Conan Exiles Spice Guide

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Emily, or Zoe if you’re on her discord, is a Conan Exiles guide contributor and long-term fan. She’s been raiding bases since its release, mixing in some Rust, Archeage, Apex Legends, Hearthstone, Don’t Starve, and Horizon Zero Dawn. Video games have been a core aspect of her life since she was a child with an N64. When she needs a break, she’ll switch genres and start a new kind of adventure, though survival games have always been a favorite.

TLDR: Spice Up Your Life

The spice item in Conan Exiles is simple to produce an ingredient that will increase the efficiency of your food and allow the crafting of specific rums and grogs. It serves as a small resource/time barrier to gently encourage the player into the recipe book.

Once you’ve built a grinder, spices can be made from plant fiber or seeds. It’s a great way to use up unwanted seeds, but you’ll likely make most of your spice from plant fiber. If you are lucky enough to have captured a T4 named alchemist thrall, you may also make spice at the alchemist’s bench from two pieces of bark.

After you’ve made a significant pile of spice, take it to your stove or fermentation barrel to create new recipes!

My Experience With Spice

I’m a bit of a wrecking ball when it comes to video games, and, to be honest, I did not care to learn how to use spice for a long time in Conan Exiles. I collected it like a little goblin and put it in my grinder chest (that seemed right) for later considerations. On my first server, I had so much spice by the time I decided to build a stove (just from randomly finding it in chests), there was no need for me even to craft any.

By my next server, I understood the importance of the stove and was starting to grasp the intricacies of a fermentation barrel. Spice production, cooking, and brewing became some of my many labors of love back at base. These settled in line with my beehives, fish traps, and planters as something that calmed me between adventures. The unique blend of high stakes and precise base management is why we all love survival games, and cooking and brewing add to the fun.

Where to Get Spice (or How to Make it)

Sure, you can loot an item of spice here or there along the road in the Exiled Lands, but the easiest way to stock your pantry is to make spice yourself. The easiest way to start producing spice is to build a grinder. Many types of plant matter can be ground into spices, suggesting any spice could apply all sorts of tastes to food.

Try putting any ten stacks of seeds you don’t have a use for in the grinder to make some spice. You may also put orange phykos, its cuttings, and (most importantly) fiber directly into the grinder to create some spice. Not to be bland, but fiber will be your most often used ingredient when making spice, at least until you are at a much higher level.

Fiber Production and Gathering

The most efficient way to make piles of spice is to be efficient in how you gather and produce fiber. You can beat plants to death with your bare hands and collect enough fiber to squeak by, but it’s a good idea to go ahead and craft an iron scythe. A scythe will allow you to collect a massive amount of fiber per plant node, shortening the amount of time you’ll have to commit to fiber collection.

In addition, consider crafting a few planters and compost heaps to grow your fiber from the seeds that will inevitably end up in your inventory. A planter will not passively grow seeds; you’ll need to craft compost in your compost heap to turn any of your seeds into their corresponding plants. While fiber may not be at the top of your list for your planters, I often find myself throwing fiber seeds in them when my other plant production needs have been met. This habit inevitably leads to more spice!

How to Craft a Grinder

Once you have a healthy stack of fiber, you’ll need to build a grinder to turn it into spice. You’ll need to be level 17 to learn the grinder feat and have already built a furnace for your base. You’ll need a furnace for the 50 bricks required to create a grinder, but the ten branches should be easy to collect with your hands or by smacking a tree with a pick.

Once you’ve crafted your grinder, consider placing it somewhere that also has room for a chest. The grinder uses and produces a lot of strange ingredients. It needs a chest more than most other stations at this level.

A grinder does not require fuel; it should begin grinding spice as soon as you load enough fiber into its inventory. I like to construct several grinders once I have the resources, and one is busy making spice.

How to Use Spice

Spice can be used for both making drinks in the fermentation barrel and making food in the oven. Food and drink are valuable tools in Conan Exiles. You may only be using food to keep yourself from starving to death at this point, but food will become your number one healing asset as you progress through the game. Drinks can do anything from saving you from the heat and cold to providing convenient temporary stat boosts.

Even just the addition of spices in the oven can provide a valuable boost to otherwise bland meals. For instance, try adding spice to exquisite meat or exotic flesh to make dishes with greater healing boosts.

If extreme temperatures are crushing you, some spice can help here as well. Combining spice, salt, and feral flesh makes Chili Desert Style, which provides a warming buff for chilly situations. If the heat is too much to bear, look for a drink with a cooling buff; try combining some spice, purified water, leavening agent, and plant fiber to make Desert Rum.

