With the recent changes and additions to pet foods, I thought I'd do a bit of maths and figure out exactly what's worthwhile and what isn't.
Obviously there are a million different ways to feed pets, so I've picked a single scenario that fits all the food types and you can compare/extrapolate from there.
The scenario is levelling a pet from level 0, with all 0 stats, levelling it up to 180 (better comparison, since all foods can get to that)
I have all the detailed numbers and specifics if anyone is curious, I'd be happy to discuss in excruciating detail, but I'll keep all that out of this thread for the sake of readability/simplicity
Here's the effective breakdown
The cost column is based on shop costs, and average market prices for those that are sold by players, normalised on average prices and exchange rates.
Efficiency is a measure of how well a food concentrates its stat gains, higher efficiency will generally produce a pet that is more powerful at the top end
Availability is max for the ones you can simply buy in the shop, and an estimate of how easy they are to collect/buy for the other ones
ZerkSoup(Mix) represents using the smallest food possible (XS until level 60, S until level 90 etc.)
Analysis
As you see, in terms of cost, using zerk soup is by far the cheapest way to go, even if buying them from traders or players, it still blows every other option out of the water on cost, but efficiency does appear to be out the window a bit compared to the more expensive options. That's not to say this is a bad path, it's still perfectly viable and you won't have a "bad" pet, it will be noticeably weaker than pets created more efficiently. Note that feeding it a mixture of different foods (soups, broths, dumplings etc.), a common path for new players making their first pet, is absolutely fine, but efficiency does go down again as you have not specialised the pet. Using the mix method (XS > S > M > L > XL) you will end up with a slightly better pet than if you only use XL from the start, and you'll use less foods overall, making it quicker to level, the only downside is the smaller foods can be tricky to find and you'll probably need to burn some time in lower level caves collecting them.
MindFood(S), the foods created at the npc in Elysium and commonly sold by players, a common money-making technique, really hit the sweet spot nicely. They aren't quite number 1, but certainly are competitive against pure gg foods in efficiency, and at a drastically lower cost, but I have noted their lower availability as they can take some time to produce.
Of the gg food options, L is the clear winner. If money is no object and you want the absolute best pet, that's the one to go for. I'm unclear on the purpose of XL, it's more expensive and less efficient than L. Even when you take into consideration that you need less of them and thus less steroids, it's still more expensive than L, bit strange but there you go. M foods seem to me to be the "I'm in a rush, but don't have unlimited gg" option. It's close enough in efficiency to S you won't notice much difference, you can buy them all instantly, but they are a significant chunk cheaper than L, representing a saving in the region of 1000gg
Super foods - the second most efficient food available, after the L gg foods, they are a solid option if you want to go super efficient without spending gg, and have loyalty points going spare. Beware the cost is pretty high, the amount of loyalty points required to feed a pet from 0 to 180 could alternatively be spent on 3 teleport rings which could be sold for gg, putting this on a par for cost with the most expensive gg foods.
Obviously there are a million different ways to feed pets, so I've picked a single scenario that fits all the food types and you can compare/extrapolate from there.
The scenario is levelling a pet from level 0, with all 0 stats, levelling it up to 180 (better comparison, since all foods can get to that)
I have all the detailed numbers and specifics if anyone is curious, I'd be happy to discuss in excruciating detail, but I'll keep all that out of this thread for the sake of readability/simplicity
Here's the effective breakdown
The cost column is based on shop costs, and average market prices for those that are sold by players, normalised on average prices and exchange rates.
Efficiency is a measure of how well a food concentrates its stat gains, higher efficiency will generally produce a pet that is more powerful at the top end
Availability is max for the ones you can simply buy in the shop, and an estimate of how easy they are to collect/buy for the other ones
ZerkSoup(Mix) represents using the smallest food possible (XS until level 60, S until level 90 etc.)
Analysis
As you see, in terms of cost, using zerk soup is by far the cheapest way to go, even if buying them from traders or players, it still blows every other option out of the water on cost, but efficiency does appear to be out the window a bit compared to the more expensive options. That's not to say this is a bad path, it's still perfectly viable and you won't have a "bad" pet, it will be noticeably weaker than pets created more efficiently. Note that feeding it a mixture of different foods (soups, broths, dumplings etc.), a common path for new players making their first pet, is absolutely fine, but efficiency does go down again as you have not specialised the pet. Using the mix method (XS > S > M > L > XL) you will end up with a slightly better pet than if you only use XL from the start, and you'll use less foods overall, making it quicker to level, the only downside is the smaller foods can be tricky to find and you'll probably need to burn some time in lower level caves collecting them.
MindFood(S), the foods created at the npc in Elysium and commonly sold by players, a common money-making technique, really hit the sweet spot nicely. They aren't quite number 1, but certainly are competitive against pure gg foods in efficiency, and at a drastically lower cost, but I have noted their lower availability as they can take some time to produce.
Of the gg food options, L is the clear winner. If money is no object and you want the absolute best pet, that's the one to go for. I'm unclear on the purpose of XL, it's more expensive and less efficient than L. Even when you take into consideration that you need less of them and thus less steroids, it's still more expensive than L, bit strange but there you go. M foods seem to me to be the "I'm in a rush, but don't have unlimited gg" option. It's close enough in efficiency to S you won't notice much difference, you can buy them all instantly, but they are a significant chunk cheaper than L, representing a saving in the region of 1000gg
Super foods - the second most efficient food available, after the L gg foods, they are a solid option if you want to go super efficient without spending gg, and have loyalty points going spare. Beware the cost is pretty high, the amount of loyalty points required to feed a pet from 0 to 180 could alternatively be spent on 3 teleport rings which could be sold for gg, putting this on a par for cost with the most expensive gg foods.