Wurm Cooking
Wurm Cooking
Wurm Cooking
1 Introduction
The cooking overhaul represents a major change in how cooking works, and introduces many new
mechanics, concepts and items. This document serves to introduce the various aspects in as complete a
manner as possible. Where existing objects or mechanisms have been incorporated into the new system,
they are also documented here.
Existing (old-style) recipes and mechanics have been incorporated into the new system as much as
possible. In same cases, minor changes have been made to fit with the new mechanics.
While this document has been made as complete and up-to-date as possible, there will inevitably be
omissions or errors, and all features are subject to change. If you notice any inaccuracies, please tell
Pandalet.
2 History
Initial revision v1.0 - Pandalet, 11 Oct 2016
3 Document conventions
● R-click means a right-click with the mouse (generally bringing up a context menu).
● References to ‘knife’ in this document refer to the basic knife; carving knives will always be referred
to as ‘carving knife’. Butchering knives will always be referred to as ‘butchering knife’.
Most recipes are heat-based, so pick an ingredient (a vegetable, say), put it in a cooking container (e.g. a
frying pan), then right click on the pan and select lore. This will give hints about what else you could add to
the container to make a recipe - you can add something, then click lore again to get another hint. Lore will
also tell you if the particular combination you have is a complete recipe (‘You think this may well work when
cooked.’) or if the combination isn’t a valid recipe at all (‘The items inside do not make any known recipe.’).
Most alcoholic beverages start with an intermediate liquid (generally made using a heat-based recipe in a
cauldron), which is then fermented. For some drinks, this produces a final, consumable drink, but for
others, the product of the fermentation stage needs to be distilled. Intermediates that need fermenting will
show as ‘unfermented’ and intermediates that need distilling will show as ‘undistilled’ . Unfermented
intermediates should be placed in a wine barrel, which is then sealed with a wood scrap (activate the wood
scrap, right click on the wine barrel) - after some time, the fermenting intermediate will turn into the final
drink. Undistilled intermediates should be placed in the boiler of a lit still; they will gradually be converted to
the final drink in the condenser part of the still over time. See section 5.1 for more detail on producing
alcoholic drinks.
Note that recipes are specific to a particular container, so a particular combination of ingredients may make
something different in another container. As a general rule, very few recipes work in a forge, so it is best to
use an oven for experimentation.
As you successfully make different foods, the recipes will be added to your cookbook. This can be found
by clicking on the button on the quick bar.
To accurately measure liquids, use a measuring jug - this is a pottery container that can have its volume set
by right clicking on it when it is empty.
Some basic ingredients require preparing before use, for example, flour can be made from grain (with a
grindstone), herbs can be chopped (with a knife), and milk can be turned into cream (using a spoon). The
crafting interface can be used to look up tool creation requirements. Note that chopped veg and a
non-chopped veg are not the same thing, so a recipe that calls for one may not work with the other. In
addition, many of the meat recipes need meat (or fish) fillets rather than whole chunks.
There are a lot of tools and containers, and many combinations, so the best approach is to just try things.
For more in-depth information, see the rest of this document.
5 Cooking Mechanics
This section documents the various new mechanics introduced, specific to cooking. This includes different
types of recipes, skills used, and new concepts.
5.1 Recipes
Recipes are the core of cooking; recipes allow the combining of ingredients into results. Results could be
finished cooked items (e.g. meals or beverages), or they could be intermediate items, used in other recipes;
Although all recipes work in the same basic way (turning ingredients into results), they are grouped into 4
categories, based on how they are ‘activated’:
● Target actions use an activated tool or ingredient on another ingredient to make a result;
● Container actions use an activated tool on a container (containing some ingredients) to make a
result;
● Heat-based recipes involve heating a container (containing some ingredients) for some time to
make a result;
● Time-based recipes involve leaving some ingredients in a container for some length of in-game
time, at which point they will turn into a result.
For some target and action recipes, the required tool is a hand; these recipes will also work with any
activated tool, or no tool activated.
