Complex Food Needs

Diagram connecting species with the complex foods they need.

Overview

Villagers prefer to eat complex food, like Pie, instead of raw food, like Roots. While this need is satisfied, the villager will get a bonus to their Resolve. The bonus to Resolve is higher than satisfying their needs for Housing and Clothing, but not higher than satisfying their Services Needs.

Villagers satisfy their need for complex food when they rest at the Hearths. When resting, they will eat one of every food item available for every complex food that they can satisfy, and the Resolve bonuses from every need they satisfy stack.

Consumption and Satisfaction

Species	Complex Food Needed
Beavers	Biscuits Pickled Goods
Foxes	Pickled Goods Porridge Skewers
Frogs	Porridge Paste Pie
Harpies	Paste Jerky
Humans	Biscuits Pie Porridge
Lizards	Pickled Goods Pie Jerky Skewers

Species differ in which of the complex foods they want, so you will need to supply more than one type of complex food to satisfy all three species in your settlement. In addition, every species has more than one complex food need, which means they can get more than one Resolve bonus if you provide enough variety.

On the other hand, if your settlement is running low on food, villagers will eat a complex food that they do not need if there is no other food available to them, including raw food.

Like with raw food and services, access to complex food can be disabled through Consumption Control, and denying a food incurs a Resolve penalty to those villagers who need that particular food.

List of complex foods

Each complex food can satisfy more than one species. Correspondingly, each of the five species require different combinations of the complex foods available. The following table shows these relationships.

The food production building options are shown for convenience.

See the next section for a detailed and highly sortable table of buildings that can help you choose your Blueprints.

Complex food	Species	Production building
Biscuits	Beavers Humans	Field Kitchen (☆) Cannery (★) Cookhouse (★★) Bakery (★★) Brick Oven (★★★)
Jerky	Harpies Lizards	Kiln (★) Apothecary (★★) Butcher (★★) Smokehouse (★★★)
Paste	Frogs Harpies	Field Kitchen (☆) Rain Mill (★) Press (★) Grill (★★) Flawless Rain Mill (★★★) Cannery (★★★)
Pickled Goods	Beavers Foxes Lizards	Field Kitchen (☆) Beanery (★) Distillery (★★) Granary (★★) Cellar (★★) Flawless Cellar (★★★)
Pie	Frogs Humans Lizards	Smelter (★) Pantry (★★) Furnace (★★) Bakery (★★) Flawless Smelter (★★★)
Porridge	Foxes Frogs Humans	Brewery (★★) Apothecary (★★) Pantry (★★) Flawless Brewery (★★★) Beanery (★★★)
Skewers	Foxes Lizards	Field Kitchen (☆) Cookhouse (★★) Furnace (★★) Butcher (★★) Grill (★★★)

Detailed table of all buildings for complex food

This table might help you choose Blueprints based on the species in your settlement.

For brevity and since they are never Blueprint choices, Flawless versions of buildings are omitted from this table. Similarly, because it is an Essential Blueprint that your settlement starts out with, the Field Kitchen is omitted.

Production building	Efficiency	Complex food produced	Species satisfied
Apothecary	★★	Biscuits	Beaver
Apothecary	★★	Biscuits	Harpy
Apothecary	★★	Biscuits	Human
Bakery	★★	Biscuits	Beaver
Bakery	★★	Biscuits	Harpy
Bakery	★★	Biscuits	Human
Cookhouse	★★	Biscuits	Beaver
Cookhouse	★★	Biscuits	Harpy
Cookhouse	★★	Biscuits	Human
Smelter	★	Biscuits	Beaver
Smelter	★	Biscuits	Harpy
Smelter	★	Biscuits	Human
Butcher	★★	Jerky	Harpy
Butcher	★★	Jerky	Lizard
Cellar	★	Jerky	Harpy
Cellar	★	Jerky	Lizard
Kiln	★	Jerky	Harpy
Kiln	★	Jerky	Lizard
Smokehouse	★★★	Jerky	Harpy
Smokehouse	★★★	Jerky	Lizard
Beanery	★★	Pickled Goods	Beaver
Beanery	★★	Pickled Goods	Fox
Beanery	★★	Pickled Goods	Lizard
Brewery	★	Pickled Goods	Beaver
Brewery	★	Pickled Goods	Fox
Brewery	★	Pickled Goods	Lizard
Cellar	★	Pickled Goods	Beaver
Cellar	★	Pickled Goods	Fox
Cellar	★	Pickled Goods	Lizard
Granary	★★	Pickled Goods	Beaver
Granary	★★	Pickled Goods	Fox
Granary	★★	Pickled Goods	Lizard
Bakery	★★	Pie	Harpy
Bakery	★★	Pie	Human
Bakery	★★	Pie	Lizard
Brick Oven	★★★	Pie	Harpy
Brick Oven	★★★	Pie	Human
Brick Oven	★★★	Pie	Lizard
Furnace	★★	Pie	Harpy
Furnace	★★	Pie	Human
Furnace	★★	Pie	Lizard
Beanery	★★★	Porridge	Fox
Beanery	★★★	Porridge	Human
Distillery	★★	Porridge	Fox
Distillery	★★	Porridge	Human
Teahouse	★★	Porridge	Fox
Teahouse	★★	Porridge	Human
Butcher	★★	Skewers	Fox
Butcher	★★	Skewers	Lizard
Cookhouse	★★	Skewers	Fox
Cookhouse	★★	Skewers	Lizard
Grill	★★★	Skewers	Fox
Grill	★★★	Skewers	Lizard

Strategies

Based on the species in your settlement, there are obvious choices and options to avoid when seeking to provide complex food. However, most production buildings do not produce only food, so you will also need to take into account producing goods for your villagers' Services Needs.

• The Cookhouse produces both Skewers and Biscuits, which satisfy the complex food needs for a mutually exclusive set of species. It is the only building that can produce one complex food that satisfies every species.

• Three buildings produce two complex foods that together can satisfy four out of the five species. The only other building that makes two complex foods is the Butcher, which satisfies only three species with its products, but has a different advantage.
  • The Bakery produces both Biscuits and Pie; only Foxes are not satisfied by something from the Bakery. In addition, Harpies need both, making this building a great choice for settlements with Harpies.
  • The Beanery produces both Pickled Goods and Porridge; only Harpies are not satisfied by something from the Beanery. In addition, Foxes need both, making this a great choice for settlements with them.
  • The Cellar produces both Jerky and Pickled Goods; only Humans are not satisfied by something from the Cellar. In addition, Lizards need both, making this a great choice for settlements with them.

• The Butcher produces both Jerky and Skewers, which can use as an ingredient the Jerky it produces. If you have Lizards in your settlement and either sustain the supply of Jerky or limit the production of Skewers so that you can satisfy both needs, the Butcher can be a great choice.

• Lizards are the hardest to completely satisfy with complex foods, since they require four different goods. It is more likely you'll be able to satisfy their Services Needs before you are able to produce all four complex foods they need.

• Beavers, in contrast, need only two complex foods. However, no single building produces both Biscuits and Pickled Goods. This means you will always need at least two buildings to produce complex foods if you intend to satisfy all of your villagers' complex food needs.

See Also

• Clothing Need
• Housing Need
• Services Needs