Feed the Scorchpot How to Complete the Twenty-Year Contract

This walkthrough is for cooks who understand Marks but still explode in the back half of the contract. Feed the Scorchpot is out now as a single-player campaign with a twenty-year default deal. You can linger past year twenty for scores and unlocks. You can also cash out earlier for a fatter payoff. Completing the contract once should be the first trophy you chase.

Pair this page with Getting Started and How to Play. When a year fails because the board is ugly, open Island Layout. When the board is fine and the meal is still raw, open Scoring Combos.

Years 1-4: permission to be small

Do not fill the island. Place farms on triple corners after you have seen a few rolls. Buy one recipe that matches the most common ingredient on your seed. Keep a tool. Ignore most dice mutations until the tray is stable.

The hunger curve is still polite. Your job is a foundation: two or three productive numbers, a Flavor source, and ducats that are not all trapped in houses. If a shop offers a second recipe that wants a food you do not grow, skip it. Dead recipes clog slots you will need later. The recipes Codex explains requirements; the recipes tier list says which offers are traps.

Years 5-10: the engine has to exist

This is where pretty islands die. The dragon’s quota outruns additive Fodder. You need adjacency synergies (farms feeding shrines feeding harbors), extra dice from buildings, and at least one Essence hook if the shop allows it. Upgrades matter more than new footprints.

Spend ducats in this order unless a tantrum is incoming:

1. A recipe that multiplies what you already harvest.
2. A building that boosts the numbers you already hit.
3. A die that makes those numbers more common.
4. A vanity building that prints a small amount of everything.

If the shop is about to scorch, invert the list and buy the recipe immediately. Tantrums are telegraphed. The Updates Hub is not a patch-note dump of every fire type, but reviews consistently describe scorched land (no harvest on those tiles), scorched shop, and scorched prosperity. Plan the year before the flame, not during it.

Years 11-16: hunger is the boss

You are no longer learning rules. You are defending a machine. Re-roll discipline matters more than new toys. If a Mark does not light a farm, it is a wasted pair. Use the Dice Odds tool when a season feels cursed; sometimes the tray is fine and your targets are the problem.

This is also when consumable tools earn their keep. A converted tile or an extra Mark is how you beat a year that would otherwise eat the village. Hoarding every tool for a perfect moment is how you die with a full pocket. Spend one, keep one.

Different dragons change the mood of a run: some are meaner landlords, some are softer. Unlock them after you can finish Baron’s contract on a normal seed. Starting-deck unlocks (gem dice, pre-buffed buildings) are for the second campaign, not the first.

Years 17-20: close the contract

Stop greeding for a billion-point screenshot unless you already have the meal in the pot. Late tantrums plus a picky quota will punish a board that only works on 12s. Diversify one extra number if you have a free corner. Otherwise cook, take the ducats, and refuse shop bait that would rebuild your engine in the last two years.

Finishing year twenty is a win. Continuing is a high-score mode with worse odds. If you want broken math, read Scoring Combos and the spice-avoidance ideas on that page. If you want a calmer life, cash the contract and start a new dragon.

How to beat a year you are losing

• Check whether you have a legal recipe at all. A Flavor-less cook is a surrender.
• Look at unused corners that still touch two live tiles. One emergency farm can be better than a reroll.
• Spend the panic tool. Extra Marks beat pride.
• If the land is scorched, harvest the tiles that still work instead of rerolling for the fire.
• If the shop is scorched, you already missed the buy window; play the board you have.

For inputs, see Controls. For whether the campaign is worth another hour, see the review.