To illustrate the different categories, examples recipes from each are given below:
● Target action - activating a grindstone and r-clicking on raw corn -> create cornflour
● Container action - activating a spoon and r-clicking on a pottery bowl containing flour, milk and a
raw egg -> create batter
● Heat-based - placing diced meat, flour and water (and, optionally, a chopped vegetable) into a
cauldron, then heating it in an oven will produce a stew after some time.
● Time-based - place unfermented red wine in a wine barrel and seal it with a pine wood scrap; after 1
in-game month, the unfermented red wine will turn into red wine.
Some ingredients are liquids, like water or milk. Where a recipe includes liquids, the amount of liquid
required will be based on a ratio of weight to the solids in the recipe, with some leeway allowed. Thus the
heat-based recipe for mushy peas (consisting of peas and water cooked in a pottery bowl, with a 50%
water-to-solid ratio) requires a weight of water 50% the weight of the peas. The exact amount of liquid
used is allowed to vary by +/- 20%, so between 40% and 60% of the weight of the peas in this example.
Where a recipe uses multiple liquids, each liquid has its own required weight ratio to the total weight of the
solids in the recipe. Each liquid ratio is independent of the other liquids in the recipe.
Some liquid weight may be lost through the cooking process; this is a fixed percentage (per recipe) of the
liquid used, and ranges from 0% to 100%. Liquid loss can represent loss through evaporation (i.e. ‘boiling
down’) or liquid used only for cooking purposes, which isn’t intended to form part of the result (e.g. the
water used to boil an egg).
Action, heat-, and time-based recipes may have optional ingredients; the recipe will work with or without the
optional ingredients, so long as all required ones are present. Adding optional ingredients will increase the
weight of the final result, and may increase the difficulty and / or the nutrition gained. Adding optional solid
ingredients to a recipe that also uses liquids will increase the weight of liquid required (using the ratios as
above).
As a general rule, alcoholic drinks follow a multi-stage production process: an unfermented mixture is made
(via a heat- or action-based recipe) which is then allowed to ferment via a time-based recipe. This may
produce a final alcoholic beverage or another intermediate mixture, which may be distilled into a final drink
via another time-based recipe. Alcoholic drinks are divided into fermented (e.g. beer) and distilled (e.g.
moonshine) groups.
To start the time-based part of a fermentation recipe, the intermediate liquid is placed in a wine barrel which
is then sealed with a wood scrap; the type of wood scrap used can affect the final product at the end of
fermentation (i.e. different woods may give different final products). The intermediate mixes for fermented
drinks will be marked as ‘unfermented’.
For distilled drinks, the intermediate liquid will be ‘undistilled’. This is placed in a lit still which will gradually
produce the final drink over time. Where there are variations on a distilled drink, they will include an
alternate intermediate liquid (e.g. fruit brandy involves cooking up fruit with wine in a cauldron to make
undistilled fruit brandy). See the cookers section below for more information on stills.
Old-style sandwiches have been renamed ‘endurance sandwiches’, and do not add any CCFP or timed
affinities. They can still be eaten when full.
5.2 Lore
The lore function allows a player to receive hints about what particular ingredients could be used to make.
It is intended to make exploring the many recipes available easier, and works by adding some ingredients
to a container, then r-clicking on the container and selecting ‘lore’.
The game will select a random recipe from those available that utilise the particular container and
ingredient(s), and suggest the next item to add to make the recipe. If everything needed for a recipe is
present, or if no recipe uses that particular combination, this is indicated to the player. Optional ingredients
are not suggested, although if added, the recipe will still be signalled as complete.
Where multiple recipes are possible for a given combination of container and ingredients, a random one will
be selected. The selection will always be the same for a particular character with the same container and
ingredients, but different characters will generally get different recipes for the same container / ingredient
combination (assuming multiple possible recipes exist). When looking for a recipe to suggest, given the
current combination of container and ingredients, the possible recipes are matched in the following order:
● Unknown recipe that is not nameable.
● Unknown recipe that is nameable.
● Known recipe that is not nameable.
● Known recipe this is nameable.
