Developer Spry Fox’s roguelike puzzler Road Not Taken is all about figuring things out as you go. It’s like life, really — you start out knowing nothing and learn from experience, failure, and experimentation. This is especially true of its recipes, in which you combine two or more objects to create something new.
Like the rest of it, you’re supposed to learn all of this from trying it out, because life does not come with a strategy guide.
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Animals
Food
Apple • Family Dinner • Fearsome Stew • Jar of Honey • Mole Stew • Owlhead Pickles • Poison Toad • Pork Roast • Raccoon Stew • Royal Honey • Toadstool • Yeti Stew
House Items
Large Pot • Playful Cat • Pot of Spare Staffs • Shattered Large Pot • Sleeping Cat • Small Pot • Shattered Small Pot • Stool
Lost Items
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People
Child • Parent • Precocious Child
Plant Life
Dead Tree • Hedge • Oak • Pine • Shrubbery • Stone Seed • Thorn Bush • Thorn Tree
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Potions
Potion of Duplication • Potion of Fear • Potion of Following • Potion of Grip • Potion of Movement • Stun Potion
Spirits
Stony Things
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Ancient Mortar • Bear Statue • Forest Shrine • Grave • Heavy Rock • Jumpstone • Locked Wall • Lodestone • Vase of Ashes
Tools
Ax • Beehive • Bone • Fire • Ice • Skeleton Key • Skull • Spear • Wood
Tradables
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What it does: Bees make honey. And they also make bee stings. This game isn’t so cruel that the pesky insects disembowel themselves after stinging anything once, but it is cruel enough that they can sting you as many times as they want while leaving their guts intact. It’s a strange world.
How to make it:
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I’m not sure how this works, but a Lodestone plus a Forest Shrine makes a Bee. Who knows what goes on in that crazy stone bowl.
You can also just throw a Beehive. Sometimes that works, too.
What it makes:
Pick up a Bee and toss it, and it becomes a Scared Bee. Just like any bully.
Also, if you combine a Bee with a Skull, you’ll get some Royal Honey.
What it does: Bears won’t hurt you, but they might block your way. They move one space for every two steps you take. And they’re cute, so that might be distracting.
How to make it:
Only love can make a bear.
What it makes:
Three Bears merge to make one Bear Statue. It’s a fitting tribute to those we lost in its creation.
Four Bears combine to form one Giant Bear. And that makes sense, I guess. It’s like Bear Voltron.
And if you can line up a full-on Teddy Bear Picnic of five, you get a Mole.
What it does: Boars are jerks, and they have bad attitudes. They’ll attack you just for standing in front of them, even if you’re several squares away.
How to make it:
If you can get a Willowisp to stop stealing children away long enough to throw a Forest Shrine at it, they’ll turn into a Boar.
What it makes:
Two Boars combine to make an adorable (and docile) Pig. That’s the best kind of math.
What it does: Crows like things that aren’t theirs, and if you throw a Crow at an object, it’ll just fly off with it. They don’t even care.
How to make it:
Throw five Light Spirits together, and you’ll end up with a squawking thief and a lot more breathing room.
What it makes:
A Crow and a Parent form a Family Dinner. Let the jokes about “eating crow” begin.
What it does: It’ll mess you up, basically. It’ll hit you for 10 damage and teleport you to another room.
How to make it:
An innocent, fluffy Rabbit combines with the infernal Flame Spirit to form this affront to Nature.
What it makes:
The Daemon Bunnae will spread its evil to other fluffy Rabbits.
And sometimes, it’ll eat a Fire, turn back into a Rabbit, and give you some money. Because reasons.
What it does: It moves up and down, and it’ll hit you for one damage if you get too close.
How to make it:
Throw a Placid Raccoon more than one space. Apparently, they hate that.
The harder way is to combine Leshy with the Forest Shrine.
What it makes:
Two Evil Raccoons make a Rock Eater.
Or you can just go ahead and make some stew.
What it does: It walks around looking all cool and saving you room. And sometimes it steals your stuff, but what can you do.
How to make it:
Here’s some tricky math: A Wolf plus a Fox equals a Fox. So apparently, Wolf equals zero.
But it gets more confusing: It turns out that three Wolves merge to make one Fox, so Fox also equals two times Wolf. That means that Fox also equals zero, and therefore, all Wolves are Foxes, but none of them are worth anything. Algebra.
Note that you can’t use Cornered Wolves for crafting. Just frightened ones.
What it makes:
Foxes make Foxes. That’s just how Nature works. And sometimes, a Fox will give up one of its purloined Coppers if you throw it.
