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Food & Skill Buff Mechanics

Players within SWG may acquire items that enhance their statistics, skill modifiers or offer a variety of special effects. Among these items are Foods, Spices, Drinks, and Skill Buffing stims. These items can be used by the player either through the tool bar or by radial options such as Use for stims and Drink/Eat for foods, depending on which item is chosen to be consumed. Foods, Certain Spices, Drinks and skill buff items can be obtained from crafting, as loot, foraging, as rewards from npcs, or purchased from certain npc bartenders in cantinas.

For more information about foraged foods, see Foraging

For more information about Spice, see Using Spice

For more information about Skill Buff items see Skill Buff Items

Food, Drink, and Spice Buffs

Stat buffs

One thing that Food, Drinks, and spices all have in common is that they all share items which offer bonuses to statistics. With spices, in some cases the items will actually take away from the player's total stat pool. Generally speaking stat buffs offered by items will enhance the player's current and maximum statistic. Using stat buffs normally offers an immediate bonus to the current stat pool. For example a player with a current ham pool of 300/400 health eats a food that offers 1000 to health. The player now has a health bar of 1300/1400. When the stat buff wears off, the effect is to lower the max amounts and not the current and max. Using the previous example this would produce a result of 300/400 if the buff wore off.

Spices add to stats in the same way, however where they differ is in the effect on the player after the buff wears off. If a player with 400/400 ham uses a spice that buffs their stat by 400/400 they will again have 800/800 ham as with using the food example. However when the spice wears off, they will also lose the spice buff amount from their Current ham pool in addition to losing the max amount, therefore their stat would in effect now be 0/400. In this case the player would be incapacitated by the spice buff when it left. Foods and drinks offer the player the ability to enhance their skills as well as receive special effects. Stat buffing items will be discussed first.

Statistic buffing Items include the following:

Crash n' Burn
Shadowpaw
Blob Candy
Pastebread
Sijjo Sewi
Jar of Foraged Bugs
Ko-Do Fruit
Alever Tweth'pek
Jar of Foraged Grubs
Booster Blue
Giggledust
Accarragm
Kanali Wafers
Mandalorian Wine
Grey Gabaki
Ahrisa
Vagnerian Canape
Blap Biscuit
Bofa Treat
Jar of Foraged Berries
Sweesonberry Rolls
Wild Snaff
Vercupti of Agazza Boleruuee
Etost'Ew Zann
an Aurilian fruit
Sweetblossom
Sedative H4b
Kwi Adrenal Boost
Jar of Foraged Fungus
Sosi Hodor
Maroj Melon
Garrmorl
Zypolene Droid Lubricant
Neutron Pixie
Flurr-Cle Onion
Schule Nef
Spiced Tea
Felbar
Thruster Head
Yarrock
Muon Gold
Vasarian Brandy
Scrimpi
Kiwik Clusjo Swirl
Teltier Noodles
Scramjet
Gruuvan Shaal
Pyrepenol
Gunjack
Kliknik Fortitude Enhancement
Breath of Heaven
Caf

Stat Buff Item Attributes

The stat buffs work basically the same way as pre-revamp. The available buffs are much more organized: artisan foods for a single HAM or regen stat, drinks that buff all three stats in a single category (Health/Str/Con, Action/Quickness/Stamina, Mind/Focus/Willpower), desserts that buff the two secondary stats in a single category (Str/Con, Quickness/Stamina, Focus/Willpower), entrees for a single usage stat, and Breath of Heaven for a buff to all three usage stats. The duration is at least doubled compared to pre-patch foods, with the exception of the Usage/Regen desserts which remain in the 6-10 minute range, but have a buff in the +4-600 range.

Skill buffs

Brand new additions to the chef menu are foods that give you an increase to a skill. These can range from specialized bonuses useful to a small part of the population (bonus to wookie roar, bonus to Trandoshan regeneration) to foods allowing combat characters access to skills they may not have from their profession (+dodge, +defense vs. knockdown) to bonuses for crafters (+assembly success, +experimental success).