Sample messages:
[10:52:27] Have you tried adding ground any spice? - part of a recipe
[10:52:03] You think this may well work when cooked. - complete recipe
[10:55:45] The items inside do not make any known recipe. - no known recipe for that combination
[10:55:45] The Ingredients in the frying pan would make an omelette when cooked. - valid known recipe
Note that recipes can call for a specific item or one of a group of items (e.g. any vegetable). The main
ingredient groups are given in the basic ingredients section below.
Lore will also indicate when a container with a valid combination of ingredients to make something is in the
wrong cooker:
[12:20:57] You think this may well work when cooked in a different cooker.
5.3 Skills
In contrast to the old system, the new cooking system uses a variety of skills. No new skills have been
added, but better use is made of the existing ones.
All recipes have a difficulty, which will affect skill gain. The spread of difficulties has been assigned
weighted towards the lower values (around 15 - 35), but there are some higher difficulty meals as well (up
to 80) to aid with skilling. As a rule, where a recipe includes optional ingredients, each optional ingredient
added will increase the difficulty (usually, but not always, by 5). Cooking in an oven is usually easier than a
campfire (i.e. using a campfire may increase difficulty), and a forge (where a recipe allows using one)
usually increases difficulty even more.
5.3.1 Cooking
The top-level cooking skill, this interacts with the sub-skills in the same was as all Wurm skill trees.
Cooking is used for a lot of target-action and container-action recipes, particularly mixing and making
intermediate ingredients, where no more specific skill is appropriate.
5.3.1.1 Baking
Baking is mostly used for recipes involving baking or using bread or cakes (e.g. sandwiches).
5.3.1.2 Beverages
All beverages use the beverages skill. This is primarily for the creation of the intermediate undistilled or
unfermented mixes; the final (time-based) distillation or fermentation does not use any skill. Beverages skill
is still used to make fruit juices and oils.
5.3.1.3 Butchering
Aside from production of meat and other ingredients from corpses, butchering is used for a handful of
recipes (cutting and dicing raw meat being the main ones).
5.3.3 Milking
Milking is used for producing milk from cows, sheep and (female) buffalo. The amount of milk obtained will
increase with increasing skill, and also depends on the animal’s age.
5.3.4 Mining
Used for mining rock salt from appropriate veins. Marble, iron and copper are also used as the raw
material for a number of tools and containers used in cooking.
5.3.5 Papyrusmaking
Used for making papyrus, paper (and wood pulp) and wax sealing kits.
5.3.7 Farming
Used to grow crops. The quality of harvested crops now depends on your skill and the crop difficulty, so it
is possible to get crop quality higher or lower than your farming skill.
5.3.8 Gardening
Used when planting herbs and spices in pottery planters, for making trellises, and when harvesting both.
Harvesting trellises depends on skill and trellis quality to determine harvest quantity and quality.
5.3.9 Forestry
Used for harvesting trees and bushes. Harvesting uses skill and tree/bush age to determine maximum
yield, and average quality should be much closer to skill now, particularly at higher skill levels.
5.4 Nutrition
The existing nutrition system has been augmented by the calories/carbs/fats/proteins system (CCFP).
Every edible item has a set of CCFP values. These are combined when creating a result item to give the
result item CCFP values of its own. When eating something, the CCFP values increase the player’s CCFP
bars, with the amount of increase being based on the amount of food consumed (where the maximum
amount of food a player can consume is determined by current food bar value).
The basic unitary consumption for a player per Wurm day are:
● 2000 calories
● 300 carbs
● 80 fats
● 50 proteins
These values represent a full bar, however per-day requirements are modified as above. There is no
penalty for not filing one or all elements of CCFP; high CCFP values give bonuses, low ones do not give
penalties.
Non premium and new players will receive the CCFP and affinity bonuses from eating as per update
1/DEC/16
The skill affected by temporary affinities is based on the combination of player ID and food item, so different
players will get a different affinity from the same meal. Note that making the same food item using different
ingredients (e.g. adding optional ingredients, or using fresh instead of FSB-stored herbs, using a different
meat for a recipe that calls for ‘any meat’) will generally result in a different temporary affinity - to get the
same affinity, the recipe must be recreated exactly. The cooker and container (if any) used also affects this
(for recipes that can be made in more than one heat source or container). Temporary affinities are
unaffected by who prepared the food, and are determined at the point the food is consumed.