What it does: It walks around looking all grumpy.
How to make it:
Four regular-sized bears combine to form the Giant Bear.
What it makes:
It makes a pretty nice rug in the basement of your Ranger’s house. Plus, it drops Jars of Honey.
What it does: If you enter any square below a Hawk, and nothing is between you and it, it will swoop down and carry you to another room.
How to make it:
You can’t. It just is.
What it makes:
Hawks aren’t all hassle. You can merge three of them with a Flame Spirit to get a super-useful Potion of Movement.
Or you can throw one in with a Forest Shrine and make a Willowisp.
What it does: It moves up and down the screen, one space for each move you make, and it gets in your way. All the time.
How to make it:
Why would you even want to do that? Well, you can’t.
What it makes:
But you can use a Rock or something to bump two Imps into each other and make a Poison Toad. And that’s preferable to the Imps in every way.
If you have the skills to combine three Night Imps, they turn into a Parent. Take from that what you will.
What it does: Leshy is weird. And he attacks two squares to the left or right, so he’s also mean.
How to make it:
My guess is that you’d combine a tree, a walrus, and the nightmares of lonely children. But you can’t make Leshy in the game.
What it makes:
If you take an Ax to Leshy, you can chop him down into a Rock Eater.
You can also throw two Leshies together and get a Toadstool.
And if you don’t like Leshy but still feel like having something attack you, toss a Forest Shrine his way to make an Evil Raccoon.
What it does: Moles are handy for moving things around that you either can’t reach or can’t lift. They burrow to the other side of any object(s) you throw them at and shift everything one space toward you. So if you have a Child you can’t get to, just start chucking Moles toward it until you can reach.
How to make it:
You can make a Mole by getting five Bears together, provided you don’t accidentally make a Statue or a Giant Bear first.
What it makes:
If you can get two Moles into a Fire, you’ll make some tasty Mole Stew.
What it does: Just walks around being pretty.
How to make it:
You don’t have the skills to make an Owl.
What it makes:
You use Owls to make Owlhead Pickles. One way is to get four of the birds together.
Or, if you don’t have the time (or the Owls) for that, you can cast two of your wingéd buddies into a Fire.
It’s not all weird pickles, though; burn an Owl in the unholy blue flame of the Ancient Mortar, and you’ll get a Potion of Following.
What it does: It’s cute. What else does it need to do?
How to make it:
You get a Pig by tossing together two of those a-hole Boars.
What it makes:
But if your tummy is rumbling louder than your heartstrings, you can also just cook a Pig into a Pork Roast.
What it does: Nothing. Just sits there being adorable and completely nonthreatening.
How to make it:
Impossible. If I could make Placid Raccoons, I’d just do that all the time and never save any kids.
What it makes:
If you throw a Placid Raccoon, it turns into an Evil Raccoon. And then it will cut you.
You can also toss this little guy into a Fire and make some Raccoon Stew. You monster.
What it does: It eats things made of rock and stone. And if it can’t find any, it’ll poop out a Heavy Rock and then chow down on that. And that’s just disgusting.
How to make it:
You can throw one Evil Raccoon into another …
…or you can chop down that weirdo Leshy with an Ax.
What it makes:
Nothing, until it eats a statue you need to open a door. And then it makes you mad.
What it does: It runs away from you because it is so scared. Pick it up, however, and it will sting you like crazy.
How to make it:
Stand up to an angry Bee by tossing it around.
What it makes:
Three Scared Bees combine to make Royal Honey.
What it does: It takes up two squares and typically wants nothing to do with you. It will attack if you corner it, but it’s otherwise not a threat. Unless you’re a Rabbit or a Deer — then it will totally eat you. The other problem with cornering a Wolf is that it will also refuse to let you craft anything from it.
And so the Cornered Wolf shall take its revenge upon you.
How to make it:
You can’t make a Wolf. You just have to deal with the harsh reality that Wolves represent.
What it makes:
A Wolf joins with a Fox to make … a Fox. Sorry, Mr. Wolf. You don’t count for anything.
Three Wolves also combine to make a Fox.
And if a Wolf eats another animal, it’ll poo out a Rabbit.
What it does: Yetis are no threat to you, and they have a fondness for Bears. You know, in the same way that I have a fondness for sour worms.
How to make it:
No combination of elements adds up to a Yeti.
What it makes:
If you look at this beautiful, unique creature and think, “I wonder what it tastes like,” you should work on your sense of wonder. But you can also make some Yeti Stew with a Fire if you’re so damned curious.
