The Food system in Monster Hunter World plays a crucial role in hunt preparation. A well-selected meal can make the difference between success and failure by providing flat stat increases to Health, Stamina, Defense or Attack, as well as unique skills that provide significant advantages during your hunt.

This guide breaks down the Food system mechanics, explains my most used meal combinations, and helps you understand how to create optimal meals for different hunting scenarios.

Here are my most used meal combinations and when to use them:

A meal in Monster Hunter World consists of 6 ingredients chosen from four categories: Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Drinks. Each ingredient has both a type and a color, which determine the bonuses and skills you'll receive.

Combining multiple ingredients of the same type provides flat stat bonuses depending on how many you use:

• 🔹

  2 ingredients: Small bonus

• 🔸

  4 ingredients: Medium bonus

• 💎

  6 ingredients: Large bonus

Each ingredient type provides different stat bonuses:

• 🍖

  Meat: +5/+10/+15 Attack

• 🐟

  Fish: +5/+10/+15 Defense

• 🥦

  Vegetables: +5/+10/+15 Elemental Resistance

• 🍺

  Drinks: No stat bonuses (compensated with stronger skills)

You can mix and match types to get multiple smaller bonuses. For example, eating 4 Meat and 2 Fish would give you +10 Attack and +5 Defense.

Similarly to types, combining ingredients of the same color provides food skills. There are 6 ingredients of each color, allowing you to potentially get both maximum stat bonuses and a food skill simultaneously.

For example, eating 6 Red Meat would give you both +15 Attack and the associated Red skill. If you don't have all 6 ingredients of a color unlocked, you can mix types while maintaining the color (like 4 Red Fish + 2 Red Meat) to still get the skill.

Skills from ingredient colors have a chance to activate based on the freshness of the ingredients used:

• ✅

  Fresh ingredients (with green highlights) increase the activation chance

• 📈

  More fresh ingredients means higher chance of skill activation

• ❤️

  Fresh ingredients also provide health and stamina boosts

• 🎫

  Using a Gourmet Voucher guarantees fresh ingredients and skill activation

The Steamworks facility is the best way to farm Gourmet Vouchers for guaranteed skill activation.

Beyond the skills you deliberately choose, random Daily Skills may activate when you eat a meal. While these are usually less impactful, they provide nice bonuses that can occasionally help your hunt.

Here are some practical considerations to help you decide which meal to eat for different hunts:

• ⚔️

  For most hunts, prioritize Attack bonuses from Meat ingredients

• 🛡️

  Against elemental-heavy monsters, consider using Vegetables to reach 20+ resistance to negate blights

• 👼

  For difficult fights, Moxie or Safeguard can be more valuable than offensive bonuses

• 💪

  Don't underestimate Blackbelt for weapons with high stamina usage like Lance, Bow, or Dual Blades

• 🎯

  Save Gourmet Vouchers for hunts where you absolutely need the food skill to activate

• ❄️

  If a monster inflicts Iceblight (which reduces stamina recovery), prioritize blight resistance or Groomer

Remember that proper meal selection is an important part of hunt preparation. Taking the time to choose the right combination of ingredients can significantly improve your chances of success, especially against challenging monsters.