The duration of the temporary affinity is set by how much of a food item is consumed - the more that is
eaten, the longer the temporary affinity will last.
Rare foods have higher CCFP values and give longer temporary affinities:
● Rare - 10% improvement
● Supreme - 40% improvement
● Fantastic - 90% improvement
6 Cookbook
All the recipes a player knows are stored in the cookbook. As new recipes are discovered (by making the
relevant dish), or as new variations of a recipe are found (e.g. optional ingredients), the recipes will be
recorded (or updated) here.
Some recipes are considered common knowledge, and will be known to all players; these recipes will be
coloured green in the cookbook.
As you discover new recipes (i.e. make something other than a basic recipe for the first time), it will be
added to your cookbook. You will get an event message when this happens:
[14:13:09] Recipe "fennel oil" added to your cookbook.
Initially, where a recipe has several versions (e.g. different optional ingredients), the version just made will
be added. As you make other versions (perhaps by adding different possible ingredients), the recipe will be
updated to include the new information; this may result in a requirement for ‘chopped potato’ becoming
‘chopped any veg’.
The recipes are shown in alphabetical order, and may be expanded to show what goes into making them,
including skill, ingredients (compulsory and optional), container or tool and cooker (if required). Where an
ingredient is not a basic ingredient (i.e. it is made via another recipe), that will also be shown:
Where you learn a recipe that depends on another recipe for one of its ingredients, and you have not made
the precursor recipe (perhaps someone else made the ingredient for you), the missing recipe will show up
as an unpopulated entry in your cookbook coloured red.
The search box allows searching for a particular recipe by name or by notes; where you have made a note
of the temporary affinity granted by a particular recipe, for example, you can search for the recipe that has
‘milking’ in the notes. The search is a partial text match, so for example searching for ‘ple’ will match apple
juice and maple syrup.
To do this, first mark a recipe to be written (right click on recipe -> options -> mark recipe to be written);
then, with a reed pen filled with ink or dye and activated, right click on a blank piece of paper or papyrus
and ‘write recipe “foo”’. The inscribed recipe will reflect the version you know, so if you’ve never made it
with some of the optional ingredients, your version will not include those. Only one recipe may be marked
to be written (marking another resets this), and marking a recipe is not retained across logouts.
Inscribed recipe cards can be traded or mailed as normal. Note that the basic recipes you start with (i.e.
the ones that everyone knows) can not be written down, nor can rare (or better) recipes (see below).
When receiving an inscribed recipe from someone else, you can read the recipe and, assuming you don’t
already know it, add it to your cookbook. R-click on the recipe and select ‘read recipe’, then click the ‘Add
to cookbook’ button.
Each creature type has a basic, rare, supreme and fantastic recipe available:
● Common - approximately 1:20 chance
The recipe cards will show up as their rarities (i.e. the rare goblin recipe will be a rare piece of papyrus),
and may be used as above to add the recipe to a player’s cookbook (consuming the rare recipe card).
Unlike other recipes, a player will not be able to make the recipe if it does not exist in their cookbook.
These recipes can not be written down from a cookbook, although the initial inscribed papyrus sheets can
be traded and mailed as normal.
Rare and better recipes will be coloured in the same way as items in the cookbook (i.e. rare is dark blue,
supreme light blue, fantastic pink).
Rare (and better) recipes produce meals that have better CCFP values and longer temporary affinities
compared to regular recipes.
7 Objects
This section covers the various objects added or used in the cooking update.