What it does: Restores eight points of energy.
How to make it:
Apple recipes are various, and not one of them involves waiting for a tree to grow. So Road Not Taken’s universe beats our universe there. Anyway, you can combine two Flame Spirits and an Ancient Mortar…
…or you can throw a Thorn Tree next to a Mortar.
If all you can find is a Thorn Bush, don’t worry. That’ll work just as well.
Finally, if you manage to open a Locked Wall with a Skeleton Key, the game will toss you an Apple just for funsies.
What it makes:
Put two Apples together to make a Potion of Movement.
What it does: Restores 20 points of energy.
How to make it:
Chuck a Crow into a Parent and you have a quick, affordable meal that feeds four. Or just you, really.
What it makes:
It makes you wonder if the developer made the pun in this item’s name intentionally.
What it does: Restores 20 points of energy.
How to make it:
Outmaneuver an Angry Spirit and toss an Ancient Mortar at it to make this hearty dish.
But what if the spirit is Very Angry? Same deal, but I like to think that the resulting stew is just a little bit warmer.
What it makes:
It makes for even better eating the next day.
What it does: Restores 10 points of energy.
How to make it:
Here’s one of the few recipes in the game that makes logical sense: Harvest your Jars of Honey from three Beehives.
What it makes:
It makes a great topping for ice cream, but good luck finding any of that in the woods. And if you put three of them together, they upgrade into a Royal Honey.
What it does: Restores 20 points of energy.
How to make it:
If you have a couple of Moles and some Fire, you’re all set.
What it makes:
It makes a nice meal, and you get to keep the cool bowl afterward. I hope.
What it does: Restores 30 points of energy.
How to make it:
You have two options here. First, get four Owls together, and they’ll transmogrify into a jar.
If Owls are at a premium, though, you can just toss two of them next to a Fire.
What it makes:
It makes no sense, is what. Who pickles owls?
What it does: Restores 30 points of energy.
How to make it:
It’s tricky, but worth it for the 30 points. You have to combine two Imps by shoving them together with a Rock or Forest Bull.
What it makes:
You can’t make anything with Poison Toads, but at least they clear out some of those annoying Imps.
What it does: Restores 20 points of energy.
How to make it:
It’s pretty straightforward: Throw a Pig onto a Fire.
What it makes:
It makes sense. Finally.
What it does: Restores 10 points of energy.
How to make it:
If you’re looking for something to do with a pesky Evil Raccoon, just throw it into the nearest Fire.
And if you’re a joyless maniac with an allergy to innocence, you can do the same with a Placid Raccoon.
What it makes:
It’ll make you happy and sad, respectively.
What it does: Restores 50 points of energy.
How to make it:
If you can herd three Scared Bees together, you’ll net the game’s most powerful food item.
Or you can toss three Jars of Honey together.
And if you want to be all mean, threaten a Bee by showing it what happened to the last person who crossed you.
What it makes:
It makes pretty good use of those stupid Bees.
What it does: Restores 30 points of energy.
How to make it:
If you have two Leshys giving you grief, you can get rid of them and grab yourself a nice energy boost at the same time.
What it makes:
It makes the woods a less confusing and scary place.
What it does: Restores 30 points of energy.
How to make it:
Find yourself a beautiful and rare Yeti, and then burn it alive.
What it makes:
It’s sad. It makes tears.
What it does: It sits around in your house waiting for you to break it. Or just looking tasteful.
How to make it:
If you have a Shattered Large Pot sitting around, your cat can help you reassemble them.
Even if Kitty is asleep.
If your cat isn’t available, you can also rebuild a Large Pot from two Shattered Small Pots.
Or you can use two Shattered Large Pots.
What it makes:
It makes a nice statement in whatever room you put it in.
What it does: They just lie there, a silent monument to your clumsiness.
How to make it:
Throw a Large Pot at the wall. Duh.
What it makes:
If you have no need to store anything, but you have some guests coming over, you can start combining Shattered Large and Small Pots into Stools.
Or if you’d rather have your Large Pot back, ask your cat to help.
You don’t even have to wake it up first.
If you have a couple of Shattered Large Pots lying around and want to save some space, combine them into one Large Pot.
And if you need another Pot of Spare Staffs, you can make that happen, too.
What it does: Playful Cat is always happy to see you. So happy, in fact, that you need to throw it across the room so that you can get around the house.
How to make it:
Start throwing together sets of Two Stools and a Pot for Spare Staffs to start yourself on the road to Cat Person.
