Walkthrough: Tavern Rank 1

This page contains the walkthrough for the beginning of Marenian Tavern Story.

This spoiler-free walkthrough assumes that the player does not look up every single recipe, and only provides advice based on information available at the time of the game. A major part of the fun of Marenian Tavern Story is experimenting and learning recipes, so resist the urge to look up every recipe you don't know!

It is nearly impossible to "lose" at Marenian Tavern Story. There is no time limit to completing the game, so players are encouraged to proceed at their own pace.

## Opening

> *Scenario: Opening*
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The game opens with a few scenes introducing the story. When Patty visits the family villa in Cookoro Village, her brother Gino breaks a statue that sealed away Coco, the God of Poverty. This causes the Maggioni family to lose their family restaurant and home. In order to face this adversity, Mayor Savarnie invites them to take over an abandoned tavern in the village. While Romano and Gino clean up the Golden Branch Inn, they ask Patty to go to the village store buy some ingredients.

Walk over to Gusko Store trigger the next scene.

## Dante and Erika

> *Scenario: Dante and Erika*
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>

After meeting Erika and Dante, a number of starting ingredients and items are received for free. They then invite Patty to search for ingredients on Pecora Plain.

Erika (Level 2) and Dante (Level 3) have joined the party.

Walk over to any **Blue Gate** to access the World Map.

## Pecora Plain

> *Scenario: Pecora Plain*
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>

The monsters in Pecora Plain are generally very weak, and you should have no trouble clearing this dungeon. The **basic attack** is sufficient to handle all the monsters.

In Area 3, it is possible to walk into the wheat fields if the player enters through a gap in the fence at the southeast corner of the map. Navigate the maze to reach the fifth and sixth chests (after the door).

At some point in this dungeon, Dante and Erika will usually learn the skill Slashing Down. Several Recipe Hints are unlocked upon harvesting the related ingredients.

Return to the tavern to start the next cutscene.

## First Cooking

> *Scenario: First Cooking*
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>

The following recipes are automatically available at the start of the game.

If you wish to try cooking something, you can make: **Riceball** → **Salted Riceball**.

For now, ignore the **Flour**, **Butter**, and **Cookie** recipes, as you do not have the tools necessary to make these foods. In the future, a Blender and Pot can be purchased at Gusko Shop once you have saved enough money. An Oven can be obtained later in the game at Casanavi City.

After completing the Pecora Plain scenario, it is likely that you have recipe hints for **Onion Miso Soup**, **Plum Riceball**, **Orange Jelly**, and **Grape Jelly***.* You can attempt to craft these recipes by guessing the correct ingredients, although the ingredients will be lost if you guess wrong.

Can you make a **Plum Riceball**?

## Cookoro Village

Before opening the tavern for the first day, this is a good time to explore Cookoro Village. By talking to NPCs, searching for treasure chests, and exploring the environment, additional recipes and items can be obtained.

Right next to the kitchen stove, there is a bookshelf. Can you find the book, "***Basic Cooking for Dogs***"?

#### Golden Branch Inn

* **Kitchen Bookshelf**: Rice Tea Gruel, Beef Jerky, Boiled Coin (*Basic Cooking for Dogs)*
* **Second Floor SE Room**: Potato Salad, Cold Tofu, Edamame (*Simple Hors d'Oeuvres)*
* **3rd Floor Chest**: Mitten

#### Outside

* **Farmer**: Vegetable Salad
* **Old Farmer**: Egg Rice (Hint)
* **Clumsy Old Man**: Honey Pancakes
* **Chest (SE of Map)**: Elixir

#### Calm Carpenter's House

* **Chest**: Charred Beans
* **Bookshelf**: Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Salad, Pumpkin Chowder

#### Shed

* **Chest**: Noodle Dough
* **Secret Passage Chest**: Woven Boots

#### Mayor's House

* **Bedroom Bookshelf A**: Ham, Bacon, Sausage (*Three Little Pigs*)
* **Bedroom Bookshelf B**: Mushroom White Stew, Aurochsburg, Bunny Apple (*Handwritten Recipes*)

## Trophies

Don't forget to check your trophies in the Main Menu. You can gain free rewards from trophies that you earn at various milestones. Go to the **Menu** → **Encyclopedia** → **Trophies** to collect your prizes.

