Hobo Stew Is Too Good

[Orange Madness]

Now hear me out with what I'm about to say. First, this is an opinion about an in game item; everyone's opinion will definitely differ from my own. Second, I'm going to go over why a particular item is too good, but only when conditions are met in a particular way.

Hobo Stew is a craftable food item that can either be learned through the Strength Tree by upgrading Master Chef to level 3; can also be learned through recipe by looting for it. The item, unlike most meat options in this game, requires Rotting Flesh. To craft Hobo Stew, the crafter requires 10 Rotten Flesh, 2 Potatoes, 2 corn, 1 animal fat, and 1 water. Seems almost like you're making a Meat Stew, but it is better than this. Matter of fact, Hobo Stew is by far the best food item in the game you can make; let me explain.

No, the Hobo Stew isn't classified---in my opinion---by being the greatest food in the game due to the water, food, health, and stamina boost of this food are not of the highest quality, but rather how it is crafted is what makes it super easy to make; so much more then any raw meat required recipes. However, this recipe is only super easy to make only if you have the correct materials to make it.

First. the plants. Both obtaining the corn and the potatoes is a stressful task due do you requiring the plants itself to make the food, but also requiring a large number of plants to balance out the harvest time. Once you get about 20 or more corn and potato plants, you're pretty fine with making the Hobo Stew, but this is only the easy part.

Second (and last), the Rotting Flesh and Animal Fat. Remember earlier as to why I said you need the required materials to make it? Yeah, this is where the next part of the recipe comes in that is not listed: bullets and the Wasteland. What better way to farm up on Flesh and Fat then to go to the Wasteland at night and chain on Z-Dogs and Z-Bears. The more noise you create, the more Zombies will show up. The more zombies that show up, the greater the chances of Z-Dogs and Z-Bears to show up. If you have at least level 2 The Huntsman, you should be fine with hauling away 3-5 Z-bears and about 6-10 Z-dogs. Not only is it a good way to farm up on materials for food, but also a great way to farm up on XP; you win in every way.

Hobo Stew can only be classified as Too Good of a food source, but only when the stars align up once you have a large enough farm land and a high supply of bullets. I do not suggest in any ways for people that are low on food to even dare try harvesting large amounts of flesh if they're still starting out; you will die a lot (trust me, I know). It is better to start off with meat pies and such, but what I do suggest is for people who have a decent set of gear and surplus of corn and potatoes to light up any Wasteland in order to have the easiest food to make in late game; early game players should stick to just making pies and such.

[Teresa]

Since mass farming rotten flesh and fat in the wastelands is not viable til late-game, i feel like hobo stew is fine.

Late-game, food is no longer a challenge whatever method you use.

Farming live meat in the snow biomes is easy. Using dukes to buy out the food from every vending machine in town every day is easy. Finding points to spare to put into farming and getting that going is easy.

A recipe that is only easy late-game is in a fine but niche position. I don't think it needs to be changed.

I personally horde canned food from early game and late game live off of tuna fish gravy, spaghetti and such. It takes a long time before i get the required cooking level for those foods, but once i do, they are amazing.

[zenstrata]

I disagree.

The stew is fine.

Cooking right now is basically about not cooking at all because most of the early cooked food is crap.

It's better to live off stuff you find, and then near the very end of the game, then you cook something because you are bored of eating out of cans and you have very little else to do.

Right now the game moves too fast to make cooking worth the time. You are better off raiding buildings and earning xp from killing zombies than sitting around a campfire cooking stuff.

[ᴍᴜꜱʜ-ᴄʀÆᴍ?]

Mushrooms, easy to grow, versatile, delicious, brings back the colour to the world on those lonely nights!

[zenstrata]

If anything all food should receive a BUFF.
Because it's pointless to even bother with food until the end of the game. It's just not good enough to bother with.

[woodsguide]

You are better off raiding buildings and earning xp from killing zombies than sitting around a campfire cooking stuff.



throw some foods in the fire and go do other things... no need to sit around and babysit it, as it doesnt burn if cooked too long ;o)

[pApA^LeGBa]

In MP Coop, everyone doing different quests, you don´t even need to go to the wasteland to get enough rotting flesh.

We swim in rotting flesh since like day 25ish and due to having a beginner in this playtrough we kept the wasteland small on our map.

I think i only drove trough a small patch once in this playtrough. That´s about it.

It´s not too good in SP tough.

But we hardly use it in MP, because we can cook a ton of the better stuff.

[Chargeit]

Pumpkins, corn and water and you'll be fed for life.

https://7daystodie.fandom.com/wiki/Pumpkin_Bread

*Don't forget to load up on Chrysanthemum to make that sweat -15% food/water loss red tea.
https://7daystodie.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Tea

[jswilliams]

As a sp I have 1 point in master chef until I ferget it. Other than that its inevitable that I'll acquire a few food recipes and then make a little effort toward keeping those ingredients. But pretty soon mid game I have access to like 6 to 10 good food recipes and by then it just doesn't matter. Eat whatever. Although it is nice to get a food that is an efficient healer like sham chowder or fish tacos.

[KimonoBoxFox]

Your strategy is painfully overcomplicated.

Why do you need to draw aggro from a bunch of hostile wildlife, when you can just power attack roadkill with a hunting knife?

Oh, but it's non-renewable, I see. Well, your problem is presumably animal fat as a resource bottleneck, and the easiest solution to that is just running over some coyotes in the desert. As a bonus, you have plenty of vultures out there to harvest for rot.

But, my argument is just that Hobo Stew makes no sense from a design standpoint, and that's why it should be nerfed. It's literally just Meat Stew, except made with bad meat--so why should it be better than Meat Stew?

[Orange Madness]

Oh yeah, nice necro.