What it makes:
Your Playful Cat is a wiz with glue, so you should bring your broken Large Pots to him.
Your small ones, too. He can fix everything.
What it does: You never know when one of your Ranger’s Staffs is going to break. So here’s where you keep the non-broken ones.
How to make it:
You have one in your bedroom already, but if you need more for whatever reason, you can combine one Shattered Large Pot with two Shattered Small Pots.
What it makes:
Toss this thing in with a couple of Stools, and you’ll welcome a new Playful Cat to your family.
What it does: It’s exactly like Playful Cat, but it doesn’t get in your way. So you only need to throw it if you hate cats.
How to make it:
You don’t have to make a cat sleepy. That happens all on its own.
What it makes:
Being unconscious and having no visible limbs but a tail doesn’t slow down this kitty. It can still fix that Small Pot for you from the broken pieces.
What is that, a Shattered Large Pot? Psssssh.
What it does: It sits around looking nice. Much like the Large Pot, only less so.
How to make it:
A Shattered Small Pot and a resourceful Playful Cat will get you a Small Pot in no time.
A Sleeping Cat can also help.
What it makes:
It makes any corner of a room a tiny Greek vacation.
What it does: They lie there as grim reminders of the wages of violence.
How to make it:
See that Small Pot over there? Pick it up and throw it at something.
Sometimes, you also get these if you break a Large Pot.
What it makes:
You can reverse that senseless destruction if you have a Cat handy. No, really.
Don’t even bother waking it up. Just chuck the shards over there near it.
Hey, don’t even worry about the Cat. Just throw two Shattered Small Pots together and watch how much better off you are.
But who needs pots, anyway? Mix a Shattered Small Pot with its larger counterpart, and then take a load off on your new Stool.
Or you can combine two of them with one Shattered Large Pot to make a Pot for Spare Staffs.
What it does: It makes sitting easier and immature people giggle.
How to make it:
Obviously, the easiest way to make a wooden stool is to throw two piles of shattered earthenware together. Like, say, some Shattered Small and Large Pots.
What it makes:
Placing two Stools next to each other creates a telekinetic net capable of gathering enough psychic energy to summon a Ghost Girl. Well, you tell me how that works..
If you don’t want a Ghost Girl, however, add a Pot for Spare Staffs to this recipe, and you’ll get an adorable Playful Cat to snuggle.
What it does: Sits around bumming you out.
How to make it:
Sorrow and loss made it. You need not do anything.
What it makes:
Summon the Ghost Girl with the Backpack, two Light Spirits, and two Flame Spirits.
What it does: Ruins your happy day.
How to make it:
Build a castle made of youth and innocence in your mind. And then crush it to dust.
What it makes:
You can conjure a Ghost Girl with the Doll and a few other ingredients.
What it does: Cures your good mood.
How to make it:
You wouldn’t want to make a poor, doomed child’s lost shoe. Really.
What it makes:
The Ghost Girl appears when you throw the Shoe in with some Spirits.
What it does: Children are why you’re going out into the woods in the first place. They’re lost, scared, and they need your help.
How to make it:
When a man and a woman love each other…
What it makes:
If you sit a Child down by a Fire, they get super smart and precocious. And then they’ll follow you out of the woods without you having to toss them everywhere.
What it does: You save Children by delivering them to a Parent (or the other way around). Otherwise, they just stand around and grieve impotently.
How to make it:
Start with a Child and then wait. Or if you don’t have that kind of time, get three Night Imps into a huddle.
What it makes:
Toss a Parent in with a Crow and score a Family Dinner which will give you a 20-point energy boost.
What it does: It’s just like a regular Child, but it follows you around.
How to make it:
Placing a Child next to the warmth of a Fire will snap her out of her hypothermic shock. She’ll follow you around until you lead her to safety. And that is so much less disturbing than if this had created something called “Child Stew.”
What it makes:
It makes this ridiculously unfair game slightly easier. For a little while.
What it does: Not much. Yeah, it’s dead. It’s all messed up. Mostly you use them to open doors.
How to make it:
You don’t have to kill any trees. Nature has done that for you.
What it makes:
Most obviously, you can chop down this tree with an Ax to get Wood.
You can also get yourself a Stone Seed if you combine the Dead Tree, a Heavy Rock, and an Ancient Mortar.
What it does: It takes up a lot of space and patently refuses to contain hedgehogs. What a rip.
How to make it:
Don’t even worry about that. They’re everywhere.
What it makes:
Chuck an Ax at this beast and reduce it to a more manageably sized and useful piece of Wood.
