Meadgard beginner tips come down to three habits that win shifts: set the menu in the recipe book before you open, seat the people waiting at the door before you do anything else, and pick the coins up the moment they hit the floor. Everything else in the tavern is a variation on those three.

Meadgard beginner tips: your first hour, step by step

  1. Set the menu first. The recipe book is the pre-shift screen: the left page lists the recipes you have unlocked, the right page shows the chosen dish with an "Add to menu" button, and START SHIFT sits at the bottom.
  2. Take the first shift objective. Your opening objective reads "Rookie Hour - Run your first shift in the tavern!".
  3. Seat people before anything else. Customers wait at the entrance and will not sit themselves, and if you walk past somebody at the door they get angry.
  4. Watch the countdown. The shift timer sits at the top of the screen — the demo tavern shows 02:43 — and the service ends when it hits zero.
  5. Serve drinks first. Mead takes three steps: take an empty mug, fill it at the dispenser, hand it over.
  6. Grab the coins off the floor. The loot goblin is down there with them and takes coins within about half a second.
  7. Play the lute when the room turns. The payment comes straight away, and the aura keeps the customers off you.
  8. Cook before you open, not during. The recipe you pick in the book is the dish you serve that night, so the hunt should be sized to the menu you set.
  9. Keep the scrap. Crates in the forest give scrap, and scrap is what Ernst the Carpenter turns into a crafting station.
  10. In combat, pick up an item first — a mug, the fish — and then press the attack button. There is a roll as well, on the left bumper, and a white arrow on the ground shows the direction you roll in.

The three habits that lose you a shift

  • The barrel runs dry and nobody refills it. Replenishing the dispenser is the biggest time sink in a shift — the mead barrel guide covers it.
  • The goblin beats you to the coins. It shows up about half a second after the gold lands, and if nobody is free to chase it, that income is gone — the coin goblin guide covers the fix.
  • Food burns while you are serving someone else. A burnt dish is wasted ingredients and a missing order.

What not to do

  • Do not hoard inventory. Resources you do not use in cooking are lost when the tavern closes.
  • Do not leave the moment the shift ends. Leaving immediately after a tavern event can cost you the money you just made, so let the shift close properly — the gold guide covers where that money comes from.
  • Do not expect the day to save you after a wipe. A party wipe fails the day's objective, and you run it again the next in-game day.

Where to go from here

  • The first gold should go into a second dispenser or more tankards, rather than into more dishes — the tavern upgrades guide has the order that pays for itself fastest.
  • If you are running it alone, the priorities are different — the solo play guide covers what to prioritise and what to ignore.