Alcohol is not what it used to on Conan Exiles. And as an Aussie, this makes me feel sad. Since its buffs to Strength and Vitality were removed, alcohol has become all but useless. And now we players just receive the ‘headache’ debuff (-50 stamina & increased thirst rate), and without an antidote, a timed empty stamina bar. In addition, the warming and cooling effects it provides are better obtained through other means, ones which do not come with the cumbersome weight. It has also rendered the Fermentation Barrel all but pointless. Consuming 5+ of alcohol shouId offer a buff(s) once more. I am not going to argue the specifics or what particular buff alcohol should give, but others are welcome to do so. Instead I argue only that it should offer something more than a ‘headache’. 
I use jungle and desert grog for the agility damage buff.
Interesting Eniguman. It would seem that these two had escaped my gaze. All of the alcohols I had drank in recent times appeared to have no redeeming traits, and I assumed this must have now been the case for all of them. Guess these two are exceptions. I would still like to see the others have some sort of buff then.
Makes sense. Not fair that agility builds should get all the drunk fun. XD
I’d plus 1 a vote for more varied buffs on alcohol.
I use mead to make mulled brew, it is the stronges warming consumable, the absynthe and mead and ale to make feasts, and the pirate drinks because they have buffs for stamina and agility weapony.
Wines, other rums become pointless tho’.
The could add a buff to Stygian Liquor, that it reduces damage from snake venom.
I feel like food and drinks in general need some love. I almost never bother with anything more than basics (throw some meat from an animal on a campfire, good to go) because most of the benefits are meh.
I save the fermentation barrel for much later in my build, mostly for deco and as storage for the drinks I pick up from people I kill. I think I can count on one or two hands the number of drinks I’ve actually made.
It would be awesome if there was a discoverable set of feats related to drunken brawling spread throughout the maps that power up your concussive damage, unarmed attacks, and kicks based on how drunk you are.
I personally would find it hilarious if being drunk also gave you progressively increasing chances of falling prone after rolling.
No, it certainly is not. The entire food system as a whole is not and needs a massive overhaul. Most of the food in the game is not even worth crafting or consuming. It provides very little to no benifit. Just look at all of the various “soups”.
Aloe Soup - sated
Darfari Bug Soup - Cooling down. Sated.
Fiery-Hot Meat Soup - Warming up. Sated.
Lumpy Soup - Sated
Mushroom Soup - Sated
Mystery-Meat Soup - Health +60. Sated.
Rhino Head Soup - Carry Capacity +45. Sated.
Seed Soup - Sated.
Spiced Soup - Warming up. Sated.
Yellow Lotus Soup - Sated
And the good old base SOUP - Sated.
And best of all, they are all listed as 4hp per second expect for the Rhino Head Soup which is 7hp per second but requires a Black Rhino Head per bowl crafted.
Food in general, and Alcohol is an even more egregious example of it, has been ruined and turned into a worthless afterthought for the most part. If it happens to have a “buff” attached to it then eat (or drink) ONE until the buff runs out but it is useless otherwise. Create a potion for better results.
And there in-lies the problem. You should be able to get some healing out of your food and alcohol, or at least some benefit more than you currently do. Even the berry juice which does not give you the headache debuff as it is not alcohol give you absolutely no benefit and is not even worth carrying for thirst as it decomposes where as your water skin does not. The system was broken and yet the healing potions and wraps were also made less effective at the same time. This needs to be addressed, but I have little hope that it ever will.
I use cooking mainly for leveling up thralls and pets (no matter how much people say that it is useless, but in my experience, if you constantly monitor the activity of the percentage increase to the desired quality, it really does have an effect), and also for placing in inventory for their speedy recovery. My character himself has enough food found in the chests.
As for alcoholic drinks, I am immensely surprised by the fact that the vast majority of them have a strong cooling effect. Even strong drinks (except for grogs). This is nonsense, dear developers. This simply contradicts the facts.
This one raises their horn to this thread!
And as already noted, the deficiency of beverage boons speaks to a larger issue of culinary collapse.
So many recipes to make food and drink that serves no real purpose.
Especially the more developed or difficult offerings.
Feasts should be amazing!
Theocratic communion consumables even more so.
They should be impactful as well as clearly distinct in what they do.
