Survival on Mount Kami isn't just about grip strength and stamina management. You'll quickly discover that raw ingredients won't cut it when you're halfway up a vertical wall with your hunger meter screaming. Here's the thing: Cairn transforms simple foraging into a strategic cooking system that can mean the difference between reaching the summit and plummeting to your doom.
Understanding how to cook meals, locate recipes, and maximize your food buffs will keep you climbing when others fall. Let's break down everything you need to become a master mountain chef.
How Does Cooking Work in Cairn?
You'll need to reach a save point before you can start cooking. These distinctive red and blue painted cutouts in the cliff face serve double duty. Save your progress once, then interact again to set up your Bivouac, your temporary home on the mountain.
Once inside your tent, you'll spot a burner hanging in front of Aava. This is your cooking station. Select it to begin combining ingredients into meals that provide significantly better benefits than consuming raw items.
The cooking interface only shows ingredients that can be combined, so you can't accidentally waste resources on failed experiments. However, some combinations yield far better results than others, which is where recipes come into play.
Pro Tip: If your bivouac is near a water source like a stream, lake, or puddle, you can refill containers directly from the cook menu by pressing Triangle on PlayStation. This saves valuable climbing time.
Finding Recipe Scrolls Around Mount Kami
You have two paths to discovering meal combinations: blind experimentation or locating recipe scrolls scattered across the mountain. While you can stumble onto working combinations through trial and error, finding actual recipes guarantees the best meal buffs.
Recipe scrolls typically appear at significant landmarks and old Troglodyte settlements. Keep your eyes peeled for weathered paper scraps tucked into crevices or lying near abandoned camps. Read every scrap you encounter, as these contain the formulas for powerful buff-granting meals.
Common Recipe Locations:
- Climbing gym vending machine area
- Troglodyte settlement ruins
- Mountain landmarks with rest areas
- Hidden alcoves along alternate routes
The Tourist Trap Noodles recipe demonstrates how accessible early combinations can be. From the first save point, grab instant noodles and Yellow Yak energy drink from the climbing gym vending machine, then combine them at your bivouac. No recipe scroll required, and you've got your first cooked meal.
Why Cooking Beats Eating Raw Ingredients
Raw ingredients might seem sufficient early in your climb, but you're leaving massive benefits on the table. Cooked meals provide three critical advantages:
Every tooltip mentions that cooking improves effectiveness. What most players miss is that cooked meals often grant temporary buffs to Grip and Grit, your two most vital climbing stats. These buffs can prevent falls during challenging sections where stamina management becomes critical.
Temperature regulation becomes increasingly important at higher altitudes. Warm meals help maintain your body heat, while reheating liquids at your bivouac extends their usefulness. Check out our Cairn Stamina System Guide for more details on how temperature affects your climbing performance.
Important
Food items don't spoil in Cairn. Cook everything you're carrying whenever you reach a bivouac, as you never know when the next cooking opportunity will appear.
Cooking Strategies for Survival
Maximize Your Herb Infusions
Herbs are abundant early on Mount Kami, but they become scarce at higher altitudes. Here's a crucial detail: mixing herbs with liquids consumes the entire container. If you infuse nettle with a 3/4 full water flask, you'll get a 3/4 full nettle infusion, wasting potential.
Always fill containers completely before infusing herbs. This maximizes the value of each herb, especially when crafting powerful combinations like the Ultimate Infusion. You'll want every drop when herbs become rare in the death zone.
Herb infusion container menu
Cook Everything at Every Bivouac
Bivouacs become less frequent as you ascend, and you might miss some entirely depending on your route choice. The key here is preparation. Every time you reach a bivouac, cook your entire inventory. Transform those raw mushrooms, meat chunks, and foraged plants into meals that provide maximum benefit.
You'll face long stretches between save points where resource management becomes desperate. Having a backpack full of cooked meals with active buffs can save your climb when you're running on fumes.
Water Management
Water becomes your most precious resource during extended climbing sessions. You can rappel down to refill at water sources, but this costs time and stamina. Plan your water usage carefully:
- Fill all containers before major ascents
- Use infusions strategically for dual benefits
- Rappel down to refill before committing to long vertical sections
- Keep empty bottles for emergency refills
Warning
Don't climb too high without water access. You won't know when the next source appears, and dehydration kills faster than falls at high altitude.
Advanced Cooking Combinations
Chocolate-Based Recipes
Combining chocolate with clean water creates chocolate milk that restores both hunger and thirst simultaneously. This dual-purpose drink saves inventory space and provides quick recovery during critical moments.
Energy Drink Combinations
Yellow Yak energy drinks pair well with instant noodles and other dry goods. These combinations typically provide stamina regeneration buffs alongside standard hunger restoration.
Optimal Meal Timing
Consume cooked meals strategically:
- Before challenging vertical sections for Grip buffs
- During long climbs for sustained stamina recovery
- After falls to restore health without sleeping
- In cold zones for temperature regulation
For more advanced techniques on managing your climbing resources, check our Cairn Beginners Guide for comprehensive survival strategies.
Common Cooking Mistakes to Avoid
Sleeping Instead of Eating: Sleep depletes hunger and thirst while only restoring health. Most cooked meals restore health alongside other benefits, making them more efficient than sleeping in most situations.
Ignoring Temperature: Cold reduces stamina regeneration. Warm meals counteract this effect, making them essential for high-altitude climbing where temperature drops dramatically.
Wasting Herbs: Infusing partially full containers wastes herb potential. Always top off containers first.
Hoarding Raw Ingredients: Raw items provide minimal benefit. Cook them immediately to unlock their full potential and free inventory space for better loot.
Cook your Path to the Summit
Mastering Cairn's cooking system transforms survival from desperate scrambling to calculated strategy. Every meal you prepare, every recipe you discover, and every herb you carefully infuse builds toward your ultimate goal: conquering Kami's peak.
The difference between successful climbers and those who fall isn't just technique. It's preparation, resource management, and understanding that cooked meals provide exponentially better benefits than raw ingredients. Cook everything, find those recipe scrolls, and keep your inventory stocked with powerful meals.
Your next bivouac awaits. Time to fire up that burner and transform those raw ingredients into climbing fuel that'll carry you to the summit.