Or if you don’t have an Ax but way too many Hedges, you can get five of them together to make a piece of Wood. One. Measly. Piece.
What it does: Just kinda sits there and stares at you. Kinda eerie, really. It’s also a common door-opening item.
How to make it:
They grow all by themselves and somehow don’t lose their leaves in the winter.
What it makes:
Take an Ax to the Oak to grab a piece of Wood.
It also merges with a Heavy Rock and the Ancient Mortar to make a Stone Seed.
What it does: Opens doors while filling the woods with one of Nature’s most invigorating scents.
How to make it:
You will have no shortage of Pines on their own. They grow like trees in the forest.
What it makes:
Chop down your own festive tree and gather some Wood.
You can also get a Stone Seed with the Pine, a Heavy Rock, and an Ancient Mortar.
What it does: It’s like a Hedge, but only half as annoyingly large.
How to make it:
You can take it up with Roger the Shrubber.
What it makes:
Have an Ax? See that Shrubbery? Combine them for Wood.
Or take that Shrubbery and put it together with its six buddies to get the same result.
What it does: If you throw it, it blossoms into a Heavy Rock. So be careful with that.
How to make it:
Combine any non-thorned tree with a Heavy Rock and an Ancient Mortar.
What it makes:
It makes a Heavy Rock if you throw it too far.
What it does: It’s like any other plant except that it hurts you if you pick it up or carry it.
How to make it:
Why would you do that to yourself? Those thorns hurt.
What it makes:
Washing a Thorn Bush in the Ancient Mortar’s cleansing blue flame will get you a tasty Apple.
And a quartet of Light Spirits will reduce the Thorn Bush to a piece of Wood.
What it does: Like its bushier counterpart, it pokes you and takes your energy if you hold or carry it.
How to make it:
Nature can churn out these cures for hugs just fine on its own, thanks.
What it makes:
Hungry? Put an Ancient Mortar next to the Thorn Tree to get an Apple.
If you have an embarrassment of Light Spirits around, gather four of them around the Thorn Tree to make some Wood.
Or combine a Thorn Tree with a Spear to get a tasty Berry.
What it does: If you have an item you’d like to have more of, just hurl this bottle at it to make two copies.
How to make it:
Pile up five Flame Spirits, and this will be your reward.
What it makes:
It makes a copy of anything you put it on. Isn’t that enough?
What it does: Strike terror into the heart of even the least sentient and mobile of objects with this spooky brew.
How to make it:
Toss a Flame Spirit into an Ancient Mortar.
Alternately, you can make three Willowisps dance inside the azure fire.
What it makes:
Anything you throw it on will run away from you like a frightened deer.
What it does: It saves you the trouble of carrying things around.
How to make it:
Introduce an Owl to an Ancient Mortar.
What it makes:
It makes any item or creature follow you around like a Precocious Child.
What it does: Removes your need to worry about those things you can’t or shouldn’t lift.
How to make it:
Sacrifice a Light Spirit in your Ancient Mortar to make this useful tonic appear.
What it makes:
It lets you pick up everything — even items that would normally hurt you.
What it does: Saves you the trouble of moving things by making them kinda mobile on their own.
How to make it:
Three of those jerk Hawks and a Flame Spirit combine to make this handy brew.
You can also throw together a couple of Apples.
What it makes:
Any object you throw the Potion of Movement on will move left and right all on its own.
What it does: Those things are moving? It’ll stop them.
How to make it:
Throw four Light Spirits into a huddle, and they’ll come up with this.
What it makes:
It makes even the most wily of Deer freeze in its tracks so that you can nab it.
What it does: It haunts, stalks, and attacks you to whittle down your precious energy.
How to make it:
You want to avoid it if possible, but if you just must have an Angry Spirit following you around, combine two Flame Spirits and a Light Spirit. Or just avoid mixing these three things; that’s probably the better takeaway here.
Or if you have a Very Angry Spirit on your tail, lose some energy until it simmers down a bit. That won’t really solve the whole “Angry Spirit trying to hurt you” problem, but it’s a start.
What it makes:
If you have an Angry Spirit and a lot of energy, it’ll only enrage that monster further.
An Angry Spirit plus a Light Spirit will get you a piece of Wood.
And if you can manage to toss an Ancient Mortar into this beastie, you can make some delicious Fearsome Stew.
What it does: They just kinda hang around and rob you of 10 energy if you accidentally walk into them.
