Bushmeat in meals

[Dilan Rona]

Can we have bushmeat in meals in vanilla? It can be less nutritional than redmeat. I am well aware of Expanded foods with the bushmeat meals, but not every server has it, or wants to install it.

[LadyWYT]

I'm inclined to say it's something that shouldn't be added, in order to give players more incentive to invest in livestock or otherwise be particular about what they hunt. Foxes and raccoons are easy to run down, and bears/wolves can be easily provoked into a fight or trapped in a pit for easy kills. Bears in particular typically drop a respectable amount of meat, and wolves usually come in small groups, which yields a lot of meat as well. Thus I think even with the lower satiety value, letting bushmeat be used in meals would probably lead to more players relying on that instead of seeking out better sources of protein.

24 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

It can be less nutritional than redmeat.

I think if it were added, it'd need something else to balance it out other than just a lower satiety value. Perhaps a longer cooktime, since I mean...it's tough and chewy, and going to require a lot of cooking to make it somewhat nice to eat. Possibly a chance for a some negative effects as well, when the status effect system is added, since meat from predator animals tends to carry a lot more risks, especially if not properly cooked.

[Bumber]

I don't see why rabbit isn't bushmeat. It's gamey.

[Dilan Rona]

I'm on a server, where my base is in an area with lots of Ibex, gazelle, deer and Hyenas. And the problem for me is all the goats, gazelles, and deer are running faster than me, meaning I can never catch up with them, and if they hit water? Game over for my food bar. I have an easier time hunting hyenas for one, and the fact that there is no option for bushmeat stew is rather frustrating.

[Emeal]

Bushmeat SHOULD be implemented to be used as a food part in Cooking pots.

Here is how it could be balanced: Bush meat can often be less nutritious than Red meat and takes longer to cook. = More Fire Fuel Resources.
Therefore nutrition is down and cooking time should be longer.

Tyron MUST know how OP, easy and unrealistic it is to have animals in this game, so my bet is we will eventually get a MEAT BALANCE patch.

12 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I'm inclined to say it's something that shouldn't be added, in order to give players more incentive to invest in livestock or otherwise be particular about what they hunt.

A solution to this dilemma is the ability to drain hunting grounds of Wild Life to Hunt, just as DEVS have implemented a way to cause waters to run low on Fish.

Ironically, less prey to hunt = less hunter animals, BUT more opportunistic Hunter Animals.

Imagine if you will... 1. Bears cant break a gate 2. We hunt all the Game out of the forest. 3. Bears spawn less. 4. Bears CAN now break down a gate.

or foxes will dig into a hen house.

Edited April 5 by Emeal

[Bumber]

21 hours ago, Emeal said:

Imagine if you will... 1. Bears cant break a gate 2. We hunt all the Game out of the forest. 3. Bears spawn less. 4. Bears CAN now break down a gate.

or foxes will dig into a hen house.

This is just prevented by not using gates and dirt, however.

[Emeal]

38 minutes ago, Bumber said:

This is just prevented by not using gates and dirt, however.

Sure, you can also kill bears quite easily. But you dont know when its coming and one or two good hits before you escape.

[williams_482]

On 4/5/2026 at 4:59 AM, Dilan Rona said:

I'm on a server, where my base is in an area with lots of Ibex, gazelle, deer and Hyenas. And the problem for me is all the goats, gazelles, and deer are running faster than me, meaning I can never catch up with them, and if they hit water? Game over for my food bar. I have an easier time hunting hyenas for one, and the fact that there is no option for bushmeat stew is rather frustrating.

Prey animals being harder to hunt effectively than predators is exactly why bushmeat isn't supposed to be a good food source. If you're going to try to feed yourself on hyena meat you can, but you're not going to get a lot of satiation out of it. 

My recommendation from someone struggling to hunt effectively? About 50-100 blocks away from your base, dig a 4 deep, at least 3x3 pit with a gated off access stairway. Dig a 2x1x2 section out of one of the walls and place a large trough in it. Fill the trough with dry grass or whatever surplus grains you have. When you see an animal you want to hunt, chase them towards the pit. You don't have to chase them in; once they get close enough and don't feel frightened they will inevitably wander in on their own. After they've fallen in the pit and had a little time to eat, go check on them and if their weight is "good", kill them. Rinse and repeat as needed.

This technique can work for capturing animals you want to domesticate as well, and domesticating some ibexes (which are technically goats) should permanently solve your protein problem once you're a couple generations in. But even for deer and antelope which can't breed, catching them in a pit and fattening them up is both easier and more rewarding than trying to chase them hither and yon across the map. 

[Topminator]

the problem with bushmeat is that you can only eat it when you cook it normally, which is a pain because cooking items in the regular way is a pain

personally i think they should just make the temperature of the stack you're cooking not reset for every cooked item. there's already a mod for it and without the mod you're encouraged to take the stack and split it into a dozen empty firepits before it cooks an item.

[LadyWYT]

19 minutes ago, Topminator said:

personally i think they should just make the temperature of the stack you're cooking not reset for every cooked item.

This was a change implemented in 1.22. The stack temperature no longer resets when a new item starts cooking, but it now takes longer to bring the stack of items to temperature, depending on how many items are in the stack.

[Bruno Willis]

On 4/5/2026 at 6:48 PM, Bumber said:

I don't see why rabbit isn't bushmeat. It's gamey.

All wild meat is a bit gamey. I'm pretty sure bush-meat refers to eating carnivore meat, which is notoriously potent-flavoured IRL.

Apparently when carnivores are fed mainly vegetables they taste better, but I don't imagine anyone is that excited to catch wolves and feed them turnips until they've changed the taste profile. 

[Bumber]

16 hours ago, Bruno Willis said:

All wild meat is a bit gamey. I'm pretty sure bush-meat refers to eating carnivore meat, which is notoriously potent-flavoured IRL.

Internet says the term refers to all wild meat. Any non-domesticated species, such as squirrels (no more a carnivore than chickens).

Though there's a distinction of "game meat" which is something that tastes good, like venison and pheasant, versus squirrel and raccoon stew.

Edited April 7 by Bumber

[Dilan Rona]

Finally found a solution to my red meat problem. Did eventually resort to trenches, but originally to move trapped Gazelle and goats closer to my base. And over time more got trapped that I rerouted closer to a temp corral. So as of now I'm sitting with 4 large herds. And can actually spend time seeing what I can farm, and what will grow naturally. Either way, I won't be hunting on that server anytime soon again.