The Dessert Festival arrived with the 1.6 update of Stardew Valley and is filled with a host of activities and shopping experiences. One of the things that you can, and should, do is visit The Chef. He's hoping to follow in the footsteps of Frankenstein's experiment, just with food. You know, instead of, well anyway.
The Chef gives you a list of ingredients for you to choose from and makes a dish using those. The reason you should take your culinary chances is that each dish gives you different buffs. This list will break down the best dishes you can eat, and how to order them, like a video game secret menu.
10 Shrimp Donut
Shrimp And Cherry Syrup
It might only sound appealing to the most die-hard seafood fans, but the Shrimp Donut is what you should eat before attempting any of Willy's challenges. After consuming this questionable, uh, sweet treat, you will have a plus three bonus to fishing and a plus one to your luck stat.
You can also take advantage of the festival by downing this donut and then fishing for the most challenging sea critter in the Desert, the Scorpion Carp. The luck stat can also aid in finding treasure chests, so if you choose to eat the Shrimp Donut, make the most of your buffs and fish until they run out.
You can only eat one of The Chef's dishes a day. However, you can stack buffs with other meals and drinks in addition to what you order from them.
9 Crystal Cake
Cave Loaf And Cherry Syrup
Now this sounds like a sweet treat, especially for the Abigail lovers in the audience. This blue cake gives a plus one luck bonus as well, but a plus three bonus to mining, so this is going to be very helpful in the Skull Cavern challenges that Marlon has set up.
Especially if you are using your pickaxe to do the majority of the work, the mining proficiency you get from the buff means that it will take less energy to break through the stones. And, of course, luck is going to help with loot and staircases, making it easier to walk away with some good stuff in your pockets by the end of the day.
8 Spicy Tacos
Hearty Beans And Uncomfortably Hot Sauce
Okay, just about anyone could go for some Spicy Tacos, even in the sweltering heat of the Desert. But these tacos give you more than a tasty way to fill up, so if you eat these, you will gain a plus three bonus to your defense plus one to your speed.
Many players go nearly broke buying coffee to speed up their walking pace; after all, you do rack up the steps in Stardew Valley. Speed is incredibly helpful in the Skull Cavern, allowing you to quickly move from floor to floor and run from enemies.
7 Sweet Bean Cake
Hearty Beans And Cherry Syrup
Okay, syrup on beans? Maybe not the way to go in real life, but in Stardew Valley, it makes this delicious-looking cake that gives you buffs to both your defense and luck. The hearty beans give you the plus three to defense while the cherry syrup is what gives you the plus one boost to luck.
Naturally, defense helps you withstand more strikes from the enemies flying and walking around the Skull Cavern while luck helps you find some of the better chests on Treasure Room floors, as well as staircases. It will take a lot to knock you out and stop you from progressing down those floors.
6 Nachos Of The Desert
Extremely Sharp Cheddar And Uncomfortably Hot Sauce
Well, you may be able to guess at this point that the uncomfortably hot sauce is the source of your speed; meanwhile, the extremely sharp cheddar gives you a plus three bonus to attack. What's better than withstanding more enemy attacks? Killing them before they can touch you.
Thanks to the ability to stack food effects and buffs, you can look at some of the other dishes that give you even more powerful attacks. You could make yourself a few Roots Platters to give you a total of plus six to your attack, really giving all of the monsters and run for their loot.
5 Elf Quesadilla
Extremely Sharp Cheddar And Cherry Syrup
There's a theme here. Although all of the stat increases have their importance, luck is one of the best stats you can boost as it can turn an unlucky day into a neutral one, all the way to making a very lucky one the luckiest days of your farmer's life.
And, with plus one to luck and three to attack, you will be able to defeat monsters quickly and gather up the loot that they drop, which should see you walking away with batteries, gems, and prismatic shards for all the trouble.
4 Superfood Cake
Rare Fruit And Mushroom Creme
Wait, where's the cherry syrup for the luck boost? That's the neat part, you won't need it in this dish thanks to the rare fruit. This ingredient gives you a huge plus three to your luck stat, and there are only two dishes in the whole game that give you that much of a luck increase or higher, Lucky Lunch and Magic Rock Candy.
Oh, yeah, and mushroom creme does something too, huh? That ingredient gives you a plus one to your mining ability. This will help slightly with energy as you break open rocks, but let's be honest, you're bringing bombs to the Skull Cavern, right? Right?!
3 Sour Salad
Rare Fruit And Rich Marinara
This rare fruit gives you that amazing plus three to luck, but the ingredient that's new to the mix is the rich marinara. This yummy pasta sauce gives you a plus one to defense. Why? No one knows, but for some reason, a good tomato sauce can bolster your body's natural defenses.
This will make it so you can take some extra punches on your way down through the Skull Cavern and, thanks to the ability to stack dishes, you can pair this with some other defense-boosting entrees. Crab Cakes are an excellent source of vitamin d-fense and can be dropped by Iridium Crabs.
2 Warrior Smoothie
Rare Fruit And Pungent Garlic
Get ready to see a lot of rare fruit. It's not going away anytime soon. That's because, and this can not be stated any clearer, the plus three bonus to luck is hands down the best buff you can get from any of the dishes the chef makes.
Then the rich pungent garlic gives you a plus one to your attack; of course, that means you won't clear enemies as quickly as you would with the Elf Quesadilla or Nachos of the Desert, but if you bring staircases with you, you won't need to. Though having the slight boost to beating back the monsters certainly helps when there are a bunch of Serpents flying at you from all corners of the screen.
1 Rumpled Fruit Skin
Rare Fruit And Uncomfortably Hot Sauce
ConcernedApe is pretty good at puns and proves it with this dish. If you look at these ingredients and wonder why someone would want a plus one to speed and a plus three to luck, think about what most players eat and drink before going into the Skull Cavern.
Ginger Ale and Spicy Eel are commonly used together thanks to both dishes giving you luck and the Spicy Eel giving you a speed boost. This means you can rush down the floors of the Skull Cavern at an incredible pace, so fast and lucky that no monster can really keep you down.
