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Food Guide
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Eating Food: An Overview
Levels, gear and merits can only take adventurers so far in FFXI. To get that extra stat boost to make even the best fighters and mages more formidable, adventurers turn to food.
When consumed, food in FFXI can have several effects. Food can boost hit points, mana points, attack, vitality, evasion and other stats. Some food lasts for just a few minutes, while other food items can last for several hours. Food in FFXI allows adventurers to customize their stats for specific battles -- such as missions or burning circles -- or it allows adventurers to amplify their performances in longer, more consistent situations, such as experience or merit parties.
With so many food choices out there, the biggest question is: What to eat? That's the question this guide can help you answer.
Types of Food
There are many types of foods out there, such as drinks, cookies and sushi. Each food item gives its own set of bonuses, but all foods fall under one of three categories:
- Stat Boosts: These food items increase stats such as attack, evasion, defense, mind, strength, etc. Or, these stat boots can give food users an added amount of hit points or manapoints. Food effects can be removed before they're set to expire with the medicine item Antacid, or by trading a Gysahl Green to Parike-Poranke at H-8 in Lower Jeuno.
- Regen: Regen drinks, mainly juices, return hit points to the user at a slow rate. These food items tend to have a duration of 2 to 10 minutes. Regen food items do not stack with the spell regen, but they do stack with bards' Paeon (regen) songs.
- Refresh: Mainly juices, refresh food items return mana points at a slow rate to their users. The effect of these drinks usually lasts from 1 to 5 minutes. Refresh food items to not stack with the spell refresh, but these food items can be used in conjunction with bards' ballad (refresh) songs.
Note: A player can simultaneously use one of each food type. However, players cannot simultaneously use more than one of the same food type.
Food Duration
The effects from various types of food can range anywhere from a couple minutes to several hours. Generally, high-quality versions of food last significantly longer than their normal-quality counterparts. Plan ahead when choosing your food items by trying to anticipate how long you'll be needing the added stat bonuses.
- 3 Minutes: The normal-quality versions of cookies, sweets and snack foods give effects with 3-minute durations. These items stack to 99.
- 5 Minutes: The high-quality versions of sweets and snacks last for 5-minute durations. All effects from raw food -- such as raw fish, meat and vegetables -- also last for 5 minutes.
- 30 minutes: Normal-quality foods that stack to 12 items last for 30 minutes. This category includes most of the food in Vana'diel.
- 60 minutes: High-quality food items which stack to 12 have durations of 1 hour. Sometimes it is most cost efficient to buy the high-quality foods, if you know you're going to be in a party that won't waste the longer-lasting food effects.
- 3 hours: Normal-quality, non-stackable foods last for 180 minutes, or 3 hours.
- 4 hours: High-quality, non-stackable foods last for 240 minutes, or 4 hours.
What to Eat? Charts for Boosting Stats
While many food items give flat stat boosts -- such as +5 attack, or +3 strength -- other food items give percentage increases with capped stat bonuses. For this reason, some food items produce diminishing returns if used after a certain level. It is important to carefully examine the stats of your food items to make sure you are eating what is best for your level.
To find the optimal food choice for the stat you would like to increase, click on the desired category below:
- Accuracy
- Attack
- Defense
- MP
- HP
- Strength
- Dexterity
- Agility
- Vitality
- Intelligence
- Mind
- Charisma
- Ranged Accuracy
- Ranged Attack
- Evasion
- MP Healing Regen
- HP Healing Regen
- MP Regen
- HP Regen
- Resists
- Enmity