Hobo Stove?

[Section8]

I have been playing a while but had not built the hobo until recently. What exactly is its function? Perhaps I am using it wrong. Any advice appreciated. Happy Gaming

[Agoork]

You can use the Hobo Stove to cook many pieces of meat at one time. You can just drop the meat on there and pile on as many as you like, and they will all cook. Cooked meat will spoil after some time though, so maybe do a 2 step cooking process, where you cook a bunch of meat on the hobo stove, and when cooked, move them to the smoker to smoke them. Cooking a large number of pieces of meat this way is quicker than just using the smoker alone.

[Section8]

Thanks very much.

[Mimir]

*bump*

I was quite disappointed at my Hobo Stove, with quite an ordeal to get it set up. I took some trial
and error before I figured it out, and google didn't help at all.

Just like Agoork said, you need to drop/drag the meat on top. Not interact with the stove itself.

[BodyBagger]

I tested this a while ago with 1x smoker & 1x hobo stove: I was able to cook up to 40 or 50 small pieces of meat at the same time with the hobo stove (probably could have cooked more, but I stopped).

So, the benefits are: 1) The hobo stove saves time, and... 2) It saves fuel (resources... fibrous leaves). You only need to fuel your fire on the Hobo Stove 1x to cook 50 pieces of meat at the same time; with the smoker, you would need to fuel your fire 10x (5 pieces of meat x 10 separate cooking sessions = 50 pieces of small, cooked meat).

Once cooked on the Hobo Stove, you move the meat to the smoker to preserve it.

However, with a single smoker you simply don't have enough time to cook 40 or 50 pieces of small meat before the meat starts going bad (rotting). I found that you can cook approximately 30 pieces of small meat (maximum) on the hobo stove before the meet starts going bad—if you only have a single smoker... and you cook continuously until the job is done.

So, if you decide to use this cooking method to save time and fuel, you'll need 1x smoker for every 30 pieces of meat that you cook on the hobo stove. A few sessions of this in the early game means you probably won't have to cook for the rest of the game.

To answer your question, the hobo stove does not cook faster than the smoker. But, it does save time & resources (fibrous leaves).

ps I did not test with medium or large meat, so I do not know the maximum amount you can cook before the meat starts rotting.

[thomlovessue]

I've done no formal study, only observed trying to improve efficiency of cooking. You're right about the Hobo stove saving fuel. But do a test for me. Take one of your cooked meats and one raw one. Put both in the smoker. Common sense would tell you that the cooked will be done first by a lot. It never worked out that way for me. Now I just put the meat raw directly in the smoker. Four of them to be exact. All the simo-cooking time gets me 15 (5 sharks worth) large meats, 40 medium meats or 60-80 small meats in one night. I only cook about once a month...

[Virsik]

I don't remember where did I hear this, but someone said that you can smoke meat on hobo stove too. But after some time sitting next to it, I figured out that is not true :D

[QueenPixxa]

Sadly it's not true. The only good thing you can do with the hobo stove is to follow Thom's technique, cook loads on the hobo stove, then smoke 5 at a time.

[Zombits]

Originally posted by Agoork:

You can use the Hobo Stove to cook many pieces of meat at one time. You can just drop the meat on there and pile on as many as you like, and they will all cook. Cooked meat will spoil after some time though, so maybe do a 2 step cooking process, where you cook a bunch of meat on the hobo stove, and when cooked, move them to the smoker to smoke them. Cooking a large number of pieces of meat this way is quicker than just using the smoker alone.

True, this is why i sometimes build 3 smokers . all other cooking methods like hobo stoves are useless and waste of stones. That way i smoke 15 meats at same time + 3 attached on fires.

Once you're done with cooking for level up or large meat reserve you can always demolish 2 smokers to get materials back

[Mad Hatter]

How tf do you have 30-40 pieces of meat that need cooked at the same time? And what are you doing with it all? I'm playing on normal, and I can survive on one medium piece of meat or one/two fruit per day. I have 3 containers completely full of smoked meats for when I end up at sea for too long, but the stuff definitely piles up much quicker than I can use it. Every seven days, I harvest 2 large meat, 8 medium meat, and 2 small meat (just from the main animals). Could get a lot more if I fished or hunted the small crabs, but I don't see the point.

