Ore Factory Squad Lunchbox & Food Buffs Guide
Store up to four foods, eat away from the factory, and preserve buff time in the City before returning to an Ore Factory Squad digsite.
Quick answer
The Lunchbox stores up to four food items, and you can eat from it away from the City. Food buff timers pause while you are in the City and are consumed only while you are at a digsite. Load the Lunchbox before travel, use a food when it helps the next digsite task, and do City preparation without wasting the remaining buff time.
Use the current food tooltip for the effect and duration. The official update does not publish a permanent table of every food, value, price, or stacking rule.
Prepare the Lunchbox before leaving
- Decide what the next digsite trip is meant to accomplish.
- Read the current tooltips for the foods you have.
- Put up to four useful food items in the Lunchbox.
- Finish buying, sorting, and route planning in the City.
- Travel to the digsite and use food when the relevant work begins.
- Recheck the active effect before consuming another item.
The four-item limit is for stored food items, not a promise that every food stacks or that four simultaneous buffs are useful.
City time versus digsite time
| Where you are | Confirmed timer behavior | Useful action |
|---|---|---|
| City | buff duration does not decrease | prepare tools, inventory, vehicles, and the next route |
| Digsite | buff duration is consumed | use the remaining time on the mining task it supports |
| Traveling or loading | not separately defined by the announcement | check the current buff indicator rather than assuming |
This makes the Lunchbox different from a general stamina recovery promise. If the day is already ending or you are deciding whether to continue night work, use the Energy Drink and sleep guide.
Choose food for the next task
Match the tooltip to the next job: digging, carrying, staying longer at a digsite, or another effect shown in the current build. Do not consume an item simply because one slot is full. A food with the wrong effect for the trip wastes a limited slot even when the timer is preserved in the City.
For a new save, plan food after the basic mine-to-sale loop works; the Level 1–5 beginner guide covers that foundation. For deeper work where return distance matters, use the Mining Lift guide to improve the route instead of expecting food to solve logistics.
If the timer looks wrong
Confirm whether you are in the City or at a digsite, read the active buff indicator, and test one item rather than consuming several. If the timer continues to decrease in the City on the current version, record the item, location, version, and before-and-after time, then use the bug report guide.
Sources
The official v1.0.5 Smart Filters & Safer Squads update adds the Lunchbox, states that it holds up to four food items, allows food to be eaten anywhere, and says buff duration is consumed at a digsite rather than in the City.