How to achieve tasty,delicious divine food boosts

Many many many of you have asked me this, and I must admit, I am still learning how all of these stats work and how much they actually boost your stats based on rank/class etc. but, there is a way to get your food to give you *boosted* stats. Read below, consult the two charts and then make it work for you .

A couple notes on all food items before we start:
1. Even if you eat something and get NO Message, you are getting a base bump to your stats (the stats that food would normally bump) The messages (Tasty, Delicious, Divine can sort of be thought of as +1, +2, +3 to the additional stat boost you could obtain)
2. While I don't know what the penality is, eating a food you find disagreeable does lower your stats to some degree
3. Raw foods currently have more bearing on race/gender than prepared dishes have.
4. The majority of food effects are hidden. The only reason you see the HP/MP changes is because they CANNOT be hidden.

Okay now how to get the Tasty,Delicious, Divine Message

1. You need to know what kind of food you are eating. Check chart below for food catergories (some foods such as soups can change what the 'do' so best too look them up to make sure it is going to boost the stats you want it to.)

Cooked Meats - STR, FIRE : Attack, HP
Stews and Soups - STR, EARTH : Elemental Resist, Output
Stews and Soups v2 - PIE, FIRE : Elemental Resist, MP
Grain Dishes - VIT, WIND : Physical Def, HP
Egg Dishes - VIT, LIGHTNING : Attack, Craftsmanship
Vegetable Dishes - DEX, EARTH : Magic Accuracy, MP
Vegetable Dishes v2 - MND, ICE : Magic Accuracy, Gathering
Seafood Dishes - DEX, LIGHTNING : Accuracy, Control
Seafood Dishes v2 - INT, WATER : Evasion, Elemental Resist
Sweets - INT, ICE : MP, Magic Potency
Drinks - MND, WATER : Magical Craftsmanship, Elemental Resist
Dairy - PIE, WIND : Perception, Elemental Resist




3. Next you need to know what the 'Optimal Rank' Of the food item is. This can be looked up on many sites including YG. Based on the rank of the food item, you need to match your stats to at least one of the columns if not both to get a boost. The closer you match the stats the closer your affinity and the better the boost from the item. Most items ranks 1-30 need you to stay 5-7 affinity points close in at least one catergory for 'tasty message' Rank 30-50 seems to give you a window of +/- 10.

Rank Stat Element
1 16 12
5 19 15
7 20 16
10 25 20
12 27 21
13 29 22
15 31 24
17 34 27
20 38 30
22 41 32
25 45 36
27 49 37
30 53 42
32 56 44
35 61 48
37 63 51
38 68 52
40 70 54
45 78 62
50 87 70
Example: Shepherds Pie- Rank 40 (+Hp/Att Food)

You would need to look at first chart and find 'Meat Dishes' which require a certain Str and Fire affinity. Knowing this, you now look for rank 40 on the second chart and apply the stat information accordingly. So for this Rank 40 food, you would need a Str Affinity of 70 and a Fire Elemental Affinity of 54 to get a 'Divine Message' If you only changed your Fire Affinity to 54 you could get 'Delicious' and 'Tasty' message would happen as long as at least one stat was with in 8-10 points of 'Ideal Stat Affinity'


Because of this, very few people with a physical rank above 40, can get a tasty, delicious, or divine message without having to LOWER at least one stat. Many people (including myself) do not want to lower a stat that greatly affects their job, which is completely understandable. So for example a DD who's eating Shepherd's Pies probably doesn't want to lower their Str to get a 'Divine' message but might be willing to adjust their Fire Affinity to get a 'Delicious' or 'Tasty Message' . Mages however, might not want to lower either stat since it could affect their spells. In either case, a food item will still give you a base boost...you just wouldn't get a boost to the boost

Once our physical and rank level caps are raised, this might no longer be a problem as Cooks could create a rank 60 item that would be optimal for a rank 50 player (and the stats they could have with that rank). Lastly, I have noticed that at least for me at Physical Level 50/ Con Rank 38 that it makes no sense to have any stat above 100. While this is just something I noticed and may or may not be accurate, I am wondering if SE did this intentionally so that we'd create characters with more even stats and use items like food/gear/potions to get more outta our classes....just a thought.

Lastly, I need to site FFXIVCore.com, Baxter Mergous and Corrine Reose for their research and data on this very confusing subject.

Hope this helps, -KK