How to make it:
They’re more or less crafting components with (adorable) faces, and they’re everywhere, so you need not make them yourself. But if you really want to, you can combine a Berry Bear and an Ancient Mortar.
What it makes:
Three Flame Spirits make an Ax.
If a Rabbit gets too close to a Flame Spirit, it becomes an evil Daemon Bunnae.
Two Flame Spirits combine with an Ancient Mortar to get you a sweet Apple.
A party of five Flame Spirits distills a Potion of Duplication.
If you need something to strike terror into the hearts of your enemies, hurl a Flame Spirit into an Ancient Mortar to make a Potion of Fear.
Rid yourself of three pesky Hawks and a Flame Spirit to grab a Potion of Movement.
Two Flame Spirits and a Light Spirit walk into a bar. They combine to form an Angry Spirit. This joke has no punchline.
If you have a couple of Flame Spirits, two Light Spirits, and a Shoe, you can summon the Ghost Girl.
Swap the Shoe with a Doll and get the same sad spirit.
You can also use the Backpack to get a Ghost Girl. This completes the Sadness Trifecta.
And because three bummers isn’t enough, a Bone will also work here.
And if your energy drops below 10, Flame Spirits turn into Doom Spirits. And then you’re really in trouble.
What it does: Makes you really, really sad.
How to make it:
If you insist, you can combine two Flame Spirits, two Light Spirits, and a lost item like a Backpack ….
… or a Doll ….
… or a Shoe …
… or a Bone.
If you want a Ghost Girl in your house — and who wouldn’t? — just put a couple of Stools together.
What it makes:
It makes clowns cry.
What it does: It’s an ingredient in a lot of recipes, and it’ll take 5 points of your energy if you accidentally walk into it. Because they’re nicer than Flame Spirits, but not by much.
How to make it:
No need to craft these. They’re everywhere. But it’s worth noting that if your energy falls below 10, and then you recover, all Doom Spirits will turn into Light Spirits.
What it makes:
A quintet of Light Spirits makes one Crow.
A trio of Light Spirits and an Ancient Mortar create a Jumpstone.
One Light Spirit and an Ancient Mortar combine to make a Potion of Grip.
Four Light Spirits will net you a Stun Potion.
You’ll want to avoid putting one Light Spirit next to two Flame Spirits. That will spit out an Angry Spirit that won’t like you much.
If it’s a Ghost Girl you’re after, toss together two Light Spirits, two Flame Spirits, and a dash of Backpack.
Or Doll.
Or Shoe.
Or Bone.
You can also use these guys to gather Wood. Like if you combine one with an Angry (but not a Very Angry) Spirit.
Or you can put four of them around a Thorn Bush.
A Thorn Tree will also work.
And if your energy drops below 10 points, these cute guys turn into the less cute and more persistent Doom Spirit.
What it does: It hounds and attacks you like the Angry Spirit, but it hits even harder because it’s so mad at you for having an abundance of energy.
How to make it:
Two Flame Spirits plus one Light Spirit create an Angry Spirit, and if your energy is above 100 or so, it’ll turn into this demon.
What it makes:
Like its less cranky sibling, you can throw an Ancient Mortar at this guy and make some Fearsome Stew.
What it does: It snatches up Children and teleports them to another room. Possibly while giggling.
How to make it:
Grind up a Hawk in a Forest Shrine and watch this come out.
What it makes:
If you toss a Willowisp into an Ancient Mortar, it’ll make a Boar. Somehow.
And if you get three Willowisps in with an Ancient Mortar, you’ll get a Potion of Fear.
What it does: It burns a lot of stuff to turn it into more useful things.
How to make it:
You don’t have to. The Ancient Mortar has been lying in wait since time immemorial just waiting to be super useful.
What it makes:
If it’s lunch you’re after, cook two Flame Spirits to get an Apple.
You can also burn an Apple out of a Thorn Bush.
A Thorn Tree will also help you suck up to your teacher.
Hot food is also delicious. Throw an Ancient Mortar into an Angry or Very Angry Spirit to make Fearsome Stew.
You can burn up three Light Spirits to make a Jumpstone.
If for whatever reason you’d like to make a Stone Seed, the Ancient Mortar can help you out. Just throw it together with a Dead Tree and a Heavy Rock.
An Oak also works in this recipe.
As does a Pine.
Half of the game’s potions use the Ancient Mortar. For example, if you toss a Flame Spirit into the fire, you get a Potion of Fear.
The same goes for three Willowisps.
You can create a Potion of Following by purifying an Owl.
Finally, the Ancient Mortar and a Light Spirit join forces to make a Potion of Grip.
