Cooking and food in Among the Trolls
Cook by placing ingredients in a cooking spot in the world, stay with the fire because food burns, and refill the canteen before you leave for a dungeon.
Food in Among the Trolls is not a bar you top up with rations. You find it, you hunt it, you cook it in the world at a fire, and you can absolutely ruin it by walking away. Cooking is one of the game's crafting pillars, and it is the cheapest way to keep the survival layer from turning into a problem.
How cooking actually works
Cooking is done by placing items from your inventory into a cooking spot in the world — the campfire is the example the developers use. There is no abstract menu; it is the same physical logic as the 3D backpack that opens in the world around Anna.
That has two consequences:
- Food burns. Leave a meal on the fire and you come back to ashes. Cooking is an activity you stay for.
- Cooking is travel planning. Because it takes time and holds you in place, the smart move is to cook two or three meals in one session rather than one meal four times.
Where food comes from
| Source | Effort | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Foraged food | Low, found while walking | Keeps hunger off zero |
| Hunting deer and other game | Medium, needs a working bow | The reliable protein supply |
| Dungeon provisions | You bring them | Prevents stat drain deaths underground |
Deer are the good early food source and they are alert. Approach crouched and slowly, and take the shot rather than running at them. Hunting is a resource activity first and a fantasy second — that is how the developers describe it — and the bow that never leaves your inventory is the tool that keeps it sustainable.
Hunger, thirst and the canteen
Hunger and thirst run on their own clocks. The practical rule is to eat and drink at roughly half meters rather than at empty ones, because a metre that has bottomed out in the middle of a fight or a swim is how first sessions end.
Water comes from the canteen. It carries your drinking water and it can be refilled. In the demo, a balancing pass increased the canteen's capacity, adjusted how much thirst it restored, and made it refill inside the dungeon section rather than forcing you back outside.
Cooking and Lykky
Food sits inside the larger loop. Hunger, thirst, sleep and temperature all feed into Lykky, the balance of the region: a well-fed, well-rested Anna operating with respect for the forest keeps the area calmer, while a starving one fights a world that has turned against her. Cooking well is not just about the hunger meter; it is one of the cheapest ways to keep the region on your side.
A working routine
- Cook two meals whenever you light a fire, and stay with it.
- Refill the canteen before you leave an area, not when it is empty.
- Bring food and water into every dungeon.
- Eat before you sleep, not after you wake up cold.
- Do not let hunger reach zero while swimming; stamina is already draining.
Sources
- Devlog #12 (crafting, potions, cooking as progression) and Devlog #7 (the backpack and cooking in the world): Steam news archive
- Devlog #2 (hunger, thirst and Lykky): Steam news archive
- Demo hotfix #4 (canteen capacity and dungeon refill): Steam news archive
Game imagery on this page is official promotional material, used for reference.