Check out this comprehensive list of food and drink for some spicy ideas: Food Wiki. Be warned, some recipes can be learned as feats, but some must be found out in the world. Cooking is always an adventure, but doubly so in Conan Exiles.

The Alchemist’s Bench and the Conditions for Making Spice There

There is one super convenient way to make spice, but it will require some considerable effort to achieve. If you manage to capture a T4 alchemist thrall, a new recipe will appear at the station once your thrall is placed. This recipe will turn two bark into one spice. Two bark could be considered cheaper and more convenient than ten fiber, but that is a matter of opinion. It is undoubtedly helpful to have the option.

There are no set locations for T4 named alchemist thralls. Instead, they have a chance of spawning anywhere a T4 named thrall can spawn, more or less. The best place to farm named thralls, including alchemists, is the Black Galleon. It has the highest density of named spawns, which significantly ups your chances of finding a T4 alchemist.

How to Craft a Stove

It’s hard to justify building a stove when your campfire has done a fine job grilling meats and fish so far, but if you want to use spice, you’ll need to invest. When you reach level 29, take a look in your feats tab to learn the stone feat. This feat will also teach you some easy recipes to get you started with spice and cooking in general.

A stove requires 150 stone and 50 iron reinforcement to build. This is quite a bit of iron reinforcement and it may be your first time working with the material. To create iron reinforcements, smelt ironstone into iron bars in your furnace. Don’t forget that furnace requires fuel! After you have a healthy stack of iron bars, take them to the blacksmith’s bench to turn them into iron reinforcements. When placing your stove, consider leaving space for a preservation box. Eventually, these two will go hand in hand. Don’t forget: the kitchen is the heart of the home.

A stove will require fuel to use, same as any other cooking station.

How to Craft a Fermentation Barrel

In order to make drinks with your spice stash, you will need to place a fermentation barrel. You’ll need to be level 37 to learn the brewing feat. This feat will teach you several drinks to start with and the ability to build a fermentation barrel.

You’ll need 50 insulated wood and ten iron reinforcement for the actual barrel. These ingredients are cheap enough that you may consider making a few. What’s a brewer without several fermentation barrels?

Fermentation barrels do not require fuel, only ingredients, and patience!

Don’t Be Bland

I’m sure you have a lot of uses planned for the fiber in your inventory, but consider making a little of it into spice. Spice makes better food and better drinks. It’s not just about the imaginary taste; these boosted items will heal more health points and help you survive the worst conditions. You will need to invest time and resources into building an oven or fermentation barrel to use this ingredient, but the combat bonuses the resulting food provides will make it worth the trade.

Similar to that book with the big worms, there’s no great base without a bit of spice in the pantry. Whether you use your spice for brewing or cooking, you’re sure to find a lot of benefits to this little item. It is not an overly difficult item to produce, but it will open up quite a few recipes that will be helpful in your adventures. Someday, Funcom may even broaden the category, but for now, there is only one spice, and one spice is all you need!

Conan Exiles Spice FAQ

Question: How do you get spice in Conan Exiles?

You may find spice out in the world, but it’s best just to make it yourself. All you’ll need to make your own spice is a grinder and ten plant fibers (the cheapest ingredient, though there are more). Simply add the fiber to the grinder’s inventory and press play. You will also need a stove or a fermentation barrel to use the spice that you’ve made.

Question: Can you grow spice in Conan Exiles?

Answer: Wouldn’t that be nice! You cannot grow spice in Conan Exiles. Spice is ground from seeds or plant fiber at the grinder. In fact, planters do not produce seeds when harvested. If you tried to grow spice, you would actually lose the original seeds that you could have made it from. It’s not a big deal, though; as of right now, any seed makes the same spice. Just use plant fiber or plant fiber seeds if you’d like to make spice; these are the easiest to come by.

Question: What is spice used for in Conan Exiles?

Answer: Spice is used to make recipes at the stove and fermentation barrel stations. With a sufficient supply of spice, you will be able to make rums and grogs at the fermentation barrel and spicy and flavorful meals at the stove. Even your gruel will get an upgrade with spice.

Question: How do you stay warm in Conan Exiles?

Answer: You can make very expensive armor, but food and drink are the cheapest ways to stay warm in Conan Exiles. Spice can help you achieve these goals. For instance, Chili Desert Style applies the warming buff. It requires spice, salt, and feral flesh to make. A cheap way to beat the frozen north!

Question: What is the best way to make spice?

Answer: Plant fiber in the grinder is my favorite way to make spice, but there is one arguably cheaper way to make the ingredient. If you encounter a T4 alchemist and manage to capture and station them at your alchemist’s table, they will unlock a recipe for turning two bark into spice.

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