An Ancient Mortar will replace one of those tricky Bear Statues with a slightly more useful block of Ice.
If you’re inexplicably low on Flame Spirits, you can make them by combining the Ancient Mortar with a Berry Bear.
And finally, combining the Mortar with a Rabbit leaves you with a Berry for your friends back home.
What it does: It gets stuck on adjacent objects, so you can’t always move it. It’s lucky it’s so cute.
How to make it:
Line up three Bears, and this is your reward.
What it makes:
You can conjure up some Ice with a Bear Statue and an Ancient Mortar.
What it does: You can make an offering to the Forest Shrine to set up a checkpoint so that you don’t have to start over if you fail.
How to make it:
You can’t. It is eternal.
What it makes:
If you can line things up just right, throwing a Forest Shrine at a Doom Spirit will turn it into a harmless Rabbit.
You can get a mean old Boar if you combine the Forest Shrine with a Willowisp.
Or you can make a cranky, stinging Bee with a Lodestone.
Chuck Leshy in there, and an Evil Raccoon will emerge.
You can also get all spooky if you want; combine a Hawk and the Forest Shrine to make a Willowisp.
What it does: Gets in your way, mostly. You can’t move it without a Potion of Grip or an animal/item that move things for you.
How to make it:
If they’re not just lying around, you can also sprout one by tossing a Stone Seed.
Or a Rock Eater will, um … “produce” one. But then the chompy little guy will gobble it up.
What it makes:
In an elegant demonstration of the Circle of Life, Stone Seeds make Heavy Rocks which can then create more Stone Seeds when you combine a Heavy Rock with an Ancient Mortar and a Dead Tree.
The tree can also be alive, like this Oak:
Or festive, like this Pine:
What it does: It teleports you to another part of the map. Maybe somewhere good, maybe somewhere bad. We don’t know.
How to make it:
Just throw together three Light Spirits and an Ancient Mortar, and you’ll be beaming around in no time.
What it makes:
It makes the game either more or less convenient. You never know until you’re doing it.
What it does: It’s similar to the smaller walls that block your way throughout the game, only this one needs an actual key to open instead of just three adjacent trees or whatever.
How to make it:
These show up around Baba Yaga’s home. If you see a house, and it kicks you, there’s probably a Locked Wall nearby.
What it makes:
Unlocking the Wall with a Skeleton Key scores you an Apple.
What it does: The Lodestone is even more persistent than your cat. It just wants to be next to you, even if you’re trying to get other things done.
How to make it:
You can’t. And that’s good news because it means you can’t accidentally create one and ruin your day.
What it makes:
Taking a Forest Shrine to the pesky Lodestone turns it into a much less clingy Bee.
What it does: It improves the weather, so you can get rid of those energy-draining blizzards.
How to make it:
Arrange the Graves of three of your predecessors to craft this ultra-rare item.
What it makes:
It makes it easier to get around and move things, which is always good news in this game.
What it does: It provides housing and work space for industrious bees.
How to make it:
Leave that to the apian experts.
What it makes:
A mixture of three Beehives yields one Jar of Honey. That doesn’t sound very efficient to me, but then again I am not an engineer.
What it does: You can use an Ax to harvest Wood or just clear some space in an overly plant-filled room.
How to make it:
Throw three Flame Spirits together and get to choppin’.
What it makes:
Starting with the obvious: You can use Axes to gather Wood. Just throw the bladestick into a non-thorned Tree.
It also works on Hedges and Shrubberies.
If you want to get fancy, you can combine two Axes into a Spear.
And if you dislike Leshy as much as I do, you’ll be happy to know that an Ax can reduce him to a mostly harmless Rock Eater.
What it does: Some say the world will end in Fire, some say in Ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I side with those who favor Fire. Fire’s actually a good thing; lighting one in a room improves the weather, which will eventually let you carry items around without losing any energy. It’s also a vital component to cooking.
How to make it:
Rub two pieces of Wood together. Just like in the movies.
What it makes:
If you want a hot meal, you can’t do any better than a Fire. Here’s my grandma’s recipe for Mole Stew.
You can also cook up some Raccoons. I wonder if the Evil version is spicier.
You can make a Pork Roast out of a Pig.
If preserves are more your thing, cook two Owls into Owlhead Pickles. Because that’s how pickling works, right?
And if you track down an elusive Yeti and think it belongs in your face, you can prepare some Yeti Stew.
It’s not all food, though. Exposing a Child to Fire will make her into a Precocious Child. And then she’ll follow you around all on her own.
