mutants with high calorie meat, and then cook it yourself. When yellow or red hunger is indicated, eat the food beside a medic and pay 14XX Roubles to remove radiation after, thus saving your own anti-rads items (needs, cigars, cigarettes, drinks).

deathwarrant327 wrote: Hunt mutants with high calorie meat, and then cook it yourself. When yellow or red hunger is indicated, eat the food beside a medic and pay 14XX Roubles to remove radiation after, thus saving your own anti-rads items (needs, cigars, cigarettes, drinks).

That would be a 'malicious advice mallard', since antirad items can be looted for free.

Orszag wrote:

deathwarrant327 wrote: Hunt mutants with high calorie meat, and then cook it yourself. When yellow or red hunger is indicated, eat the food beside a medic and pay 14XX Roubles to remove radiation after, thus saving your own anti-rads items (needs, cigars, cigarettes, drinks).

That would be a 'malicious advice mallard', since antirad items can be looted for free.

Doesn't happen too often for me, and I play assault class. For the amount of radioactive meat you can eat, 14XX roubles is really cheap when it comes to removing radiation.

Edited by: deathwarrant327

deathwarrant327 wrote:

Orszag wrote:

deathwarrant327 wrote: Hunt mutants with high calorie meat, and then cook it yourself. When yellow or red hunger is indicated, eat the food beside a medic and pay 14XX Roubles to remove radiation after, thus saving your own anti-rads items (needs, cigars, cigarettes, drinks).

That would be a 'malicious advice mallard', since antirad items can be looted for free.

Doesn't happen too often for me, and I play assault class. For the amount of radioactive meat you can eat, 14XX roubles is really cheap when it comes to removing radiation.

If you really want to be cheap. I never wait till I'm red or yellow, unless you don't mind having your stamina recovery halved or worse. As an assaulter I'd buy canteen of water to deal with radiation removal, it usually removes around 200 so 2 fix most mutty foods. Cost... 3 uses canteen 800-1k, I use 2 gulps so that is around 500-600 and also the water restores 2x63 food Radiation removal even at a doc causes sleepiness by the way. I prefer eating (pseudo) dog chops or such since 1 water with it removes it and that way I can keep my stamina maxed.

This only really matters when you're still in the hobo stage, as later on you can afford to eat chocolate for every meal if you wish, but right now I'm playing through as an assaulter and I haven't had to eat any irradiated food whatsoever, nor do I know where most of misery's stashes are. I subsisted on tushonka mainly at the beginning; only really had to eat one most days, which put my food budget at 3000 per day or something. Carried some protein bars in case I had to use a stimpack. Now I live off military rations.

I'm playing as the assaulter for my 2nd playthrough, radiation is a bit of a pain. I tend to eat some irradiated meat and either wash it down with some water/vodka/tobacco (tend to avoid vodka if I'm planning to go out again anytime soon after) or just take some altoids to remove some radiation and let the rest dissipate by itself, which tends to work for me. I certainly haven't noticed any notable health loss if I remove some rads and leave the rest to dissipate, that tends to be more cost-effective. Altoids can be a little expensive for what they are but you get 5 uses out of a tin and they are very useful if you just get a small radioactive dose and want to quickly get rid of it, so I try to keep myself stocked with a tin if I have the cash to spare.

I mostly use cooked (baked) flash meat and wash it off with vodka. I prefer it that way because I use 3 meals during the day and this way I can maintain my stamina and satiate levels at high for the duration without wasting expensive food. I do eat something of greater quality after waking up though as your hunger tends to be high then.
Bloodsucker/chimera meat is better but harder to come by. Dog/snork/boar meat isn't really worth the rads you get.
You may try getting boar meat, cooking it and then selling it Beard. Not big profit but profit all the same. Helps if you are in a tight spot. I usually sell that expensive chocolate you can find in stashes (not chocolate bars, though).
Cooking food is way better then eating it raw even if you play sniper so always cook food. Also, you can find cooking tools in both Zaton and Jupiter so, if you know their location's, you can save yourself some money.

is there any way to pasively reduce radiation like it was with the artefact modules in the previous version?

i play like sniper and the food is nothing to worry about, everytime i am hungry i waste 1 or 2 flesh meat and having the benefit of low sleepness i take the vodka whitout worring about the sleepness effects and in the morning after i sleep i take 3 flesh meat because 4 will start to hurt you because the rad, i go to the medic and get rid of the radiation quickly whitout beign affected by it,

i never taked the glucose shot's are they good or worse than eating cooked meat ?

Edited by: St3alth3r

St3alth3r wrote: i never taked the glucose shot's are they good or worse than eating cooked meat ?

The way I see it, glucose shots arent really ment to be taken while chilin in a safe house. They are meant to be used during combat due to their fast injection animation, and the hability to keep mobile while doing so.
Take this situation for example. Your about to raid a merc base. The first thing you should do is probably inject some morphine to prevent a bleed out once you got shot from their armor piercing rounds. However, morphine alsow increases your hunger, so if you want to have the best mobility in the field while engaging enemies, glucose shots should cancel out that hunger in a fast and relatively safe way. The same goes for when you use stimpacks.

In other words. Cooked mutties and imported goods should be consumed when in safe areas, while glucose shots are the fast alternative for the stalker that is in the middle of a nasty situation, and must consume something to keep his stamina rolling, if hunger is the cause of it.

xXxJuggerNopexXx wrote:
Take this situation for example. Your about to raid a merc base. The first thing you should do is probably inject some morphine to prevent a bleed out once you got shot from their armor piercing rounds. However, morphine alsow increases your hunger, so if you want to have the best mobility in the field while engaging enemies, glucose shots should cancel out that hunger in a fast and relatively safe way. The same goes for when you use stimpacks.

I have to be honest I never carry more then 6 bandages, 3 after your suit gets the upgrades which reduce bleeding. as Recon if I get hit bad its over anyways, the time it takes to recover is enough for their granades to find you, was like that every time for me...as Assaulter it didn't even seem to matter after fully upgraded bulat suit

I've never really like the "do the maths" minigame when eating irradiated food followed by having to smoke or something. If rad poisoning had effects other than simply slow health drain it would be better. Or even if eating mutant food could make the player susceptible to stopping and clutching his stomach or something else. As is it's simply a numbers minigame, eat then smoke.