If a skill requires using a command (/survey, /harvest), getting a bonus to that skill only benefits your character if you have already learned that command. Chandad's +survey won't allow a non-artisan to use a survey tool since they don't have the /survey command. Veghash's +creature harvesting won't allow a non-scout to harvest bone/hide/meat from an animal they killed. Jawa Beer's +Mask Scent won't help you unless you already have Exploration II. If a skill does not require using a command (dodge, terrain negotiation, Defense vs. X) then you do gain the benefit of the bonus even if your character did not have that skill. So a non-scout eating Travel Biscuits (+terrain negotiation) will travel faster when going up hills. A non-fencer, non-pistoleer who has eaten a Pikatta Pie will occasionally dodge an incoming attack.

Note: You cannot stack two foods that improve the same skill, even if you're trying to eat different types of food (Air Cake and Pikatta for +dodge, for example). If you try, you will get the message "You are already under the effect of this food". Special Effects *

Damage reduction, crafting bonuses, xp bonuses. All new benefits you can get from food. These have most of the "triggered" effects, so they don't really have a duration. Synthsteak, for example, reduces the damage done to you for the next 25-50 attacks. You can eat one, wander around for thirty minutes, and still get the benefit when you're attacked. Ormachek gives you a 4-5% increase in earned experience (it doesn't apply to crafting xp, though). Starshine Surprise and Cavaelian Creams reduce the duration of your next incapacitation.

Another class of "Special Effect" foods give you built-in resistances to certain special attacks. Trimpian makes you resistant to Fire (sorry, commandos). Blood Chowder gives you resistance against bleed attacks. Thakitillo and Corerelian Brandy give you resistance against knockdown attacks.

Special effect foods have the same un-stackability as skill buffs. You can't take two +40 Defense vs. Knockdown foods and get +80 defense. Pet buffs *

Several foods are specifically to buff pets. The details of the food will contain "Species restriction: pet" if this is the case. Initial reports seem to say that these aren't incredibly useful, except for low-level pets (such as the CL10 creatures usable by non-creature handlers). HAM bonuses, even if they are in the +600 to +700 range, aren't that big a deal if the creature already has 3-5k HAM. It's possible we may see foods to boost pets' secondary stats, especially regeneration, check back later. How can I tell how filling a food is? *

Examining a food item shows how much that food/drink adds to the appropriate fill bar by the value of the "Filling" property. This number is a percentage, so you can eat two 40 Filling foods and a 20 Filling food before becoming completely full. In addition to that, you can drink four 25 Filling drinks, and then be full in both the food and drink bars. How fast does filling go away? *

A full stomach (either food or drink) empties completely in 30 minutes. This is a continuous process that begins as soon as you've eaten an item, and has no connection to the buff duration. So if you start with an empty stomach and eat only a 20 Filling food, your food bar will show about 1/5th full, and will be completely empty again in 30 * 0.20 = 6 minutes. In general, you digest 3.3 points of filling per minute.

There is an issue with digestion right now, either a bug or a poorly communicated design change. From testing done by several chefs it appears that the time to go from 100% to 0% is 45m, not 30. The original plan was 60m, so we're not that bad off. But keep this in mind if you're not able to eat as fast as you think you should given the 30m calculation. I ate a synthsteak, didn't get into combat, and now the buff icon is gone. *

Triggered effect foods have a built-in timer of 60m. If you haven't used it up by then, the buff goes away. This timer isn't effected by any Flavor experimentation the chef does, but it is one of those things we hope the developers are keeping on eye on for their promised "tweak once the revamp goes live".

Food Effects

Food: Travel Biscuits.

This Artisan-level food grants the eater roughly +16 to +18 Terrain Negotiation. This does not require the eater to have any prior Scout skills. So while under the effect of Travel Biscuits, a non-scout becomes (for a short time, roughly 15-20m) slightly below that of a Scout with Exploration 1, but without having to spend the 17 skill points.

Foods: Air Cake, Pikatta Pie, Deneelian Fizz Pudding

These foods grant increasing defensive bonuses (while also having increasing filling and decreasing duration). While the description may imply that this is a bonus to the Fencer/Pistoleer "Dodge" skill, it is completely separate. These foods give a defensive benefit to any player, regardless of template, increasing the number of "swings/shoots at you but misses" messages in your combat spam. You will not see any more "swings/shoots at you but you evade", the message written to combat spam when the Fencer/Pistoleer Dodge skill triggers.