Cooked states are raw or several varieties of cooked, determining whether an item has been cooked (e.g.
cooked meat vs. raw meat). Some items can have several possible cooked states depending on the recipe
used to cook them (e.g. fried vs. boiled eggs). The possible cooked states are:
● Fried - meat, fish, egg, veg, slice of bread
● Grilled - fish
● Boiled - egg
● Roasted - meat, fish, veg
● Steamed - fish
● Baked - not currently used
● Cooked - general catch-all cooked state for anything that doesn’t use one of the above
Physical states refer to the current make-up of an item, showing whether it has been processed in some
way. Not all states apply to all items, and in general, states are only applicable to basic ingredients. Note
use of basic knife (not carving knife).
● None - place-holder pseudo-state, indicating no other states apply.
● Chopped - applies to herbs and vegetables, uses a knife
● Diced - applies to meat, uses a knife
● Ground - applies to spices, uses a mortar and pestle
● Unfermented - basic alcohol constituent, before being fermented
● Zombified - used for milk or cheese made from undead creatures
● Whipped - can apply to cream, uses a fork
● Mashed - applies mainly to vegetables
● Minced - secondary chopped meat state, uses a knife on diced meat
● Fermenting - an alcoholic beverage that is in the process of fermentation
● Clotted - applies to cream
Some items will have a material. This is most apparent with meat, where each different meat comes from a
particular type or group of creature, but a similar system applies to various other items, such as fruit juices.
Some recipes may call for items of a specific material, while others can use any materials.
Fish and meat can be wrapped without requiring any other active item. This does not affect their decay, but
allows them to be cooked directly in a cooker without a container. Wrapped meat will become cooked,
while fish cooked in this way will become steamed.
Most non-liquid foods can be wrapped using waxed paper to reduce their decay. Waxed paper is made
using beeswax and paper or papyrus.
Cheese can be wrapped using a cloth square (wool or cotton) to reduce decay.
Wrapped food will decay approximately 5 times slower than unwrapped food; this is based on a decay tick
being 5 times less likely for wrapped food.
Note that wrapping an item is not cumulative with an item being salted; as wrapping has considerably more
effect than salting, it overrides salting when preventing decay.
See also Sealing kits below for information on preventing decay in liquids.
When making wine, the container must be sealed for the wine to age. A wine barrel may be sealed using a
peg, but leaving it sealed at the end of fermentation also works.
Positive decay works in the same way for distilled spirits - if sealed in a container, they will gradually
improve in quality over time.
While any (sealed) liquid container works for aging, wine barrels work best, with oak barrels having a slight
bonus over other woods. The best place to age drinks is below ground in a structure, on a deed.
New items are coloured green. Existing items available in a new way are colored blue. Ingredient groups
(e.g. when a recipe calls for ‘any X’) are bold.
7.2.1 Crops
The following vegetables may be grown in farms:
● Corn
● Garlic
● Onion
● Potato
● Pumpkin (pick seeds)
● Cabbage (pick seeds)
● Carrot (pick seeds)
● Lettuce (pick seeds)
● Pea pod (pick seeds)
● Tomato (pick seeds)
● Cucumber (pick seeds)
In addition, sugar beet may be grown in farms. Seeds must be picked to replant, and sugar beet does not
count as a vegetable.
The basic farming mechanism is unchanged in this update. Where a crop is marked as ‘pick seeds’, the
produce needs to be picked for seeds to be replanted.
The following fruit may be harvested from the correct tree or bush:
● Green apple - Raven, week 3
● Lemon - Omen, week 1
● Cherries - White Shark, week 1
● Olives - Fire, week 1 and Leaf, week 1
● Grapes - Raven, week 1
● Grapes from grape trellises in Raven, week 1 (behaves like a grape bush)
● Oranges - Omens, week 3
Trees and bushes may be planted from sprouts as currently. New sprouts can be picked from existing
plants or found via foraging.
Rose petals, camellia and oleander leaves, and bouquets of flowers may be used in recipes, but are not
edible themselves, and thus are still stored in BSBs.
Trellises may be created using seedlings, which are found via foraging. Trellises must be planted to be
harvestable, with a maximum of 4 trellises planted per tile. To help with placement, trellises may be planted
using a wall, fence or tile border, and may be planted on the left, right, or in the centre (relative to where
you are standing).
Maple sap may be harvested from maple trees (using a bucket) around Bear, week 4.
