Comestible

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This article is about long-lasting comestibles. For other corpses, see corpse.

A comestible % is anything edible; it is food. You eat food with the e command.

The word edible means that that you can eat it. It does not imply that you should eat it. Some food is bad to eat. For example, some corpses are poisonous. Unless you are poison resistant, it is probably a bad idea to eat them.

One important type of harmful comestibles is rotten comestibles. Eggs and most corpses eventually become rotten, and then rot away completely, unless you do specific steps to preserve them. All other comestibles are "permafood"; you can save them as long as you like.

Normally, if you don't eat, you will eventually die from hunger. There are several ways to pospone or prevent such a death, so it is possible to ascend without eating (see foodless for more information).

Another important reason to eat is that some comestibles give you useful intrinsics or improve your abilities. For instance, tin of spinach and royal jelly both increase your strength. For more information about benefitial and harmful effects of corpses, see Corpse#Corpse benefits and dangers.

Some monsters also eat comestibles. There are also monsters who eat things besides comestible, e. g. metallivore eats metal items. If you polymorph into such a monster, you will also be able to eat such items.


List of comestibles

Meat COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME NUTR/TIME
meatball 5 1 0 5 5 1 5
meat ring 5 1 0 5 5 1 5
meat stick 5 1 0 5 5 1 5
egg 9 1 85 80 80 1 80
tripe ration 15 10 140 200 20 2 100
huge chunk of meat 105 400 0 2000 5 20 100
Fruits and vegetables COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME NUTR/TIME
kelp frond 6 1 0 30 30 1 30
eucalyptus leaf 6 1 3 30 30 1 30
clove of garlic 7 1 7 40 40 1 40
sprig of wolfsbane 7 1 7 40 40 1 40
apple 7 2 15 50 25 1 50
carrot 7 2 15 50 25 1 50
pear 7 2 10 50 25 1 50
banana 9 2 10 80 40 1 80
orange 9 2 10 80 40 1 80
melon 10 5 10 100 20 1 100
slime mold 17 5 75 250 50 1 250
People food COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME NUTR/TIME
fortune cookie 7 1 55 40 40 1 40
candy bar 10 2 13 100 50 1 100
cream pie 10 10 25 100 10 1 100
lump of royal jelly 15 2 0 200 100 1 200
pancake 15 2 25 200 100 2 100
C-ration 20 10 0 300 30 1 300
K-ration 25 10 0 400 40 1 400
cram ration 35 15 20 600 40 3 200
food ration 45 20 380 800 40 5 160
lembas wafer 45 5 20 800 160 2 400
Tins COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME NUTR/TIME
homemade tin 5 10 75 50 5 vary vary
tin of spinach 5 10 75 600 60 vary vary
other tins 5 10 75 vary vary vary vary
Corpses COST WGT PROB NUTR NUTR/WGT TIME NUTR/TIME
lichen corpse 5 20 0 200 10 3 66
lizard corpse 5 10 0 40 4 3 13
other corpses 5 vary 0 vary vary vary vary

Sources of food

  • Some monsters have a chance of dropping a corpse.
  • Sokoban always contains a large amount of food, though whether it is all fit for normal consumption is a question to be answered when you get there.
  • Antholes and beehives sometimes contain food.
  • Ice boxes may contain up to 20 fresh corpses.
  • A horn of plenty dispenses a random food item or potion when applied
  • Soldiers often carry C- or K-Rations, so places with a large concentration of soldiers (such as Fort Ludios) are a good place to find these rations.

Eating comestibles

When you eat any comestible other than a tainted corpse, you receive its nutrition value. The nutrition is provided uniformly during eating, e. g. if an item takes 5 turns to eat, then after 2 turns of eating eat you receive 40% of its nutrition value. See nutrition for more information.

When you eat a corpse, many good or bad things may happen. See corpse for more information.

Most comestibles have a chance of being rotten. Cursed non-corpse comestibles are almost always rotten, most others have 1/7 chance of being rotten. If a comestible is rotten, eating it may cause ill effects. See the #Rotten food section below for more information.

Tin are either from a monster (called tin of foo meat, or just tin of foo, if it is vegetable), or are tins of spinach.

Tins of a monster (meat), when eaten, mostly cause the same effects as the monster corpse. For example, eating a tin of a domestic dog, unless you are an orc or a caveman, will give you the aggravate monster intrinsic as if you eat a corpse of domestic dog. There are, however, important differences:

  • Depending on what are you wielding, and whether the tin is blessed, it may take a while to open the tin. However, if you wield a blessed tin opener, the tin would open immediately.
  • Eating a tin takes only 1 turn.
  • Most of these tins are not very nutritious. For most tins, the nutrition value is 20-100. Only pureed tins has a nutrition value of 500. It may be good, e.g. if you have 4 corpses of stone giants, you will hardly be able to eat more than one, but tin it, and you will likely be able to eat all four without choking.
    • The nutrition value does not depend on a monster. It depends on the preparation method, which is determined randomly when you open the tin.
    • Some tins are rotten. Their nutrition value is -50, and they case vomiting.
    • For tins made with tinning kit, the preparation method is "homemade", the nutrition value is always 50, and they are never rotten.
  • Even if a corpse is old, tins of its meat made with tinning kit will be fresh.
  • Tins of poisonuos or acidic monsters do not cause any harm.
  • Some tins (fried, french fried) make your fingers slippery for a while. Your weapon, if you wield one, falls to the ground.

Tin of spinach increases intrinsic strength (unless it is already at maximum). Its nutritional value is as high as 600.

There are also empty tins. One way to get an empty tin is to wish for a tin of genocided monster. They provide no food.


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