The "##% Dodge bonus" of these foods is a little fuzzy. This may be the chance an attack misses you completely prior to any checks of your ranged/melee defense. It may be a % increase of your ranged/melee defense skill (making this more beneficial to players with a high defense). The devs prefer to keep most of the inner workings of the combat system hidden. If anyone happens to have hard numbers from test results, feel free to send me a PM.

• The filling and duration of Deneelian Fizz Pudding (roughly 70 fill, bonus lasts 1 or 2 minutes) are generally considered too much of a hinderance, even considering the 80-90% bonus it grants. Plus, it uses several resources that a chef may not normally stock (milk, bone, and leathery hide).
• Pikatta Pie gives around a 50% bonus for around 20 minutes with 27-25 filling. It also requires milk, but only in a subcomponent (where quality doesn't matter), but in fairly large quantity.
• Air Cake is the simplest for a chef to make (requiring only easily harvestable flora), gives 30-35% bonus for roughly 15m. A major selling point for Air Cake is its low filling, generally 10 or less.

Food: Vegeparsine.

Gives up to +25 in Melee Defense. This adds too the main stat that most professions get. It also takes you over the 125 Def cap, allowing you to have 150 melee defence.

Drink: Elshandruu Pica Thundercloud.

Adds to the Ranged Defence stat. Making you harder to hit from ranged attacks. Stats differ, but the upper range seems to be around +20. Is a drink so not as popular as Vegeparsine, but still effective. Can also take you over the 125 Def cap.

Food: Instant Buff. 50 Fill Vercupti, Breath of Heaven and Mandolorian Wine.

This combo is very hard to come by, and is in most cases just a emergency package. But can save the life or give a helping hand in a fight to professions like jedi, that do not rely as heavily on the foods, or for a person turned Special forces in a enemy territory.

Everyone knows that Brandy and Canape are a great combination to boost your mind stats. But with the upcoming CURB, we MIGHT see that the mind pool isn't the end-all to your combat woes.

I recommend a variety of alternatives for more leisurely activities.

For a Scout, harvesting that new shift of Carnivore meat on Yavin IV, I recommend: Food: Veghash - To improve your creature harvesting intake.

Dweezel - To improve Trapping. I can't imagine anyone voluntarily using traps anymore, but it should help in helping traps stick to higher level creatures while you're grinding Scout or Ranger.

Terratta - To improve Camouflage, for Rangers that are into that kind of thing.

Drink: Jawa Beer - To improve your Mask Scent Mod. If you live by Mask Scent, you might want to ask your neighborhood Chef to whip you up a Crate. (Note that this is granted in Dom. Arts in Artisan, a Master Artisan could craft this better than a Chef that did not have the Engineering line. It uses Artisan Mods, not Chef-granted ones)

Gralinyn Juice - Improves your Creature-to-hit mod.

For Crafters, there are:

Food: Chandad - Improves your Survey skill. While this may not be terribly useful, it should help grind up that tree (if you need to).

Pyollian Cake - Improves your Assembly Roll.

Drink: Bespin Port - Improves your Experimentation Roll. This will NOT give you an extra point to experiment with, but it will improve your chance at getting an Amazing Success experimentation.

For Pilots! Believe it or not there is even food to help you in space. Food: Gorrnar - Reduces the wounds incurred while cloning. You can't save your clone data in space, so you always recieve wounds when you die. This will reduce the wounds you take, if you know you're going on a dangerous mission, or helping a friend out with a taking down a tough Lambda by "Zerg Rushing" it.

Ormachek - Increase experience earned by a small percent. (Will not work for any kind of Crafting xp)

And for RPing, a couple crates of Aitha or Caf sitting in your Yacht or YT-1300 would be fitting.

For Fighters, besides the usual suspects, you might also want to consider these fine culinary products.

Food: Dustcrepe - Reduces DOT duration. Perfect for fighting those spiders on Yavin, or Rancors on Dathomir. You don't have to have it before the poison or disease is applied to you. If you eat it after, it will reduce the remaining duration of the DOT by the % that the food lists. (DOT = Damage Over Time, just incase anyone doesn't know. This would work for Bleeding, Poison, and Disease attacks. And note that this is also granted in Artisan, not Chef)

Smuggler's Delight - Reduces the Downer Period for those Spice Junkies. Makes waiting out those Pixie and Muon downers a bit faster.

Cavaellin Creams - Reduces Incapacitation recovery time.