Finally, acorns may be harvested from oak trees around Snake, week 2. They can still be botanized at any
time.
7.2.3 Foraging
Many of the basic ingredients used in cooking may be obtained by foraging and botanising. The basic
mechanisms have not changed, however a number of new items have been added to each list.
As the new sprouts (hazelnut and orange) may more normally be harvested from mature specimens of the
appropriate plant, it is intended that they will be removed from the forage list at some point in the future,
when both plants can be considered well established on the servers.
Note that some spices need to be picked for seeds, which may then be planted in a planter (producing
more of the spice). Fennel seeds may also be used as a spice in recipes that call for non-specific spices.
Different cooking oils may be pressed from the following (using a fruit press):
● Hazelnuts
● Nutmeg
● Fennel
● Walnuts
● Corn
● Cotton seed
● Pinenuts
Note that different cooking oils may not be combined by dragging into the same container. They can be
combined by activating one and r-clicking on the other, though - the resultant oil will be generic cooking oil.
7.2.6 Butchering
Butchering is essentially unchanged, although the meat types have been grouped instead of being
per-creature as before. See the materials section above for the new groupings.
7.2.7 Cheese
Cheese is essentially unchanged, requiring milk and a cheese drill to produce. Three different cheeses are
available, made from cow’s milk (cheese), sheep milk (feta cheese) and bison milk (buffalo cheese). Some
recipes call for specific cheeses, others will allow any cheese to be used.
7.2.8 Other
Pineapple counts as a fruit for cooking purposes, but must be made (via a target action).
Coconut is a basic ingredient, but needs to be made (via a target action). It does not count as a nut for
recipe purposes.
Rocksalt is a new vein type, which may be mined for rock salt; this may be ground with a grindstone to
produce salt. Rock tiles which would previously have given salt when mined will convert to salt veins over
the few days following release, and salt veins will take approximately 50 actions to mine out. Ore veins that
also have salt will continue to function as they do pre-update: they will appear as veins, and occasionally
give a salt when mining.
Paper can be made from wood pulp with a press. Wood pulp is made from water and wood scraps. Paper
is functionally identical to papyrus.
Snowballs can be gathered from the ground during winter (i.e. when there is snow around). They may be
stored in larders and are ingredients in some recipes.
Non-food items (e.g. nails, coins) may no longer be present in containers when cooking; if they are, the
recipe will not work.
7.3 Containers
Containers are used to hold ingredients when cooking. Each recipe has particular container requirements,
so a particular set of ingredients could make quite different results depending on the container used.
Containers are used for action- and heat-based recipes.
Containers available (new ones marked in green with construction requirements and related skill):
● Cauldron
● Frying pan
● Pottery bowl - can now hold liquids
● Sauce pan - capacity has been increased
● Cake tin - made from tin lump with a small anvil (blacksmithing)
● Pie dish - pottery, made from clay (pottery)
● Plate - made from log with carving knife (carpentry)
Oven - essentially unchanged, almost all recipes can be made in an oven. As a general rule, using an
oven does not add to the difficulty of a recipe.
Campfire - essentially unchanged, many recipes may also be made in a campfire (and a few require one
exclusively). Where a campfire is used as an alternative to an oven, this may increase the difficulty of the
recipe.
Forge - unchanged, but all but the most basic recipes are too complex to be cooked in a forge. Where a
forge is an option for a particular recipe, using one may increase the difficulty of the recipe.
Still - used for distillation of undistilled liquids into final drinks. Functions much
like an oven for liquids (needs to be lit with a kindling), but will burn for a lot
longer. An undistilled intermediate placed in a lit still will gradually change into
the final drink over time, so long as the still remains lit. A still is started using
two copper sheets, and requires a plank, 2 ribbons, 25 rivets and another 5
copper sheets to complete. Stills have two internal compartments: a boiler
(where the undistilled intermediate is placed) and a condenser (where the final
distilled product will appear).
7.5 Tools
Tools are used for target action and action-based recipes, both for creation of dishes and for processing
raw ingredients. As with containers, the same recipe could make quite different results if a different tool is
used.