Finally, if you have a Daemon Bunnae harassing you, it’ll turn back into a cute Rabbit (and give you a Copper) if you can get it to eat a Fire.
What it does: But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction, Ice is also great and would suffice.
How to make it:
It shouldn’t be necessary to make ice in the middle of winter — it should be everywhere — but regardless, you can make these frozen wedges from an Ancient Mortar and a Bear Statue.
What it makes:
Ice switches places with items you throw it at. It’s handy for getting buried things free.
What it does: It’s the only way to get past a Locked Wall.
How to make it:
Throw three Skulls together to make this item appear.
What it makes:
Once you get the Locked Wall open, you’ll get an Apple for your trouble.
What it does: Reminds you that death comes for us all. Technically, the name of this item is “Skulls,” but I just can’t call it that.
How to make it:
No need; you have one.
What it makes:
Put three of these together to make a Skeleton Key for those tricky Locked Walls.
If your priorities are out of whack, you can waste a Skull on a Bee to make some Royal Honey.
What it does: If some animals or monsters are bugging you, you can hit them with this pointy stick to stun them for a while.
How to make it:
Duct-tape two Axes together to make this handy weapon.
What it makes:
Poking a Thorn Tree with a Spear will get you a delicious Berry for trading.
What it does: Wood is how you make Fires, and Fires let you do all kinds of great stuff.
How to make it:
You can harvest Wood by taking an Ax to any thornless Tree, Shrubbery, or Hedge.
Or you can put five Hedges together.
And if you have seven Shrubberies sitting around taking up space, you can get a piece of Wood from them, too.
Here’s where it gets weird: If you throw a Light Spirit into an Angry (but not Very Angry) Spirit, that will also produce Wood.
And if you’re thinking that Thorn Bushes and Thorn Trees might also have a stick in them, you’re right. But you need to add four Light Spirits to either to harvest the Wood.
What it makes:
After all of that, it’s kind of surprising that you can only make one thing with Wood. But Fire is really useful.
What it does: This is what all the fuss is about. These berries are the village’s only export, and the village’s children go out to the woods every winter to harvest them. And then they get lost, and it’s up to your Ranger to rescue them. But more immediately, you can give Berries to your friends in town to make them like you more and give you presents.
How to make it:
Combine an Ancient Mortar and a Rabbit, and a Berry comes out.
You can also go poke a Thorn Tree with a Spear.
What it makes:
It makes some people in town like you and give you presents.
What it does: It’s a trading item you give to people in town in order to curry favor.
How to make it:
If a Daemon Bunnae eats a Fire, it’ll break down into a Copper and a Rabbit.
You can also throw a Fox around and see if it drops one.
What it makes:
It makes a pleasant jingling sound in your pocket.
What it does: It hops around being adorable and elusive.
How to make it:
Rabbits typically do well enough at making more Rabbits, but if you want to do it yourself, you can get a Daemon Bunnae to eat a Fire. This will also get you a Copper.
You can also throw a Forest Shrine at a Doom Spirit.
Or you can let a Wolf eat another animal. A Rabbit will be the byproduct.
What it makes:
It makes some child-crazed young townsfolk like you more, but you can also create some things. Like a Daemon Bunnae, if you really want one.
And a Rabbit and an Ancient Mortar will get you a Berry.
What it does: It reminds you that you were not the first Ranger to work this forest, and you will not be the last because you are going to die someday, and then this will be you.
How to make it:
You don’t have to make it. Someone else will handle the arrangements.
What it makes:
Three Graves clustered together will produce an incredibly rare Vase of Ashes.
What it does: When you’re near death, they show up to try to finish the job. Touching one removes three points of energy.
How to make it:
When your energy gets below 10, all Light and Flame Spirits turn into Doom Spirits.
What it makes:
It makes it very difficult to recover once your energy level becomes dangerously low. But if you do, these will turn into Light Spirits.
What it does: The Berry Bear is fond of his little blue juice-pearls. And he will mess you up if you come near him.
How to make it:
A normally docile Bear gets drunk on Berries, and then the monster is loose.
What it makes:
A Berry Bear mixes with an Ancient Mortar to make a Flame Spirit.
What it does: It normally provides a framework for your muscles to sit on and protects your soft and squishy internal organs, but these ones just kinda lie around to remind you of death.
How to make it:
Drink plenty of milk.
What it makes:
The Bone combines with some Flame and Light Spirits to conjure the Ghost Girl. So now I guess we know whose bone it used to be. Yaaaaaaay.