For those defence stackers, or Initiate Jedi, looking to tighten their defenses against status effects, chefs can offer a full line making it more difficult for any status effect to stick on you.

Drink: Deuterium-pyro - Def. Vs. Intimidate Corellian Brandy - Def. Vs. Knockdown (Thakitillo is a food that can also improve your defense to this) Durindfire - Def. Vs. Stun Ithorian Mist - Def. Vs. Dizzy Veronian Berry Wine - Def. Vs. Blind (For those annoying birds on Endor that always blind you)

Food: Trimpian - Def. Vs. Fire

Blood Chowder - Increases Def. Vs. Bleeding Attacks

Cho-Nor-Hoola - Increases Def. Vs. Poison and Disease Attacks (not as helpful as top-of-the-line Doctor Buffs however, but useful if you need them on-the-go)

Understand however that these foods do not offer 100% protection from status effects, they merely make your defense against them a bit higher.

For Medics, instead of stocking up on Brandy and Canape, you also might want to consider the following as an alternative. (Possibly cheaper too!)

Drink: Blue Milk - Heals your Mind pool. Instead of taking Brandy, Blue Milk might be more useful in the field by instantly giving your more energy to revive that silly Carbineer. I would also recommend using Vagnerian Canape and/or Ahrisa in conjunction with this. (You might also consider asking around for Duration BE Tissues, to make the buff last longer instead of it giving a larger boost, though it would depend on your initial stat setup...)

Have a few as well i'd like to add.

Cavellian Creams were mentioned, but not really explained. The ability to survive an incap. In PVP, specially for people playing Jedi this food can save your neck. If the chef make this stuff correctly, you will incap for less than half a second if you have eaten this prior to the fight. Since the lag usually prevents a deathblow to "work" for a few seconds, you will be able to stand up and heal yourself and woila... you just saved yourself.

As a Knight in PVP, this stuff have saved me and my guildmembers more than just a few times. The stuff has a 1 hour duration, or until next incap. About 20% food filling.

Spiced Tea. For all those people who likes a VERY high base mindbar. Jedi or stackers in particular. Around +80 mind in power, and close to 1 full hour in duration, but the thing most people miss is the filling. Usually around just 8% to the drinkfilling. Which makes this stuff stackable... A LOT of it. Do the math, and you'll see you can get a far higher base mindbar than with stacking brandy.

Mandalorian Wine Often missed due to it's rarity and filling. Since the stomach digestion has now been corrected, this stuff will most likely be more desireable for those intensive fights. Very usefull for melee chars and bounty hunters with healing abilities. Where your mindbar is the only real problem. About +1000 to Constitution, Stamina and Willpower, will made that mindbar (and health/action) regenerate at an insane rate. It has about 7 minutes duration and 50% filling, but since it only takes 15 minutes to get room for this stuff in your belly (which usually is full of brandy), you'll still have the brandy effect.

Citros Snow Cake/Crispic Many people know the Citros Snow. Accuracy increase. About +40 at the 25 minute range, at 25-28% filling. Very very usefull in grinding and in PVP versus those pesky stackers you can't hit. Very good for throwing grenades too. Crispic on the other hand is very unknown to most people. Like aircake vs pikatta pie, this is the "mini-version" of the Citros Snow. About 27-30 accuracy increase, about 15 minutes duration and in the 10-15% filling area. Very good if you can't make room for the heavier Citros Snow Cake.

Exo-Protein Cute little snacks that are often missed. It's a lower version of Synthsteak. About 25-28% damage reduction at about 17-20 attacks. But the real power in this food is the filling. just 5%!!! This means that desite the amount of other foods you may be eating, you can almost always make room for an Exo-Protein. And since you can eat 5 or 6 of them in order to take up the same filling as one single synthsteak, people should start to use it more often.

Results from the "Vomit foods testing division":

Air Cake and Pikatta Pie: What does Cake/Pie do for me? It essentially subtracts the food bonus from the attacker's "to hit" modifier (visible for your targets as the -50, +15, whatever that you see when you have them targetted).

Bivoli: Differences between +25 and +26 Bivoli when applying buffs. Bivoli is not capped at +25, although it's probably not worth the uber resources and tissue required to hit +26.

Bivoli bonus rounds down. Also, this shows that the difference between +23 and +25 is pretty minimal (around +18 higher buff when using +25).

Food Attributes

Source References