Some target action recipes involve combining two ingredients; in these cases, either of the ingredients
should be activated (i.e. no tool is required).
The measuring jug is a pottery item, with the initial version being made from clay with a hand. Creation
mechanics are the same as all other pottery items.
To use the measuring jug, r-click on it and select ‘Set volume to’. This allows setting the capacity to any of
the following weights:
● 1g (0.001 kg)
● 2g (0.002 kg)
● 5g (0.005 kg)
● 10g (0.01 kg)
● 20g (0.02 kg)
● 50g (0.05 kg
● 100g (0.1 kg)
● 200g (0.2 kg)
● 500g (0.5 kg)
● 1kg
● 2kg
● 5kg
● 10kg
Note that Wurm uses weights for everything involving cooking; to simplify matters, it is assumed that all
liquids have a density of 1 kilogram per litre.
Once the volume of the measuring jug has been set, it may be activated and filled from a source of liquid; it
will then contain the selected amount (assuming the source contains at least that much). Several iterations
(using different volume settings) may be necessary to get the right amount for a particular recipe.
7.6 Storage
As a general rule, cooked / processed items can not be stored in a FSB (cooked items go in larders).
When removing old-style cooked meat from an FSB, it will turn into raw meat - this is to prevent issues
between the old cooked meat (which was a separate item) and the new status-based system introduced
with this release.
7.6.3 Larder
Larders provide storage for cooked items that can’t go into FSBs. A larder has five shelves and an icebox;
cooked items are stored on the shelves while snowballs may be stored in the icebox. Shelves may be
renamed by the larder owner.
The storage isn’t bulk storage, but the time between decay ticks is increased by the number of snowballs in
the icebox (i.e. the more snowballs there are in the icebox, the slower food in the larder will decay). The
snowballs themselves will also decay slower in a larder.
Note that the reduction in decay from wrapping and from storing food in a larder are cumulative. Thus
wrapped food stored in a larder will take decay even slower than either wrapping or larder storage alone.
Larders require 20 planks, 4 shafts, 3 small nails, 5 lead lumps and 2 iron ribbons to create, and use fine
carpentry (no min skill requirement). They may be locked to restrict access.
Once a wine barrel has been sealed to start fermentation, it can not be unsealed until the process is
complete (i.e. you can’t accidently unseal it too soon). Once the process has completed (i.e. the
intermediate has turned into the finished drink), the wine barrel may be unsealed.
For positive decay drinks (like grape wine), the quality will start improving so long as the barrel is sealed; if
it is not unsealed at the end of fermentation, the positive decay will start immediately. For other liquids, no
decay will occur while the barrel remains sealed.
Wine barrels can be sealed to prevent decay of liquids in them (or start positive decay for some alcoholic
drinks) using a wooden peg.
A sealed small wine barrel may be ‘tasted’ to see what it contains without unsealing it; other containers will
be tagged with what they contain when sealed. To access the liquid, the container must be unsealed;
resealing it requires a new sealing kit.
When tasting from a sealed container, quality information may be returned based on skill: under 40 skill will
give a rough ql range, at 40 to 75 skill a more accurate range, while over 75 will give the exact ql. The skill
used is the skill required to make the item in question (so beverages for drinks).
Between 40 and 75 skill, the quality will be given as a range, with an approximate variation of 5 in either
direction (i.e. a quality of 50 might give it has a quality in the range of 47 to 56) .
A sealing kit is started from beeswax and a square of cloth, requiring a label (scissors on paper or papyrus)
and a string to complete. It uses the papyrusmaking skill to create.
Domestic hives with a resident swarm have the same chance to produce an additional queen, as above.
Hives with two queens will show as ‘noisy’.
Wild hives may be migrated to domestic ones in two ways: the wild swarm can move (single queen), or an
extra queen can migrate. For the whole swarm (i.e. the last queen in the wild hive) to migrate, the domestic
hive has to be higher quality than the wild one, with a better chance of migration the closer the (empty)
domestic hive is to the wild one. the necessary quality difference increasing the further the (empty)
domestic hive is from the wild one. Thus, to maximise the chances of filling a domestic hive, it should be
placed as close as possible to the wild hive. If the wild hive has a second queen, the quality of the hive
doesn’t matter, although distance still reduces the chance of migration. When the last queen migrates from
a wild hive, the wild hive is removed.
