To stay alive in Valheim, you’re going to need to eat. Food works a little different here than in Minecraft — by eating the best food, you’ll increase your maximum health bar. You can increase your HP to 250+ by eating the right combination of meals, and if you’re looking for the biggest bonuses, you’ll have to explore the Plains and delve the Oceans.
Getting the best food recipes means hunting for the best ingredients. For each food item listed below, we’ve also listed how to find all materials required to craft. To make these items, you’ll have to hunt Lox and Serpents — Lox are giant creatures that roam the Plains, and Serpents are monsters that spawn in the Ocean. They’re mighty monsters that also give you the best food bonuses in the game.
More Valheim guides:
12 Tips The Game Doesn’t Explain | Beginner’s Guide | How To Tame & Breed Boars | Comprehensive Healing Potion Crafting Guide | 4 Tips To Improve FPS Performance | 9 Tips To Survive The Swamps | How To Summon All Bosses | Best Mods List | How To Move Loot Easier | Inventory Guide | How To Unlock & Craft Portals | How To Find Haldor The Trader | How To Unlock The Best Weapons
Food determines your max HP in Valheim. The better food you eat, the higher your maximum HP will be. It won’t last — the effects wear off — but it helps to boost your HP to max when you’re about to fight any of the bosses. If you’re curious to see what gives you the biggest HP boost, here’s what you’ll want to eat.
- Max HP Meal
- Lox Meat Pie
- Serpent Stew
- Blood Pudding
Alternatives: Fish Wraps, Cooked Lox Meat
Actually unlocking these food items is a different story. These items can all be crafted, but you’ll need to find specific items to unlock the recipe permanently. Below, you’ll find a list explaining what ingredients you’ll need, and how to unlock the recipe.
- Lox Meat Pie
- Ingredients: Cauldron – x4 Barley Flour, x2 Cloudberries, x2 Cooked Lox Meat
- How To Unlock: Kill a Lox in the Plains biome and cook the meat over a cooking station to gain the Cooked Lox Meat. Cloudberries are common berry drops in the Plains. Using a Windmill, you can turn Barley (found planted in Plains Fuling villages) into Barley Flour.
- Serpent Stew
- Ingredients: Cauldron – x2 Honey, x1 Mushroom, x1 Cooked Serpent Meat
- How To Unlock: Kill and loot a giant serpent in the Ocean biome to gain the Serpent Meat. Then cook it to unlock Serpent Stew. Honey and Mushroom are easily found in the Meadows / Black Forest. Honey can be acquired by destroying beehives in abandoned buildings, then using the Queen Bees to create your own hives.
- Blood Pudding
- Ingredients: Cauldron – x4 Barley Flour, x2 Blood Bag, x2 Thistle
- How To Unlock: Find Blood Bags in the Swamps by killing Leaches. Barley Flour can be made from Barley taken from Fuling Villages in the Plains, run through a windmill facility. Finally, there’s Thistle — a glowing plant that’s easier to spot at night. Find Thistle in the Swamps and the Black Forest.
