Recipe Resources

Recipe Resources are the magazines, schematics, clippings and seed packets that teach new recipes. Reading one adds its recipes to the character's crafting menu for good. Skills make a survivor better at a job, but many crafts stay locked until the right page is read. A full shelf of magazines is worth more than most loot.

All Materials Categories

Best Recipe Resources

The top pick for each role, by the game's own figures.

For	Name	Image	Stats	Spawn ID
Lightest	Empty Seed Packet - Rose		0.02 weight	/additem Base.RoseBagSeed_Empty
Heaviest	Magazine: Everyday Smithing - June 1993		0.5 weight	/additem Base.SmithingMag1

Mechanics

The game's guide explains that crafting recipes can be learned from magazines, VHS tapes and some other special items. Some skills unlock recipes by level too. A recipe magazine weighs 0.5. Reading it teaches its recipes. The knowledge stays with the character after the magazine is dropped, burned or traded.

Each magazine teaches a set of related recipes. Magazine: Laines Standard Auto Manual teaches Basic Mechanics. Magazine: Laines Commercial Auto Manual teaches Intermediate Mechanics. Magazine: Laines Performance Auto Manual teaches Advanced Mechanics. Magazine: How to Use Generators teaches the Generator recipe, which lets a survivor connect and use a Generator.

Some occupations and traits already know what a magazine teaches. The Mechanic starts with every mechanics recipe set. The Electrician knows the generator, the makeshift radios and the remote controllers. The Engineer knows the bomb recipes. A character with those recipes can pass the matching magazines to a friend.

Cooking and Farming

Cooking magazines unlock dough and dishes. Magazine: Good Cooking - May 1993 teaches bread dough, baguette dough and biscuits. Magazine: Good Cooking - June 1993 teaches cake batter and pie dough. Magazine: Grandma's Kitchen teaches chocolate, chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar and shortbread cookie dough. Magazine: Italian Delights teaches pizza. Magazine: World Cooking teaches sushi, maki and onigiri. Magazine: Delicious Meals - June 1993 teaches fried shrimp, onion rings, cabbage rolls and guacamole. A Cooking Recipe Clipping weighs 0.1 and turns up in kitchens.

Farming magazines teach the growing season of each crop. Magazine: Growing Your Own covers vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, cabbage and peppers. Magazine: Cropping for Cash covers field crops such as barley, corn, flax, rye and soybeans. Magazine: Thyme Time covers kitchen herbs. Magazine: Herbal Remedy Growing covers medicinal plants. Magazine: Blooms and Blossoms covers flowers. Magazine: Legalize It! covers hemp.

Kentucky Farmer magazines teach cures for crop disease. Magazine: Kentucky Farmer - June 1993 teaches Make Mildew Cure. Magazine: Kentucky Farmer - May 1993 teaches cures for pest flies and aphids. Magazine: The Farmers Guide teaches the scarecrow and barbed wire.

Seed Packets

Each Empty Seed Packet weighs 0.02 and reads fast. Each one teaches the growing season of its crop. Empty Seed Packet - Carrot teaches the Carrot Growing Season, for example.

Empty packets come from the Open Seed Packet recipe. Opening a full packet gives the seeds and the empty packet. Put 5 Seeds in Packet turns loose seeds back into a full packet. Read every empty packet before throwing it away. The Farmer occupation knows the growing seasons from the start.

Smithing, Tailoring and Weapons

Blacksmithing depends on magazines. Magazine: Iron Age Blacksmithing teaches the Charcoal Pit, the Primitive Forge and the Primitive Furnace. Magazine: Medieval Blacksmithing teaches the Smelting Furnace and the Blast Furnace. Magazine: Modern Blacksmithing at Home teaches the Forge and the Advanced Forge. The Everyday Smithing issues teach tools, nails and cookware. Magazine: American Bladecraft teaches knife and axe heads. The Medieval Armory issues teach swords, spears and maces.

Tailoring magazines cover clothes and gear. Magazine: Homespun teaches shirts, skirts, dresses, pants and long johns. The Woolly Yarns issues teach knitted hats, balaclavas, scarves and socks. Magazine: Leather Crafts teaches belts, gloves and sandals. Magazine: Fun in the Woods! teaches framepacks and satchels.

Improvised weapon magazines teach dirty fighting. The Cheapskate's John Spiral series covers shivs, bombs, gas masks, fake IDs and key copying. Magazine: Revolting Peasants teaches farm tool weapons. Magazine: The Louisville Bruiser teaches Carve Bat.

Electrical, Welding and Survival

Electrical magazines build gadgets and bomb parts. Magazine: Sparky's Lighting Guide teaches the improvised flashlight and lantern. Magazine: Zapper! teaches remote controllers and the remote trigger. Magazine: Like Clockwork teaches Make Timer. Magazine: Home Security Monthly teaches how to add motion sensors to bombs.

Welding magazines cover metal building. Magazine: Welder Monthly - March 1993 teaches Make Metal Sheet. The April, May and June issues teach metal fences and gates, metal counters, crates and lockers, and metal walls, floors and frames. The Welder occupation already knows many of these.

Primitive magazines suit a survivor far from any store. Magazine: Tool Use of Early Man teaches stone axe heads, stone blades and bound spears. Magazine: The First Weapons teaches bone clubs and bone hatchets. Magazine: Cultures of Prehistory teaches stone awls, chisels and drills, the crude whetstone and the bone fishing hook. Magazine: Wilderness Survival teaches herbalism, fire-hardened spears and plant poultices.

Armour magazines cover every era. Magazine: Outfit Apocalypse teaches tire armour. Magazine: Secrets of the Outback Outlaws teaches scrap metal armour. Magazine: Early Indigenous Armor - An In-Depth Study teaches bone and wood armour. Magazine: Armor in the Iron Age and Magazine: European Armor in the Late Medieval Era teach forged metal armour.

Schematics

Schematics are hand-drawn pages that weigh 0.1. The Hand-drawn Armor Schematic, the Explosives Diagram, the Melee Weapon Plan, the Tool Forging Plan, the Cookware Forging Recipe and the Survival Magazine Page each hold recipes in their field. The Sewing Pattern weighs 0.3. Survivor safehouse bookshelves hold every kind. Armour schematics also fill safehouse armour stashes. The Melee Weapon Plan sits in weapon stashes and police evidence rooms. The Explosives Diagram turns up in drug labs and drug shacks. The Tool Forging Plan belongs in blacksmith crates and welding shops. The Survival Magazine Page comes from camping lockers and trapper gear. The Sewing Pattern sits in sewing stores and tailoring crates.

Locations

Magazines turn up where their readers lived and worked. Car dealer desks and car supply stores hold the auto manuals. Electronics stores, engineer tool boxes and electrician kits hold the radio and generator magazines. Bookstores, libraries, post offices and magazine racks carry a mix of everything. Survivor safehouse bookshelves often keep one or two.

Notes

• A recipe learned from a magazine stays learned, so a read magazine can serve as fuel or trade goods.
• Magazine: Get Stuffed teaches Make Stag Head Trophy.
• Magazine: Bottle Making at Home and Magazine: Murano Glass Manual teach glass recipes.

All Recipe Resources