Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life players can spend their days living on a farm where plenty of tasks can be completed. With animals to feed and crops to water, energy gets drained quickly. Whenever a player's stamina bar drains, they'll pass out for several hours, but eating meals is the best way to avoid this.
The Bluebird Cafe serves food, but home-cooked meals are the best way to save money. However, there's a huge limit to what players can cook until they increase their cooking skills and discover more ingredients. So, here's a complete guide on the cooking skill in Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life.
How to Increase the Cooking Skill
Cooking meals is the only way to increase the cooking skill in the A Wonderful Life remake. Players can cook as soon as they begin their journey in Forgotten Valley. While learning recipes is the best way to avoid a failed meal, players can cook using the ingredients they find.
When they first start making meals, the only things they have available are Soups and Salads. Things like Hors d'oeuvres, Entrees, and Desserts unlock when the cooking skill increases. Simply cooking small meals will not yield quick results because most Soups and Salads are low-level.
Higher-level meals come with more earned experience points. A meal's level depends on the type of ingredients. Using rare fish or Hybrid Crops has more experience points.
Players can buy their first Fishing Rod from Van, who runs a pop-up shop on the third and eighth of each season, but they will start catching rare fish once they buy the upgraded Fishing Rod from him as well. Hybrid Crops are more difficult for players to get their hands on.
In Year Two, Takakura will find a strange talking plant named Vinny. If players talk to it every day and befriend it, Vinny will eventually make Hybrid Crops for them by feeding him fruits and vegetables. Then, the seeds must be planted and grown when they are in season like regular crops.
In Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, meal recipes can be found inside houses in notes or journals. Players can also get them by visiting the Forest Sprites. They live in a tree towards the back of the river, and players can go inside by eating the mushrooms in front of it. Finally, players can pick up on recipes by taking requests from the Bulletin Board.
If players cook daily, they'll slowly but steadily increase their cooking skills. They'll know they've reached the next level whenever more meal options are available. When players are at the highest level, they can cook every meal available if they have ingredients.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is now available for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.