How to Play Feed the Scorchpot

The short answer

A run follows this loop: Shop and Build → Roll Dice → Keep Dice → form Marks → Harvest Ingredients → activate Recipes → Cook the Offering → meet Hunger → advance the Year.

The standard contract lasts 20 Years. Hunger rises as the run continues, and failing to produce enough food before the available Seasons end leads to Game over. Reach Year 20 and the game displays You win.

Feed the Scorchpot game screen showing Dice, Recipes and the hexagonal island

1. Shop and Build

At the start of a Year, the Shop can offer Buildings, Recipes, Dice and single-use Tools. Buildings are placed around the island's hexagonal Tiles. Most sit where three Tiles meet, so one Building can be adjacent to as many as three Tiles.

The Shop displaying new Recipes, Buildings and other choices — **Step 1:** compare the Shop choices, then spend Ducats on the option that supports the island you are building.

Why placement matters: adjacency is a core rule. A Building's value may depend on neighboring Tiles, Farmsteads or other Buildings—not only on the Building itself.

Building Slots limit how many Buildings can be placed in the current Year. The available number can change with the Year and other run modifiers, so always plan around the Slots shown on the current board.

2. Roll Dice and form Marks

Choose Roll Dice to produce the available values.
Move the Dice you want into the Dice Keep.
Every pair of kept Dice creates a Mark equal to their sum.
Use the resulting Marks to activate matching positions on the island.

kept Die + kept Die = Mark

Dice kept in pairs forming Marks beside the island — **Step 2:** keep Dice in pairs. Read the resulting Marks before deciding whether another Roll is worth using.

High Marks such as 9 and 10 are harder to form, but can reach more valuable positions. Dice Rolls and Dice Slots are separate resources: Shrines add Rolls, while the Dock/Harbor route expands Dice capacity.

3. Harvest Ingredients

Active Marks determine which positions can Harvest during the current Season. Harvest moves Ingredients from the activated island positions into the cooking area.

The island after active Marks have prepared Ingredients for Harvest — **Step 3:** use Harvest after your Marks are set. The activated positions supply Ingredients for the current Cook.

Each Ingredient contributes Fodder. Buildings can change what a Tile supplies or provide additional Ingredient sources. A Farmstead placed beside the coast, for example, can provide Fish even without a matching Dice result.

4. Activate Recipes

A Recipe requires specific Ingredient types. When those Ingredients are present, activate the Recipe by clicking or dragging it before choosing Cook.

Recipe Slots limit the Recipes available to the run.
The Merchant Post route unlocks more Recipe Slots.
Recipes can be upgraded; the single-use Tool Quill was shown raising a Recipe level.
A Stamp makes its Recipe trigger an additional time.

Common mistake: having the Ingredients does not automatically mean the Recipe has been selected. Check that the Recipe is visibly activated before Cook.

Recipe area open beside the island before Cooking — **Step 4:** check which Recipes became available, then activate the ones you want before pressing Cook.

5. Cook the Offering

Cooking resolves the current Ingredients and activated Recipes into the Offering.

Fodder × Flavor × Essence → Offering

The Offering panel calculating Fodder, Flavor and Essence — **Step 5:** read Fodder, Flavor and Essence together. A small multiplier improvement can greatly increase the final Offering.

Fodder is the raw amount supplied by Ingredients. Flavor multiplies Fodder. Essence is another multiplier layer, usually associated with rarer Recipes. Individual Recipes and run rules can add further modifiers.

6. Seasons, Hunger and Years

If one Cook does not meet Hunger and another Season remains, the run can continue into the next Season. Farmsteads unlock additional Seasons, but the thresholds change as the run progresses; there is no permanent rule that every two Farmsteads always add one Season.

Meet Hunger to advance to the next Year and earn Ducats. The dragon wakes hungrier as the Years progress. Continue this cycle until Year 20.

The island interface showing Seasons, Years and progression milestones — **Step 6:** watch the Season and Year tracks. Build enough production and multiplier power before the next Hunger increase.

The short answer

1. Shop and Build

2. Roll Dice and form Marks

3. Harvest Ingredients

4. Activate Recipes

5. Cook the Offering

6. Seasons, Hunger and Years

What to learn next

Recipes

Buildings

Dice