## Gusko Store

Now that you have obtained a number of recipes, this is a good time to visit Gusko Store.

In the early game, your first priority should be to acquire all the Tools, as these are necessary to cook more advanced dishes. However, you do not have enough money to purchase all of these on your first day.

It is not a good idea to buy equipment at this point of the game. The monsters in Pecora Plain are very weak, and you do not need to worry about obtaining better equipment until you unlock more dungeons. Instead, reserve your money for buying tools, ingredients, and recipes.

### Shopping List

It is wise to buy some ingredients that you can use to make popular dishes. Since the game starts in the summer, cold dishes are popular. It would be a good idea to make Cold Tofu. Since each Cold Tofu sells for 260 G, you can make a profit of 110 G even if you buy all the raw ingredients.

Without buying any tools, you can also make some Vegetable Salad. Although Dressing is expensive, you can make a good profit since you already have Lettuce, Tomato, and Cucumber in your inventory.

 Dressing

### Gusko Store Recipes

If you have extra cash, you can buy a handful of extra recipes from the store. At this point in the game, you have the tools necessary to make several recipes. The following recipes are compatible with the starting tools:

1. Cucumber & Miso (recommended)
2. Pickles
3. Coleslaw
4. Onion Salad

It may be a good idea to get the cucumber-related recipes if you have a lot of Cucumber in your inventory.

## First Cooking (Bare Hand, Bowl, Knife)

### Putting Together Your First Menu

After you return to the kitchen, there are a few tips about the game that you should know.

In Marenian Tavern Story, there is a **fixed number of customers** that visit your store every evening, who each buy one dish (or nothing at all). In the early game, this is about 7-9 customers. No matter how many items you add to your menu, you will not sell more than 7-9 items without any combos.

The meaning of this is that it is **unnecessary to fill your entire menu**. It is better to open your tavern with a small selection of high-value dishes than a large selection of low-value dishes. In fact, the low-value dishes can take away sales from the high-value dishes.

### Find Combinations of Dishes that Work Together

Some combinations of dishes work well together and will attract more customers to your tavern. When you add two dishes that form a combo, text will appear on the menu saying: "***Get More Customers***!

This message means that your tavern will have more visitors today, leading to more total sales. Dishes that form a combo are often purchased together. You should try to fill your menu with as many Dish Combos as possible in order to increase your profits. If you can fill your entire menu with combos, this is the ideal situation.

Certain types of foods go together to make a combo. In the early game, here are some examples of combos:

* Pickled Cucumber + any Riceball dish
* Vegetable Salad + Egg Rice

### Find Seasonal Dishes

The next consideration is to find dishes that are popular for a given season. This is indicated with an arrow pointing up or down. Dishes with downward pointing arrows are harder to sell.

In the summer, cold dishes like Cold Tofu are fairly easy to sell.

However, this is just a trend — not an absolute rule. Don't be surprised if a popular dish doesn't sell, especially if you have a lot of items on your menu. There is a certain amount of luck and chance involved.

### First Menu

This was my menu for the first day. Yours may differ based on what ingredients you obtained while on Pecora Plain, or what recipes you preferred to make. There is no absolute rule about what foods you should sell, and there is a lot of freedom to design your own menu.

Here are some general tips:

* It is a good idea to stock your menu in groups of **five** (or ten, if you have a small menu).
* Try to get as many combos as possible.

This example menu contains Plum Riceball and Egg Rice, which are Hinted Recipes. Can you figure out what these recipes should be? If you need help with the Egg Rice recipe, here is a link to the Wikipedia article on the real dish. Egg Rice (*Tamago gohan*) is a Japanese dish of raw egg mixed into rice with some seasoning.

## First Week

After opening your tavern for the first evening, hopefully you had a lot of sales! If not, that's okay too — there is a lot of luck involved, and sometimes you will just have a bad day.

Let's talk about the weekly routine in Marenian Tavern Story. The game can involve a lot of grinding, so it is helpful to establish a routine for yourself.

### Leveling Up Your Characters

In general, the first thing you should do every day is to eat food. Eating a healthy breakfast is important!!

