Starsand Island is packed with adorable farm animals you can pet, feed, and raise, so it's reasonable to wonder whether getting Meat means doing something terrible to your livestock. It doesn't. The game keeps things cozy — all Meat is purchased from a store, and the processed version, Meat Bites, comes from a simple crafting device you can build early on.
Quick answer: Buy Pork, Mutton, Fowl, or Beef from Zerine's General Store under the Ingredients tab, then process any of those in a Separator to produce Meat Bites.
Every Meat type and its cost
| Meat | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pork | 40 Coins | High intramuscular fat; great flavor when cooked |
| Fowl | 40 Coins | Tender, high nutritional value, versatile in recipes |
| Mutton | 51 Coins | Hearty and aromatic; described as a nourishing winter dish |
| Beef | 60 Coins | Rich in protein and amino acids |
Zerine's General Store is the primary and most reliable source for all four types. Open the shop menu and look under the Ingredients section. Small amounts of Meat can also turn up inside Treasure Chests scattered around the island, or arrive as quest rewards and NPC gifts, but those drops are too inconsistent to rely on for regular cooking.
Butchering Cows, Sheep, Pigs, or any other farm animal is not a mechanic in Starsand Island. Your livestock is safe.
How to get Meat Bites with the Separator
Meat Bites are a processed ingredient — compact, calorie-dense jerky that spoils slowly. They're used in cooking recipes like Soup Dumplings, and they double as a popular gift for both town residents and pets. You cannot buy Meat Bites directly; they have to be made.
Step 1: Obtain the Separator blueprint. Head to Zerine's General Store and pick up the Equipment Blueprint Pack, which includes the Separator schematic among other early-game blueprints.
Step 2: Craft the Separator at your Worktable. The recipe calls for basic materials: Stone, Softwood, and Fiber. All three are easy to gather around your farm and the surrounding area.
Step 3: Place any type of Meat — Pork, Mutton, Fowl, or Beef — into the Separator. The device processes instantly and outputs a few Meat Bites per piece of Meat.
The Separator isn't just for Meat. It also converts Wheat into Flour and fish into Fish Filets, so it's worth building early since many cooking recipes depend on separated products.
Cooking Meat dishes
To actually cook with Meat or Meat Bites, you need a cooking station on your farm. Early options include the Campfire, which is available almost immediately, and later upgrades like the Gas Stove. Both work for the same recipes, but cooking takes real in-game time, so building multiple stations helps if you want to prepare food in bulk.
Several early-game recipes use Meat or Meat Bites as a core ingredient:
- Spicy Boiled Beef — unlocked via the first Cuisine Stamp in the Islandpedia or purchased from Auraleaf Kitchen
- Chicken Stewed with Mushrooms — requires 4 Fowl, 3 Mushroom, and 1 Salt; grants the Battle Spirit buff, which boosts attack power
- Stir-fried Vegetables with Meat — found in a chest at the Happiness Seed Shop or bought from Auraleaf Kitchen
- Soup Dumplings — requires 2 Meat Bites and 3 Flour; grants the Forest's Gift buff, which gives a chance to recover ammo and find ore chunks while mining
Recipe buffs worth knowing about
Cooked Meat dishes don't just restore energy or HP. Several carry temporary buffs that make a real difference during exploration and combat. Battle Spirit, which comes from Chicken Stewed with Mushrooms, provides a small attack power increase and can stack up to five times. Forest's Gift from Soup Dumplings helps with ammo conservation and ore drops in the Moonlit Forest. Grilled Chicken Wings (1 Fowl + 1 Fine Salt) restore 68 HP, making them a solid option for dungeon runs where health matters more than energy.
Recipes can be learned in several ways. The Auraleaf Kitchen in town sells many of them — it's open from 8 AM to 10 PM. Approach the cash register to browse what's available. You can either buy a dish as takeout or learn the recipe to cook it yourself. Other recipes come from completing quests, progressing through Island Life milestones, earning Cuisine Stamps in the Islandpedia, or finding them as random loot in Moonlit Forest chests.
Can you skip Meat entirely?
Vegetarian play is viable in Starsand Island. Plenty of recipes use only crops, foraged plants, and mushrooms. Smashed Cucumber (2 Cucumbers, +80 Energy) and Mushroom Soup (2 Moondew Shrooms, +45 Energy) are both solid options that require no Meat at all. That said, certain quests and NPC requests specifically ask for Meat-based dishes, so you'll likely need to buy at least some Meat to progress through the story and build relationships with town residents.
Meat is cheap enough that stocking up at Zerine's General Store every few in-game days keeps your pantry full without much financial strain. Pair that with an early Separator build, and you'll have everything you need to handle any recipe the game throws at you.