BotW Hearty Food: Extra Heart Recipes and Ingredients

What does Hearty food do in Breath of the Wild?

Hearty is the one healing effect that goes past your heart containers. A Hearty dish restores every heart you have lost and then adds yellow hearts on top; the yellow hearts are the first to go when you take damage. That makes it the dish to keep for a boss or a Lynel, and a single cheap one is enough for most emergencies.

The game says: “Restores your health and temporarily increases your maximum hearts.” The elixir’s description: “Restores you to full health and increases your maximum hearts. The additional hearts are lost as you take damage.”

Which ingredients give Hearty?

Nine ingredients carry it. Hearty has no levels: the strengths in the pot add up, and every 4 points is one extra heart on top of a full heal. Big Hearty Radish, at 20, is five extra hearts on its own.

Ingredient	Type	Strength	Sells for
Big Hearty Radish	Plant	20	15
Hearty Lizard	Critter	16	20
Hearty Durian	Fruit	16	15
Big Hearty Truffle	Mushroom	16	15
Hearty Salmon	Fish / seafood	16	10
Hearty Blueshell Snail	Fish / seafood	12	15
Hearty Radish	Plant	12	8
Hearty Bass	Fish / seafood	8	18
Hearty Truffle	Mushroom	4	6

Strength here is the game’s own number for the effect. Divide by four for the yellow hearts: Hearty Radish 3, Hearty Durian, Hearty Salmon, Big Hearty Truffle and Hearty Lizard 4, Big Hearty Radish 5. The Hearty Lizard is the only critter, so it is the only way to a Hearty Elixir.

What is the easiest way to cook Hearty food?

Every row below was run through the cooking simulator built on the game’s data. A Hearty dish always heals you fully, so the only difference between them is the number of yellow hearts.

What goes in the pot	Result	Effect	Restores
Hearty Radish ×1	Fried Wild Greens	Full heal + 3 extra hearts	—
Hearty Durian ×1	Simmered Fruit	Full heal + 4 extra hearts	—
Big Hearty Radish ×1	Fried Wild Greens	Full heal + 5 extra hearts	—
Hearty Durian ×5	Simmered Fruit	Full heal + 20 extra hearts	—
Big Hearty Radish ×5	Fried Wild Greens	Full heal + 25 extra hearts	—
Hearty Lizard ×1 + Bokoblin Horn ×1	Hearty Elixir	Full heal + 4 extra hearts	—

The easiest habit is one Hearty ingredient per dish. Because the full heal comes with the effect, cooking five Hearty Radishes separately gives you five full heals, while cooking them together gives one full heal with more yellow hearts. Save the five-radish pot for a fight where you want the biggest buffer.

Where do you find Hearty ingredients?

The compendium column is what the Hyrule Compendium shows for each entry. The last column counts where the map data places plants, mushrooms and fruit; fish and critters mostly appear from area spawns, so they have no count.

Ingredient	Compendium: common locations	Fixed placements in the map data
Big Hearty Radish	Akkala Highlands, Lanayru Great Spring	63; most near Dalite Forest, Hylia River, Bronas Forest
Hearty Lizard	Gerudo Desert, Necluda Sea	—
Hearty Durian	West Necluda, Faron Grasslands	116; most near Bronas Forest, Damel Forest, Satori Mountain
Big Hearty Truffle	Hebra Mountains, Great Hyrule Forest	59; most near S. Tabantha Snowfield, Elma Knolls, North Akkala Valley
Hearty Salmon	Tabantha Frontier, Hebra Mountains	—
Hearty Blueshell Snail	Lanayru Sea, Necluda Sea	—
Hearty Radish	Hyrule Ridge, East Necluda	178; most near Wetland Stable, Dalite Forest, Seres Scablands
Hearty Bass	West Necluda, Akkala Highlands	—
Hearty Truffle	Great Hyrule Forest, Hyrule Field	244; most near Satori Mountain, Floria River, Lake Totori

For a steady supply, pick Hearty Durians in the Faron jungle and Hearty Radishes around Lanayru and the Wetland Stable; Hearty Truffles are the most widely placed but the weakest. Hearty Salmon come from cold water in Hebra and Tabantha, and Hearty Blueshell Snails from the Lanayru and Necluda beaches. The game’s own description says the Hearty Lizard lives deep in forests, while the compendium lists Gerudo Desert and the Necluda Sea as its common locations. Monster parts for the elixir drop from monsters, including the Hinox.

Which dishes ask for Hearty ingredients by name?

Most meals in Breath of the Wild take “any mushroom” or “any fruit”, so any of them carries Hearty when you use the ingredients above. The dishes below are the ones whose own recipe names one of those ingredients, such as the salmon and seafood dishes.

To see what your own pouch can make, open the recipe finder with Hearty picked.

What should you read next?

• Recipe finder: tick what is in your pouch and see what you can cook
• All recipes: every meal and elixir with its recipe
• Best recipes: which effect to cook for, and the rupee recipes
• Great Fairy Fountains: where the armor upgrades that save you healing come from
• The other effects: Energizing, Enduring, Hasty, Mighty, Tough, Chilly, Spicy, Electro, Fireproof, Sneaky