How to get food?

[DrunkieBrewster]

Basically that.

[sf]

easiest for starting is to buy. try mining ore for a initial cash flow.

Wild beasts like dogs and cattle etc also gives food. but not recommended for starters.

But in the event you stumble upon a downed dog and harvested its meat, you can cook it easily by building a camp fire. (you can also cook it with cooking stove that requires a lot more research and building). Not a reliable food source for beginner though. (It will be when you have a squad capable of taking down multiple packs of 10+ dogs each at one go and proceed to harvest/cook all the meat in batches)

The most stable food source is probably to build an outpost and the easiest food is cooked vegetable which requires a greenfruit farm and water.
Take note that farms attracts some wildlife (like raptors). So unless you wall yourself, be prepared for periodic combat training. It is a good source of animal skin though.

The most efficient food I know is probably in advanced cooking. After you can make bread, it can be combined with greenfruit to make food cubes, which can be further made into ration, which is probably the best food for travel.

[Syntax Error]

I'll just add, if you're going to buy food, look for the food value to cost ratio. Some foods, like Gohan provide nice food value, but don't cost that much. I could be wrong now if prices have been updated a lot.

[Weaver]

If you run into any wild dogs, try to lead them into guards so you can harvest them. Set your character(s) to passive so you don't accidentally get your face eaten, and try not to let them get too far behind you if you're outpacing them. Once you find some guards run around in circles / around the inside of the town until the dogs aren't interested in you anymore.

At worst, if the guards ignore you, the dogs might down you in town and then aggro the guards themselves. You'll probably be fine, and locals might medic you.

Also, be aware that removing an item from a downed animal kills them instantly. If you're getting swarmed it can help to make sure they stay down.

[Syzy]

I myself just got the game and i've found that finding insanely pure copper and mining the crap out of it and selling it (particularly in the West Hive Swamp Area) Once you get a big enough cash supply, you can start recuiting and have various means of farming. Dried meat is really cheap, and you can make it when you get enough people to make generators and a stove easily enough.

[Weaver]

You can make dried meat at a campfire also, which you can make basically 1 minute's walk outside any town. That's the bit I forgot to mention.

[sf]

Originally posted by Weaver:

You can make dried meat at a campfire also, which you can make basically 1 minute's walk outside any town. That's the bit I forgot to mention.

one more "hint". do not use the campfires already in towns. The game will not stop you from putting your food in there to "cook", but whatever goes in there, now belongs to the town.

When I started I wasted a lot of meat at a village's camp fire and wonder what happened to them. Even watch my hunger level slowly to see if it is supposed to "make meat disappear, magically refill hunger"... yeah... I was green...

[iokimg]

Stealing it works also. Just make sure you don't get caught.