This beginner's walkthrough covers the fundamentals of surviving and thriving in Dragon Shelter, from your first harvest to managing your scaly companions. Let's jump straight in.
Gathering Materials and Starting Your Farm
When you first launch Dragon Shelter, divide your attention between two priorities: picking up crafting materials and getting crops in the ground. The opening quests are pretty self-explanatory, so follow them along until you unlock the ability to plant. Shortly into the game, you'll receive a shovel for digging farm plots — aim for at least 18 of them. Harvest the Berries and Memory Nuts growing on your land, then sell them to fund additional Wheat seeds.
Working Through Quests
With seeds in the soil, shift your attention toward quests. Chat with the villagers to see how you can lend a hand; finishing their requests unlocks fresh items to craft or buy, and down the line it opens up new NPCs and new dragons as well. Townspeople frequently ask for crafting materials or specific goods, so concentrate on gathering whatever advances their requests, and spend any leftover energy on your crops.
Building a Kitchen and Making Food
A handful of quests in, you'll gain the ability to construct a kitchen on your farm. Pick a location that won't force you to tear up too many Berry bushes, since those are highly valuable this early. Steer clear of destroying Memory Nut bushes entirely — they're far scarcer and only grow on your farm. The kitchen enables cooking, which can feel a bit of a grind but generally boosts the worth of your ingredients. A Berry on its own sells for 5 Gold, but turning that Berry into Jam nets you 10 Gold. Later recipes demand extra kitchen components, and that's where crafting enters the picture. Certain NPCs — particularly the Gardener, Blacksmith, and Carpenter — can produce new, useful gear for your farm, so pay them visits regularly, especially once fresh items become available.
Looking After Your Dragon
After the kitchen is up, you'll eventually gain your first dragon. The Water Dragon is a handy little companion who can water your crops or pitch in at the kitchen. Dragons come with four needs to manage:
Element Force: This acts as the dragon's "fuel tank" for its elemental powers. It refills only by ending the day, feeding the dragon a piece of Joy, or giving it food matching its element — for instance, a Water Flower given to the Water Dragon restores its Element Force.
Energy: This tracks how worn out the dragon is. Each task performed drains it, and if it hits 0, the dragon dozes off. After a few in-game hours it wakes and resumes work.
Mood: This represents how the dragon feels. Keeping it fed and occasionally performing the "Care" interaction should keep this high.
Satiety: This is the dragon's hunger meter. A starving dragon will flop on the ground and refuse to budge. Cooked meals are vastly better than raw ingredients, so it's wise to keep at least 2 or 3 cooked items set aside solely for your dragon, ensuring it stays fed and productive.
When enough of a dragon's needs are satisfied, it drops a "Joy" — a potent restorative item for dragons. These can't be sold, and they don't appear frequently, so don't waste them. Your flute lets you "leash" the dragon and give it orders, including collecting crafting materials or chopping trees, and any command can be canceled when needed. In order of priority, here's how you should put your dragon to work:
Growing element-specific crops: Dragons can convert plots into elemental fields. From that point on, instead of watering, you'll need the dragon to apply its Element Force to the field daily. You'll want every one of these crops to receive its Element Force each day, so stick to a maximum of 9 fields per element.
Completing quests: Some tasks require escorting the dragon into town. When that happens, prioritize caring for the dragon so it can return to its duties promptly.
Cooking: Dragons can cook almost as quickly as you can, fully on their own. As your ingredient stockpile grows, a single dragon can produce between 5 and 10 cooked items daily. Once its elemental fields are handled, your dragon should always have something simmering.
Everything else: Leashed dragons can also gather crafting materials, but this squanders their potential — cooking yields far more profit.