In TerraFirmaCraft, no food will last forever! Food will expire over time, turning rotten. Rotten food will not restore any hunger, has the potential to give you debuff effects such as Hunger or Poison, and cannot be used in meals!
Fortunately, there are a number of ways to make your food last longer by Preserving it.
When you hover over a piece of food, you will see a tooltip which shows how long the food has until it will rot. It might look something like:
Expires on: 5:30 July 5, 1000 (in 5 day(s))
By using various preservation mechanics, that date can be extended, giving you more time before your food roots. Most preservation traits even stack.
When a food item is created in a world it is marked with a creation date time stamp internally. TFC calculates the spoil rate by referencing that time stamp and the food's inherent decay modifier. Any preservation traits are added on top to shift the creation date back, allowing the item to last longer.
Decay modifiers are a value from 0 to ∞. When 0, the food lasts forever, when ∞ the food spoils instantly. Therefore, the lower the modifier the better.
To calculate the new spoil time when applying preservation traits you can use the formula: New Spoil Days = Spoil Days / Preservation Modifier rounded up. Stacking preservation traits is calculated multiplicatively like so: NSD = SD / (PM1 * PM2 * ...) which means that stacking traits exponentially increases decay time. A table of base preservation modifiers is available on the next page and each trait will be referenced in their own sections.
Trait | Modifier |
|---|---|
Oven Baked | 0.900 |
Grilled | 0.800 |
Smoked | 0.500 |
Salted | 0.500 |
Pickled | 0.500 |
Preserved | 0.500 |
Wild | 0.500 |
Dried | 0.500 |
Cooled | 0.300 |
Shelved | 0.400 - 0.350 - 0.250 |
Hung | 0.350 - 0.300 - 0.250 |
Refrigerating | 0.125 |
Preserved in Vinegar | 0.100 |
Cryodessicated | 0.020 |
One of the earliest ways to preserve food is to use a Vessel. Large Vessels are a block which can store up to nine items, and when sealed the items inside will gain the Preserved trait with a modifier of 0.5.
Small Vessels are an item which can store up to four other items, and will also apply the Preserved trait to their contents.
Запечатанный большой сосуд.
One other way to easily preserve certain types of food is to cook them. Meats will all expire slower when they are cooked than when they are raw.
Certain devices that heat very hot, such as a Charcoal Forge or a Crucible are bad for cooking food, which will make them expire faster!
They give the Burnt to a Crisp! trait with a modifier of 2.5.
Instead, a Firepit or a Grill can even provide a buff for using it! For example, cooking mutton (pictured above) in a Firepit will increase its lifetime by about +42%, and cooking in a Grill will give the Wood Grilled trait with a modifier of 0.8.
Smoking is used to preserve Meat and Cheese with a modifier of 0.7. To smoke meat, it must have first been Brined by sealing it in a Barrel with Brine. Cheese does not have this requirement.
To start smoking, add an item to wool yarn that is within four blocks above a firepit. The string should begin to generate some smoke if it is working.
Note: The firepit may only be burned with Logs!
Wool yarn is used to hang items for Smoking. Supporting blocks are required on each side. ПКМ on the yarn with an item to store up to 8 items for smoking.
Salting is a way to make meat last longer. To salt meat, it must be crafted with Salt in a crafting grid. Only raw meat can be salted. Afterward, cooking or otherwise preserving the meat does not take away the salted property.Salted food gain a modifier of 0.5.
Salt can be found naturally in forests in the form of salt licks, or ground from salt ores like halite.
Vinegar Preservation is a way of making fruits, veggies, and meat last longer. To preserve food in vinegar it must first be Pickled in Brine. Once food is pickled, it can be sealed in a Barrel of Vinegar. If there is 125mB of Vinegar per pickled food item, the food will last longer. Pickled food gain a modifier of 0.5 while Submerged in Vinegar food gain a modifier of 0.1.
The Drying Mat is used to dry items. It is made with Fruit Leaves, which are obtained from breaking the leaves of Fruit Trees. To use the drying mat, place it out in the sun and add an item to it with ПКМ. If it rains, the drying process must start over. Some food items―Like fruits―Will gain the Dried trait which gives a modifier of 0.8.
The solar drier functions the same as the drying mat, but 12x as fast. Both can be automated by pushing a piston head against its side. Dropping an item onto a drying mat will place it on the mat.
Baking food items in a Top Oven is the second-best way to preserve your food items through cooking as it gives the Oven Baked trait with a modifier of 0.9.
The Cellar is a multiblock device controlled by a Climate Station. The Cellar multiblock must be fully enclosed by Sealed Bricks on all sides. The Climate Station must be placed on the first level of the cellar, touching a wall. Activate the climate station by ПКМ it. If you update the structure in any way you will need to reactivate the climate station.
The maximum internal volume of a cellar is 31x31x31 blocks.
The cellar is used for food preservation and Aging Cheese by using Food Shelves and Hangers to hold food items or by placing cheese on the ground or Barrel Racks.
The cellar performs better in Colder Environments.
An example cellar structure.
Food shelves and Hangers can contain a full stack of one food item. Adding and removing the item can be done with ПКМ or Shift + ПКМ for full stacks. Items in valid food shelves and hangers receive a decay modifier that is better than vessels and increases with declining Average Temperature.
Lunch boxes provide a convenient method to transport and consume food items. The basic lunchbox provides the Preserved trait while the Cooling and Electric Lunchboxes give the Cooled trait with a modifier of 0.3.
Cooling lunchboxes consume Ice to preserve food, while the electric lunchbox consumes EU energy.
Refrigerators are added by TFG and consume EU to provide the Refrigerating trait with a modifier of 0.125.
Higher tiers of the fridge do not affect the preservation buff―only the storage space available. Fridges can also combine food stacks by merging expiration dates.
TFG adds the ability to freeze-dry select food items in Food Processors to greatly increase shelf life. Freeze drying gives the Cryodessicated trait with a modifier of 0.02.
Food that is left sitting in chests can attract Rats, so remember to store food properly in vessels, cellars, or fridges. Rats are able to open containers and eat the food out of them. You will be alerted to a rat's presence by the message 'This container has a foul smell'. It is important to note that unsealing and resealing a large vessel before you leave the screen will never attract pests.
Lastly, you can cut off the decayed part of food by picking up a knife with your cursor and right-clicking a partially decayed food item stack in your inventory.
This will reset the decay while losing some of the item stack, proportional to how decayed it was.
Comments