In this Dragon Shelter guide, we'll teach you how to play the game and tell you what you need to do to get started on your journey to repair the town.

You'll frequently run out of energy in the early days. Most of the time, it's easier to go to bed early rather than waste your precious food at the start. How to Play Dragon Shelter

Our Dragon Shelter Guide will teach you the basics of playing Dragon Shelter. Let's dive in and get right to it!

Collecting Resources and Growing Crops

Once you've started Dragon Shelter, your first focus should be split between collecting crafting materials and growing crops. The early game quests are fairly straightforward, so follow those until you get to the point where you can plant items.

After a short while, you'll get a shovel which allows you to dig farm plots. I recommend digging at least 18 farm plots. Collect the Berries and Memory Nuts on your farm and sell those in order to buy more Wheat seeds.

Completing Quests

Once your crops are planted, your next focus should be on completing quests. Talk with the townspeople and see what you can do to help them; completing quests for townspeople will unlock new items to craft or purchase; eventually, it will unlock new NPCs and new dragons, too.

Townspeople will often ask you to bring them crafting materials or a specific item, so focus on getting what you need to advance these quests; use any spare energy to focus on growing crops.

Crafting Items and Cooking

After a few quests, you'll get to build a kitchen on your farm. I recommend building it somewhere where you don't have to worry about destroying too many Berry bushes; they're quite valuable in the early game. Avoid destroying any Memory Nut bushes, as those are much rarer and they only spawn on your farm.

The kitchen gives you the ability to cook food. The process can honestly be quite tedious, but it typically increases the value of your food. For example, a single Berry sells for 5 Gold, but that one Berry can be used to make Jam which is worth 10 Gold.

Future recipes will require additional pieces for the kitchen, and this is one of the areas where crafting comes in. Several NPCs — most notably the Gardener, Blacksmith, and Carpenter — can make new, useful equipment for your farm. Check with them regularly, especially when new items are unlocked.

Caring For Your Dragon

Once you have the kitchen, you will eventually unlock your first dragon. The Water Dragon is a helpful little friend who can water crops for you or work in the kitchen.

Dragons have four needs that you must fulfil:

• Element Force: This is a dragon's "fuel tank" for its elemental abilities. It can only be restored by ending the day, giving the dragon a piece of Joy, or feeding the Dragon food from the same element. For example, feeding a Water Flower to the Water Dragon will restore its Element Force.
• Energy: This is how tired the dragon is. As the dragon performs tasks, its energy will decrease. If its energy reaches 0, the dragon will take a nap. The dragon will wake up after a few hours in-game and get back to work.
• Mood: This is how the dragon feels. As long as the dragon is fed and you occasionally do the "Care" interaction, this should stay high.
• Satiety: This is, of course, the dragon's hunger. If a dragon is starving, it will lie on the ground and refuse to move. Giving your dragon cooked food is vastly superior to giving it raw ingredients; it's a good idea to keep a supply of at least 2 or 3 cooked food items on hand just for your dragon to keep it fed (and consequently, keep it working).

If enough of a dragon's needs are met, it will drop a "Joy." This is an item that is a powerful restorative for dragons. They cannot be sold, but you don't get them all that often, so don't squander them needlessly.

You can use your flute to "leash" your dragon and issue commands to it. Your dragon can help collect crafting materials or chop down trees if you want it to, and these commands can be cancelled if need be.

Ideally, you should use your dragon to do these things, in order of priority:

1. Grow element-specific crops: dragons can convert fields to elemental fields. After that, they must use their Element Force on the field every day instead of you watering the field. Naturally, you'll want to ensure that all of your crops are provided this Element Force every day. I recommend no more than 9 fields for each element.
2. Complete quests: Some quests require you to bring the dragon into town to help. If this is required, you should prioritize taking care of it so the dragon can get back to work.
3. Cooking: Dragons can cook almost as fast as you can, completely on their own. Once you start building up food items, a single dragon can cook between 5 and 10 food items every day. Your dragon should always have something to cook once its elemental fields have been treated.
4. Anything else: Dragons can help gather crafting materials while they're leashed. This is, in my opinion, a waste of their capabilities; it's much more profitable to let them cook.

Completing ordewrs increases your relationship with townspeople — and they earn you some extra money, too. Restoring the Town

You've got some crops, a kitchen, and your first dragon. What next?

Well, your ultimate mission in Dragon Shelter is to restore the town to its former glory. This is done by completing quests for the NPCs and getting closer to them.

Increasing your relationship with NPCs largely boils down to two things: filling orders from them on the order board and giving them gifts. You can give one gift per day; additional gifts do not give you any relationship bonus.

The story quests will eventually be exhausted, and you will be gated behind your relationship level with the townspeople. Each heart you increase with them could spawn a new quest; for example, most NPCs have a quest at 5 stars.

These quests from NPCs aren't just about improving the town; many of them will lead to new items to craft, new dragons, or new features altogether. For example, progressing the story and relationship quests unlocks new NPCs, one of which is the Animal Handler; this gives you the ability to raise livestock.

And that's the gist of the game. Grow crops and collect resources, complete quests to improve the town and attract new NPCs, repeat. There's roughly 30 hours of promised gameplay in Dragon Shelter, and it can be an interesting cozy adventure. Have fun!

Is Dragon Shelter Multiplayer?

No. Dragon Shelter is a single-player game.

Where is the Dragon Shelter Save File?

The Dragon Shelter save file can be located in:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Wild Forest\Dragon Shelter

Where "USERNAME" is your Windows username.

What Happens When Your Energy Runs Out in Dragon Shelter?

When your energy runs out in Dragon Shelter, you will be unable to use any tools. You must restore your energy by eating food or ending the day to continue using tools, unless it's 23:00.

How to Restore Your Energy in Dragon Shelter

You can restore your energy in Dragon Shelter by eating food, either by eating raw food items or cooked food. Naturally, you can also restore your energy by going to sleep and ending the day.

What Happens at 23:00 in Dragon Shelter? Do You Pass Out at Night?

Time stops at 23:00 in Dragon Shelter. At that point, you can keep gathering crafting materials, cooking, etc. until your energy runs out.

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