In Marenian Tavern Story, characters do not level up through battle encounters. Levels are only gained through eating food. You must feed your characters the food that you cook in order to make them stronger.

The reason why it is important to eat in the morning is because many foods have temporary buffs. In the **Menu** → **Eat** screen, some dishes have a **Dish Effect** shown in the **Details** window. These **Dish Effects** only last for one day, so you should feed your characters ***before*** going to battle monsters.

Only the **last** dish that a character eats counts for the **Dish Effect**. Any effects from earlier dishes are overwritten by foods that are eaten later. As a result, if there is a **Dish Effect** you really want, save it for last.

By the end of the first week, you should aim to be at least **Level 5** with each of your characters. You don't need to eat every day, especially since Pecora Plain is such an easy dungeon, but consider pacing yourself so that you have leftovers to eat towards the end of the week.

Early on in the game, is a good idea only to feed only **unpopular**, **excess**, and **cheap** foods to your characters. Sell your better dishes in the tavern, at least until you're swimming with money.

### Gathering Materials at Pecora Plain

Every day, you should visit Pecora Plain to collect ingredients for free.

You can stay as short or long as you like. Some players are very frugal and like to obtain all their ingredients through grinding monsters endlessly. Others are less patient and are happy to buy many of their ingredients from Gusko Store. Either play styles are fine.

Keep in mind that only specific ingredients drop from monsters. Check the Pecora Plain page for a breakdown of different ingredients that can be obtained from Gather Points or monsters. At this stage of the game, the following ingredients cannot be purchased from Gusko Store and can only be obtained from Pecora Plain:

* Broth (Slime)
* Gelatin (Slime)
* Cheese (Rat)
* Mushroom (Hog)

Patty, Dante, and Erika should all learn a skill called Slashing Down. Slashing Down increases the amount of items dropped by monsters when they are killed. It is a good idea to use this skill to increase the amount ingredients collected from monsters.

Erika will also learn a skill called Steal. You should try to steal from every monster that you encounter at least once, since it is possible to obtain items, ingredients, equipment, and even recipes from stealing. Stealing from a monster is necessary to complete its Encyclopedia entry, so you should try to steal if you are aiming for 100% completion.

Some monsters have nothing to steal. With trial-and-error, you will learn which monsters are worth stealing from. If you are frustrated with how often Steal misses, you can purchase a Thief Glove from the Jewel Shop. A Thief Glove can also be obtained later in the game at Dragonbone Hill.

## Acquiring Tools

In your first week, your first priority is to obtain tools. Deciding which tool(s) to purchase is not especially important, but a pot is a good place to start. You can buy the following from the store in town:

* Getting a Pot
* Getting a Blender
* Getting a Skillet
* Getting a Kettle

## Erika's Favorite 1

*Erika's Favorite 1*

Erika will give you a Ribbon, which is a piece of equipment. If you haven't equipped your characters, Dante and Patty both have a free slot to wear it.

## Mayor of Cookoro Village 1

A little bit of background on the mayor of Cookoro Village and Dante.

## Village Legend

A few days after you unlock Pecora Plain, Erika mentions a local forest called Nevia Forest. Patty and the party can now go there to hunt for ingredients. All the monsters are level 5, so keep in mind your party's level before venturing out. There is also mention of a Haunted Mushroom...

## Nevia Forest

A short cutscene once you visit Nevia Forest for the first time.

## Haunted Mushroom 1

**<div id="SpoilerAlert"> if you get stuck a must travel is Eastward as you can in the forest until you reach this area:**

**<div>**

## Haunted Mushroom 2

After you defeat the boss, an old man walks up and mentions how much he loves farming. Patty tells him about the fields behind the tavern. How convenient!

## Old George 1

Once you get back to the tavern, Patty tells her brother about the Haunted Mushroom. The old man, George, comes by and says he'll tidy up the fields. Thanks, George!

## Old George 2

A few days after George says he will tidy the fields, he finishes. He shows Patty his work. 1/4 of the area is now clean and has been converted into farmland! He tells Patty that she can grow vegetables there if she finds any seeds. Players can now begin farming.

## Starving God of Poverty

A few days after the Old George 2 event, it is revealed that you can't increase the reputation of the restaurant unless you feed Coco.