Note that where there is only a single queen in a wild hive, there’s only a chance for the queen to migrate; a
guaranteed migration takes place only when there is a second queen. This is checked approximately once
per RL day, per wild hive, and if there are multiple domestic hives available to migrate into, the one that
gets chosen is random.
To open a hive, you will need an active smoker, otherwise the bees will sting you (dealing poison damage).
With an active smoker, any produced honey and wax may be removed from hives.
Bees will consume either honey or sugar approximately once every 5 RL days, with a preference for sugar
(there is a daily check with a 1-in-5 chance of consuming 10g of honey or sugar). Thus to maximise honey
yield, sugar may be placed in hives. If no honey or sugar is available, the hive has a chance to die off.
Domestic hives are contained in bee hives, which require fine carpentry to create, using a shaft and a plank
to start. Completion will require a further 3 shafts, 10 planks and 1 small nails. Domestic hives may be
loaded and moved (large cart or wagon), but if they contain bees, you may get stung; carrying an active
smoker will prevent stings. Domestic hives will show as ‘active’ (i.e. containing bees) or ‘empty’. If a hive
has a second queen, loading it onto a vehicle may kill off the extra queen - the longer the hive stays loaded,
the higher the chance of this happening becomes.
Domestic hives will appear empty over winter, but have a chance to repopulate in spring, so long as they
contained a queen at the year end; in essence, a domestic queen has a chance to hibernate through the
winter. Sugar may be placed in a domestic hive to keep the bees alive over winter - this will keep the hive
active. Bees will continue to consume 10g of sugar or honey approximately every 5 days. Any additional
queens in hives automatically die off during winter.
Hives may show an extra descriptor in their names, giving a clue as to their status:
● Dormant - winter only, hive has a queen (i.e. will reactivate in spring)
● Empty - no queen, hive is unoccupied
● Noisy - hive has two queens
● Active - hive has a queen, and is active
Examining a hive will tell you whether it is empty, has bees in it, or has an extra queen. Domestic hives
may be locked to prevent other players accessing them.
Bee hives will produce honey and wax over time, during spring, summer and autumn, with the amount
produced depending on what tile types are nearby. Crops, flowers and trees will all increase yields -
flowers are best, but trees (at certain ages) and crops (at certain maturities) also help. Grass and steppe
An active beehive producing honey from crop tiles will slightly increase the yield from those tiles. Halfway
and almost ripe fields produce the most honey boost, with only weeds and freshly sown providing no boost
at all. A particular tile will only contribute to one hive; where the tile falls within the influence of two hives,
the higher quality and closer hive will generally claim it.
A hive will hold a maximum of 20 wax; no further wax will be produced beyond that (production will restart
once the hive holds less than 20 wax). Hives need sufficient access to nectar (i.e. enough good tiles in
their area of influence, as above) to produce wax, and should produce roughly 1 wax per day if the
requirements are met.
Smokers use blacksmithing to create, requiring a ribbon and an iron lump to start, and another iron ribbon
and a piece of leather to complete. They can be fuelled (wood scraps work for this) and then lit (using
kindling and flint and steel), and will remain lit for some time, producing smoke. When carrying an active
smoker, a player will not be stung by bees, and can open wild hives and move domestic ones.
Bees will not sting passers by; it is necessary to try to open a wild hive or move an active domestic one to
be stung. Wild hives will also sting players attempting to cut down their tree, unless an active smoker is
carried. Cutting down a tree with a wild hive will destroy the hive.
In addition, a number of ‘nameable’ recipes have been added. The first person to create one of these
recipes will give their name to the dish; from that point, it will be known as “Player’s XXX”. These recipes
are specific to Wurm Online, and will not be carried over to Wurm Unlimited. Each player can name a
maximum of one nameable recipe.