Buy sugar from Kun's shop for cooking. Public player discussions describe buying it for fruit smoothies; sugar is a purchased ingredient in that route, rather than something you need to find by breaking random salvage objects.
Check Kun's shop for the ingredient
When a recipe asks for sugar, start by looking through Kun's shop inventory. Pay attention to the item name, purchase quantity, and price shown before confirming. A recipe blueprint and the ingredient used to make that recipe are not the same purchase.
If you are still in the opening story, follow Kun's cooking introduction first. The launch-day walkthrough introduces cooking as part of the early quest sequence. That sequence helps explain how to place a Cooking Station and interact with a recipe before you begin buying ingredients for optional dishes.
A locked recipe is not fixed by repeatedly buying its ingredients. Check whether the station, blueprint, or story step is the actual blocker, then buy only what the available recipe requires.
Check the station and the whole recipe
Read the ingredient panel at the Cooking Station before making a shopping trip. A sugar-based dish can still need fruit, crops, or other ingredients. Owning sugar alone does not mean the meal is ready to cook.
The first cooking tasks also introduce the cooking interaction itself. Follow the on-screen prompts rather than assuming that selecting a recipe instantly completes it. If the quest asks you to ship the finished dish, place the cooked result in the shipping bin after making it. Purchasing ingredients and shipping a meal are different stages of the same task.
For the surrounding sequence, our first-day guide connects gardening, cooking, and the early building-permit tasks.
Count purchased ingredients when comparing profit
Demo-era players discussed using bought sugar with gathered berries to make fruit smoothies. That is a useful example of how a cooking route can combine a shop ingredient and a foraged ingredient. It is not evidence that one recipe will always be the best way to earn Dew in Early Access.
When comparing two recipes, subtract the ingredients you buy from what the finished dish sells for. Then consider how long it takes to gather, grow, cook, and sell the other ingredients. A dish with a higher sale price can still be a worse choice if the required inputs take much longer to obtain.
There is no need to spend all your money on sugar to test a recipe. Make a small batch, check the current values, and keep enough currency for the quest or upgrade you are working toward. This is a planning suggestion, not a claim about a hidden bonus or guaranteed return.
If you cannot find the expected listing
Check whether you are looking at the ingredient stock or the recipe section. If your current game does not match an older screenshot, note the shop name, active quest, and build before reporting a problem. Do not assume a missing listing proves the ingredient was removed.
Sources and version notes
The sugar purchase route is supported by public demo-era player discussions. We have not independently checked the current shop price in Early Access, so this page does not publish a fixed price or profit claim.