Fermented beverages need a much bigger buff to offset the cost later. Furthermore, let’s talk alcohol tolerance, because this one expects a Vitality spec paragon of the Hyborian Age to be able to put away the liquor better than this one’s decrepit self.
While it is fine, perhaps, for some drink and food to serve primarily as ingredients for more advanced recipes… but those final recipes should be better. Why make steak and eggs when one can just eat a steak and drink the egg raw (or save the egg for exotic feast, one of the few foods to matter)?
This one routinely uses Lasting Feast (or it’s dripping cousin, rhino head soup) Salted Exquisite Meat, Exotic Feast (for thralls) and Grilled Steak (leveling thralls only).
Iced Tea and Spicy Tea are the only worthy beverages.
Of the dozens of recipes, more need to have traction.
While this one is on the topic…
Let’s clean up the Oven. Why can this one not grill a steak on the stove top? If not adding the base campfire recipes to the oven, how about a cooking fire that fits with/beside the oven set up? And yes, this one knows we can jank a small campfire onto the top of the stove and leave the cook kneeling while levitating.
Also, bread is baked in ovens, not smelting furnaces.
Edit: On the topic of Thrall foods, how about we give different factions/peoples have different favourite foods?
THIS 
The old food system reminded me of getting prepped for a hunt in Monster Hunter. Had to decide with friends what we wanted to do in a session, then eat/drink for it.
It’s nowhere near as useful but I enjoy video game cooking so I still do it anyway. Got a lot of ingredients during the XP boost (EGGS.)
I want rod fishing, but it might break the game worse than horses.
Unrelated, but the food icons in Exiles look good. The top for me are the ones in Dragon’s Crown, another Frazetta inspired game.
Now this one is hungry, so of course, this one will visit Pooka Kitchen and Rabbit Cafe in Odin Sphere (another vanillaware game) to amplify the intensity of feeling.
The obsession with cup of noodle being the pinnacle of culinary advancement was such a let down.
FF series chooses to be tongue-n-cheek absurd at the most bizarre moments, that’s a given, but in this case, it almost seemed like an advertising slot. Such overt product placement…
Especially when there were so many infinitely superior options to limp noodles in salt water.
Instant ramen is a fine emergency ration.
Which leads back to Exiles nicely, as so many basic foods are so much better, mechanically, than more difficult to learn (especially on Siptah) and complicated to prepare offerings. While this one can appreciate the support of the simple roast meat being a staple of barbaric truth… we quickly run into why bother terrain, and that speaks to a larger issue in the game.as a while, there are many overly complicated recipes, and RNG gated rewards that, honestly, just aren’t worth the hassle.
This one hopes they take some time to look at the investment/reward balance for more subsystems soon.
Cup Noodles are pretty great actually. I prefer Nissin to Maruchan in all honesty. But then I digress, I’m a bit off topic. Iggy made some good looking food.
This one isn’t saying it’s bad, just that it’s not even in the same category as lamb chops, grilled salmon, or dol sot bibim bap (or whatever they called the advanced hot pot with egg on top, which is basically two Pokemon evolution steps beyound noodle cups, it’s been a few years or so).
This one enjoys a bowl of oatmeal or other hot cereal (looking at you Malt-O-Meal, with butter and maple syrup, and cinnamon toast drowned in it) on occasion, but wait, no, better comparison!
This one enjoys the occasional bowl of cold candy cereal, but it’s not really comparable to Eggs Benedict or a Corned Beef Hash.
One is a snack, or fast food borderline junk food. The other is a meal.
This one will always happily digress over food.
Cooking mini games are right up there with fishing mini games on silly distractions this one enjoys. If they are implemented with care and/or sufficient humour.
Ahh… good old Suikoden II. The best cooking mini game ever!!!
That it certainly was. Enjoyable to the last! And it even had it’s own story line to boot!
I really miss the vitality and strength buff after being completely drunk. Yet it was giving you a stamina penalty for a minute and headache after like it does now. But it use to be an early way to buff, if you were not so bold to go to the sunken city and “steal” the recipe for deep fishing.
But now you can fix lotus potions from low lvls so this difficulty to buff from low levels doesn’t exist anymore.
There are cooking recipes that will provide you the most buffs from low levels too and alcohol recipes that will provide you agility buffs. In exile lands, specialist brewing 3 exists hidden under the Galleon.
Years now i wish the same brother, i like cooking and brewing. We have something right now but it’s not enough.