All of that to say: hobo stove seems very useful if you have unrealistic amounts of meat. For normal survival, completely unnecessary. I make do with a single smoker. To be fair though, I do have ~10 fruit plants growing in my main base, so I only need to eat meat when I'm out and about.

[Zombits]

Originally posted by Mad Hatter:

How tf do you have 30-40 pieces of meat that need cooked at the same time? And what are you doing with it all? I'm playing on normal, and I can survive on one medium piece of meat or one/two fruit per day. I have 3 containers completely full of smoked meats for when I end up at sea for too long, but the stuff definitely piles up much quicker than I can use it. Every seven days, I harvest 2 large meat, 8 medium meat, and 2 small meat (just from the main animals). Could get a lot more if I fished or hunted the small crabs, but I don't see the point.

All of that to say: hobo stove seems very useful if you have unrealistic amounts of meat. For normal survival, completely unnecessary. I make do with a single smoker. To be fair though, I do have ~10 fruit plants growing in my main base, so I only need to eat meat when I'm out and about.

The purpose of smoking meat is that they never spoil. Also building the cooking level in case a person wants it . Just makes any other cooking method useless on the main base island. Once you smoke enough meat you can stop cooking forever on that save slot and bring meat for trips

[Mad Hatter]

Originally posted by Zombits:

Originally posted by Mad Hatter:

How tf do you have 30-40 pieces of meat that need cooked at the same time? And what are you doing with it all? I'm playing on normal, and I can survive on one medium piece of meat or one/two fruit per day. I have 3 containers completely full of smoked meats for when I end up at sea for too long, but the stuff definitely piles up much quicker than I can use it. Every seven days, I harvest 2 large meat, 8 medium meat, and 2 small meat (just from the main animals). Could get a lot more if I fished or hunted the small crabs, but I don't see the point.

All of that to say: hobo stove seems very useful if you have unrealistic amounts of meat. For normal survival, completely unnecessary. I make do with a single smoker. To be fair though, I do have ~10 fruit plants growing in my main base, so I only need to eat meat when I'm out and about.

The purpose of smoking meat is that they never spoil. Also building the cooking level in case a person wants it . Just makes any other cooking method useless on the main base island. Once you smoke enough meat you can stop cooking forever on that save slot and bring meat for trips

Did you miss the part where I said I have 3 containers full of smoked meat? I just hit day 101 and I've got an inexhaustible supply of food that I almost never touch. I have fruit trees planted on my main base, and those are sufficient for when I'm there. Each island I visit has at least one giant crab, so that's enough food for however long it takes to strip the island.

[Zombits]

Originally posted by Mad Hatter:

Originally posted by Zombits:

The purpose of smoking meat is that they never spoil. Also building the cooking level in case a person wants it . Just makes any other cooking method useless on the main base island. Once you smoke enough meat you can stop cooking forever on that save slot and bring meat for trips

Did you miss the part where I said I have 3 containers full of smoked meat? I just hit day 101 and I've got an inexhaustible supply of food that I almost never touch. I have fruit trees planted on my main base, and those are sufficient for when I'm there. Each island I visit has at least one giant crab, so that's enough food for however long it takes to strip the island.

I guess you don't need any hobo stove then .

[Mad Hatter]

Originally posted by Zombits:

Originally posted by Mad Hatter:

Did you miss the part where I said I have 3 containers full of smoked meat? I just hit day 101 and I've got an inexhaustible supply of food that I almost never touch. I have fruit trees planted on my main base, and those are sufficient for when I'm there. Each island I visit has at least one giant crab, so that's enough food for however long it takes to strip the island.

I guess you don't need any hobo stove then .

Did you even read my original post before responding to it?

[Zombits]

Originally posted by Mad Hatter:

Originally posted by Zombits:

I guess you don't need any hobo stove then .

Did you even read my original post before responding to it?

that you got plenty of food ? yea . I played the hard version and smoking 30-40 pieces of meat at same time is something i do , lol. I bring some to trips, so i dont ever need to cook again while looting other places. Depends on your style and game mode

[NukeAJS]

Cooking meat and then throwing it in the smoker has never resulted in faster smoking times for me. It takes just as long to smoke it if I put it in there cooked as it does raw.

Because of this, the only real function of the hobo stove is to cook large amounts of meat. I honestly never find myself in this situation so a single smoker is enough to deal with my food issues forever. Just load it up with large meat and that's enough for quite awhile especially because almost every island has two sharks or six large meats.